The dude is great, no question.
“I remember coming in as a rookie, lining up [in practice] the first time against Mathis, and I’m thinking, ‘This will be pretty good. I’ll get into him, and that’ll work,'” said Colts left tackle Charlie Johnson. “But that’s the thing — you can’t get into him. He’s too fast.”
Bushrod says he’s ready. And maybe he is, because he has been working against linebackers in practice to get used to the maximum quickness — and minimal size — he’ll see on Sunday from Mathis.
“It’ll all come down to preparation, and getting ready for the looks I’ll see in the game,” Bushrod said. “I’ve done what I can do to get ready for him. He’s not going to be a surprise to me.”
No, Mathis wouldn’t be a surprise to the Saints. But outside of hard-core NFL circles, he’s one of the lesser-known truths about a Colts team dominated by Peyton Manning on offense and Freeney on defense. This has been his lot in life since high school, when McNair High in Atlanta went 3-7 his senior season and Mathis was so under-recruited that he had to cobble together his own highlight video to drum up interest. All it got for him was an offer to Division I-AA Alabama A&M, where Mathis started for four years and set NCAA Division I-AA single-season records for sacks (20), forced fumbles (10) and tackles for loss (30.5).
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