Lloyd, 49ers bring warm reception to Mexico City
Lloyd, 49ers bring warm reception to Mexico City
Before he makes those twisting, leaping, diving, over-the-shoulder, finger-tip catches, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Lloyd has seen them before - in his mind.
Two weeks ago, there was a running, no-look, one-handed grab that generated a rare first down in the 49ers’ lopsided loss.
“It was like, `I’ve been here before, catch it and go,’” Lloyd said.
That’s largely what he did last week ago against Dallas in pulling off the NFL’s longest pass play of the season. Lloyd got by Cowboys cornerback Anthony Henry, caught Tim Rattay’s in stride at midfield and outran three defenders to the end zone.
“Brandon is emerging very quickly,” said Arizona Coach Dennis Green, whose Cardinals play the 49ers on Sunday night at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City in the NFL’s first regular season international game.
Lloyd, who is in his third season, enters the game second on the team with 10 catches, but three of them have gone for touchdowns. He’s had scoring catches in eight of his last 14 games, staking a claim to the play-making role the 49ers have lacked since the departure of Terrell Owens.
“When he’s had the kind of games he’s had, and in particular last week - that’s the old fashioned bombs away,” Green added. “He has exceptional speed, and he’s got a lot of pictures up in the building that he can try to emulate. The 49ers teams have had some great receivers and I think that Brandon wants to be one.”
Lloyd can picture that happening, just like he used to visualize going over the bar as a high school All-American in the high jump, once clearing 7-feet-2 inches.
“The mental barrier of seeing the ground and then the bar at 7 feet, and then everything else behind it, it’s crazy, and then me being 5-10,” Lloyd said. “But I just saw myself doing it in my mind.
“I kind of just transfer that over to football. I see myself catching the ball behind my back, between my legs, one-handed. I do that before I play the game so, if that happens, I’ve already done it.”
Jerry Sullivan, the 49ers’ results-oriented wide receivers coach, said the common thread he sees in Lloyd’s catches - sensational, routine or otherwise - is the core reliance on the receiving fundamentals.
“We’re working real hard to get him technique-sound and he’s doing disciplinary things you need to do to be a good route runner,” Sullivan said. “He’s listening and digesting things and getting them done the right way.”
Besides being a big part of his visualizations, Lloyd’s leaping ability also has great practical value in his development as a receiver.
In his four-catch, 142-yard effort a week ago, Lloyd’s second scoring reception came on what is rapidly becoming one of his staples, a fade route to the end zone. In the Dallas game, he simply out-jumped the defender for a 13-yard score.
“That’s his deal,” Rattay said. “He can torque his body in a lot of different ways and make the catch. He’s a great jumper. So, just to give him a chance at the goal line, the ball can kind of be wherever, as long as it’s high, and he can jump up and move around and get it. It’s something we can definitely continue.”
That would be fine with Lloyd, who is out to match substance with style with bottom line being productivity and growth as a receiver.
“There are so many other things I do well,” he said. “I think, just the creativity of those things is probably what makes me an attractive receiver, is what people would like to see. You watch Chad Johnson play because you don’t know what he’s going to do next in the end zone. You watch me play because you don’t know what kind of catch I’m going to do out there.
“But it’s not, like, on this play I’m going to catch it with one hand, the next time someone throws me the ball I’m going to catch it behind my back. It’s all natural and it’s all instinctual.”
Source: mercurynews.com
