Terry’s game catches up with his body

By Darrell Laurant  |   Wednesday, July 05, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Baltimore Ravens
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How important was Adam Terry to the Syracuse University football team?

In 2004, Terry's senior season at offensive tackle, Syracuse tailbacks Walter Reyes and Damian Rhodes each ran for over 800 yards as the offense averaged 349 yards a game. Last season, with Terry gone to the Baltimore Ravens, the SU offense ranked 115th in the country, scoring only seven times on the ground and barely topping the 1,000-yard rushing plateau.

Meanwhile, Terry was learning that bigger isn't always better. At 6-8, 330, he was almost always the largest player on the field in college. With the Ravens, he found himself among physical peers -- and, for awhile, on the "wrong" side.

In college, it was Terry's job to protect the blind side for his quarterback. In Baltimore, that's Jonathan Ogden's turf, so Terry was shifted from left to right tackle. He earned immediate respect from his peers, however, by going through spring drills with a broken finger on his right hand.

"I was fresh meat for a one-on-one rush," Terry recalled last year, "because I couldn't use that hand."

He played in seven games during the regular season, and is listed -- along with 6-6, 320-pound fourth-year man Tony Pashos, as a possible starter at right tackle this season.

If you saw Terry on the street, you'd think "Wow, that's a big guy," but you might not think "football player." A product of the laid-back Adirondack region of far Upstate New York, Terry doesn't have a "ripped" physique, and the facial expression in most of his photos is that of aw shucks amiability.

It's an illusion. As a senior at Syracuse, Terry registered an astounding 45 knockdown blocks. Not content simply to hold his opponents out of the backfield, he took particular pride in burying them.

Now, though, those opponents have grown. And while Terry can't really get any larger physically, he knows that his game has to grow to keep up.

"The best scenario is when the veterans are healthy and we push them," Terry told the Baltimore Ravens' website recently.

Literally.

Get more Baltimore Ravens insight at Realfootball365.com
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