Filed under: Broncos, AFC West
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Game film review was not kind to Brian Dawkins this week but the Broncos veteran safety watched the video intently.Dawkins was determined to see what went wrong for him in Denver's 35-14 loss Monday at San Diego and learning from it. He's adhered to that approach throughout his career and it has helped him achieve All-Pro status four times. It's no different now, at age 37 and nearing the end of his 15th NFL season.
Dawkins was at the center of two of San Diego's biggest plays. He missed a tackle near the line of scrimmage that allowed wide receiver Patrick Crayton to convert a short reception into a 40-yard touchdown. Later, running back Darren Sproles got a step on him in the flat and raced 57 yards for a score.
Rather than dwelling too much on the negative or obsessing about talk show critics questioning whether he had lost a step, Dawkins on Friday said he just had a bad game.
"Those are the things that happen in football games," he said. "This is not my first rodeo. This is not my first time making mistakes in ballgames. It's a part of the game and something as an individual that you have to be able to check out, look at it for yourself and learn from it. I didn't invent anything by making mistakes. It's just something that happened."
Dawkins, whose season has been marked overall by solid -- and even exceptional play -- said there is no reason he can't learn from those mistakes and get better going forward.
"I don't care if you play for 30 years," Dawkins said. "You should always learn something in the game of football. If you don't, you feel like you've arrived. And anytime you feel like you've arrived at a certain position, something is going to happen to you.
"So, I'm always trying to learn, see if I can grasp something, whether it be from the playing field or something I've seen on film that somebody else did, and I can learn from That's always my position. I'm always trying to learn."
Dawkins, who came back a month ago from a knee injury that sidelined him for two games, registered his 22nd career sack in the Broncos' victory at Tennessee on Oct. 3 and he thwarted a Seattle drive with an interception in a Sept. 19 win over Seattle. And on a weekly basis, he has continued to stand out as one of the game's most forceful hitters.
That's why, like Dawkins, Broncos defensive coordinator Don Martindale views the pair of gaffes as an anomaly that he'll recover from, starting this Sunday against St. Louis, rather than as an early sign of an age-related slippage in his performance. Martindale also noted that on Crayton's touchdown, the Broncos' defensive pursuit should have gotten there in time to help Dawkins out.
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Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/11/26/brian-dawkins-chalks-rout-vs-philip-rivers-up-to-bad-night-not/
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