When Mark Gastineau used to do his sack dances after quarterback takedowns, opponents really didn’t appreciate it. Especially when the former Jets star amassed 19 or more sacks in a season, which Gastineau did in 1981 (20.0), 1983 (19.0), and 1984 (22.0). Opponents would opine that the guys blocking Gastineau weren’t dancing when they prevented him from getting to the pocket, so where did this dude get the nerve?
But hey — the NFL is about creating and preventing explosive plays, so when the other team’s quarterback goes down, and goes down haaaaaahd (as Al Davis liked to say), some celebration is in order.
You don’t have to tell Detroit Lions edge-rusher Austin Bryant that. In Detroit’s Saturday game against the Colts, Bryant came up with two sacks, and each had its own interpretive celebration after the fact.
There was this sack of Sam Ehlinger with 13:47 left in the third quarter. Here, Bryant had Colts right tackle Ryan Van Demark as his huckleberry, and the undrafted rookie from Connecticut was just trying to catch up through the arc. Bryant responded with a little crane technique, for all you Karate Kid fans out there.
Sack — Austin Bryant doing his thing pic.twitter.com/0EHO5vkeRW
— DetroitSportsPodcast (@DetroitPodcast) August 20, 2022
And then, with 14:17 left in the game, Bryant took quarterback Jack Coan down, with Van Demark as the guy in the way again. This time, Bryant gave us a little tiptoe through the tulips.
Lions EDGE Austin Bryant is definitely getting his sack dance practice in. If you want to know how many he has today, look at his jersey number. pic.twitter.com/38y3e0RPYd
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) August 20, 2022
The Lions selected Bryant out of Clemson in the fourth round of the 2019 draft, and Bryant had a bit of a breakout season in 2021 with five sacks and 14 total pressures. Maybe this is the year that he puts it all together.
