Reggie Eller is a Bucs fan who owns a website “Plant the Spear,” and is a hardcore Florida State fan who covers Florida State football like Joe someday wants to blanket himself around Rachel Watson. Eller was giddy the Bucs drafted Clemson defenisve end Da’Quan Bowers not just because he’s a Bucs fan, but also because Florida State won’t have to face the guy again.

Here, Eller decribes what a terror Bowers was against a pretty fair offensive line the Seminoles had. He also provided some screengrabs of Clemson against Florida State to demonstrate how often Bowers was in the Seminoles backfield.

By Reggie Eller
PlantTheSpear.com
When the Clemson Tigers came to Tallahassee on Nov. 13, I was able to see Da’Quan Bowers up close and personal and the talent he brought really jumped out at me.

The first thing I noticed with Da’Quan Bowers is his size and tremendous bulk at the defensive end position. He is a prototypical 4-3 defensive end and has always shown great instincts when playing the position — even back in high school.

When he lined up against Florida State — honestly the only times he was stopped with any consistency was when he was held. Bowers managed to push around around offensive lineman Zebrie Sanders as well as anyone else he lined up against.

Bowers always managed to get good penetration on the offense against Florida State, not only with his excellent hands, but a stellar burst off the ball (even injured), as well as good leverage at, before, and after the contact point. His bread and butter is the pass rush, but he sometimes gets overlooked for his excellent rush defense as well which he was able to show off versus Florida State.

At the time of the Florida State game this past season, Bowers’ knee already had been injured, and looking back on that assuming he can get back healthy, this pick by the Buccaneers may be the steal people are talking about years from now. I say that because Da’Quan still showed great lateral movement, good closing speed, the ability to penetrate a very good offensive line in FSU, great agility, and no problem with change of direction.

Da’Quan is a guy who anchors really well, and even going up against a solid offensive lineman, Bowers has some of the best disengaging technique I have seen in a long time from a DE.

Da’Quan finished the game versus FSU with nine tackles, six of which were solo, a sack, and an interception.