The Eagles bounced back the next play and got the first down. But then, between a dropped pass and Natefinallygetting the better of the right tackle, tackling Barkley for a loss in the backfield, it was third down. The Eagles were just inside their field goal range, and Nate was determined that they wouldn’t get the first down. They’d stop them here.
He realized a second too late, as he set his position, that the only coverage that AJ Brown had was Jordan. A really fucking fast receiver to only have a linebacker on him, even a linebacker as quick as Jordan was.
Nate huffed out a breath and tensed his muscles, waiting for the snap count.
He didn’t bother saying a prayer. God wasn’t going to do shit about this. This game came down to man versus man, and if Jordan couldn’t handle it, well, as sucky as it would be to find out, the Thundershouldknow if he needed more help than he was getting.
Maybe he wasn’t ready to start yet.
The center snapped the ball and Nate pushed off, driving with the strength in his legs and his stomach, pushing back on the right tackle.
He got a glimpse out of the corner of his eye as Brown took off, running a route designed to get the first down.
Nate finally got around the tackle, but Hurts threw the ball a second before he got there, right in the direction of Brown.
Fuck.
But to Nate’s shock, Jordan kept up with Brown, at least enough to leap up and at the very last second, bat the football away.
It was a dynamite play, made even better by the fact that Jordan wasn’t a corner, designed to defend passes one-on-one with the league’s best receivers, but a linebacker.
After the team gathered around Jordan, celebrating his defensive stop, Sterling broke away and caught Nate’s eye as they jogged back towards the sideline.
The Eagles set up for the field goal attempt and after grabbing some Gatorade, Nate headed in the direction of where Jordan was slumped on the bench, one of the backups excitedly re-narrating the play, adding comments in about how fucking amazing it had been.
It had been really good, but Jordan didn’t need this backup inflating his ego even more, especially not when Nate had to lay down some hard truths.
“Yeah,” Nate said as he approached, “it was a really fucking great play, wasn’t it?”
The backup nodded emphatically, eyes a little wider now that he realized who’d spoken. “Sure was,” he agreed.
“Shouldn’t have come to that, though.” He gave Jordan a hard look. “Barkley shouldn’t have been able to rip that run off at the beginning.”
Jordan shrugged mechanically, the light in his eyes dimming a little.
God, Nate really fucking hated this part of his job. But in this case, it was better him than Sterling, who would come down like a ton of bricks, with none of the subtlety needed to soften the blow. Some guys handled that okay, but it was becoming clear to Nate that Jordan was not one of those guys.
The backup melted away, heading further down the bench like he already had an inkling of how this conversation was going to go.
“You were out of position,” Nate said. Maybe more bluntly than he’d intended, but what else was there to say?
“Receiver ran a pick on me,” Jordan said. “Got me tied up a little. Was a second too late to intercept Barkley.”
“And you were still out of position,” Nate said. If he’d been in the right spot, even a receiver—especially a receiver—shouldn’t have been able to disrupt their defensive play.
“You think so,” Jordan complained.
Nate huffed out a frustrated breath. There were times he wanted to just leave Jordan to Sterling’s not-very-tender care. Let him deal withhim. Instead of Nate, who kept trying to be a friend. Who kept trying to give him the room and the grace Nate knew he needed to grow.
He wasn’t doing it for Jordan’s thanks, but he wished that Jordan might at least recognize that it could be a lot,lotworse.
“I know so,” Nate said.
“I dealt with it in the end, didn’t I?” Jordan retorted.
Okay, that was something, at least. At least Jordan seemed to realize Nate was right. Didn’t want to admit it straight out, but he at leastsawit.
Nate wasn’t surprised though, because again, Jordan had the football brain he needed. He just didn’t fucking use it enough. Let his ego get in the way.
