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DB Nate 'War Daddy' Ebner (3x Super Bowl Champ, USA Rugby)

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For Nate Ebner, practice makes perfect

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For Nate Ebner, every chance he steps on the field it?s a learning experience.

That?s understandable considering the former rugby star is the least experience player at training camp after playing sparingly at Ohio State. Even so, in Foxboro he?s shown to have an outstanding work ethic and now he?s starting to get results on the field.

In last week?s preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Ebner, along with Marquise Cole, led the Patriots with six tackles. The safety and special teams standout also had an interception, two weeks ago, against the Philadelphia Eagles.

?I feel better every time I step out on the field and I take every opportunity that I get to get better and that?s really where I?m at,? said Ebner. ?I?m going to take every practice going forward and every chance I get to get better.?

After walking on at Ohio State, Ebner become known for his outstanding special teams play. He?s already shown to be one of the fast guys down the field on kickoffs. In training camp he says he?s been working alongside multiple guys in the backfield and it?s helped him get better in different aspects of the game.

Though it seems like playing in the NFL could be a tough transition, for someone who was considered a better rugby player, he says the difficulties of playing in the NFL are the last things on his mind.

?I don?t really think about the difficulty of it,? Ebner said. ?I just try to take it one step at a time, learn everything the best I can and then when I get out there, try to apply it the best I can.?
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http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/s.../08/27/for-nate-ebner-practice-makes-perfect/

Nate Ebner?s tackling clinic: We saw from his rugby videos on YouTube that not only does Ebner have speed, he also has skills in terms of bringing people down. We weren?t quite sure how it would translate into football, or the Patriots? complex defense. But we?ve gained a pretty good feel for Ebner the past few weeks. In the few games he?s played, he?s proven a sure tackler with excellent technique. He led the team in tackles Friday night in Tampa. While we watched rookie Tavon Wilson and even veteran Steve Gregory either whiff while attempting open-field tackles or just not lock up the guy, Ebner is very good at squaring up, locking up and putting his man down. He shows good instincts and a great feel getting to the ball. Between several interceptions he?s made in practice and one he made against the Eagles, he seems to get himself in the right place to make plays. And to think, he was just a special teams standout at Ohio State.
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http://bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1061156032&position=0
 
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Lost art: "While we watched rookie Tavon Wilson and even veteran Steve Gregory either whiff while attempting open-field tackles or just not lock up the guy, Ebner is very good at squaring up, locking up and putting his man down."
 
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southcampus;2202500; said:
There's just no way he doesn't make the team.
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I agree, he's played very well, they wouldn't have to pay him much, and I don't think would want to risk losing him on practice squad. The Pats are a savvy team and I think keep him on. They spent a draft pick on him, and he's played above expectations IMO.
 
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starBUCKS;2202501; said:
I agree, he's played very well, they wouldn't have to pay him much, and I don't think would want to risk losing him on practice squad. The Pats are a savvy team and I think keep him on. They spent a draft pick on him, and he's played above expectations IMO.
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I think they'd cut Bobby Carpenter in favor of keeping Ebner.
 
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Ebner a special find for Pats
Former rugby player impressing Belichick with hard work and football instincts
Updated: September 14, 2012
By Mike Reiss | ESPNBoston.com

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots have placed a heavy emphasis on special teams entering Sunday's home opener against the Arizona Cardinals, as it's an area in which the Cardinals have shown a knack for making game-changing plays.

This provides a nice springboard to spotlight one of the Patriots' more compelling individual storylines from the young 2012 season -- the unexpected rise of rugby-turned-football player Nate Ebner, the sixth-round draft choice from Ohio State whose draft-day selection was so far off the radar that analysts were tongue-tied to say anything about him.

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Barry Chin/Getty Images
Tom Brady had a hand for Nate Ebner (No. 43) and the defense after a fourth-quarter defensive stop against the Titans last weekend.

Yes, it's the same Ebner who played a team-high 22 special-teams snaps in this past Sunday's 34-13 season-opening win over the Titans, finishing with a team-high two special-teams tackles. One of those tackles was Larry Izzo-like, as he fearlessly surged down the middle of the field and dropped dangerous returner Darius Reynaud with a sound one-on-one open-field takedown.

Such plays, coupled with consistent work since he overcame injury to take the field in the second week of training camp, have caught the eye of some of the team's more established veterans.

"He's going to be an impact player and help the team out a lot," said linebacker Tracy White, now in the 10th season of a career in which he's carved out a niche on special teams. "He has good instincts and he's a hard-nosed player. From the way he goes about meetings and studies, he knows what he's doing. He's telling me things at times."

cont...
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http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/8378956/nate-ebner-special-find-new-england-patriots
 
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PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK: Belichick claims Ebner wasn?t the lone culprit on
By Glen Farley
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Posted Sep 17, 2012

FOXBORO ?

Bill Belichick made a pitch to defend his former rugby player.

The Patriots head coach said Monday that sixth-round draft pick Nate Ebner, the world-class rugby player from Ohio State, wasn?t the lone culprit on Cardinals linebacker Quentin Groves? block of a third-quarter punt on Sunday, a play that gave Arizona possession on the New England 2.

?It?s a combination of things,? said Belichick. ?We just didn?t do a good enough job on the play. We need to do a better job all the way around ? our technique, our execution. There were several things on that play that could have been and need to be better.? Clearly, though, Groves blew past Ebner to get to punter Zoltan Mesko on the play, the block spotting the ball for the first touchdown in a game the Cardinals went on to win, 20-18, at Gillette Stadium.

According to special teams captain Matthew Slater, the issue was addressed during the team?s film session on Monday.

?We?re moving on,? said Slater. ?You know I?m not going to talk about that. We saw what happened. We?ve got to learn from it and hopefully we can improve on it going forward because I?m sure we?re going to see similar things, similar rushes from teams, and they?re going to try to get after us so it??s been corrected and we?re going to move on.?

Said Belichick: ?There were several things that we need to do better on that particular play and there were other plays in the punting game that I?d say the same thing on. There are things that we need to do better. There (were) things that obviously Nate could have done better, but there are other people involved, too, that could?ve, but we?ll coach that, point it out, and we?ll get better.?
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Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/sport...he-lone-culprit-on-blocked-punt#ixzz26pGO5i9G
 
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