Quote:
Originally Posted by ThaVirus
I almost feel bad for the dude. He gave us some good years. He was pretty good until he wasn't. Seeing him put in for mop up duty against Indy last week was sad.
At the same time, I'm convinced his issues were effort based. Guy clearly just no longer wanted to get his hands dirty.
|
And there's the rub.
I was a pretty vocal Parker defender for a long time, but his lack of energy and unwillingness to get in there and disrupt a play was maddening. If he didn't have a clear shot at the ballcarrier, he wasn't going to go down there and try to engage a blocker quickly enough to free up someone else to make the hit. Instead he'd hang back, let the OL get to the second level and come to him while they fanned out and found guys to hit.
He was a MASSIVE liability in run-support because he simply wouldn't get up there and play team defense. They needed him doing things to occupy guys and allow other people to do their jobs and he just wouldn't do those things.
When the heart just doesn't seem to be there anymore, I'm pretty hard-pressed to find a lot of sympathy for him.