Quote:
Originally Posted by RealSNR
I was watching at a bar... and I know nothing about playing defensive end other than just guessing at what kinds of things are and aren't effective. Like, I can see when somebody has an array of moves, or uses his speed to get around tackles, etc.
But, yeah. What do you think Frank Clark needs to do? Not challenging your assertion, just wondering where the correction is going to have to come from. Is it an effort thing?
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No, I don't think motor will ever be a problem.
And I have to concede that coming from the 3-4 w/ wide sets and such, my eye for pass-rushers badly needs to be re-calibrated.
But to me it's a first step quickness issue. His ability immediately blow out of the box and convert speed to power seems lacking. He seems to have good lean but nothing I would call elite so he can't just bend the edge or anything; he has to use that as a setup to get guys going outside and then explode under them.
But it's like trying to say Neil Smith couldn't be any good because he wasn't as fast as Derrick Thomas off the line. Well no he wasn't, but there are more ways to skin a cat. Clark can be great without having exceptional first-step quickness. He can win with his hands and counter-moves as a 4-3 DE. I just haven't watched guys do that routinely for so long that I have to re-teach myself. I can't just shit on Clark without watching him more and getting a better feel for what he does and doesn't do well. I can say that when Jones was asked to do that stuff from the 5 tech last year he looked a hell of a lot better than Clark did yesterday, but again - not enough of a sample size.
Maybe it was just a bad day because of the heat (I mean, the backup to the backup OT played in the same heat and wasn't getting rotated in and out, but I digress) - there's plenty of time for him to prove me wrong. My point here isn't to say that he's a bust and can't get better. It's to say that in THIS GAME he wasn't very good at all and he
must get better.
I just don't have the right feel for him or what Spags is doing yet to really offer much in the way of diagnosis. My first blush is to stand by where I was last week in saying that I think Veach overpaid for a good but not great player and got tunnel vision. But I can't say that yet - it's too early.
It's not too early to say that game 1 was not an acceptable performance from Frank Clark or the pass-rush writ large.