I really like our corners right now.

[Direckshun]

I realize I'm probably going to regret saying this as Big Ben can legitimately carve up even elite secondaries, but two guys have me super impressed, aside from the usual amazing Marcus Peters:

Phillip Gaines. He's got some technique to clean up on, but he's started this season against Hopkins/Fuller and Marshall/Decker (we'll ignore the Chargers, since Keenan Allen was beating the shit out of Peters Week 1) and held his own. These WRs are more savvy than him right now but I'm getting flashbacks to when we started Brandon Carr for his rookie year -- he'll only get better as he gets more experience. His recovery speed is awesome, and he's almost always in the receiver's pocket.

Steven Nelson. What a shock to the system this guy has been -- the staff has handled him absolutely perfectly. Redshirting him last year was just the perfect thing to do, because his versatility in the secondary this year is invaluable. He's playing 100% of the snaps because we can put him on the outside and in the slot, shifting him all over the place on every drive. While, for now, we also play him a lot on special teams. Nelson has challenged everything, and seems to have the superior technique over Gaines. Nelson is also incredibly demonstrative and energetic on the field -- a perfect pairing with Peters, and that is turning out to be a 3rd rounder well spent.

DJ White, also. We have to talk about this kid. He's played like 12 defensive snaps for us so far this year and has made plays on roughly half of them. Like Nelson, he is an incredible competitor and so energetic on the field. His play against the Chargers (on his one snap!) was around the time the defense woke up. I love this kid, I think he's a pistol and he should definitely be in the rotation in dime packages over Sorensen.

The Russell thing still makes no sense to me, but it's really regretful that he didn't wake the **** up because having yet another young corner who can play would have really bulked up this secondary.

My favorite thing about this secondary is my favorite thing about our offensive line, our defensive line, our receivers, and our passrush: barring any tragic injuries, they're going to be so much better in Week 17 than they are now. They'll learn with our great coaching staff, they'll develop with playing time, and they'll gel better as a unit and as Sutton figures out where all the pieces fit.

If we can at least limp into the playoffs with a fully healthy Houston in January, we can hang with absolutely AFC team -- except perhaps the Pats, who seem to have successfully hacked the game of football.

That's our ceiling, though. Pretty exciting.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

He's going to be asked to make those tackles more and more often, as teams will throw screens to that side until he proves it, as they've been doing. If we have to shade help over to his side because we can't trust him to tackle, then that's proof that his tackling is a liablity.

That drive against Houston illustrates how people are over rating him.

Misses huge tackle: "Don't worry about tackling, it's all about his coverage"

Subsequently surrenders a 16.5 yard gain on 3rd and 17: Crickets.

PFF stats come out illustrating that he's having some struggles: Crickets.

It was a good route by a good wr. Guys get beat, it happens. I'm not gonna run the guy up the pole for getting beaten by hopkins. Tough play.

But he does need to play better, I don't disagree.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

I dunno, I mean, he held up the wr long enough for the calvary to arrive. Being that he's not a good tackler, isn't that what we want?

He was also almost pushed out of the way by Williams, but he still managed to get his hands on Benjamin to blow it up.

Detoxing's evaluation of that play is the perfect example of how ridiculous his overall take is.

I take back when I said he sounds like a smart guy, because he's being a ****ing idiot on this subject.

[O.city]

He just has high expectations. No problems from me on that

[pugsnotdrugs19]

All this conversation and no mention or response to the fact that neither of our starting corners practiced today.. !!!!

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by staylor26

You're officially a ****ing moron. He blew up the play. Could he have made the tackle? Sure. But that's a solid play.

Originally Posted by O.city

I dunno, I mean, he held up the wr long enough for the calvary to arrive. Being that he's not a good tackler, isn't that what we want?

He was lined up directly in front of his receiver in man coverage. "Blew it up"???

He took a piss ass angle, over ran the play and whiffed by sticking out his arm AGAIN. It's a perfect illustration of what im talking about.

He was in man coverage and outran the play, FFS. Yes, thank god the cavalry was there, because clearly we can't count on Gaines doing it himself.

Remember what happened when the Jets try to run a screen on Peters last week?

Peters blew him the **** up. THAT is blowing up a play. And remember, Peters isn't even a great tackler.

Get back to me when Gaines does something like that.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

All this conversation and no mention or response to the fact that neither of our starting corners practiced today.. !!!!

Gaines didn't practice last Friday either. They're taking it easy on him.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

He was lined up directly in front of his receiver in man coverage. "Blew it up"???

He took a piss ass angle, over ran the play and whiffed by sticking out his arm AGAIN. It's a perfect illustration of what im talking about.

He was in man coverage and outran the play, FFS. Yes, thank god the cavalry was there, because clearly we can't count on Gaines doing it himself.

Remember what happened when the Jets try to run a screen on Peters last week?

Peters blew him the **** up. THAT is blowing up a play. And remember, Peters isn't even a great tackler.

Get back to me when Gaines does something like that.

He didn't "overrun" the play. He was almost pushed out of it by Williams, the big ass WR, but he fought his way through it and blew up the play.

Watch it again you stupid ****.

[BossChief]

Originally Posted by staylor26

I don't know what else to say at this point, other than your evaluation is extremely harsh, and I'm glad you aren't out there scouting corners for us.

While I believe Gaines will improve and has been inches away from making a few big plays for us so far, detoxings evaluation of Gaines is fair.

I'm very interested to see how Peters, Nelson and Gaines do against the best WR in the league Sunday night.

[BossChief]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

All this conversation and no mention or response to the fact that neither of our starting corners practiced today.. !!!!

Very troubling being they will both be needed to play after not having practiced...but I'm optimistic.

If KC can stop the run and bracket Brown, they should have a good chance to win and go into the bye 3-1.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by staylor26

He didn't "overrun" the play. He was almost pushed out of it by Williams, the big ass WR, but he fought his way through it and blew up the play.

Watch it again you stupid ****.

He couldn't tackle Travis ****ing Benjamin.

All 170lbs of him, soaking wet.

But, nah, his tackling isn't a problem.

jack ass.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

He couldn't tackle Travis ****ing Benjamin.

All 170lbs of him, soaking wet.

But, nah, his tackling isn't a problem.

jack ass.

Wow. So you're really going to pretend that the blocker almost shoving him out of the play didn't have an effect on his ability to make the clean tackle?

The only jackass here is you my friend. You fail to acknowledge DJ's role in the play against the Texans, and you're doing the same thing here with the blocker. Seems to me like you just want to be right, and you're ignoring context. It's the same thing as me not saying Gaines missed that tackle, which he did. The only one with bias on this subject appears to be you.

Also, where did I say Gaines'a tackling isn't a problem/weakness? I just don't think it's anywhere near the problem you're making it out to be, because the one play you're obsessing over could've possibly made a difference in our lone loss. News flash, there were at least 10 other players/plays that are ahead of that missed tackle for reasons we lost to the Texans.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by O.city

It was a good route by a good wr. Guys get beat, it happens. I'm not gonna run the guy up the pole for getting beaten by hopkins. Tough play.

But he does need to play better, I don't disagree.

Im not concerned about his coverage. His coverage is adequate most of the time. I brought that example up because im tired of hearing this argument that his inadequacies are a trade off because of his superior coverage skills.

Bullshit.

His coverage isn't THAT great to where we can excuse his problems.

[Beef Supreme]

I really like our corners ... this week.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Wow. So you're really going to pretend that the blocker almost shoving him out of the play didn't have an effect on his ability to make the clean tackle?

The only jackass here is you my friend. You fail to acknowledge DJ's role in the play against the Texans, and you're doing the same thing here with the blocker. Seems to me like you just want to be right, and you're ignoring context. It's the same thing as me not saying Gaines missed that tackle, which he did. The only one with bias on this subject appears to be you.

The most biased poster on this board trying to accuse someone of being biased...comedy gold.

I don't care about being right. I care about winning. If Gaines didn't have these issues i wouldn't talk about them.

Until this is corrected, i'll point it out. That simple. I WANT Gaines to fix these problems, but im not going to bury my head in the sand like your dumbass.

Like I said, lemme know when Gaines makes a REAL nice play and i'll commend him for it. Almost-kinda tackling a guy is what you've been reduced too, while my concerns have actually been fleshed out in real life situations, and it's proven to have already cost this team. You have no argument for that.

Dont feed me this bullshit about how we can look the other way and "deal with" his inadequacies because of his supposed great coverage skills.

He is an injury prone, good but not great coverage guy who woefully lacks physicallity and has NEVER, EVER shown the ability to play the ball in the air.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

The most biased poster on this board trying to accuse someone of being biased...comedy gold.

I don't care about being right. I care about winning. If Gaines didn't have these issues i wouldn't talk about them.

Until this is corrected, i'll point it out. That simple. I WANT Gaines to fix these problems, but im not going to bury my head in the sand like your dumbass.

Like I said, lemme know when Gaines makes a REAL nice play and i'll commend him for it.

Until then, dont feed me this bullshit about how we can look the other way and "deal with" his inadequacies because of his supposed great coverage skills.

He is an injury prone, good but not great coverage guy who woefully lacks physicallity and has NEVER, EVER shown the ability to play the ball in the air.

Say whatever you want, but for the reasons I stated, it's YOU that is being biased on this subject. You still have yet to acknowledge the blockers role in the play, for example. Anybody that has played the game can look at that play and understand how almost being pushed out of it can make it difficult to secure the tackle.

You talk as if he hasn't made any "real nice" plays, but that first one I posted was one in your biggest area of concern. You just glossed right over it though and "buried your head in the sand". You put all your focus on the second play, because it somewhat helped support your argument (if you want to ignore the push).

I'll ask you, aside from that play in the Texans game, what reason do you have to support your argument about his completely inept tackling? As far as I can tell, he made one great tackle, whiffed on another, and missed one because he was almost pushed out of the play, but did enough to slow Benjamin down till Zombo got there. Perhaps if DJ wouldn't have been caught sleeping, the same thing could've happened in the Texans game.

Is he a good tackler? No, but he's also not nearly the worst tackling corner I've ever seen. You're taking one play that just so happened to be at a crucial moment of the game, and blowing it out of proportion without equally distributing the blame.