Will Wilhite and McGowan get starting jobs back? - New England Patriots Forums

PATRIOTSFANINPA · 12-14-2009, 02:53 PM

I thought with the exception of the long bomb to Steve Smith that Springs played his best game as a Patriot and James Sanders was one of few defenders who showed some intensity.

Any reason to put Wilhite and McGowan back out as starters next week?

***BradyFTW!*** · 12-14-2009, 02:55 PM

Not based on yesterday- Springs and Sanders both played better than the guys that they replaced. If they keep up this caliber of play, then they're in the starting lineup to stay.

The Dynasty · 12-14-2009, 02:55 PM

I'd like to see Butler starting over Springs. As for saftey I think McGowan has struggled with pass coverage as of late, I'd like to see him in there but not if he cant get it done. Until he proves that he can again I'd leave Sanders in there

BradyManny · 12-14-2009, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PATRIOTSFANINPA

I thought with the exception of the long bomb to Steve Smith that Springs played his best game as a Patriot and James Sanders was one of few defenders who showed some intensity.

Any reason to put Wilhite and McGowan back out as starters next week?

McGowan's playing has tailed off. He's good against TEs, so when we face teams with those big targets, we'll see him in there. But Sanders/Chung should continue to see more playing time. I'm pretty disturbed by the apparent non-chalant attitude McGowan had after the Miami game. He's not a talented enough player to be playing without heart.

As for Wilhite, he has been beat a few too many times of late. Butler has better ball skills, closes faster, and just generally has stayed closer to his man all season. Not saying Wilhite isn't a decent corner, just think his starting job was going to end up in Butler's hands at some point in time either way, and it might as well be now.

JSn · 12-14-2009, 02:57 PM

McGowan is a good safety who can lay the wood. Sanders is a field general who can keep the troops organized while not hurting us by over-aggressive play. They're both important players, but if I could only have one, it would be Sanders. They extended him with good reason, imo.

brady et al fan · 12-14-2009, 03:01 PM

very good question. I was happy with Springs and on the TD to Smith I would have expected some safety help. Again, where the hell is the safety help on deep post patterns? Of course, we were facing another backup QB so its hard to tell how he would have fared against the likes of Brees or Manning.

Mack Herron · 12-14-2009, 03:01 PM

Apparently they were not satisfied with the secondary play, so they made a couple of changes. The guys they inserted did the job and held the other team to 10 points. The biggest breakdown in the secondary looked like Meriweather failing to protect deep (again) on the post to Smith. From being one of the leading tacklers to being booted off the field, McGowan's stock has plummeted. Wilhite needs to find some confidence.

satz · 12-14-2009, 03:01 PM

Springs ,

He played well i would play him a bit on the No 1 with safety help.Bradon merriweather had the inside and bit on a fake .Even though you say is springs and i think merriweather should not have bit on the fake. Opinions. He gambled and it did not work.

Sanders

People always criticized him for 2 things one for doing his job and playing the last player to stop a big play. He never took risks and never had a wow play by gambling. I always thought you need 1 on sanders when you have merriweather taking the risk.

Mcgown is a bigger FS type similar to brandon and in coverage can take on TE.Carolina had rb which needed a old school SS which sanders is.Its just a matchup thing.
Wilhite will be back in rotation.him and butler are the future consider bodden is playing his way into a big contract somewhere.

Ice_Ice_Brady · 12-14-2009, 03:02 PM

Can we learn anything about the Patriots after seeing them against Matt Moore?

PATRIOTSFANINPA · 12-14-2009, 03:06 PM

I thought the rotation of our 4 CBs worked to perfection early in the season...teams had to guess who was going to be out there and we had success in the passing game.

For some reason BB decided to primarily use Wilhite instead of rotating and I think it hurt the team.

Not only does this team need to be more unpredictable on offense,It needs to be just the same on defense as well.

Teams were targeting Wilhite and he was getting burned however I still would like to see Wilhite in a 4 man cornerback rotation throughout the next few games like it was early on - after all if it wasn't broke why fix it?.