Ras-I Dowling current and future status

[1%er]

Moore took all his snaps on Sunday. What should we make of that? What should we expect from him long term?

Defensive snaps: Moore over Dowling - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

 

[IcyPatriot]

Too soon to tell ... he's missed a lot of time.

 

[NEboiTB]

Could it be that Dowling is still trying to get healthy

 

[MP-Logick]

It might just be that they intended to double Fitzgerald the entire game and Moore's skillset was better suited for that...I don't read too much into stuff like this, unless he ends up a healthy scratch a bunch of weeks straight.

 

[Nehalem]

It might just be that they intended to double Fitzgerald the entire game and Moore's skillset was better suited for that...I don't read too much into stuff like this, unless he ends up a healthy scratch a bunch of weeks straight.

Fitzgerald is a taller WR. Isnt he exactly the kind of guy Dowling was drafted to cover?

 

[Sciz]

Fitzgerald is a taller WR. Isnt he exactly the kind of guy Dowling was drafted to cover?

I think the goal was to jam Fitz to the point where it didn't matter how tall the guy covering him was because he wasn't going to be targeted.

 

[JJDChE]

I thought he looked decent in week 1, maybe I missed a few things.

Going from starting nickel to 0 snaps seems like a bit much just for a difference in game plan. There's something else going on there.

 

[Gronkandez]

Moore took all his snaps on Sunday. What should we make of that? What should we expect from him long term?

Defensive snaps: Moore over Dowling - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

genius coaching move. keepin him healthy!

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

genius coaching move. keepin him healthy!

On top of that, Moore had a really impressive pre-season

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[Brady_to_Moss]

I think the goal was to jam Fitz to the point where it didn't matter how tall the guy covering him was because he wasn't going to be targeted.

Speaking of jamming..they need to jam the ravens Wrs big time in order to have a shot

 

[supafly]

On top of that, Moore had a really impressive pre-season

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Moore actually had a very good training camp. Some of the beat writers like Greg Bedard posted at times that "he had deflected more passes than any other defensive back on the team." Then he also added the words "by far" after his comment.

He's only allowed 2 completions so far on the year, for a total of 9 yards. He also did a fine job with a nice open field tackle on Sunday, and helped to limit Fitzgerald to 1 catch for 4 yds (in a double team effort).

It's Arrington who hasn't looked too hot so far in the secondary, allowing 7/9 passes thrown his way and a TD, not to mention the poorly played tackle that led to 30+ yds on Sunday. Besides Arrington, Gregory didn't look too great, although I also don't think he looked horrible either. The secondary has looked pretty decent so far this year.

As for the poster's comment who you responded to, he was inferring that Belichick was keeping Dowling healthy, not Moore.

Preseason we saw Moore look just fine in the first game, then not as good in his second game (where he allowed the longer pass to D.Jackson, although he did limit him to 1/3 in his defense). He missed one of games 2 or 3, and then played a lot in the last game where he and the scrubs who don't play for the team anymore allowed some bad plays. I don't think you can just look at preseason though, due to Belichick playing specific players in specific roles, along with a very vanilla defense.

 

[supafly]

As for Dowling, I think we can all agree that is was either gameplanning specific to ARZ, or more likely the fact that he may have been late to, or missed a meeting.

Either way, I don't think it will mean anything moving forward, and he is a nice addition to the secondary this year no matter what. We will almost definitely see a lot of Dowling going forward, I don't think there's much to try and decipher here.

 

[DarrylS]

As for Dowling, I think we can all agree that is was either gameplanning specific to ARZ, or more likely the fact that he may have been late to, or missed a meeting.

Either way, I don't think it will mean anything moving forward, and he is a nice addition to the secondary this year no matter what. We will almost definitely see a lot of Dowling going forward, I don't think there's much to try and decipher here.

I agree completely, it could be as simple as a disciplinary issue... missed meeting, late for something or other team rule violation.

The most important thing is we limited Larry Fitz to 1 catch...

 

[Gronkandez]

Who is going to cover Torrey Smith? I believe it was McCourty who he burned last year. I don't like that matchup.

 

[dales804]

Who is going to cover Torrey Smith? I believe it was McCourty who he burned last year. I don't like that matchup.

I would think it depends on where he lines up. If it's offensive right, then McCourty; offensive left and it will be Arrington. Nickel obviously changes that when you bring either Dowling or Moore onto the field.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Moore actually had a very good training camp. Some of the beat writers like Greg Bedard posted at times that "he had deflected more passes than any other defensive back on the team." Then he also added the words "by far" after his comment.

He's only allowed 2 completions so far on the year, for a total of 9 yards. He also did a fine job with a nice open field tackle on Sunday, and helped to limit Fitzgerald to 1 catch for 4 yds (in a double team effort).

It's Arrington who hasn't looked too hot so far in the secondary, allowing 7/9 passes thrown his way and a TD, not to mention the poorly played tackle that led to 30+ yds on Sunday. Besides Arrington, Gregory didn't look too great, although I also don't think he looked horrible either. The secondary has looked pretty decent so far this year.

As for the poster's comment who you responded to, he was inferring that Belichick was keeping Dowling healthy, not Moore.

Preseason we saw Moore look just fine in the first game, then not as good in his second game (where he allowed the longer pass to D.Jackson, although he did limit him to 1/3 in his defense). He missed one of games 2 or 3, and then played a lot in the last game where he and the scrubs who don't play for the team anymore allowed some bad plays. I don't think you can just look at preseason though, due to Belichick playing specific players in specific roles, along with a very vanilla defense.

I'm a fan of Moore's too, and I thought people were rough on him this preseason. Moore, like Matt Cassel did many times in preseason action, was put in some tough spots that made him look worse than he was. The point of my post was I thought he was referencing the Edelman/Welker situation where people were saying Welker's snaps are limited to 'keep him fresh' or that Edelman truly looks like a better option now, both of which I think are total BS and like the Dowling case is more of a disciplinary issue. I felt like Moore and Edelman had decent preseasons, nothing spectucular but I had them making the team easily. Definitely did not see them starting over Welker and Dowling.

 

[Kontradiction]

Who is going to cover Torrey Smith? I believe it was McCourty who he burned last year. I don't like that matchup.

From what my eyes have seen (and, granted, I haven't seen the All-22), McCourty has improved in man coverage from a year ago. At the very least, he's turning his head around when the receiver's eyes go north toward the sky and begin to get big.

 

[Marqui]

As for Dowling, I think we can all agree that is was either gameplanning specific to ARZ, or more likely the fact that he may have been late to, or missed a meeting.

Either way, I don't think it will mean anything moving forward, and he is a nice addition to the secondary this year no matter what. We will almost definitely see a lot of Dowling going forward, I don't think there's much to try and decipher here.

I don't know, I think Dowling got benched because he just can't play well right now. He looked shaky to me in the preseason and didn't look much better against Tennessee. He looks a lot slower right now than he did last year. Seems like he's still slowed down by that hip injury which is a bad sign considering how long ago that happened.

This is a shame cause he looked like a future #1 corner to me against Miami and SD last year.

 

[JJDChE]

I really like Moore, he's better at locating the ball than any CB I can remember in recent times. Law was the last one who was great at it. I love the way he is always in position to rip at the ball even when his guy catches it.

I still haven't seen enough of Dowling, but he did look pretty good in preseason and I thought he earned the start due to being more consistent than Moore in the preseason. Maybe they really are treating these first two games as an extension of the preseason at some positions (would explain Edelman's snaps, too, and Branch's signing). I wouldn't put it past BB.

Either way, I think both are probably pretty good nickels. Just gives us more depth at CB. Been a while since we had that.

 

[satz]

All camp and preseason we heard how dowling is beating out Kyle arrington and how kyle will be a backup.......

Now we see he has gone below moore....yes he is bigger the Kyle arrington ,
yes is a higher draft pick and yes is more of a physical specimen....
everyone forgot is he a good football player.