I'm curious what others thought about Hobbs' play last nite. At times this season, it seems like he's really giving the wideouts too big a cushion and isn't able to close in time. Every big play (15+ yards) seems to be in his direction. Is he not getting help over the top?
Wasn't long ago I thought Hobbs might be superior to Asante simply in coverage, save for their big play abilities - but hasn't shown to be the case this season.
Few opinions and notes regarding the secondary play last night:
Hobbs did give up some receptions he shouldn't have last night, and hopefully he'll work on that. He was injured during part of the game, but came back and didn't seem to be effected by the injury. Hopefully it won't be anything that bothers him for these upcoming games as I think he's more important to the secondary than some might realize. Hobbs had a good game in the KR department though.
The entire Secondary had mements of laps, with Samuel obviously having the best game out of the bunch but even Asante gave up a 20+ yard reception.
If we're going to talk about the CB's, I think Randall Gay had a worse game than Ellis. Seriously, On the
two TD's Randall gave up he had bad position, and just let the receiver get inside of him. I believe it was on the second TD he gave up, where the receiver pretty much got right inside of Gay without any effort, and Gay's attempt at coverage was horrid. Hopefully BB will tear him a new one, and Randall comes with better focus from here on out.
Eddie Jackson had some instances of decent coverage, and on some other plays his coverage could be described as bad. The TD sticks out as coverage that could have been better, but he almost saved the TD with his attempt to swat the ball out of the receivers hands. Obviously that didn't work out as the receiver held on to the catch, but at least he had a chance to knock it out, which is more than I can say for Randall's coverage on those two TD's. You've also got to think about the fact that Eddie's seen a small amount of play since that ACL and he was thrown into a larger role than expected during parts of the game.
Sanders had an INT and made another nice play in pass coverage, but he also gave up some receptions.
The cushion that you've noticed is scheme related, not Ellis Hobbs related.
It seems like on most plays both Samuel and Hobbs are lined up 8-10 yards off the LOS, which I can't completely understand. Their not wanting to give up the big play is understandable, but it's not like Hobbs and Samuel are slow and without recovery speed. I don't know, maybe I'm just one of those guys who want's to see the CB's up on the LOS every once and awhile bumping the WR (within five yards).
I also couldn't understand why the Patriots didn't make their adjustments faster. We're talking about a BB coached defense, so for parts of the game I was scratching my head trying to figure out why the adjustments hadn't been made, yet. It was almost like they decided to stick with the game plan on defense, even though it obviously wasn't working.
Remember the Rams in 2001? Remember seeing BB on the sidelines stressing "Slants and Incuts! That's the game!"? Were they stressing this on the sidelines last night? I ask because I really can't understand why they continued to let the Eagles burn them with routes they've seen in the past.
That game was a prime example of why the Patriots need to get Meriweather developed for next season.
