Why throw at Assante when you can throw on Ellis? Assante has some talent, Ellis was a young first year starter. So Assante come back this year, has a pretty good year, but most of the big time throws go Ellis' way, and a large percentage of them get caught. I don't like Ellis on the corner every play. He is small, gives the reciever too much cushion and gives up too many big plays. The Pats play a zone defense too much for a corner like Ellis. He can't out jump the reciever for the ball and doesn't seem to play close enough to the reciever to break the play up. I am pretty sure that there aren't any defenses designed to allow a reciever to catch the ball.
Ellis was put in a bad spot. He was left alone on the corner while the team blitzed. That left Ellis alone with Burress, he should have been on top of him, make Ely beat him. Instead he plays off Burress and he gets beaten. Maybe the coaching staff can be blamed, or maybe he was the best of what was left on the team, but he had a bad year. Its really a shame too, we need help on defense but he is still young. After the year he had the team will have to go looking for somebody to challenge his position. With Assante probably leaving that means need multiple new DB's in camp.
I hope I am wrong and his problems were systemic. I not a troll and the Pats are my team, but I can look at them and see the flaws. Ellis had a bad year and if there were somebody better he would have been replaced. There was a period where Randall Gay was starting, then he got hurt. But Hobbs wasn't that good all year, regardless of the scheme, or the type of defense. Belichick didn't win three Super Bowls by giving up big plays in the defensive backfield.
