- Joined
- Sep 11, 2007
- Messages
- 4,177
- Reaction score
- 1,854
Bedard is awesome. He's changed my opinion a few times this season after reading his very well presented cases. Not only does he clearly put a lot of time into watching the game, he understands it at a level that enables him to articulate some at times complicated things in a fairly simple manner. That's probably the truest sign of someone who really gets football.
Agreed on Slater only capable of playing deep, and that being an easy tell. He doesn't have the hips nor footwork to play near the line. That's where the quicker players live and while Slater is certainly fast, he's not quick. Special teams skill set.
I also think McCourty is mistakenly thrown under the bus (not by Greg, but fans) in the Washington game. A lot of corner technique revolves around the arms and shoulders, be it hand checking, getting the hips around, closing on the play, or playing the ball. I think that his shoulder is really limiting both his agility and his ability to play his trail and close game.
I think that some of the issues in the running game stem from Gronk's import in the passing game. He is now the focus of all defensive gameplans, and nearly always has a man responsible for a press. Gronk is a very important part of the running game as he is functionally used to do fullback through the motion based blocking game. With so much focus placed on his location pre-snap by the defense, it's already placing a defender in the right place when they "do fullback". I'm not a fan of zone runs, but I think that by mixing in more zone runs they will gash a few backside on the cutback.
Agreed on Slater only capable of playing deep, and that being an easy tell. He doesn't have the hips nor footwork to play near the line. That's where the quicker players live and while Slater is certainly fast, he's not quick. Special teams skill set.
I also think McCourty is mistakenly thrown under the bus (not by Greg, but fans) in the Washington game. A lot of corner technique revolves around the arms and shoulders, be it hand checking, getting the hips around, closing on the play, or playing the ball. I think that his shoulder is really limiting both his agility and his ability to play his trail and close game.
I think that some of the issues in the running game stem from Gronk's import in the passing game. He is now the focus of all defensive gameplans, and nearly always has a man responsible for a press. Gronk is a very important part of the running game as he is functionally used to do fullback through the motion based blocking game. With so much focus placed on his location pre-snap by the defense, it's already placing a defender in the right place when they "do fullback". I'm not a fan of zone runs, but I think that by mixing in more zone runs they will gash a few backside on the cutback.
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