He's been overlooked because of Aqib Talib's dominance, but make no mistake about it, McCourty has been a very steadying FORCE at safety. He is usually in good position to make a play and he has played corner or taken a TE man-to-man very well this season. That guy will never get the respect he's due, I suspect, because of that atrocious second year at CB.
However, I am bummed. I'm not bummed so much over the loss as I am over the discouraging D. We finally had a top-five D that I really really really felt was going to frustrate the remaining teams on the schedule. I really felt we finally had a championship caliber D, as it could defend the run AND the pass. We finally had a top player and all levels of the D.
What happens? Wilfork done. Mayo done. Talib out indefinitely. That's three defensive captains and all would have likely made the Pro Bowl/All-Pro teams (usually used as some sort of measuring stick). You can't really replace any of those players, especially in the relatively short amount of time that each injury occurred (Mayo and Talib in the same game). Even Tommy Kelly was a big loss. Now we have a D that looks more like the last few seasons again.
Hightower looked lost for long stretches of the game. I remember a big thing being made of the fact that he wore the green dot at times in training camp/preseason, but he was just downright confused on some of the plays yesterday. The guys on the interior D-Line played about as well as you could ask. Chris Jones was a monster. It just wasn't enough. It's really a lot to ask of so many young players. We'll just have to hope they continue to improve as the season progresses, but there will be a lot of frustrating moments and possibly losses as they continue to develop on the job.
