James Harrison Performance Poll

[Jackson 2]

At times early on I thought he looked slow, but then he showed better speed as time went on. High impact hitter, as we all knew already.

 

[Joker]

28 snaps against the Jets. 1 sack, 1 key solo tackle in space to force a punt. He was in position most of the time for a guy who showed up in a short week, That's great production. Two weeks of study with the coaches and teammates to learn the alignments and lingo and he'll be huge. Harris and Van Noy will be fine for the divisional round plus a rejuvenated Harrison will be great.

I saw 2 sacks....????????????

 

[PP2]

28 snaps against the Jets. 1 sack, 1 key solo tackle in space to force a punt. He was in position most of the time for a guy who showed up in a short week, That's great production. Two weeks of study with the coaches and teammates to learn the alignments and lingo and he'll be huge. Harris and Van Noy will be fine for the divisional round plus a rejuvenated Harrison will be great.

5 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 FF. One coverage tackle that killed a drive as you mentioned.

But the biggest thing to me is he sets the edge competently- he set the edge that led to the Roberts RB tackle for a loss to set up that 3rd and 19 that killed that Jets drive. So you could say Harrison had a big role in killing two drives.

He is a massive upgrade in setting the edge. What I saw was that we would flip Harrison to what we guessed the playside of the forthcoming snap would be, and put Lee on the weakside. Lee really struggles with edge contains- just lets himself get sucked inside and fails to keep his outside arm free for the bounce tackle. He can't hold the edge to make an outside tackle to save his life. Flowers also has problems in this area- he doesn't anticipate getting sealed inside and fails to see outside block for what it is. It's like he walks into the trap every single time.

 

[PP2]

This play raises some questions for me. How was he able to play this so perfectly? From the defensive call or just from experience? Why have we failed to stop this type of plays consistently this season? I remember our LBs always being to out of position to take plays like this. This was so perfect. I can imagine what BB would have done with him in his prime.

Anticipation and timing are two things you just can't teach. He just doesn't have the trepidation, the second guessing, and overthinking that our young LB corp has.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

This was so perfect. I can imagine what BB would have done with him in his prime.

Trade him for Ed Reed

 

[RobertWeathers]

Whenever we used to play Pitt, always felt like Randy in Christmas Story hiding under the sink thinking about how Harrison is going to kill "Tommy". Harrison is one of those bigger than life characters in the NFL, when he was with the Marvin Lewis crew in "Hard Knocks" thought that was interesting as well, certainly not a "warm and fuzzy" kind of guy.

Then last year Goodell tagged him as a "dirty player" and this year he felt marginalized by the Steeler organization.. not sure I would want to really "piss" off Harrison..

Now he is a Patriot, he has something to prove and obviously has something in the tank.. I like the move and thought yesterday he played much better than expected.. he can be a nice complimentary player for this team in the playoffs.

Yea I agree. There is something about Harrison that is downright scary. He's got that nasty, crazy edge to him.

Comparison: Rodney Harrison, Stephen Neal, Logan Mankins.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I can imagine what BB would have done with him in his prime.

Watch Lawrence Taylor or CarlBanks highlights from the 80s and you'll have the answer.

Harrison just knows where to go when he needs to be there .

 

[JayNM]

This play raises some questions for me. How was he able to play this so perfectly? From the defensive call or just from experience? Why have we failed to stop this type of plays consistently this season? I remember our LBs always being to out of position to take plays like this. This was so perfect. I can imagine what BB would have done with him in his prime.

IMO, what differentiates the great players to legendary ones is the awareness.

There's an angle from behind the QB where you can see Harrison recognizing the play, seeing the crossing WR and instinctively react. Perfect play.

If there is anyone who could learn a lot from Harrison is Roberts. He is a guy who trusts his instincts, but misses way too often. If he could learn a thing or two about reading the game correctly, he could improve a lot, which is kinda becoming necessary, if he wants to stay in this team next year

 

[GoBlue]

If Harrison was just finishing out the season with the Steelers his performance probably wouldn't be very significant. He has a reputattion to uphold now and is going to play at a high level. He's motivated beyond what he has been for a few years.

 

[goheels22002]

I saw 2 sacks....????????????

Thanks, Joker. I fixed it my earlier post. Happy New Year.

I just read that James Harrison was undrafted out of Kent State where Julian Edelman played college football. Cool.

He also has had no dust ups with the law since the 2008 domestic abuse arrest. I hope the anger management and maturation have worked for him in this regard.

 

[VegasGuy]

IMO, what differentiates the great players to legendary ones is the awareness.

There's an angle from behind the QB where you can see Harrison recognizing the play, seeing the crossing WR and instinctively react. Perfect play.

If there is anyone who could learn a lot from Harrison is Roberts. He is a guy who trusts his instincts, but misses way too often. If he could learn a thing or two about reading the game correctly, he could improve a lot, which is kinda becoming necessary, if he wants to stay in this team next year

I agree that besides playing he can teach some of these young guys a lot about the mental aspect of the game.

 

[Simpelton]

I loved that tackle on 3rd and 5. His positioning was absolutely perfect and he countered his lack of speed by being already moving. Absolutely buried a smaller and quicker player before he could accelerate to safety.

Petty made the guy's life a lot harder by throwing a bit behind him and costing him some momentum, but I think that even if Petty had been able to hit the receiver in stride Harrison's positioning would have allowed him to adjust and bury him before he got to the yellow line. There was no way the Jets were making a first down on that play with the way Harrison positioned himself.

also if you watch the play, Harrison was accelerating for the tackle before Petty even threw the ball. He was sizing #11 up for a tackle once he started his crossing route, he was adjusting and moving with him in his mind almost immediately, and when he saw Petty commit to the throw he was moving before the ball ever left Petty' hand. By the time #11 thinks about moving upfield he's already dead, Harrison plows into him at full acceleration before he can even turn. That's what experience does for a player. That's how a slow player buries a faster one.

 

[BTTA]

I agree that besides playing he can teach some of these young guys a lot about the mental aspect of the game.

There's no substitute in a career for getting time around a guy like this. The younger guys can cut a half second off of their response delay, and be right more often, just by witnessing his play, on the field and in practice.

 

[nowayback]

Watch Lawrence Taylor or CarlBanks highlights from the 80s and you'll have the answer.

Harrison just knows where to go when he needs to be there .

Man did he close down fast, that's experience, and reaction time

 

[VegasGuy]

There's no substitute in a career for getting time around a guy like this. The younger guys can cut a half second off of their response delay, and be right more often, just by witnessing his play, on the field and in practice.

Hopefully he can help Roberts to play with a little more control.
The guy is in position to make so many big plays but manages to run right by them quite often.

 

[Bill Lee]

I was only here to vote for Ray killing a guy.

Where is the "Ray Lewis killed a guy" option?

Ian's got some off-season hacking to do. Every survey must have the "Ray Lewis killed a guy", "Ray Lewis killed two guys" and "Where's the white coat, Ray?" options.

 

[Bill Lee]

And He is motivated.

He has risen! Oops, that's Easter. Ok, He is born!

 

[Bill Lee]

I've always loved what Rodney brings. He's turned into a decent talking head, one of the better analysts IMNSHO.

Rodney's good, but George is in a whole different league.

 

[Bill Lee]

NFL.COM ( James Harrison impresses in his debut for Patriots ) did a nice writeup, including highlights, interview, and comments from BB:

"Yeah, James worked really hard," Belichick said. "He worked really hard to get things down and to handle the roles that he was in today. Very professional, has a lot of experience but not in this system so he had to do a lot of things to try to acclimate himself to what we do, and terminology, and adjustments and so forth. He really worked hard on that. He got better every day. You could see that through the course of the week. Sometimes it piles up and the load just becomes -- there's a diminishing return effect. In his case, I would say that wasn't the case. Each day that it went it got better. I thought he made a couple of plays out there today. We'll see how it goes going forward, but yeah, he worked very hard."

It looks like BB likes what he's seeing.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Rodney's good, but George is in a whole different league.

James Harrison...the Dark Horse