I know this my sound self serving coming from a former HS football coach, BUT Jackson's seeming fall from grace is less about how good a player he is, than how he is USED within a defensive system. Lets not forget that for several years here, JC was a VERY good CB. He wasn't a flash in the pan, he was someone who seemed to improve every year he was here.
People are right to imply that his lack of success in LA is more the result of him not being put into positions to succeed, than anything inherently wrong with him as a player. Maybe his injury situation is a factor, but he played hurt here occasionally and wasn't this ineffective. He blew that coverage on Denver's only TD of the game.
I don't know. Maybe its him, maybe its the coaching. One thing for sure, from what I saw last night, that was NOT the same JC Jackson we had for 4 years here. That being said, I wouldn't go and feel great about someone's apparent failure. Things can always turn around for him when he gets healthier AND his coaches start to use him better.
We have been all over Bill for his draft picking. We take EVERY chance to 2nd guess FA moves. We often harp on the misses and ignore the hits. While we have been critical about Bill's coaching moves this off season, the operation SEEMS to be working fairly well. The sideline seems to be in control. People know were to got and who to see when they get there. The situational substitutions care going smoothly. And in game management has never been chaotic.
Let's talk about the OC. There has NEVER been an offensive coordination in the Bill Bellichick era that HASN'T been 2n guess ad nausium.
From Charley Wiess to Josh McDaniel, to BOB and anyone else who was entrusted to call the offensive plays on game day; there has been those among us that have gone NUTS with some of the play calling, including myself. But we are fans and 2nd guessing is literally one of the jobs of fans. I bet it's in the definition of what a fan is.
I have no problem with a fan 2nd guessing, like I said. What I DO have a problem with is fans who 2nd guess and believe that their opinion comes because they believe they are smarter than the coaches being paid to do their jobs, rather than understanding and acknowledging that it comes from perfect 20-20 HINDSIGHT.
For YEARS I complained about McDaniels constantly using an empty backfield on 3rd and short situations, thus relieving the defense from any worry about a run. But I understood that I had NONE of the information and the benefit of about a dozen people feeding me information accumulated over several weeks about the team we were playing. I was just a guy on a couch with an UNINFORMED opinion. SURE I was pissed when he did it, but I had the humility to understand that despite MY anger in the moment, I was just another guy on a couch throwing pillows at the TV.
Speaking of good Coaching, I'd like to take a moment to laud the obvious good coaching of Brian Bellichick and Mike Pelligrino. 2 guys who are never talked about but are the 2 DB coaches. They have done an EXCELLENT job of getting their players into positions where they can make plays. Ever wonder why the Pats ALWAYS seem to get the "buy in" from players every year. It IS hard here, but most players will come and want to stay because they FEEL that they will be put in position to make plays. That they will always have game plans and responsibilities that will give them the best chance to WIN the game. And those times after losses they will come in on a Monday and they will see that if they had played better at those key points in the game, they wouldn't have lost. Mistakes will be acknowledged by players and coaches, the things that need to be worked on will be incorporated into the practice schedule and the process will go on.
OK, let me get off the pulpit and back on track. the Pats are currently have the 8th rated overall defense according to some random site I googled. Oddly in the individual stats like pass and run ypg they ranked in the 15-17 range. But as you know there is only ONE defensive stat that matters and thats points allowed and there we ranked 7th (18.8 with the Bills and Niners an astonishing 13 and 14 ppg respectively); Anyhow all I know is this season, having bunch of injuries and rookies out there, I see a majority of the time tight coverage and good tackling by the DB's and a part of that comes from good COACHING. Every game it seems to be getting better even though for the most part we are running around with fast, quick midgets back there (thank god for Kyle Duggar) Maybe NEXT year we will find the Joshua Williams type CB that will make me happy, or maybe JJ Williams will take a speed pill while on IR
Bottom line it seems to be that our defense is out performing it's apparent talent. While musing over these stats I noted that 3 of our 6 games came against top 7 offenses (Lions, Browns, Ravens) Conversely 2 of our wins game again bottom 3 defenses (Lions, Browns) It also doesn't help that the Steelers, Miami and the Packers were all in the 20's.
Observation - We've played pretty good defense (not great)against very good offenses. We really haven't played any of the best defenses yet,
I like our defensive coaching, defensive plans, and the fact they seem to be improving. They will need to be as we get to the middle of our schedule.
Christ, I HAVE rambled on and pretty far from the thread topic. Sorry.
