Give Credit Where Credit Is Due
August 17th, 2010
Michael Bennett had a great game Saturday. No need to diminish the plays he made.
As most of Joe’s readers know, Joe is beyond humbled to have former Bucs defensive end Steve White write a weekly “Bull Rush” column for him. Steve’s insight, in Joe’s eyes, is second to none.
Steve also has his own forum to write additional posts. Recently, he tackled the defensive tackle position.
In short, Steve suggests let your eyes, and not your ears, tell the story of who is playing well and how a play develops.
What actually motivated me to write this post was a comment Buccaneer head coach Raheem Morris made on the side line during the Miami game this weekend when he was asked about Gerald McCoy. He had plenty of good things to say about him but then he said (paraphrasing) that when Michael Bennett got his sack, some of the credit should go to McCoy for drawing a double team.
Well first of all McCoy wasn’t even on the field for that play. I know because I watched both the local broadcast and the NFL Network broadcast which has the clearer view, and the 2nd team defensive line was in with Ryan Sims and Dre Moore inside. McCoy came on the field the next play because it was a third down.
Second of all while Moore did draw a double team it obviously had nothing to do with his reputation as a pass rusher around the NFL (which I will go out on a limb and say at the moment he has none) and everything to do with the Dolphins’ normal pass protection.
And third of all even if McCoy had been on the field his presence wouldn’t have had any impact on the fact that Bennett made a nice quick inside move and sacked the quarterback. That was just a great individual play by Bennett..
Football is a beautiful chess match and, sadly, in Joe’s line of work, he has conditioned himself not to look away from the ball, which depresses Joe.
It’s amazing what one can see on the second (or third?) viewing of a game. It’s why Joe wears out his DVR with football games.
Steve goes on the write about how strong play by the defensive tackles can make an entire line look good. It’s a great read and you should check it out.
August 17th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
DVR’s are the greatest, and it is fun to go back and watch many plays in the trenches in slo-mo forward and backward. It is also fun to go back and watch particular plays referenced by Sensei White, and see with your eyes, as you say, what he writes for us. It enhances the football experience and that is what will be unfortunate about Blackouts. I go to the games but record them as well with the DVR for playback. This is just one more item that distances the hard core, die-hard, football is life Fan from the average fan. We all want to know what every player is doing all the time, becasue half the crap they report or tell you is just that, BS. So yes Bennett deserves credit along with Steve White, and Raheem is being Raheem, but the real credit goes to the DVR and the fact that it is one more tool in the NFL Junkie’s arsenal. It is almost as important as Beer.
August 17th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Or wings!
August 17th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
I need a DVR I was starting to think I was a slow watcher. Everyone pointing out stuff I never saw. I too follow the ball and do not see alot of the other things. For those who haven’t went to Steves blog it is pretty good. Go check it out.
August 17th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Or cheerleaders!
August 17th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
If you aren’t recording the game and re-watching in slow mo, then there is now way you will pick up on a lot of the blocking and pass rush plays.
It really is a credit to those players, man, they are fast as heck!
when it’s all said and done, it’s easy tick a guy a aprt in slow mo, but the reality is, the stuff is happening so fast that it’s hard to really be mad at the talented individual and his talents for even being at that level.
Now compile all 11 guys on defense, and 11 guys on offense, and just the sheer uniformity requiremed to orchestrate each play successfully and consistently is pretty remarkable to say the least.
August 17th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
What you see on TV pales in comparison to the real thing. You see 100 times more at the games. Hockey is the same, only getting to see half the ice at any given time. The guys that film the games are often zoomed in on the sidelines, or a nose pick, or some player’s arse. Nobody wants that. Then they cut back to the snap, and often late. They really could do a better job, and with wide screen TV’s why can’t they have more panoramic or wide angle cameras? It baffles me that they can not do a better job covering the games.
August 17th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Yet another clueless manuever by our wonderful head coach. Can this guy just not open his mouth, peoplemay think he’s not such an a**clown if kept quiet and quit embarrassing himself.
August 17th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Vince really? The man isn’t perfect and he sure as hell hasn’t purposely done anything to deserve that from the community that’s supposed to have his back. He’s a great guy that is growing and in order to grow there must be mistakes that occur that you learn from.
August 17th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Morris is an ass clown!!!
August 17th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Ironic
August 17th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
If you would have listened to Rhode Barber on 620 today you might not be so down on Rah. He was young and good with the payers trust. They offered him the job he couldn’t say no. If he is as good as Barber says he will be fine growing with the team. He should have been a DC first.