Originally posted by Kolohe:
Originally posted by OnTheClock:
Originally posted by Ninefan56:
Now that the BCS game is about over, who are the players that improved their status and why, and who are those who dropped in their status and why? Also who would be players that we would look at?
Gainers:
DT Lamarr Houston - continued to play hard and was the one guy to consistently get pressure. Beat Mike Johnson badly several times early on.
WR Shipley - Even without their QB, has played extremely well. Two TDs.
CB Arenas - Sure he got beat once on the double-move, but never judge someone on one play. He had one bad play, the entire rest of the game he had/has been very good out there.
ILB McClain - solid all game long. A mistake being offsides, but that's about the only negative you can take from McClain tonight.
Losers:
S Earl Thomas - not physical enough, didn't make a peep in the game.
DT Terrance Cody - simply a situational player, falls deeper into the 2nd round.
SS Woodall - Blown coverages. Woodall may have to move to OLB in the Pro's.
Static (non-moving):
OLB Sergio Kindle - Did some good things, but not enough to really make any significant movement.
OG Mike Johnson - Got beat some early on, but bounce back with some outstanding blocks to even things out.
I wouldn't say "Loser", its not his fault Bama ran the ball 90% of the time with Ingram and Richardson, who Thomas made a nice open field tackle on 3rd and 2. And not physical enough, dude was throwing his body AT the RB's, he could be blamed for miss tackles, but not physical enough C'mon.
Same goes with Cody, Bama knew Texas would pass more so they went with more of a pass rushing front.
We saw two different things last night. Sure, Thomas is not at fault for the fact that Alabama didn't pass much, but it's going to take more than one good tackle in a game to make people believe you have first round talent. Thomas plays Strong Safety for Texas -- Other guys like T.J. Ward, Reshad Jones, Kam Chancellor, even Larry Asante and Kyle McCarthy consistently make noise in both facets of the game no matter what the run-pass ratio. As I said before, Thomas' "ballhawk" status and him getting a bunch of interceptions is not enough.
He lost ground as far as the "1st round" standard that many around here place on him. If he was expected to play like a 2nd rounder or later, that'd be totally different, and I would not classify him as one of the "Losers" of the game. Hope that makes sense.
As far as Cody, that absolutely proves my point. He can't play on every down, and he'll be virtually useless against most passing teams in the league, and in such a pass-happy league these days, would that not concern you? You don't want to spend a 1st on a situational player like that.
[ Edited by OnTheClock on Jan 8, 2010 at 06:46:11 ]
