From the Foxhole...

Yeah, WP was right to single out the secondary as a concern. At the beginning of the season, I thought that, well, if Manning's gonna suck at least Gamble's still good. Took a few minutes to correct that.

 

Gambles athleticism usually saves him in certin situations. He was flat out missing assignments in certain games, now he is just getting beat. If he has any injuries that removes his athleticism I do not want him out there.

 

The one reason I'm ok with playing Gamble is that he's so inexperienced as a cornerback, and the only way he's going to get better is by continuing to play (although it has to be with instruction). To me, it's one of those situations where you have to take it on the chin a little now to justify some benefit later on. I mean we did know that he was very much a work in progress when we drafted him, despite the fact that he was forced into the lineup last season. This is, what, only his fourth season ever as a cornerback?

 

Thought it was his third. THought he only played one full true season at CB at OSU, but I could be wrong, as Im not that honed in on my collge ball and its history.

Either way, with Gamble, hes there mostly. He just doesnt play the damned ball. ANd when hes not there its because hes giving too much fucking cushion. He bites too, too damn much.

Speaking of which, Wesley is just good IMO. I say that because talking about corners biting on dbl moves, I thought of Wesley giving up that TD vs. Arizona on the dbl move he got shook from his shoes on....and I say that and pimp him afterwards, which is odd, but I really like Wesley. Eh......

 

Remember, you can't believe anything Fox says. McCree did do some nice things. For all we know, Fox chewed him out for the other plays, or graded him down, or whatever. But he's not going to tell us.

To the other comment, he specificlly said the DL plyed well against the run. I know he mde it 2 separate sentences, but that's his way.

 

He meant it though about the DL playing the run. Weve been flat out phenominal there.

 

Re Gamble:

I see it much like Collin and have basically said this all along, in my own inarticulate unedumacated way. The guy has practically no college experience at the position *and* came out a year early; "we" decided we could afford for him to get OJT. We've sure covered up for worse.

I think he's gonna get better by leaps and bounds as time passes if we give him the reps, especially now that Lucas will scare everyone into going after Gamble... he'll be forced to learn or burn. It'll be good for him.

That said, benching his ass for motivational purposes for a game, half, series or week of practice..... is certainly an option.

 

Largely I want him to improve on his tackling more than anything.

He's a decent enough athlete with ball skills that some plays are going to happen, when he's healthy. He'll give up some. He may get better, but even if he doesn't get much better in coverage, he'll be ok if he plays strong with proper technique.



McCree sucks at coverage. Sucks balls. And I never want to see him one on one against a reciever the caliber of Boldin again. Wasn't it he, and not Wesley, that got burned on that toucdown? Announcers called out Wesley, but it looked like McCree.

 

yeah. If you take the 3 burnt plays as anomaly because he plays the deep ball somewhat well (the foot, not being at practice, etc), my big beef is him playing with too much cushion and tackling poor.

Which is about where he was last year.


And yeah, we had a knack for getting the wrong guys in coverage v/s Boldin. In zone, we had McCree, I'm sure Minter, Morgan, and of course we saw Rucker, Buckner, and Peppers. It never failed - zone blitz? Hey, look, a WR just caught a ball against a DT.

 

Gamble's Wonderlic may be coming into play, but confidence would work wonders as well. He doesn't seem like the cocky type, which is unfortunate given the position he plays.

And Wesley was the one who bit soooo hard on the fake. I don't know if that's the play you're referring to.