CB Situation

[Juice]

Get real NC09! Watch the game over again man, its Javes Lewis that Damian Williams is making look like a fool, not Talmadge. I was there at the game, and have since watched it a couple times.

One play in particular I suggest you watch, is where Williams ran about a 10 yard hitch, caught it, stutter stepped like he was gonna cut up inside, and then spun around back to the outside. You'll see that it is #14, not #37, that has just been done unbelievably dirty.

[EncinitasDuck]

Guys, the Trojans threw for 187 yards in the game. What's the problem?

[uo2010]

and Williams is a top 5 WR in the nation.

[RanDux]

Guys, the Trojans threw for 187 yards in the game. What's the problem?

I think we're getting a little spoiled!

[neezy3]

yeah whats the big deal, we won the game held them to 180 yards and it was his first start at corner. oh and hes a sophmore... damien is a bad dude and has been making people look silly all year long. i was impressed with how we played they had no big plays and all of their scoring drives had to go the distance besides the turnover. as a db you're supposed to keep the guy in front of you and if they want to dink and dunk all game then so be it.

[wheaton4prez]

You guys also have to note that it appeared to be the defensive game plan to give up the little stuff as long as they didn't get any of their deep passes on us, now there were a couple of plays where we got lucky and Barkley suck it up or the receiver was pretending he had a number 4 jersey on ( ) but for the most part if that was the plan then the defense did a helluva job implementing it!

That is probably true. However, from what I saw, I think Lewis is better at safety than corner and Harris is already showing game-changing skill at corner. So, I think it would be an improvement to put them both in that way.

without knowing what the play call was, its hard to harp on him for playing 8 yds off.

Agreed. I'm not criticizing his alignment which could have a lot to do with scheme. It was more his technique closing on the ball and being in position to make a play on the longer passes. Didn't look natural for him like it already has for Harris.

I think that Lewis has turned into an outstanding safety and Harris a lot of promise at CB.

Guys, the Trojans threw for 187 yards in the game. What's the problem?

The problem is that the bulk of those yards and a touchdown were made on Lewis. If we could configure things to have kept them to 120 yards and one less touchdown, wouldn't that be a good thing to do?

I guess what I'm hearing is that a lot of people don't think Harris is good enough to start over our other players yet.

[Oregonian]

You know what, I'm not going to lie, for coverage purposes, I really don't like TJ Ward on the field. Granted, it's SC and they've got a lot more talent than other receivers we've faced, but it seems like the coverage is not as tight when he's at safety.

[oregonpride]

Guys, Javes Lewis played corner for the first time all season after playing safety and had to go against one of the top group of wr's in college football. We gave up a couple td's in the first half but clamped down in the 2nd. We gave up less than 200 yards passing to a very good qb and I thought our secondary played a hell of a game. Our secondary is looking solid for a few years.

[wheaton4prez]

You know what, I'm not going to lie, for coverage purposes, I really don't like TJ Ward on the field. Granted, it's SC and they've got a lot more talent than other receivers we've faced, but it seems like the coverage is not as tight when he's at safety.

It's true. He's a great run-stopping safety. But, he is often out of position when they swing tight ends and running backs out deep his way.

It's a dilemma. In my opinion, you keep Lewis at safety with Harris at corner and rotate Boyett and Ward situationally. Maybe go with Ward more earlier in the game and if we establish a lead, give more snaps to Boyett in anticipation of the pass (or if we start getting burned there).

Guys, Javes Lewis played corner for the first time all season after playing safety and had to go against one of the top group of wr's in college football. We gave up a couple td's in the first half but clamped down in the 2nd. We gave up less than 200 yards passing to a very good qb and I thought our secondary played a hell of a game. Our secondary is looking solid for a few years.

This is a big part of my point. Why would you switch a guy who has been playing lights out at safety to play corner for the first time this season against probably our toughest opponent? Javes Lewis is our second leading tackler at safety. Javes Lewis gave up the most yards on the team at corner.

With the way Harris played at Washington, I think we should keep him in there. He's already burned a red-shirt opportunity this year. So, let's at least give him the opportunity to keep up that play if he can.

[gofightingducks]

I am sure without the big WR threat of any of the remaining teams we face Harris will be back at CB for the rest of the season.

[dd10snoop28]

Really?

I've watched the game numerous times already and I saw most of Williams' catches on TJ.

Javes covered him sometimes, but for the most part it was TJ, and Damian was having his way with him

[duckfan96]

No offense against TJ Ward...but Boyett should be on the field at all times. The kid is a fn beast. And he will only get better.

[spinseeker]

No offense against TJ Ward...but Boyett should be on the field at all times. The kid is a fn beast. And he will only get better.

Agreed. Boyett=Money.

Boyett and Lewis seemed to have been the ideal combo at safety and rover, however, that was playing against the lower half of the pac and not very good qb's. It would be good to see how they do out there against a good qb.

Loving Harris too. I wonder if they thought he was just too green to put out against SC. Haven't rewatched it yet, did he play at all?

[ducklydoright]

Both of those guys gave up some plays, but what's most important is that they didn't give up any big plays. On numerous occassions USC tried to go deep off of the double move pump fake they like to run and our DB's played it perfectly. For the most part I think our DB's played well against USC and they will not face as talented a group of WR's again this year.
As for Cliff Harris, I think that kid is by far the best cover man we have on the roster, but the coaches feel his size might hurt him against the run, which is why we usually only see him on "Mostly Passing" situations. Against Stanford I think we will probably see more of the same, because Stanford is first and foremost going to try and pound us on the ground and then try and hit us with the playaction. Watch out for the TE this week, because on a couple of occassions against SC we were burned by the TE, but Wonder Boy Barkley either overthrew him or the TE dropped it. I think they will also try and run the playaction bootleg against us, because SC had luck with it and probably could have ran it more and been successful if they wanted to.
As for Cliff Harris, I have NEVER seen a true freshman come in and play DB with the amount of confidence that he has. He has that swagger that all good DB's have and he doesn't care who he is guarding, because he feels that he is going to lock them down and it is that attitude that makes me truly believe that this kid is special and that he is a "Future Star." I think we see Harris get a lot of PT in our game against Arizona. They like to throw the ball around and I think that for right now that kind of offense is right up Cliff Harris' alley.

[UOducksTK1]

Really?

I've watched the game numerous times already and I saw most of Williams' catches on TJ.

Javes covered him sometimes, but for the most part it was TJ, and Damian was having his way with him

That's #8, not #18... Ronald Johnson is who TJIII is battling against.