Guys, I noticed watching the game live, that McCray gave up a couple of long balls and was burned a couple of times. Well I watched the game last night again, and he got handled all throughout the game. I don't recall seeing him earlier in the season. How many games has he started? He had a terrible game and was faked easily and had no chance of recovery. Granted Hall and Brown are very good and fast but even on out routes he was yards away. Xenon got taken a few times too. So was this just inexperience and the fact that we depended on man coverage more that he was exposed? I think he could be a good player, but he looked lost out there.
McCray has had a hel of a season. He just had one bad game. A lot of it had to do with lack of help. He is a tweener type guy. We have used him as our nickle back all season. Most teams use an extra corner. He is a safety borderlining a linebacker. I'm not to worried about him. He has played well this season. Saban found a mismatch and exploited it. That is all.
I don't know how I overlooked him all season. After watching the game again you could tell he doesn't have the speed of a DB but he does look like he could be a good safety and maybe a LB. He is a pretty big guy. I would've liked to have seen some adjustments made to correct this mismatch. But he did fine on the standard under routes, but he couldn't even think about keeping up with Hall or Brown on the go routes.
The mismatch won't matter if SJPW is eating grass two seconds after the play starts. I think that's what LSU was counting on. A few times the play was made but in the end we won and minus penalties and a few forced/close throws resulting in turnovers, this game would have been a blow out. TJ just decided to keep it interesting for the fans...:grin:
It reminded me of Steltz in the SECCG back in '05. He looked a bit slow, but mostly it just seems to be inexperience & biting too hard on fakes.
He's also having some trouble covering the backs out of the backfield as have some of our LBs. The short dink passes to backs in crossing routes have plagued us these last few games. Of course, this is a weakness for most teams.
He got burnt by a good receiver on a all out blitz who (If I recall correctly) made one hell of a catch TWICE in this game. Brown made that finger tip grab and his other TD was when he was covered by Jones and Steltz and still jumped up a grabbed the ball. McCray has been solid all year and you can tell by the lack of recognition. Not outstanding but solid.
McCray is a new guy and new guts make mistakes. Give him some time, i think he's going to be a player.
I was going to bring up Steltz like someone else already did. Remember how he didn't look so great against Georgia that year? Look at him now... Just give McCray time, he will learn from this and he's very talented, he'll bounce back.
