Peterson is an amazing returner . . . but he got burned on a couple of key passes and he ran out of gas and started cramping up late in both halves. I wonder if we are using him a bit much on special teams for a starting All-American safety. Before, I was just worried about increasing his chances of injury, but now I also worry that a big day on special teams like this can have him gassed and on the bench when we need him on defense. Of course, he probably won't have days like this very often.
You are correct. Not really sure why, but Chavis really likes to blitz Peterson a lot. Doesn't make sense that you would consistently blitz your best cover corner. They got it right in blitzing the fasted CB on the last fumble recovery we got. Peterson needs to be out there covering the WR because the others showed they could not do that.
I think its just UNC had all the momentum and no matter what we did on D, we couldn't stop them. Plus our O doing absolutely nothing to help out our D to stay off the field.
I generally agree with the fact that he looked gassed, and his ST play is probably to blame. I would argue though that his punt return for TD helped us out more than him not being on the field hurt us. He also only actually returned two or three. Randle got one or two, and a couple they just didn't kick to him, so he should be able to handle it if our offense can stay on the field.
well, i think we expected him to be good, but averaging 48yds per return is just ridiculous. i'm gonna guess that we may not be running quite THAT much in every game.
Peterson was on the sideline a lot tonight also. I can't believe no one else is talking about the true freshman Mathieu.
It's kind of give and take. His one TD and many returns set up great field position for the offense. However, he didn't play much coverage tonight as he normally does. I wouldn't say he got burned, because some of the passes were very accurate but he did show signs of tiring at the end. But...a lot of the reasons he was so tired on defense was because after a big return, our offense would score on the next play on a big play and he would have to go back out on defense. I don't anticipate that happening as often as it did tonight for the rest of the season, so that should help out a little bit.
Good point, add Mathieu to the list of positives. Played his heart out and made the most of his opportunities. Remember how Peterson looked when he actually played his true freshman season? Yeah, keep it up Tyrann!
