Mussels. But I still don't get how muscle shoals fits. I'll look it up. It is bama so I assume there is no answer. Maybe Curley made it up.
First, I never said that LSU had a nightmare game, but nice try by linking that quote out of context with the LSU-TN score...totally irrelevant to put the score up when I never referenced the score and has NOTHING to do with the beatings that TM took in pass coverage in that game. I said Tyrann Matthieu had "a nightmare game" and BTW the analysts after the game said similar things. And with 2 long passes completed against him and a 15 yard pass interference penalty when they had a backup QB pretty much confirms what I said. Oh, and now it doesn't matter if you get beat like crazy in a game, as long as they don't throw a TD pass against you? Really??? What a creative definition!!!
You are exactly right...in the Alabama NC game, they threw over the top of him. He was only a step behind or so as I remember but if he gets behind at all, that is a bad thing for him against taller receivers. Good post and right on the mark. Once again, he looks a lot better when he sneaks up on somebody (NOT an insult) and strips the ball away, etc. When you only have 2 INTs for the season and you get a decent amount of balls thrown your way (they surely decided not to throw at Claiborne a lot), then that tells you he is not a lockdown corner...first for throwing at him and second for not getting a lot of INTs.
Yeah, I would not have used that pass an example of bad coverage since he was using the sideline, had safety help in Taylor coming over, and was close enough to get the interception. However, he had bad games in the TN one and the 2nd Alabama game. I would certainly in no way classify him as a "very, very good cover corner" however. As of the end of last season, I would classify only as a SLIGHTLY above average starting CB in the SEC. Once again, that is JUST coverage skills. That does NOT include defensive instinctive in helping out on plays, stripping the ball, etc. But coverage corner as an SEC starter...probably a C+ One more thing as tough as LSU's schedule was, they still only played IMO 4 teams with quality passing attacks (and no Alabama is NOT one and neither is TN without Bray back there is NOT one either)...the 4 were Oregon, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Georgia.
BTW, for those who think that some people like ESPN, myself, some other posters here, etc have some vendetta against TM, I guess you need to add one more source to that list. The Baton Rouge Advocate did a very in depth analysis of offense, defense, special teams...really outstanding in its detail. Here is what they said about the LSU secondary...at least the first item. Source: Baton Rouge Advocate analysis of all aspects of LSU roster including secondary: "There are three concerns: 1) Mathieu proved unable to be an every-down cover corner" 'nuff said
He singlehandedly turned around the Arkansas game, he singlehandedly turned around the Georgia game and he felt that he had to do it in the NC game. The defense had no support and by the time the game was in the 4th quarter, he, like the rest of the D were dog tired. 3 and outs do that to a defense. We know what he can do, why does anyone listen to ESPN, why does anyone listen to Herbstreet, in fact why does anyone listen to any of the national media? (news sources and especially the Advocate. It wasn't even worthy of my cat's litterbox liner when I was there and I'm sure it isn't any better now.) Given the schedule this year, he will get the fumbles record.
Oh for fuck's sake... According to the LSU coaches who decide who plays and who doesn't...as of the end of last season, when there were only two corners on the field playing coverage, TM7 was one of them. Nuff said. It doesn't matter how often or how seldom they played with only two corners on the field, WHEN they did it, he was one of them. If TM7 wasn't at least the 2nd best cover guy on the team, why is that Simon wasn't the one playing the 2nd corner in coverage situations? I mean assuming analysts and newspapers know more than the LSU coaches do, then logically, Simon should've been the starter and TM7 should've only played in nickel situations (which there were an abundance of)...right?
Nooooo, once again as I and others have said many times, there is MORE to playing CB than just covering a WR. No one, including me, has ever said that Mathieu wasn't a better defensive playmaker than Simon. After all, I believe that was Mathieu accepting the Bednarik award right? What many of us are specifically saying is that as a COVER CB, the guy is probably a C+ at best. IMO, he is BETTER than most SEC starting CBs related to PASS COVERAGE ONLY, but not by a heck of a lot. There is a difference between being a great cover guy and being a great disruptor of the other team's offense (tackling behind the LOS, stripping the ball from running backs, stripping the ball from WRs, etc).
The LSU defense as a whole sucked in that game. I don't understand their strategy (yes, I know it was bend and not break), but I saw WVA play a few times last year and no one else backed off of their WRs like LSU did. I assume they were afraid of being malaria contaminated because they couldn't have caught anything with that soft coverage. If you are supposedly the best secondary in the country, you don't back down from WVA. LSU simply stood down in that game and gave WVA all the room to complete passes. The ONLY thing I can think of is that LSU was so afraid of what Jarrett Lee might do offensively that they didn't want WVA to have any big plays. And as I remember, WVA made enough mistakes to maybe justify LSU's strategy. But didn't LSU give up over 500 yards of total offense in that game. Yeah, LSU won the game but at the end of the game, LSU fans couldn't feel very good about WVA literally going down the football field from goal line to goal line over 5 times accumulated yardage. I certainly don't criticize Mathieu for that game anymore than any other LSU secondary guy. The ones he got beaten badly in were the TN game and the Alabama NC game. The big passing plays that I remember from those games by those teams all had #7 on the coverage.
