Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 + Season Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 + Season Week 9 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 + Season Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Wild Card Divisional Round (@ Atlanta Falcons):
My Coverage Player of the Week:Week 1: Tramon Williams
Week 2: Sam Shields
Week 3: Nick Collins
Week 4: Charles Woodson
Week 5: Tramon Williams
Week 6: Nick Collins
Week 7: Nick Collins
Week 8: Charles Woodson
Week 9: Charles Woodson/Tramon Williams
Week 11: Tramon Williams
Week 12: Charlie Peprah
Week 13: Tramon Williams
Week 14: Tramon Williams
Week 15: Charles Woodson
Week 16: AJ Hawk
Week 17: Defense
Wild Card: Tramon Williams
Divisional: Tramon WilliamsYou know how many quarterbacks completed more than 65% of their passes on us this season? 1. His name is Matt Ryan, twice. This says something about his style of quarterbacking. Ryan's a smart quarterback who can get the ball out quickly and on time. He does a nice job of hitting his hot reads once he recognizes the defensive look. However, by continually doing this, he makes sacrifices in pushing the ball down the field and that's why he passed for less than 200 yards on both occasions on only a 6.7 YPA, only 0.2 above our regular season average. This shows a lot about how bendable our defense is and how well Capers can gameplan for opposing quarterbacks. He's able to get the same results every week regardless of how opponents want to attack this defense. He forces them to dictate how they'll play us and that is objective number one for every defense in the league.
The other big number to look at is 11 for 116...Roddy White's totals in the 2 games we played them this season. It had been 7 games since White went over the 100 yard mark in a game, but limiting a receiver of his caliber twice is still pretty impressive. Of course the primary reason for it is Tramon Williams who shadowed White as much as we have with any other top receiver this year. Not only did he make White a non-factor, but he was responsible for probably a 13 point swing. No defensive play was bigger than the pick 6 at the end of the half, which allowed us to turn a 7 point lead into a 21 point lead. Terrific read and heads up play by Tramon to realize the down, distance, and situation then an even better play to not only eliminate the field goal attempt, but to make the cutback to the end zone. The other pick will probably be talked as a poor throw by Matt Ryan on a play where Tramon was beat. That's only half true. Yes the throw was poor. Ryan was late on the pass (possibly his only one in our two games) and put a little too much air under it. Tramon on the other hand was never beat. With a Cover 2 shell over the top, he sunk underneath the receiver, which with help over the top would have needed a perfect throw to get 6. When the ball hung, he capitalized on the opportunity. The touchdown was in zone coverage. Hard to see what should have happened ideally, but he had a flat zone as Shields had on the other side. There was no one approaching his zone and by the time he reacted, White found a little ally and took it in for 6. It was an uncharacteristic drive by this entire defense allowing the opposition to punch it in that quickly.
By the looks of it, Shields didn't have a terrific game, which he didn't. However, it wasn't terrible as we've experienced from our sub-package defensive backs in the past. He's always in great position and is never "burned". The fact that his first penalty of the season was this late in the year is remarkable. Truth be told, the penalty wasn't even that bad. He made a play on the ball based on the receivers eyes and moves, but never turned around. I'm absolutely excited to watch his progression through the years. Corner is one of the hardest positions to learn as a rookie and Shields has played as well as anyone could have expected from him. He's a dependable nickel.
Collins had a great game in coverage. Hawk did a terrific job underneath helping force two big stops on his completions. Bishop still looks a bit stiff out there in coverage and still needs to improve his fundamentals and discipline in run defense. This should come with experience and further coaching. For now, we can live with the bad for a lot of good.
The astute observer should notice two things missing from this week's chart. One which was also nonexistent in our last meeting with the Falcons. Looks like they respect the discipline of this defense. [url=Pro_News/aid=161.html]full article[/url].