Cornerstone of Saban's Defense Still Missing

[jbond]

If I'm not mistaken, Howard was primarily covering him the 1st 1/2 and Madison was picking him up quite a bit in the 2nd.

 

[HysterikiLL]

So am I to understand that Madison WASNT the guy that was beat on the majority of Smiths catches? I know he collided with Tillman on the 53 td TD, but was he responsible for most of the other plays?

The article seems to blame Howard for most of the blown coverages....

This is what I've been saying!!!! Everyone has been ripping into Madison blaming him for poor defense....a lot of the time Madison dropped into cover zone and because Howard was so horrible in coverage, Madison ended up on Smith half the time. Then he'd get ripped for letting Smith make the play.

Towards the end of the game, we put Madison on Smith but it was evident we weren't pressing Sam as Nick and Richard were looking to clue our safeties and allow them to shadow due to the blindside of Sam. This ultimately caused the INT that won us the game.

And this is back to the other topic, but after watching Shawne Merriman tonight, I think this guy would've been a freaking perfect fit in our OE. I'm not saying we should've drafted him or anything but he looks like he'd fit nicely. He makes hard hits too. I'll take him or David Pollack in a few years.

 

[Shouright]

The Poole injury really hurt. With him healthy you wouldn't see Reggie Howard on the field nearly as much. And Madison and Surtain were commenting on how good he was last preseason.

 

[LarryFinFan]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/dolphins/content/sports/epaper/2005/09/26/a17c_elmore_0926.html

Some very good points in this article.

This is something we're going to be seeing all year long so we should definitely get use to it. Teams are going to continue to TRY to test our secondary and spread us out.

I say try because first thing is first, if you want to even get the ball out of your hands, you have to withstand the pressure we put on you first. You have to not get sacked, not get the ball batted, not get pressured into making an inaccurate throw, and hold out long enough for your receiver to develop a money position on our secondary guys.

Still, in retrospect I still say it would have been nice to have managed to get Corey Webster in the 2nd round. Nothing against Matt Roth, but having Webster AND Daniels right now would go a long way toward solving a lot of our problems in the secondary, while I don't think Roth is contributing much on the DL yet (it will obviously take some time for him to come into his own).

Webster, in the meantime, is doing very well with the Giants and probably would be doing way better in the system he played in college. Damn shame.

I's a little dissapointed in the lack of consistency from the DL...they get pressure on 1st and 2nd down, the tend to let up on third...the Panthers did a good job on 3rd and short running right at us (that is their forte, tho). Then when it was apparant that Foster and Davis couldn't get it done for them today, they starting attacking our secondary, the same way as the Jests did. Delhomme, save for the INT, was very accurate and seem to hit his guys right in stride almost every pass. As much as the secondary is no doubt our weakness, the coverage was generally tight. We did have a lot of missed tackles and our guys running into each other that let Smith and co. get some YACs. Madison was apparently having his own little war with Smith, and lost. Howard played awful again and Daniels made his normal share of rookie mistakes, although his coverage was generally tight.

I also would much rather have seen Webster here. Roth will be a good player for us, but needs to grow into the position, as you said. But, I'm sure we'll see some changes this coming offseason...I do like the job that Jones and Schulters are doing, although they've been a little inconsistent as well.

This is what we are going to see for the rest of the season...the secondary will be innundated until they stop someone or say uncle...The key, as you said is pressure from the DL...

 

[Ryan1973]

Saban will probably use a high draft pick next year on a cornerback. Poole coming back will help and Daniels will be better in his 2nd year. Also, Saban is high on the undrafted free agent he picked up from Missouri. I don't remember his name, but he is injured this year. He could be a factor next year. I remember hearing if he wasn't injured, he could have been drafted in the top 3 rounds.

 

[popularwar]

Just hoping for Poole to come back strong.