Finally, a CB that gets it!!!

“If I’d have played and we’d have lost, it wouldn’t have mattered, but we had a really, really good game, both sides of the ball. This win was huge for us, but yeah, I had envisionin’ that, knowin’ that if I go in, I’m goin’ for that ball no matter what. We were in a coverage where I could see the ball and Will Gay got his hands on it and I just reacted; it was awesome.”
--Brandon Boykin

What do you know! A CB who actually believes he has as much right to go for the ball as the WR! REFRESHING!!!

 

Yep it seems most of our CB'S think it's taboo to go for the ball ...Heck most of the time it seems our CB'S think it's a track meet ...I watch the tape and it looks like a 440 relay tape and our guys our running behind the ball carrier waiting for him to hand off the baton...

 

YES AND ALOT OF TIMES THEY SEEM TO BE GOING FOR THE HIT AND MISS A TIPPED BALL

 

Yep you are correct they do a lot of that...I don't like going for the big hit it causes you to miss tipped balls and it also causes you to miss more tackles ... I like playing the tip drill style and hold em up and strip style....They may gain a few extra yards and have a few more completions , but in the long run you should make a crucial take away that will negate those extra completions...

 

It's the major difference between a hitter and a ball hawk. If you can get a hybrid of both, that would be ideal - like a Woodson or Sherman, but those don't come along all that often. Seems for quite a while all we looked for were the hitters - or at least we coached them to be that way once they arrived here.

 

Which I never quite understood. I mean I get it in theory, but with how the NFL rules dictate, the hitter's ability has been greatly diminished. I'd take a ball hawk/gambler over a hitter all day long. I'd much rather a DB take a chance and fail, then just get flat out burnt and even try.

 

Boykin is a ball hawk. I feel Blake and Cockrell are trying to play the position reading to much,and slow to the reaction. Cockrell is the better of the two. Now we get a chance to see if Boykin can respond as he did against the Colts. Not perfect but, seemed to inject some life into our secondary. I like it. Blake needs to see the field less as he did.
Let's be clear Boykin is not the savior but maybe, just maybe the secondary can at least look respectable going hopefully into the post season.

 

Boykin played tight too and that's something I really want in our corners. Not only do our corners wanna play tight or go for the ball they also seem to not wanna tackle. I understand that our d is predominantly based on the front 7 but man would it kill us to at least have some competent guys on the edges. Especially given that it's a deep threat league now. I know a good rush can neutralize that but really there is no unit of backers that can get there every time.

 

This is exactly why I think the Steelers should be looking at WR'S to convert to DB'S ...Most of the true talent is playing WR in college and a lot play in spread offenses and just run a 2 or 3 route route tree ..A lot of times those guys can't translate to NFL WR'S ....I think it would be smart to bring in a few late rounders each year and try and strike gold ....

Even if a WR can't catch they are taught to go up and fight for the ball,that skill alone would be a huge improvement to our current DB situation..


For example a guy like Chris Brown Notre Dame . Projected 7th. rounder 10-6 broad jump 4.4. 40 and is 6-2 195 to get that in the draft from the CB position it would take a 1st. round pick...

 

Maybe PWP is right. The front office usually gets it right picking WRs. What's the worst that happens? They're subpar, just like the rest of the DBs?

 

While I like the "everytime the ball is in the air it's mine" mentality and its nice when a player can back that up, I am in the minority where I would much rather have a defensive back defend the pass first and go for the turnover second. To many times the last ten years or more you have seen guys going for the pick six on to miss, give up the completion and allow the drive to stay alive or worse yet go for a big gain. Now I don't mean continue the cushion BS but defend the pass first and foremost, break up the completion. I will never get angry for a penalty taken in an effort to break up the pass. I will however get miffed if you hand fight and push off to get a pick and don't even wind up with that.