Red_One43 wrote:RayNAustin wrote:Red_One43 wrote:This is one explanation on what Madieu Williams was thinking on that Cruz play. The film showed that Cruz never runs a go from the slot position. Cruz was lined up in the slot. Madieu saw that and was confident that Cruz would break off the route. The Skins were very conscious of the Giants marching down the field and kicking a FG, so Madieu was positioning himself to jump the route and possibly make the INT.
What was not known to the the person giving this explanation is the extent that Madieu was coached to watch for this tendency of Cruz. Madieu was responsible for Cruz deep, so it was his fault. Blame could also go to Wilson because he not only failed to get his hands on Cruz, as he turned to run with Cruz he seemed to open his hips awkward and quickly lost a step. It was said that Wilson should never have been over the slot guy because he is not physical enough. Williams being a veteran should have known when to turn and run and play the possibility of the deep ball, but the person giving the explanation kept emphasizing that Cruz never ran a go from the slot.
If that's true, it's probably because Cruz hasn't seen such an atrociously played coverage from the slot before.
If he was even thinking about jumping the rout Cruz was running, he ought to get cut, because that is the corner's option when he's got Safety help over the top. The safety is called that for a reason. and cannot allow the guy to get behind him.
If you go back and look at the play, you'll see Hall in man coverage on Nicks ... Williams is positioned about half way between Nicks and Cruz .. Cruz blows by Wilson, and Williams doesn't even break until it's too late. I think he was keeping position to jump Nick's rout, as he was anticipating Eli to throw to single coverage ... Eli may even have froze him by looking at Nicks ... that hesitation is all that was needed for Cruz to blow by him. He even ended up behind both Cruz and Wilson!!Red_One43 wrote:It seems to me that the person giving this explanation was saying that the coaches were also at fault because, he felt that Madieu was coached to look for Cruz to break off the route and the fact that Wilson being over the slot receiver.
Here's the issue with my source. I hearded this on either ESPN980 or the 106.7 The Fan. I came in after the guest was speaking. This wasn't a random caller, it was a reporter or someone who has inside football knowledge, who was a guest on the one of the shows. I flip back and forth on the stations, so and can't remember which station I was listening to at the time. This was a couple of days ago.
Perhaps someone else heard it as well and can elaborate or heard this from another source.
This the best I can find on the internet. I did find another person in this link from a mesage baord that they have read that Cruz never runs a go form the slot.
http://cpnd.proboards.com/index.cgi?boa ... 377&page=1
The coaches would not be coaching him to stand there like a statue ... and if they are, they need to go.
The more likely scenario is what I suspect ... that Williams was splitting his attention between Cruz and Hall's guy Nicks ... he's watching Eli instead of Cruz, and Eli looks him off of Cruz just enough to freeze him, and Cruz is off to the races since Wilson was already beaten like Salvation Army drum.
Your explanation is quite plausible as to what Williams was doing. Hall says that they just got beat and the coaches say, Williams got caught flat-footed. Explanations that we can see with our own eyes, but what happend in that defensive meeting before the D took the field? The guest on the radio show was trying to give us what he found out. True, I didn't get the guest's name, but I listen to ESPN980 and 106.7 The Fan often enough to know when the hosts are talking to someone who is credible. I also posted that link to the another fan site where members also read that Cruz never runs a go from the slot.
The guest wasn't saying that the coaches coached him to stand like a statute. The guest was saying that the coaches told him that the chances are slim that Cruz goes deep so watch for the short route. They weren't telling him that he has no responsibility for the deep ball, it is understood that the safety always does. No one is absolving Madieu. The question is did the coaches, knowing that they have a back up for a starting safety, who is new to the defense, make sure that Madieu had his prioritites straight.
I posted this in the Haslett thread, because if true, it is a knock on Haz or Coach Morris or both. I think most of us would agree that a DC coordinator should be saying "Just Don't Get Beat Deep! Period!."
People keep saying that these kind of things don't happen to the good teams. Giants blitzed and got burned by Sanatana - that happens to every team, but a fundamental error like Madieu's and the other crazy stuff that has happened this year - penalties and the like - point not only to the players, but the coaches - maybe your ingredient of "benching" is needed. Maybe, we need to simplify the D for its "back up" starting secondary personnel.
Here's a request for you - When you watch the All -22 count the number of times that Cruz lines in the slot and key on Madieu to see if he is in that same coverage and watch what he does and Cruz does. This will give you more insight as to why Williams didn't do what he was supposed to do.
The problem with simplifying is that in this particular case, they were running a very common under-over double, and there really is no way to simplify that. This demands that the safety keep the play in front of him, but Williams didn't even keep Wilson, the under guy in front of him .. and ended up behind Cruz and Wilson ... and he's our free safety? We're in trouble.
What I see is that he didn't even turn his hips to start running until Cruz was about 3 yards from him with Wilson chasing, and at that point he's toast ... D. Green would be toast, and Williams doesn't have great speed. Whatever was going through his head, it was terrible play ... he did the one thing you can't do, let the play get behind you.
What he should have have done once Cruz got near him in a full sprint and he was flat footed is to cut off the rout and grab him ... tackle him, whatever... take the flag, but don't try to run parallel to him like he did ... so he made two errors.
I cannot find any legit reason why he'd let Cruz get on top of him like that other than him being a complete knuckle-head that might be better off on the sidelines than on the field.