NFC Defensive Player of the Week

air_hog · Post by **air_hog** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:21 pm

how the heck did Nick Barnett win over Matt Bowen

lets compare the stats:

Barnett Bowen
TAK: 7 10
SACK: 1.0 2.0
INT: 1 0
FF: 0 1

And Bowens FF earned the 'Skins a Defensive TD!

Redskins4Life · Post by **Redskins4Life** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:41 pm

Barnetts a better player in my opinion at a more prestigious position (MLB over SS)

redskinsranger · Post by **redskinsranger** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 8:20 pm

I say bowen should have got it.

cvillehog · Post by **cvillehog** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 10:18 pm

Probably people credit Williams's system for Bowen's numbers.

tcwest10 · Post by **tcwest10** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 10:25 pm

Woah, there... Air Hog
You better watch that strong language you're using in your sig. You'll get yourself banned !

Anyway, Bowen wouldn't sweat it. He's thrilled to death, I'm sure, to just not be an afterthought.
He's certainly silenced a whole pantload of people right here on the Hogs.net !

NikiH · Post by **NikiH** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 11:25 pm

Wow I guess the stigma of being a Redskin is biting him on the butt. Seriously "player of the week" has nothing to do with who you think is a better player overall. It's all about who played better in that week. Obviously the better player was Matt Bowen and I think it's total crap that they overlooked him.

johnjack · Post by **johnjack** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:51 am

I wouldn't go quite that far to say that he (Bowen) has silenced his critics. I certainly have been critical, but deservedly so. Until Sunday, I had never seen Bowen lay a big hit on anyone but his teammates.

On Sunday, Matt played a complete game. He made tackles, came on the blitz, and was superb on special teams. I didn't see Gregg Williams put him in a situation where he had to cover anyone, and I totally agree with that approach since I don't think that that his is forte. When all is said and done, kudos to Matt Bowen for a great all around game. I WANT to see him keep it up. Trust me.

The one thing I am seeing though, is that Gregg Williams seems to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his personnel and are playing them to their strengths thus far.

NikiH · Post by **NikiH** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 12:34 pm

I hope by that reasoning you were also very critical of Lavar. He, until being moved back to weak side, hadn't shown anything like that either.

Texas Hog · Post by **Texas Hog** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:37 pm

johnjack wrote:I wouldn't go quite that far to say that he (Bowen) has silenced his critics. I certainly have been critical, but deservedly so. Until Sunday, I had never seen Bowen lay a big hit on anyone but his teammates.

On Sunday, Matt played a complete game. He made tackles, came on the blitz, and was superb on special teams. I didn't see Gregg Williams put him in a situation where he had to cover anyone, and I totally agree with that approach since I don't think that that his is forte. When all is said and done, kudos to Matt Bowen for a great all around game. I WANT to see him keep it up. Trust me.

The one thing I am seeing though, is that Gregg Williams seems to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his personnel and are playing them to their strengths thus far.

Good post!

johnjack · Post by **johnjack** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:23 pm

NiKiH,

I think criticism of Lavar is also fair, but let's check the record on Lavar. Lavar several years ago against the Panthers during the Marty years did come back into a game after he had had a concussion and picked off a pass that he returned for a game winning touchdown.

Lavar does make big hits many times. I'll agree that in Marvin Lewis' and George Edwards' systems, he was out of position often, but I think that was a result of him wanting to MAKE something happen. Marvin's philosophy seems to be maintain gap control, and bend but don't break. Lord only knows what George Edwards' system was based on (Madden I think

)

Lavar did make a game winning sack against Kurt Warner a few years ago to save that game. There are many other hits and big plays that I can reference. All I said was that until last Sunday, I could not remember a game where Bowen laid a big hit on anyone.

Last, and best typed near the end, Lavar did end Troy Aikman's career on a very clean hit. Well.... that's all of the aces that I was holding.

NikiH · Post by **NikiH** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:44 pm

See I think Bowen is underrated for the same reason I don't buy that Lavar is over rated. They both were not able to play their strongest positions until this year. If you watch Sundays game again you will see that Bowen was shaken up more then once and was still in that game until the end. He was being assisted on the field twice. As far as big plays Bowen had them last year. It was just hard to call him great when he wasn't playing the position he was born to play. So let's have this discussion again at the end of this season. Then we'll know if Matt Bowen was indeed worth every penny we paid him! ;-)