Tweet
My Polamalu theory
While driving to my final radio show last night for the 2010 season I had a thought that hit me on why Troy Polamalu was playing so much deep centerfield throughout the playoffs.
I don't think it had as much to do with his injury as it did with the one to Bryant McFadden.
McFadden was suffered a hip pointer in the Carolina game while making an interception and then tore a muscle in his rib cage the following game against Cleveland.
If you remember in that Cleveland game, Polamalu was up at the line of scrimmage to make a diving interception on the Browns' first play from scrimmage.
We didn't see him at the line of scrimmage too much after that.
I haven't had time to check into this yet, but it's my feeling the Steelers were so concerned with their corners outside of Ike Taylor that they felt they had to keep Polamalu deep to protect from being beaten over the top.
We saw Ryan Clark down in the box at times, but he doesn't have anywhere near Polamalu's speed. I believe they felt with McFadden hobbled, that exposed them to the deep ball with McFadden, William Gay and Anthony Madison, particularly with Clark as the only deep safety.
It drives home the fact that this team needs to upgrade its speed in the secondary.
[url="http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/"]http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/[/url]
While driving to my final radio show last night for the 2010 season I had a thought that hit me on why Troy Polamalu was playing so much deep centerfield throughout the playoffs.
I don't think it had as much to do with his injury as it did with the one to Bryant McFadden.
McFadden was suffered a hip pointer in the Carolina game while making an interception and then tore a muscle in his rib cage the following game against Cleveland.
If you remember in that Cleveland game, Polamalu was up at the line of scrimmage to make a diving interception on the Browns' first play from scrimmage.
We didn't see him at the line of scrimmage too much after that.
I haven't had time to check into this yet, but it's my feeling the Steelers were so concerned with their corners outside of Ike Taylor that they felt they had to keep Polamalu deep to protect from being beaten over the top.
We saw Ryan Clark down in the box at times, but he doesn't have anywhere near Polamalu's speed. I believe they felt with McFadden hobbled, that exposed them to the deep ball with McFadden, William Gay and Anthony Madison, particularly with Clark as the only deep safety.
It drives home the fact that this team needs to upgrade its speed in the secondary.
[url="http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/"]http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/[/url]
Comment