Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

[Sword]

On that first touchdown by Bengals. Looked like Troy could have easily put his hands up
on that ball coming in. He looked up saw the ball come but, looked like he gave-up on the play? He could have dove with his hands up and got a piece of that ball? I watched it several times. He was close enough....

Sword

[MaxAMillion]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

It was a horrible play by Troy P. He did absolutely nothing on the play. The safety is supposed to play the ball in that situation and Troy did nothing. The only thing I can guess is that he saw Clark coming over and he didn't want to bump into him. It was a poor play by Troy.

[LouSteel]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

Clark was coming in fast across the WR so Troy probably wanted to keep out of the way and let Clark make the play... else they both run into each other, the WR makes the catch, and they end up on Sportcenter's not top 10

Looked to me like a fluke

[Starlifter]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

Clark was coming in fast across the WR so Troy probably wanted to keep out of the way and let Clark make the play... else they both run into each other, the WR makes the catch, and they end up on Sportcenter's not top 10

Looked to me like a fluke

i agree. having said that I don't think it's a big secret that coverage is not the strongest part of troy's game.

[aggiebones]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

It was so weird that I just think he either misread what was happening or didn't know the ball was in the air. All he had to do is wave high and he would have prevented it. Too weird to just be a bad play.

[steelblood]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

Even if he felt he needed to let Clark try to make a play on the ball, he needed to put himself in position to jar Green's arms after he caught the ball. It was a bad play, but otherwise Troy had a stellar game.

[Eich]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

It was just like 2 outfielders in baseball who meet at the ball and stop, trying to avoid a collision and the ball just falls between them. It seemed clear to me that Troy stopped playing the ball because he felt Clark coming in for his smash up derby style punishment.

I was just saying this to some friends. Troy is an amazing player and athlete. But we need someone in the deep secondary to compliment him. Someone who can make plays on the BALL. The league has outlawed separating the ball from receivers who have already made a catch. So, Ryan Clark no longer has any value – that was his one and only strength. Time to stick someone else back there. I think we’d be better off with McFadden back there.

[Flasteel]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

I'm glad a thread was started about this. I was disgusted by what I saw and thought it was the worst attempt at playing the ball that I had ever seen.

It looked to me like Troy stumbled slightly just before the ball arrived, then put out his hands to make sure he didn't contact the receiver. In doing so, it looked like he lost track of the ball. I'm not sure Clark coming over had much to do with it...at least I hope not. You don't eschew an opportunity to make a play because you think someone else might be in a better position to do so...make the play!

If anyone sees an explanation for this, please post the comments. Thanks.

[Ghost]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

I don't think this explains anything (in fact it raises additional questions), but here's what he had to say:

"He made a nice play on the ball," said Polamalu of the 6-4 Green. "I saw the ball the whole way and thought I could make a play on it, but I didn't."

[pittpete]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

"I saw the ball the whole way and thought I could make a play on it, but I didn't."

O, thanks for clearing that up for us Troy

[Eich]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

OK - so Troy himself said he saw the ball the whole way AND he thought he could make a play on it. What other reason could there be other than he saw Clark coming and either didn't want to get creamed by him or decided to let him make a play on it?

Would like to see a YouTube clip of it again...

[DkBlue]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

OK - so Troy himself said he saw the ball the whole way AND he thought he could make a play on it. What other reason could there be other than he saw Clark coming and either didn't want to get creamed by him or decided to let him make a play on it?

Would like to see a YouTube clip of it again...

Here is the clip.

[url="http://www.sportsgrid.com/nfl/a-j-green-touchdown-injury/"]http://www.sportsgrid.com/nfl/a-j-green ... wn-injury/[/url]

[Flasteel]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

OK - so Troy himself said he saw the ball the whole way AND he thought he could make a play on it. What other reason could there be other than he saw Clark coming and either didn't want to get creamed by him or decided to let him make a play on it?

Would like to see a YouTube clip of it again...

I was going for the whole pass interference angle. The reason I thought he might have lost sight of the ball, is because all he had to do was stick his friggin' hand up. Instead, he pulled back. Maybe I should look at that youtube clip before I start questioning Troy.

[Flasteel]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

Okay...I just looked at the clip and this is what I believe happened. Troy was tracking the ball in, then he notices he's on sort of a collision course with Clark - just before Green makes his jump. He looks dead at Clark, taking his eye completely off the ball. It looks like by the time he sees it again, it's right in Green's breadbasket.

Who knows if he was able to track the ball, shift his vision to Clark, then relocate the ball at the last second. I do not doubt the man's word, when he says he saw it the whole way, but I'm not sure if he even realizes that he took his eyes off the ball to look at Clark.

Maybe he did relocate the ball and just couldn't react fast enough by the time he did.

All I know is that it was a piss-poor play, no matter how it came to be.

[fezziwig]

Re: Troy Polamalu missed opportunity?

I think it was a fluke. I think Troy might have thought Clark was possibly going to intercept it. To me it looked like Troy got lost for a moment with his thoughts. when they showed the play from the backside or from an end zone shot, Troys position didn't look that close as it did from a front view.