Whats your assessment of McGee at CB?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Not very good in my view. However, as long as Vincent is hurt and able to practice in a serious way at least a little (which does not seem to be the case this week as it appears McGee will start) I don't think MM has a lot of choice. I think many folks (including my self) are merely whistling as we walk past a graveyard if we don't recognize that McGee and the Bills will have to change their games a bit to make up for McGee's youngser failings at CB.

 

Recognizing this reality does not mean that we shouldn't rely on McGee a lot on Sunday night.

 

1. We have no choice except for Kevin Thoms and Jabari Greer who are actually have less to offer in my view than even the problematic youngster McGee. Unless Vincent makes a miraculous recovery or he is able as many vets have been able to do (Milloy for example) step right in an contribute with little or no practice thne McGee be the man.

 

2. Even if his CB play sucks, this does not negate his KR play. Many view these web declarations as hving some level of completeness and certainty they do not have. it is rational to fault McGee a lot for his CB play and at the exact same time sing his praises for his ST play. Indictments of McGee as an athlete by us couch potatoes are silly anyway. This athlete sucks at CB coverage and excels at KR and these are just the facts of his production.

 

McHee's problem in my view is actually that he seems to rely too much on his outstanding athleticism and not enough on his brain. Its fine with me if he lets it all hang out on KR duty (though one key to TD returns is having the patience to allow your blocks to be set and the a sudden rapid attack to take advantage of the split-second advantages created- many return failures I see are due to impatience from the return guy running before his blockers attempt to make plays), but as a CB he should look to play it safe a bit more. If brady beats him fine, just don't beat yourself by taking yourself out of the play.

 

I think three sets of looking at McGee's work show this:

 

1. 40+ yard reception given up against Baltimore- McGee made an outstanding leap to inerfere with the is pass but Taylor from Baltimore made a better leap and beat him on the grab. I found this quite frustrating as Kyle Boller probably ain't going to beat you nless you give him the chance and ifMcGee had made a point of staying deeper than Taylor rather than trying to stay in front of him to INT a poor throw from Boller, he might have been able to knock this one down. he mad a nice athletic play later in the game to break up a pass, but i think he plays a better game when he emphasizes the block over the INT. I know Turnovers are a big issue for the Bills and being aggressive makes them happen, but since we are playing our back-up CB, I think care rather than wreckless abandon is the order here.

 

2. TD by the Cards FB- McGee had the outside contain duty on this play and he cheated insided which led to the Cards walking into the endzone. This was a c;ear example of though hanging back does not allow one the best chance at making a play the downsides are clear.

 

3. Coverage on Santana Moss- It was obvious as tjet piled up 160 of so of their 200 yards and change of offense on McGee. I'd much rather see him force Brady to throw a perfect pass (which unfortunately Brady can do) rather than see him becoming a sitting duck because he depends on being a good athlete to keep his footing or recover when beat.

 

If I'm the Bills, I order McGee to give up space rather than play for the INT most of the time. I try to use a bit more zone coverage than we're used to using on the plays where McGee does play hard (as he will have to vary his gamestyle to keep Brady guessing.

 

Finally, I rely heavily on the zone blitz as my method of using more zones. Brasy is good and can diagnosis blitzes, but because he is good it doesn't mean you run away from that part of the game, but if he beats you fine, we just want him to have to work hard to do it.

 

Brady is a controlled guy and not a trac meet guy. However, as the Pats will be missing their starting CBs, I think a track meet works to our advantage. McGee does not have to INT Brady in order to win, he needs to make Brady work hard to beat us. If the clock runs slow because he is throwing at openings left by our loose coverage fine with us.

[ExWNYer]

I think that last week showed McGee's play is "slipping".

[DeeRay]

has he been playing well at CB? nope!

 

will he ever? jury still out... however, he has been in on numerous tackles, pass breakups, has a pick, and a fumble recovery... I like his upside... he just ain't there yet, but I believe he will be.

 

Either the defense is ranked number 3 with him or despite him. which is it?

[Navy Chief Navy Pride]

He will come into his own and do it very soon. Yes he got his ass handed to him last week but that was last week. This week may be different. I can't speak for him but I bet he's got something to prove. Expect better play from him in the Patsie game. He will show you that while he isn't Ronnie Lott he can still play and be an effective cover corner in this league.

[eball]

last week was a great learning experience. mcgee handled it very well -- he talked about remembering it and making sure it never happens again. does that mean he suddenly becomes all-world? of course not. but perhaps he watched the film and can now see how the decisions he has been making did not work.

 

i'm optimistic that he'll become a very good CB. hopefully sooner rather than later.

[BillsNYC]

I'd be happy if he became an above avg CB and a great returner.

[Alaska Darin]

What we are seeing is a tremendous athlete who is attempting to use that strength to overcome his lack of experience. That results in overplaying and occassionally looking VERY foolish in coverage.

 

Adding to that fact, whenever they give him help it tends to be in the form of Ike Reese. Anyone who has watched Reese play this season know he's not earning his bucks. One of the plays in the Jets game that ended in a long completion to Moss with a tackle by McGee, was a totally blown coverage by Reese. McGee had outside responsibility for intermediate, but ended up coming off to make the tackle because Reese completely bit on the play fake and was 5 yards trailing.

 

McGee is going to make big strides on the mental side this offseason, and when that happens, he's going to be special.

[Rico]

What we are seeing is a tremendous athlete who is attempting to use that strength to overcome his lack of experience.  That results in overplaying and occassionally looking VERY foolish in coverage.

 

Adding to that fact, whenever they give him help it tends to be in the form of Ike Reese.  Anyone who has watched Reese play this season know he's not earning his bucks.  One of the plays in the Jets game that ended in a long completion to Moss with a tackle by McGee, was a totally blown coverage by Reese.  McGee had outside responsibility for intermediate, but ended up coming off to make the tackle because Reese completely bit on the play fake and was 5 yards trailing.

 

McGee is going to make big strides on the mental side this offseason, and when that happens, he's going to be special.

113706[/snapback]

Agree 100%. Reese is God-awful, can't wait to get him out of the line-up & off the roster. McGee has nothing but upside. He may take his lumps now, but will only get better.

How refreshing to finally see someone playing LCB that can make plays!

[JStranger76]

Career nickle back but a very good one. He's been in the league a season and a half, we'll have a better idea in about that much more time..........

[CosmicBills]

I think he is young and as everyone else has been saying, he will only get better. Moving TV to FS will help him tremendously.

 

I think once TV is back healthy, and IF they move him to FS McGee will be just fine.

[realtruelove]

McGee is going to be exploited big time this week. The Patriots always take advantage of the other teams weakness. McGee is god awful in pass coverage. Hopefully he will make up for it with a big turnover or kick return.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

McGee is going to be exploited big time this week.  The Patriots always take advantage of the other teams weakness.  McGee is god awful in pass coverage.  Hopefully he will make up for it with a big turnover or kick return.

113881[/snapback]

 

This will be an interesting one to watch. I think the Bills should run their usual coverage style with McGee initially and see how he responds to his errors the last three weeks to reformulate his game. it would be near impossible if the requirement for him to do this were a demand that he get faster or more agile because that ain't gonna happen.

 

However, the need for him to improve is actually to try to do less in terms of making a game-breaking INT or dramatic play. He needs to lay back a little and never let the receiver get past him rather than continually be in the opponents gacr even if the opponent gets past him. Making this switch can often cause problems for a player if he is so used to an in your face style that he simply blows it trying to make a transition to being more careful (this actually may be why he did so poorly with Moss last week if the misteps, bad footwork and tripping he had came from him trying to careful instead of playing his usual headlong game). but while transition can be difficult it is a skil which can be mastered rather than trying to beat the old saw that you can't teach speed.

 

NE's offense is actually a good one for him to face if he is going to make the transition to giving up a little space. NE does get big yards on some pass plays but a lot of them are RAC rather than the pure vertical game of the old Oakland teams. I will not be upset if the trade for him backing off is missing an INT or a pass break-up if he makes a sure tackle and forces Brady to beat him several times in a row in order to score. If Brady kills us in a method like being bitten to death by ducks then so be it.

 

If McGee can't make the transition to more careful play then the Bills still have the option of changing their coverage patterns to cover for him. With the #3 D in the league we will be reluctant to do this, but it is something the Bills have done and practiced before as the use more zone coverage or even nickel coverage to hold down the pass while the run D remains vigilant and even stout.

 

Two things which Jerry Gray has given me is a confidence in his ability to make good game calls and to make great adjustments in the D to shut down things which are working forthe opponent.

[BillnutinHouston]

Reese is God-awful, can't wait to get him out of the line-up & off the roster. McGee has nothing but upside. 

113719[/snapback]

 

Exactly. Why else would MM want to re-insert Troy Vincent at FS rather than CB? Obviously the brain trust sees Ike as more of a liability than McGee.

[Simon]

He needs to lay back a little and never let the receiver get past him

 

I've seen enough of that and hope the Bills have as well. A guy like Brady will pitchandcatch him to death all day like Pennington did last week. I think it's a better strategy against a younger guy but a smart, accurate QB with good timing will just bleed him and keep our offense off the field.

The other problem is that telling him to just squat and not give up anything deep will really slow down his learning curve. We know that the postseason is just a dream in the mist at this point, so I think the Bills best bet with him is to make his OTJ training as intense as possible.

I think that if there were one single thing the staff could do to help him right now, it would be to help him learn to open his hips in both directions much quicker. Most of his troubles seem to be a result of him allowing himself to get turned around and getting stung before he can get square again. Pennington had him looking like a dradel at times and there have been a lot of other incidences where he gets his back to the LOS as well.

The kid has all the talent in the world, they just have to figure out a way to get him the attitude to go with it. I don't think having him play on his heels and get picked to pieces is the way to go about it. Give him help over the top and allow him to attack the LOS while putting a little extra pressure on Clements (who I think Brady is afraid of) is the way to go.

Cya

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

I don't know, perhaps I'm just an ornery cuss who hates giving up as even though the playoffs are just a dream in the mist at best for this team which has played so badly this season, I'm not at the OTJ training point for McGee or the team yet.

 

Though the playoffs are near impossible (Wade taught me you never say never until the math prods the Fat Lady) I still think the priority has to be putting ourselves in the best shape to win rather than giving McGee a sink or swim learning experience. Though the playoffs are highly doubtful, I think the Bills have a better chance winning this game using our coverage scheme in a way that covers up for McGee's deficits.

 

I think you clearly do not abandon the run-blitz style which brought you to the #3 D just to protect McGee, but it can be adjusted to use a little more one deep and two deep covers which use Milloy and Reese to cover for him depending upon how many receivers the Pats send out (I doubt much 2 deep happens as they are likely to read it and flood the routes).

 

I think a lot of this starts and ends with the effectiveness of the pass rush and in particular how much solo pressure kelsay generates. If it takes all 7 guys in the zone blitz to hurry (sacking him consistently is a bit much to hope for) Brady it will be tough for us because this forces Milloy (most likely) to cover Graham and constrains our ablity to help him deep. If we need the safties to blitz to hurry Brady (the case last time) then turn out the lights we are done.

 

There are two things which I think will becritical to the D side of the game for us:

 

1. If we get solo pressure from the front 4 and sometimes the front 7 it creates some interesting possibilities for us in disguising coverages. Flip-flopping coverage responsibilities on Graham between Milloy/Reese will free Milloy up to freelance in backing up McGee or running the safety blitz once or twice in this game. Also, if the Pats overload on the McGee side thus freeing up the Clements side, if the Bills communicate and tranasfer the coverage of crossing patterns to Milloy this will free Clements up to use his athleticism to play centerfield. Using Posey in pass coverage on Graham also would provide us with some interesting disguises which may allow for playing Brady who will be trying to take advantage of McGee.

 

If Brady has time he will likely figure it out and rape the Bills, if his time is limited we will be able to rape him.

 

2. Injuries will be key!!!!!!! If Graham (the most pivotal example) goes down for even a few plays this will so limit the NE playbook that they will be forced to turn to cheescake like sing Vrabel as a pass catcher or the kicker as a thrower. They blew this wad as a surprise last week. Nicks and injuries will play a far larger role on a Pats O depleted by injuries to folks like Deion Branch and to their CBs which pressed O player Troy Brown into D duty that things are just close to edge and implosion ain't far away. Givens et al. have stepped up nicely for the front-liners but it gets pretty thin after that and even a single injury may give our #3 D a big advantage.

 

Likewise on our side where McGee's problems show how weak we are at CB to a potent O. Idiots like the Cards and Boller took McGee to the cleaners and good O players like Pennington/Moss performed at their highest levels on him. Its unusual (perhaps NE is used to it after last season) to see things brought close to the edge by injuries but I think that how guys deal with the vaguries of injury will say a lot in this game.

[Brandon]

I think he's playing as well as can be expected, given his background and the fact that he's only got about a month of starting experience behind him. He gets picked on by the opposing QB, which isn't suprising. I suspect that we haven't seen the last of it this year. Most young CBs go through their struggles for a while and he's no different. If the Bills will just show some patience with him, coach him and allow him to develop, I think this team will be rewarded with a very good CB by the end of next season.