Al Blades Stat

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Consistency with his footwork, overall physicality & tackling.

His bail technique in off Zone coverage needs work, that goes to consistency with his footwork, but I think part of that had to do with having to rotate in & out so often, in situations where the staff let him work on the island he excelled in Press man coverage, but having to split reps at times can disrupt your confidence. If they let him hold down the Field spot he can be a lockdown Corner, they just need to have more confidence in him.

He has to also fight of blocks & tackle better, part of the reason why they would pull him from time to time is because his tackling isn't all the way there yet & he can be undisciplined at times. Our CB's are a big part of our Run Defense & he sometimes isn't as dialed in vs the run as he is in covering his man.

He's best when they give him the assignment of locking in on his man & going to battle (like he did when he shutdown Trevon Grimes) that's where he thrives in tight mirrored press man coverage, he has to improve in the other spots but he has all the ability to do it & coming into his Junior year will breakout.

He's not a flawless player, but the way he gets talked about on this board just shows how people really don't know what a good Corner looks like. Blades is legit, he's the least of our problems at CB.

What we need is to get the Boundary Corner spot solved, we fix that & our backend will be **** good this year.


To me it sounds like Blades would fit into a Randy Shannon D perfectly. I'm excited for his future as his dad was one of my favorites!!
 
I still think a lot of fans are going to be surprised by Tecory Couch's footwork and stickiness. It's going to be a tremendous asset this year against formations that hurt us last year. If Baker would trust these guys a little more and one of Ivey/Williams steps up to be able to play press at the boundary spot, there is absolutely no reason to send unnecessary delayed blitzes this season.

You have a front four on 3rd down and medium/long that could include Roche, Phillips, Rousseau, Harvey or DT. Who in the ACC Coastal can roll out our DB unit matched with that front 4?
That's what I'm hoping for.

Blades at Field, Williams at Boundary & Couch in the nickel.

Couch could be good enough to play outside too, he has the footwork & arm length to play at either Corner spot but I think he'd be best at NCB for now.

And I agree with you on Baker, he really needs to dial down on that 30 yard CB Blitzes that start from the opposite side of the hashes & never make it to the pocket lol, makes no sense to send our cover guys on a 100m sprint just to get the QB, we got LB's for that.

We need to let our boys play Press man on the outside & just play Double high Safeties to cut the field in half & slow down the deep ball. With the Defensive pressure upfront we should be able to cover for long enough for the front 7 to collapse the pocket & on the short underneath passing game keep the quick routes contained from becoming big plays.
 
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This is why recruits go to certain schools, Some get a brand benefit in draft, see other OSU corner for example..

Thats kinda crazy, we need to get our **** together.

Exactly what I’ve been saying; and don’t get it twisted; once upon a time, players were getting drafted in the first/second round on a consistent basis b/c of the name sake of our school, as well. ****; even though theyr going in later rounds, teams r still taking a chance on our players b/c of our history.
 
Hey remember that one time when someone tried to tell yall that Blades was the best CB on our team last year hands down & some idiot actually tried to argue with him that it was Ivey?

Oh yeah... That was me, I'm someone.
Agree, and I remember shaking my head the few times Ivey started over him. They’re not in the same caliber of corner.
 
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Aside from landing high caliber Corners every year, one of the main things that gets LSU & Oh St CB's drafted so high is they put on tape their abilities to cover more than most & due to the pass rushers they typically have at those programs they can leave them out on the island by themselves.

We need to do more of that, I said earlier in this thread, we need to play more Press Man coverage on the outside. It will improve our Defense overall & help our CB recruiting, the main selling point being Playing time, which will ultimately result in getting our CB's drafted higher than the 4th round.

But in order to have the confidence in leaving your CB's out there to fend for themselves you have to recruit CB's that have the fluid hips & feet who can survive in one on one coverage. I've criticized our CB recruiting for obvious reason, but I'll at least acknowledge they've been trying to find more rangy athletes at that spot with kids like Williams, Dunson, Clarke & Malik Curtis, all of them were primailry WR's who played some CB in HS but will/are converted Corners in college.
 
Hey remember that one time when someone tried to tell yall that Blades was the best CB on our team last year hands down & some idiot actually tried to argue with him that it was Ivey?

Oh yeah... That was me, I'm someone.

I honestly never got how this was ever a conversation.

Blades was solid from the get and Ivey has been a borderline disaster.
 
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Aside from landing high caliber Corners every year, one of the main things that gets LSU & Oh St CB's drafted so high is they put on tape their abilities to cover more than most & due to the pass rushers they typically have at those programs they can leave them out on the island by themselves.

We need to do more of that, I said earlier in this thread, we need to play more Press Man coverage on the outside. It will improve our Defense overall & help our CB recruiting, the main selling point being Playing time, which will ultimately result in getting our CB's drafted higher than the 4th round.

But in order to have the confidence in leaving your CB's out there to fend for themselves you have to recruit CB's that have the fluid hips & feet who can survive in one on one coverage. I've criticized our CB recruiting for obvious reason, but I'll at least acknowledge they've been trying to find more rangy athletes at that spot with kids like Williams, Dunson, Clarke & Malik Curtis, all of them were primailry WR's who played some CB in HS but will/are converted Corners in college.


This is especially true next year with Rousseau, Roche and Phillips. Teams will go to the quick game and we need to take it away.
 
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I've watched every game every second been to every home game...you guys can hide behind the stats all you want...

Blades got burnt on running plays by RB's alot ....3RD down when he need to make a play he missed more then he made.... His coverage was good.. but even when it was good WRS still caught the ball.... if you watch a game idk how you dont see these things ----INT's he had were givin to him, easy. garbage time.... He doesnt even have enough film to make a highlight tape for 45 seconds.... let that sink in
 
1 played against top competition and one did not

Osu didn’t play against top competition week in and week out, it’s the big ten after all (Michigan, penn state and who else can realistically challenge them at receiver?(also played Clemson in the playoffs). Don’t even think they played Minnesota this year who had good receivers
 
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