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Foxboro – A lot to get into today from New England so let’s get started . . .
I feel bad for Juston Burris.
He had a terrible game today, and it’s not his fault.
I have mentioned this over and over again – he doesn’t have loose enough hips and good enough short-area quickness to be a successful NFL CB. It’s the way he’s built. There is nothing he can do about it.
Guys like Danny Amendola were cutting away from him today for receptions, and he also committed two penalties when guys tried to cutaway from him.
Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan evaluation of this player is baffling, and they continue to roll with him.
It’s not his fault.
It’s their fault.
He should be a safety.
I’m tired of ripping the kid because his struggles are the fault of his bosses.
And you know what’s an even bigger issue?
When he struggles in a game like this, giving up plays and committing penalties, they keep rolling with him.
The Jets benched Mo Wilkerson the last three games for lateness, and that is fine.
But why isn’t their accountability for bad plays and penalties?
Lateness, blown assignments, penalties, what is the big difference? They all hurt the team.
Just like with Buster Skrine, he commits myriad penalties and stays on the field.
They need more accountability and it does beyond Mo’s lateness . . .
I’m a stubborn person. I will be the first to admit it. And I think Todd Bowles might have me beat.
He keeps saying that the reason Christian Hackenberg didn’t play in the last there games is because Bryce Petty beat him out for the #2 job in training camp.
I get that from the standpoint of first guy in after Josh McCown got hurt, but once Petty started struggling, which he did each of his three outings, why can’t you make a sight adjustment and let Hackenberg play? What does August have to do with December?
And here the other thing. Bowles seems to think that Petty is going to improve his accuracy by playing.
Gil Brandt one told me that Tom Landry told him you can’t fix accuracy.
But even if you think you can fix accuracy to a certain degree, it’s not going to happen over a couple of weeks in December. It takes a lot longer than that.
I don’t understand why Hackenberg didn’t play today when the game was out of hand.
It’s not so much about him going out there and lighting it up. Nobody would have expected a lot from him today, especially in zero wind-chill. But let him get his feet wet in a game.
Like I said the other day, Todd is too married to his depth chart . . .
I will get into the contract extensions for Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan more during the week, but I heard an interesting take about the timing today.
They announced it Friday afternoon, which is sometimes considered a “news dump.” A lot of times, especially in politics, they will make big announcements, that might not be popular, a new law or something like that, on Friday afternoon, because that is when people are the least focused on the news with the weekend coming up.
But somebody told it wasn’t a “Friday news dump.” The strategy was more related to knowing they were going to likely get destroyed by the Patriots, and it would be tougher to sell the extensions after a game like that. So they did it before the game.
Interesting.
December 31, 2017
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