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Vontae Davis thoughts?

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by mbmonk, Aug 18, 2009.

  1. adamprez2003

    adamprez2003 Senior Member

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    I'm sorry but I actually was pleased with the way Vontae played. He stayed on the hip of the receiver on more than a few plays. He mad a few mental errors in what - the first preseason game of the year?!!!! OMG!!!! I wouldnt even be bothered if he did that next week. By the third week of the preseason I want him to play smarter. Right now I just want him to knock heads and cover, which he did pretty well on most plays. Lets also not forget that he played some of the game on a rain soaked field. I'm not worried. He looked damn good for his first game to me
     
  2. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    I don't think anybody should be pleased with a player getting three penalties against him in a game.

    And unless you were there and focusing on him, I don't know how you could say he stayed on the hip of the defender. They only focused on him a for few plays when he was in coverage during the telecast. I can recall three plays that showed him in coverage.

    One was that tip play caught by his guy. In the first replay he appeared to be with the WR, but the second replay showed he only caught up after the WR stopped.

    The second was that flag route where Bowman over threw Underwood, but the camera showed that Davis was trailing by at least two steps.

    The third was that screen that went for a TD but was called back. Davis seemed to be with his guy (it's hard to tell b/c we only saw the end) but then couldn't get of the WR's block.

    Other than that he had two tackles and zero assists.

    Which were the plays that you saw that pleased you?
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I see Davis playing against our opponents slot receivers. IMO, he is perfect for that role. He can jam the receivers at the line, and still run with them.
    I do expect many penalties against him this season, because like you guys said, he is over aggressive at times. But he is a rookie, and he'll learn. I'm sure Will Allen will teach him everything.
     
  4. adamprez2003

    adamprez2003 Senior Member

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    i saw more than 3 plays. i would have to see the game to point them out. dont have it on tape just saw a live stream. definitely saw him on the hip at least three plays and didnt see him get picked on too badly so i'll assume he had his man covered on quite a few more occasions
     
  5. mbmonk

    mbmonk I have no clue

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    I think there is so much attention on him simply because we need a rookie to start at CB.
     
  6. Rhody Phins Fan

    Rhody Phins Fan Well-Known Member

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    I worry that he will be like his brother. The physical potential will always be there but sometimes the mental part of the game never catches up.
     
  7. NolePhin

    NolePhin Look out for D-Bess

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    Although I don't think he played well, I don't think its a big issue. He just needs to really focus and get comfortable. You can tell he has the talent to play the position.
     
  8. emocomputerjock

    emocomputerjock Senior Member

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    So what you're saying is that all we need to get this under control is to have Mike Singletary take his pants off in front of Vontae?
     
  9. Ludacris

    Ludacris Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    It's only the first pre-season game.

    First Penalty - Fair catch interference - correctable
    Second Penalty - Pass interference - he was way too early on the pass break up. Timed it wrong but he was in position. That can be adjusted with some time and getting use to game speed.
    Third Penalty - He blocked a guy during a punt return while out of bounds. - correctable

    He did get beat on a 25 yard post route by Williamson but he was there to make the tackle as it was caught. I couldn't see how he got beat on that post route.

    He let a deflected ball get caught also by Williamson.

    On that pass to Underwood he was NOT trailing. He was on his hip, looked for the ball in the air while still on his hip, saw that the QB was throwing it out of bounds due to tight coverage and so Davis pulled up. I watched this frame by frame.

    On other occasions where he was visible he seemed to be tracking the WRs well.

    He looked quite over zealous and not as immature as some might say. I think he was caught in the moment. Before too long he will be a very good pro.
     
    Frumundah Finnatic likes this.
  10. the 23rd

    the 23rd a.k.a. Rio

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    the truth is he had a miserable game, filled with rookie mistakes & very disappointing
    however
    what exasperated the problem is Smith came out like he owned the position which increased the scrutiny & criticism on Davis. Green was the the bust, he cant' have a poor training camp & preseason & stick with the roster of 53. a couple more repeats of last nights performance will result in Green cut, Jason in & Smith playing opposite Will Allen

    as long as one of the rookie CB's step up to play this year, we can take our time to develop the other. by the way, I thought Jason Allen looked very good last night.
     
  11. Frumundah Finnatic

    Frumundah Finnatic U Mad Miami?

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    Duurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr he's a bust durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

    :shifty:

    Yes he had a dissapointing performance and made too many stupid penalties, thats correctable I'm sure he'll settle down and play much better on Saturday.
     
    padre31 likes this.
  12. Rick 1966

    Rick 1966 Professional Hipshooter

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    I certainly hope you're right. I DO know that if this were the coaching staff of previous years, eg Wannstedt, Saban or Cameron, I would be totally convinced he was a bad pick. But the current staff has shown every indication that they know what they're doing so I am going to continue to give them the benefit of the doubt that they can straighten out Vontae's attitude and turn him into a good DB for us.
     
  13. firedan

    firedan Well-Known Member

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    Just because I felt he "played awful" dont mean to say he won't improve and I think he will-he did have a few penalties and seemed to give to much cushion to whoever he was covering but I am not ready to write him off or anything.Madison and Surtain took some time as most players do.
     
  14. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    Almost everything is correctable, but it raises the question, "why wasn't it corrected in college"? Just because something is correctable doesn't mean it will be corrected.

    The question with Davis has never been his physical ability. The question has been his ability to focus and correct the mental errors. Pretty much every player selected in the first three rounds of the draft can say the same thing. Most never correct those correctable things.

    On the deflected ball he got turned around by Williamson before the deflection. Then caught up when Williamson pulled up, but relaxed when Williamson pulled away again.

    And if we're talking about the same pass to Underwood (about 3:40 left 3rd qtr) I don't see how you can say he wasn't trailing. I just watched it frame by frame and there is no frame that showed him in coverage until the ball was passing overhead. At that point Davis was in a full sprint leaning hard. He was clearly trying to catch up.

    I didn't notice any other time that they showed Davis in coverage.
     
  15. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    I do not understand this demand for perfection for rookies in their first preseason games.
     
  16. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    That's a pretty big assumption.

    And I've watched it a couple of times now. Davis appeared to be shown more often b/c they showed him getting yelled at or just walking around, but I believe those three plays are the only ones where they showed him in coverage. And in two of the three he was beat. On the deflection that was reviewed they showed several angles. On the first angle he seems to be on the WR's hip but when they show the second angle it's clear that he was beaten and only caught up after the WR pulled up.

    Oh and on the third one where he got blocked during the screen pass for a TD, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't beat but the truth is that the camera didn't actually show him in coverage.
     
  17. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    I don't demand perfection, but I do expect progress. When a player has a specific question mark that continues to linger (it was something his coaches kept saying was correctable during his last two years of college), it would be foolish to continue to assume it will be corrected.

    Maybe the difference is that people believe nobody has tried to correct this before. They think it was just his first game so obviously he'll make mistakes, but will learn from that and correct it. But I watched him in college and his coaches talked about the things he needed to work on (the same things). He even got benched for a qtr (or so) his senior year for his lack of focus. So this has been an on going problem.

    I have hope that as he gains age and maturity it might be corrected. And/or perhaps this coaching staff will find the right button that past staffs have found elusive. But I don't see anything wrong with pointing out a problem. And I'm not going to assume that it will be magically corrected.
     
  18. mbmonk

    mbmonk I have no clue

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    I finally watched that 'screen pass' I mentioned in my first post. Vontea did make an effort. It's wasn't amazing, but he didn't just take the play off and let him score.

    He stayed behind the block and faked to the sides try to figure out which way the runner was going read the block by the WR.

    If Davis goes goes inside the block, the runner goes outside. And if he goes outside the runner cuts back to the inside. So yea.. the commentators are idiots :)

    If the young man is making the effort that is all I ask. So I feel much better about the situation with Vontea.
     
  19. Ludacris

    Ludacris Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I don't ever recall while watching him at Illinois that he played special teams but yes all those rules also apply at the college level. In my own opinion I think he got ahead of himself and was being over zealous that night and made some mistakes. Those mistakes are not major and not so much that we can't see the potential in him.

    I believe he needs to calm down. Sean Smith is one cool customer. He wasn't fazed by the moment and was able to focus better. Davis just needs a little bit of time.

    I'm pretty sure I have a different game on tape. I have a Jacksonville broadcast. I can't see the Davis coverage on the tipped pass to Williamson but you can. It is out of screen for me. However, I can see Davis's coverage on the attempted pass to Underwood from snap to whistle. Vontae had excellent coverage and technique the whole way.
     
  20. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    His mistakes at Illinois were focus mistakes in coverage, not STs.

    You must be looking at a different play. The ball went directly over Davis' head so he couldn't have been looking back or even seen it until it was past him. And when it passed him he was two full steps behind Underwood. In the NFL that is wide open. He was trying desperately to catch up as the ball went by.
     
  21. Larryfinfan

    Larryfinfan 17-0...Priceless Club Member

    I disagree...He made some rookie mistakes and needs to work on his maturity level...he needs to forget he's not the big man on campus any longer, but he was in no way "overmatched"...he was physically as talented as anyone out there and his run support was very good. The endzone play is a learning experience. Maybe the guy would have scored anyways, but at this level, you go after it until the whistle blows. He'll learn that as Wilson seemed to let him know about it anyway...He took some time off a few plays and he'll learn from that, but physically he was tight. That has to translate better and time will show how he develops...
     
  22. Sethdaddy8

    Sethdaddy8 Well-Known Member

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    Nat Moore stated, that the coaching staff graded out Vontae's performance against the Jags "very highly".

    like i said previously, the kid impressed me. he displayed good ball skill, instincts, confidence, and agility. just need to look past his three glaring obvious mistakes. he had a nice game.
     
  23. Xeticus

    Xeticus Junior Member

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    After watching the game tonight I was impressed by how great a tackler he is. He's a hell of an asset against the run. I watched up to the beginning of the 4th quarter so maybe I missed something but he was not impressive against the pass. Give him someone to hit and tackle and he's a beast. But I'm not seeing him break up any passing plays. To me that says he's not really where we need him to be yet to be an every down player. The good thing is I think the light will come on and he'll be a decent defender but I don't see an instinctive pass defender in him. As a CB I want a real ball hawk and I just don't see that in Vontae. I hope he proves me wrong though.
     
  24. PerfectTeam

    PerfectTeam Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I really didn't see any balls coming his way that often. I remember he gave up one completion on a slant route but that was about it. There was another pass in the end zone towards him but the QB got hit before he could step into the throw. Granted he was going against some weaker competition, but I thought he blanketed his man pretty well last night.
     

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