Dre Bly

[Yellowbird]

Why is this guy so under-rated?

Everyone keeps talking about what a great match-up Driver has this week, but if you look at how Bly has done against #1s this season it's pretty impressive.

DJax- 5/47
Moose- 4/59
Driver- 3/20 (TD)
Jenkins- 3/20
Fitz- 2/30
Taylor- 4/44 (TD)
Evans- 8/82
Coles- 4/29
Bryant- 2/42
Chambers- 2/23

In fact these are the only 2 glaring bad games on his part:
Holt- 6/102 (TD)
Caldwell- 8/112

Do people just think that the Lions D sucks enough that they'll choose to ignore their best player?

[maddog60]

One thing you need to account for is how much teams needed to pass against the Lions? I'm not belittling his stats, and he is a good corner, but there are factors that must be taken into account. A consistently winning team's secondary might give up more yards to top WRs simply because their opponents are forced to pass more. Just like how winning teams always seem to be heavier run than pass offenses, yet alot of that comes from playing with the lead, not the offensive philosophy.

Also, their is the nature of sports reporting to point out every slightly good point about the top teams, and ignore greats on lousy teams. You don't hear much talk about how Ronde Barber is still playing like a top CB, or London Fletcher's insane tackle totals this year.

[skibrett15]

yeah, or DeMeco Ryans for Rookie of the year. It's all Haloti Ngata and his ability to "keep lineman off Ray Lewis"

[JasonSeahorn]

Bly is really good, he's kind of the in-between of deangelo hall and champ bailey....hall is very aggressive and can give up big plays, while champ is just champ. bly for the most part blankets his recievers, but once in a while they get by him for a huge gain.

unfortunately without shaun rogers, the rest of his defense sucks, and it's not like bly can tackle 220 lb running backs on a consistent basis.

[BrutallyHuge]

Everyone keeps talking about what a great match-up Driver has this week, but if you look at how Bly has done against #1s this season it's pretty impressive.

Detroit runs a cover-2, which is a zone defense. Usually, CBs are assigned to sides of the field, rather than individual players on the offense.

There are not many teams that play man coverage and assign a particular CB to a particular WR all game.

[Yellowbird]

From Football Outsiders:

Sit

Donald Driver vs. Detroit -- If the Pro Bowl were like the MLB All-Star Game and each team had to send a representative, Dre' Bly would undoubtedly be the Lion in Honolulu. The Lions have been very good against #1 receivers all season. It's been a few weeks since they've faced one (quick, who's the top receiver for the Vikings or Patriots?), but they held Chris Chambers and Larry Fitzgerald to 53 yards between them.

[BrutallyHuge]

From Football Outsiders:

Sit

Donald Driver vs. Detroit -- If the Pro Bowl were like the MLB All-Star Game and each team had to send a representative, Dre' Bly would undoubtedly be the Lion in Honolulu. The Lions have been very good against #1 receivers all season. It's been a few weeks since they've faced one (quick, who's the top receiver for the Vikings or Patriots?), but they held Chris Chambers and Larry Fitzgerald to 53 yards between them.

That's why they're the Outsiders...i'm on the Inside.

[eaglesrule]

god, the name "dre bly" always makes me think of pat summerall.

[beanoX3]

Football Outsiders does a good job at incorporating other stats and factors into their analyses that most other places ignore, but their rankings are still based on stats from the games. So what someone mentioned earlier about how other teams have run more on Detroit than pass would still skew FO's rankings a bit.

Bly is a decent corner, but nowhere near the talent some people are suggesting after looking at his numbers. And Bly's numbers may have been a bit inflated because Detroit's other corner is complete garbage, ranking 32nd against #2 WRs (according to FO). Granted they've been stung with injuries to Fernando Bryant, but he sucks regardless.

Teams at the lower end of the NFL always have inflated pass defense rankings because they are losing so often, opposing teams mostly ran on them. Happens all the time and lots of people get taken in by that.



PS: OMG, BH made a comment where I can't detect his normal biting sarcasm...
But then he comes back with the "Inside" comment so back to normal, eh?

[moochman]

BH was right. The Liars play a cover two. Bly is one of the most over-rated CBs in the game.
A cancer in the clubhouse who is an imposter in the field. He positions himself for the occasional big game but makes to few of the little plays that stop drives. Check him out (or any Liars defenders) on third and 6. He'll be playing ten or more yards off the WR. Easy first downs that lead to TDs, but Bly looks okay because he didn't get beat deep. He blows. But that just means he fits right into a Liars uni.