Has The Light Come On For Gerald McCoy?

“There has been some confusion on my part, and that has kind of slowed me down” McCoy said. “That’s all on me, though. I’ve sat down and talked to Coach [Raheem Morris] and I have a better understanding of what they want. They made it very clear, but there was some confusion on my part and the confusion slowed me down. That will change completely this week.

“[The confusion surrounded] how they wanted me to play, and they made it very clear. When I went back and talked to Coach he said the exact same thing. I was thinking, ‘Oh, I thought it was this way.’ We weren’t seeing eye-to-eye, but that was my fault because I thought we were clear, but clearly we weren’t.”

McCoy said that he has been playing too tentative through the first six games, and afraid he was going to make a mistake by not maintaining proper gap integrity.

“It was just some confusion on my part and now I can let it go,” McCoy said. “I can do a lot more. The thing about the three technique in the Tampa 2 defense, he can’t be wrong – and everybody else has to read off him. I was thinking that I couldn’t get out of my gap. You just have to go out and play reckless. You have to play smart. You just can’t go out and do anything, but you have to play reckless.

“You can play with structure, but you’ve just got to say, ‘Whatever! I don’t can’t care! I’m going!’ I was playing so, ‘Oh, my God, don’t make a mistake’ instead of making a mistake going 1,000 miles an hour. That’s the difference in what I was doing and that’s the difference in what I will do.”

PewterReport

I would love to take Gerald McCoy's words at face value but, as the saying goes, talk is cheap in the NFL. Still its encouraging, at least to me, to hear him talk with a little more confidence about what he is supposed to be doing. It was obvious after his mini rant after the game on Sunday that he was frustrated and down on himself, emotions which I posited arose out of too much being thrown at him at once. So just the fact that he feels more comfortable in what his role is and is supposed to be is definitely a good sign.

But you do have to wonder, why it took this long for his role to be defined for him. I have tried my best to refrain from calling out defensive line coach Todd Wash directly because its hard to say whether its coaching or whether guys just aren't responding on Sundays. But in this case you have McCoy basically saying he had to go over Wash's head to Coach Morris to get a better understanding of what his role is supposed to be. Something is wrong with that picture. I would venture to say that even if it was Wash who had helped him understand what he needed to do, its a little late for that going into the 7th week of the season.

Why did it take so long for McCoy to get the memo that he is allowed to create havoc by any means necessary???

Its a question that deserves an answer, especially if McCoy all of a sudden performs like a world beater on Sunday.

The only other thing I will say is this. I hope that McCoy doesn't start trying to do everybody else's job every play. Its definitely a good thing that he wants to make more plays and in certain situations that kind of aggressiveness will be just what the doctor ordered. But if he gets reached on a regular basis because he is peeking inside eventually the defense is going to have a problem (or more problems). I also hope that he realizes that the easiest way to create havoc is to get off the ball and get up field on the snap of the ball. Not only will me make more plays against the run in the backfield if he does that more, he will also get a head start on his pass rush versus play action pass.

So yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic after seeing these words from McCoy, but he's going to have to back them up against the Rams. And you can bet those quotes will make their way to their locker room so the Rams offensive line will probably be on high alert which will probably make the prospects of a break out game that much harder.  But I am rooting for the kids and I know he has the ability to get it done.

So with that I say, Good Luck...