FanShot

Breakdown of Aaron Curry's first game

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One of my first ports of call each week is Goro's blog. Love the video breakdown he provides. This week one highlights the plays involving Aaron Curry and while Goro didn't break them down I thought I'd take a look and give my opinion. Curry was not involved in many of the plays but generally appeared to have decent coverage on most of the passing plays. Not good enough to necessarily break up the play but good enough to at least be in position to wrap up the receiver for a short gain. On the running plays not covered below he seemed to get blocked easily and didn't seem to shed the block well. There were a few plays that more directly involved him and here are my thoughts on them: 2:04 - On a sweep to the left Curry seems to anticipate a gap in the blocking a couple of times but hesitiates in trusting his instincts and attacking the gap. He ends up tracking the RB across and being involved in the tackle 4yds downfield. Maybe he does have the instincts and should trust them more. 3:20 - Covering the TE out in the left flat he fails to close on his man and is picked by the WR. Result of the play is a 15yd gain. There are other plays in the video where he does close on this coverage with either the RB or TE much quicker but this might be indicative of the coverage issues he has. 3:43 - A running play over the right guard. The hole opens up in front of him, which Curry recognises but again he hesitates. Montario Hardesty sees Curry and cuts to the right gaining 6 yds. Again it appears that Curry doesn't trust his instincts. I want to see him accelerate up into the hole here and get the opportunity to drop the RB at the LOS. 3:50 - THIS is what I want to see him do. On a toss to the left Curry recognises the play and without hesitating slashes between engaged linemen to catch the RB in the open field. A nice tackle keeps the play to a 2yd gain. Great recognition and he trusts his instincts in getting to the ball carrier. More please... 4:05 - I thought this play showed that he may not be awful in coverage. He's playing a zone coverage across the middle and shows a quick recognition of receivers moving in and out the zone, reacting well to their presence. 4:26 - Comes on the blitz and attracts enough attention to draw a double team. That allows the easy funble recovery on the McCoy funble. Not the greatest at getting through blocks but this was nice. 5:08 - There was little evidence of his speed through most of the video but I thought showed something. Curry has coverage on the RB in the flat and though he disappears from the shot initially he obviously has the presence of mind to know the ball has been released and to make it 10+ yds down the field quickly to almost be in on the tackle.