DGDB&D: a Texans blog.

A fool’s errand

Sep 28, 2007 2007 Season, Demarcus Faggins sucks, Dunta Robinson, Preview, Stats, Teams that aren't the Texans

I’ve been anything but subtle about my feelings for Petey Faggins as a starting second cornerback, so I debated whether to even comment on the latest Chron article regarding him. I mean, I’ve slowly come to the realization that I am preaching to the choir here.

Besides, the article is hardly ground-breaking; most of it says exactly what you’d think it would. He’s a hard worker. He tries not worry about what people say about him. Dunta likes him. The coaches like him. Blah blah blah.

There are some parts, however, that deserve a response.

[regarding Faggins' performance against Harrison] Hoke said, “He didn’t get in the end zone all afternoon or go over 100 yards (gaining 53). I’d call that a ‘win’ for Petey.”

The next person who uses that excuse is getting a turd in the mail. Seriously. First of all, Faggins did not only cover Harrison. Sure, Marvin was his primary guy for the afternoon, but Faggins also gave up catches to Wayne and Gonzalez at different points. If we are counting total yards he allowed, those need to be figured in. Second, in Marvin’s 53 yards was a pretty huge catch for a first down when the team absolutely, positively needed a stop and Petey was playing too far off (more on that in a minute). Third, and this is most important, while Marvin may have not gotten in the endzone, Petey was out of position and/or missed the tackle on BOTH Joseph Addai TD runs. BOTH OF THEM. So, no, Harrison didn’t score, but Petey didn’t exactly prevent TDs when he had the chance.

Asked why Faggins frequently appears to give the receiver excessive wiggle room, Hoke answered, “Some of it is by design.” But he also conceded, “There were plays (against the Colts) where we were playing zone technique and he kind of carried it over to man coverage. So, yes, in those situations, he got too far off.”

And it didn’t occur to anyone to mention to Petey that he was playing too far off in man coverage for nearly the entire game? No one noticed this until after the fact? Or was he told and he just didn’t listen? Telling us that, yeah, he screwed up, does not really answer the questions when he was continually screwing up. Or was the only play where it wasn’t “by design” the one catch by Harrison that basically ended our chances of winning the game? And why the hell is “too much wiggle room” part of the design (other than “because he can’t play man coverage without it”)? These are all legitimate questions that no one with access seems to be asking.

Faggins tends to suffer by comparison with Robinson, a former first-round draft choice who may be on the cusp of becoming a Pro Bowl-caliber corner. Most teams shy away from attacking Robinson, opting to pick on Faggins instead.

Actually, Faggins suffers by comparison to pretty much ANY starting corner. And don’t give me the “teams avoid Dunta” spiel, please. Dunta was the 13th most frequently targeted DB in the league last year (84 times). Now, considering Faggins was out much of last year with an injury, wouldn’t it stand to reason that the guy replacing Petey would be targeted at least as much as Faggins, if not more (because, after all, he’s backing up a starter, so he has to be worse, right)? Stupid facts getting in the way of nice, cushy excuses.

Hoke, however, doesn’t see as much failure there as others might, noting how one of Smith’s TDs, on a ball Faggins’ had tipped, was the kind of play All-Pros are wont to make. “Petey thought he’d tipped the ball away,” Hoke said, “but then Smith comes around behind him and finds a way to make the catch. Bad luck. Not everyone could have done that.”

Fair enough–not everyone could have found the ball and caught it. Spare me the “he tipped it” crap, though. Look at the replay and you will see that the ball hit Petey in the head and bounced away. It hit him in the head because he was late turning back to the ball. Had he turned back in time, Petey could have easily (one assumes) knocked the ball down and averted the TD.

I feel like I am beating my head against a brick wall here. I can see he’s not good. Most of you can see he’s not good. The opposing teams CERTAINLY see he’s not good. The stats bear out that he’s not good and that his fall-back excuse of “targeted more” is crap. Yet, all we hear is that he is better than our alternatives. But, considering that we haven’t exactly tried Fletcher over there (or signed a free agent), how the hell would we even know if that is true? Forgive me, but I don’t buy into the “because the coaching staff says so” reasoning.

So, my only question is, when Joey Harrington is going after Faggins and finding success, what excuses will we get then?

EDIT: I should also point out that in no way do I enjoy seeing Petey fail. If he steps up this weekend and dominates, I will certainly not think “well, crap!” If anything, I would like to see him step up his game and establish himself as a true CB. I am just not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen.