When I read comments by trolls over the last couple of months about Brady carving up the LOB in the SB, Hawk fans answer with the fact that Lane and Avril went down during the SB, and Thomas, Sherman and Chancellor were playing hurt, and that Simon was picked on because he sucks. Why is Simon the scapegoat?
Simon actually had a pretty good regular season, at least according to ProFootballFocus. In fact, Simon was even graded higher than Maxwell last season on PFF...Simon was the #43 CB and Maxwell was the #45 CB (Burley was ranked the #33 CB) on PFF. Their passer rating against: Maxwell…81.1; Simon…44.4 (#2 in the NFL). Simon dislocated his shoulder on the last play of the 35-6 win over the Cards in Week 16. At the time, Carroll said Simon would be out the rest of the year. It was a horrible injury…Simon was laying on the ground writhing in pain after the play. I still remember watching it on TV and seeing the team doc run out onto the field and a trainer holding Simon down while the doc repeatedly tried to shove his arm back into socket, before finally giving up and taking him off the field.
Three weeks later, Maxwell had an illness/ shortness of breath, and suddenly, Simon was replacing Maxwell in the divisional round game, even though Simon was still injured. He had a horrible game against the Panthers…didn’t even look like the same player. So prior to the SB, instead of activating a healthy Burley and not activating an injured Simon, they go with the injured guy. Of course, thanks to good old Murphy, in the first quarter of the SB, Lane goes down. What’s the plan? Move Maxwell to Nickel and hang an injured Simon out to dry at RCB...as plans go, not a very good one. Had they just decided to go with a healthy guy for the active roster, Burley would have been available to replace Lane at Nickel, a position that Burley is pretty good at. A healthy Maxwell could have stayed at RCB. Instead, in the biggest game of the season, the LOB now consists of 4 DB’s that are ALL trying to play through some pretty serious injuries, against one of the best QB’s in NFL history, Tom Brady.
Tharold Simon had shoulder surgery on 2-24-15. He will likely be back before Lane, but will probably take longer to get healthy than Earl. So whose fault was it that Simon was playing in the SB? NOT SIMON'S. To expect a redshirt rookie to play through an injury just like Earl, Sherm and Kam could (3 All Pros), and hoping Simon could also defend against Tom Brady, turned out to be extremely foolish. Had the powers that be decided to activate Burley before the SB, the Hawks would most likely not have needed to make that comeback on their last drive.
GO HAWKS!!!!
Simon actually had a pretty good regular season, at least according to ProFootballFocus. In fact, Simon was even graded higher than Maxwell last season on PFF...Simon was the #43 CB and Maxwell was the #45 CB (Burley was ranked the #33 CB) on PFF. Their passer rating against: Maxwell…81.1; Simon…44.4 (#2 in the NFL). Simon dislocated his shoulder on the last play of the 35-6 win over the Cards in Week 16. At the time, Carroll said Simon would be out the rest of the year. It was a horrible injury…Simon was laying on the ground writhing in pain after the play. I still remember watching it on TV and seeing the team doc run out onto the field and a trainer holding Simon down while the doc repeatedly tried to shove his arm back into socket, before finally giving up and taking him off the field.
Three weeks later, Maxwell had an illness/ shortness of breath, and suddenly, Simon was replacing Maxwell in the divisional round game, even though Simon was still injured. He had a horrible game against the Panthers…didn’t even look like the same player. So prior to the SB, instead of activating a healthy Burley and not activating an injured Simon, they go with the injured guy. Of course, thanks to good old Murphy, in the first quarter of the SB, Lane goes down. What’s the plan? Move Maxwell to Nickel and hang an injured Simon out to dry at RCB...as plans go, not a very good one. Had they just decided to go with a healthy guy for the active roster, Burley would have been available to replace Lane at Nickel, a position that Burley is pretty good at. A healthy Maxwell could have stayed at RCB. Instead, in the biggest game of the season, the LOB now consists of 4 DB’s that are ALL trying to play through some pretty serious injuries, against one of the best QB’s in NFL history, Tom Brady.
Tharold Simon had shoulder surgery on 2-24-15. He will likely be back before Lane, but will probably take longer to get healthy than Earl. So whose fault was it that Simon was playing in the SB? NOT SIMON'S. To expect a redshirt rookie to play through an injury just like Earl, Sherm and Kam could (3 All Pros), and hoping Simon could also defend against Tom Brady, turned out to be extremely foolish. Had the powers that be decided to activate Burley before the SB, the Hawks would most likely not have needed to make that comeback on their last drive.
GO HAWKS!!!!
