It's somewhat overblown, though you only need to do it but so many times before it sticks with you. Kareem is poor at planting and changing direction - a fundamental must for the position. He's considered stiff in his hips and has lost his footing a number of times when a receiver breaks. That's something he can work on. I'm a lot more concerned with his atrocious closing speed, or more accurately, his complete lack of it. Receivers widen the gap once they're behind him. Couple that with his terrible instincts and failure to anticipate breaks, and he's a disaster at the position.
Mostly likely he's not cognizant and working to keep his shoulders square above his feet and parallel to the ground. You can't change directions quickly when you're running full speed unless you can keep your shoulders as square as possible... Without ending up on your butt anyway.
Kareem's favorite song: <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EXqtRI9pGkc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Cushing is just slow recovering from knee surgery. It might take a little while before he's in good shape so we can see exactly what we have with him. Do remember that he missed the full preseason his rookie year and came out blazing in week one, but I think we all know his recovery methods were questionable.
He played so well that first year, it was unreal. PEDs aside, his instincts were off the charts his first year, and that's what surprised me the most between the 2009 Cushing and the 2010 version. Granted, overtraining may have allowed him to get someplace 1 step quicker, jump higher, hit harder, whatever. But the fact that he was not in the right place or even going in the right direction (often times over-pursuing) is what was more frustrating about his sophomore campaign. We need instinctual Cushing to come back especially if he's going to be asked to clean up the middle of the field. He'll have to anticipate where the ball is going and be right more often than not. Also, during his rookie year, he seemingly NEVER practiced. He was always dinged up and they held him out to get him healthy for Sunday. Crazy, crazy first year, like I said, PEDs aside. He was amazing.
desi, I remember reading comments from Demeco about helping Cush be in the right place at the right time. Perhaps his absence had a negative affect on our overtrained young stud? Demeco, from what I've read, is a great "field general" out there, despite the fact that the defense was still bad even before his injury last year.
Losing Demeco definitely hurt Cushing. A lot. But the reports we're hearing sound like its something different. He got pushed around last year IMO. Also, Demeco is so great because he is an analytical player, Cushing was great because he was instinctual, hope they can both get back to peak play.
I think we need to come to terms with the reality that Brian Cushing is never going to be who he was his rookie season ever again.
Without a doubt losing Ryans hurt Cushing. First, that meant he had to change positions, and second, when they moved Cushing back to OLB, he had a rookie (Sharpton) playing MLB, IIRC. Sad to think the Texans had only 6 quarters last year with 59 and 56 on the field at the same time.
He failed a test for HCG, right? Isn't that what people are advertising to lose weights on those billboards these days? Spoiler
