James Vaughters criticism - Printable Version
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James Vaughters criticism - OutsiderFan - 10-23-2013
Over the last two nights I re-watched every Stanford defensive snap against UCLA that Vaughters played. I should have counted them, but my guess is he was on the field for no more than 20 snaps. The OLBs were liberally substituted between Murphy, Vaughters, Anderson, and Lueders.
Tom Fitzgerald's assessment that Vaughters could be benched is completely unfounded.
Vaughters played just fine against UCLA. He missed getting a sack against Hundley, when Hundley made a quick move and Vaughters slipped, but otherwise he did his job. He set edges on a couple runs (so other guys could make tackles), forced Hundley to throw early, and to check downs, that led to punts, and made a tackle on a WR screen for almost no gain.Â
Vaughters is not an elite player, but he is a good player who plays his role in team defense well. Watching him play really allows you to see how important it is for each defensive player to do his job in the defense and trust his teammates to do their's. That's how the defense works best, when everyone just does their job and doesn't care about their personal stats.
Re: James Vaughters criticism - ATLCard - 10-24-2013
Really good post -- thanks for actually evaluating the body of work. I guess that's why Shaw usually won't comment on how guys played until he reviews the film.
The criticism of Vaughters seems mainly based on 2 plays out of the whole game where he was spotlighted: the miss on Hundley and the penalty on the interception. The penalty on the interception was obviously stupid and I'm sure he has heard about it all week, but whiffing on Hundley is nothing to be ashamed of. He made Skov look bad too at one point, and the rest of the front seven had their share of Hundley whiffs. Interesting because with most elite quarterbacks giving them a second chance is a killer because they spot people downfield after coverage has broken down. Hundley is a stud and broke a few runs (biggest being on the Vaughters miss), but didn't make Stanford pay with his arm when plays broke down. And, on the Vaughters miss it looked like Murphy was assigned to contain Hundley on the play so the 30 yards aren't really on the rusher.