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View Full Version : Allen turning corner for Steelers



zulater
10-10-2014, 10:28 AM
http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20141009/SPORTS0403/141009422#.VDf5FfldWLJ

Steelers cornerback Cortez Allen lined up opposite fellow corner Will Gay, who was working as the wide receiver but with big pads on his hands.

Defensive backs coach Carnell Lake called for them break and Gay took off from the line of scrimmage, taking a jam from Allen and running down the sideline in the after-practice drill. Lake would then loft a high, arching pass down the sideline and Allen would turn and try to make the interception while taking a shot from Gay’s padded hands.

Then they would switch positions and go through the routine again.

“It was something Coach Lake wanted to get us working to play deep balls better, to get us in better position, learning how to get our heads around better,” said Allen. “It’s fine tuning. It’s been working good for us.”


Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has been especially pleased with the play of his cornerbacks since longtime starter Ike Taylor suffered a broken arm three weeks ago in a win at Carolina.

Not only did Allen have an interception Sunday, Brice McCain, inserted as the nickel cornerback when Gay moved outside to replace Taylor, also had one that he returned for a touchdown.

“They’ve been really solid, particularly Cortez,” Tomlin said. “His arrow has been pointing up the last couple of weeks. He is touching a lot of balls. He is catching some of them. Will plays savvy veteran above-the-neck game like he usually plays. I don’t want to underscore his contributions. He is playing outside a heck of a lot more since Ike Taylor has gone down. Obviously, he is a solid interior player but he has proven again that he is a quality solid guy outside as well.”

While Gay’s play has been a continuation of what he did last season, Allen has justified a five-year, $26-million contract extension the Steelers gave him before their regular season opener against Cleveland Sept. 7.

The Steelers (3-2) have a rematch Sunday with the Browns (2-2) in Cleveland.

In the first game, a 30-27 Pittsburgh victory, Allen had a quiet day, mostly because the Browns didn’t test him, throwing just one pass to the receiver Allen was covering. He broke up that attempt.

With Taylor out, Allen figures to see more action this time around.

“I’ve gotta be consistent,” Allen said. “I’ve got to do my job regardless of whether Ike is here or not. We miss him a whole lot. But we all have jobs to do, the same jobs that was required from us when he was here. We have to take that approach every day.”

While Allen has had issues with penalties, drawing six, his play has been consistent. Opponents have completed just 23 of 40 passes against him for 254 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, which would be a passer rating of 72.3.

By contrast, Cleveland’s Joe Haden, a Pro Bowl cornerback, is allowing a passer rating of 138.4. Former Steelers cornerback Keenan Lewis, whom Allen replaced in the starting lineup when he left as a free agent, has allowed a passer rating of 102.8.




This flies in the face of a lot of you haters out there. :chuckle:

Honestly I don't know what game you people are watching half the time? No corner is going to make every play. The rules are stacked against them. And yeah Cortez has taken some penalties. But again the way the game is played these days, kinda hard not to. And of course by design he plays way off receivers too often for my liking. But that's on LeBeau. But if you can't see this guy can cover, got good turn of the hips, locates the ball better than average etc... then you just aren't paying attention or don't understand what you're seeing. This was a good long term signing.

GBMelBlount
10-10-2014, 10:56 AM
Zulater

“They’ve been really solid, particularly Cortez,” Tomlin said. “His arrow has been pointing up the last couple of weeks. He is touching a lot of balls. He is catching some of them."

This is good to hear Zu, especially since YOUR arrow has "pointing north" on Cortez the last few years... :chuckle:

He is playing lights out so far this season and he could be developing into a very special player.

Hope it continues. :crossed:

tube517
10-10-2014, 11:18 AM
“His arrow has been pointing up the last couple of weeks. He is touching a lot of balls. He is catching some of them.

TMI

GBMelBlount
10-10-2014, 11:37 AM
TMI

Maybe he takes the train to work every day?

http://www.bestmotivationalposters.com/images/my-balls-funny-motivational-poster.jpg

tube517
10-10-2014, 11:42 AM
Maybe he takes the train to work every day?

http://www.bestmotivationalposters.com/images/my-balls-funny-motivational-poster.jpg

You changed your avatar! (to still another disturbing but not as disturbing as the previous 2 :lol:)

GBMelBlount
10-10-2014, 12:33 PM
It was a tough decision Tube. :scratchchin:

http://www.sackosource.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bradywee.jpg

zulater
10-10-2014, 02:35 PM
Maybe he takes the train to work every day?

http://www.bestmotivationalposters.com/images/my-balls-funny-motivational-poster.jpg

I just spit gatorade all over myself!:sofunny:

- - - Updated - - -


It was a tough decision Tube. :scratchchin:

http://www.sackosource.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bradywee.jpg

This guy's touching a lot of balls too. With his chin. :heh:

GBMelBlount
10-10-2014, 05:06 PM
Speaking of ball ticklers...

http://www.inflexwetrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IFWT_Brady-as-Miley-4.png

zulater
10-10-2014, 06:43 PM
http://i.imgur.com/eOICMHH.png

Hindes204
10-10-2014, 07:03 PM
http://i.imgur.com/eOICMHH.png


when GB gets a hold of a thread, no tellin where it's gonna go

Hawkman
10-10-2014, 07:12 PM
http://i.imgur.com/eOICMHH.png


Zu, what did you expect with this crowd. It's a little funny though!

Steelerette
10-11-2014, 12:12 AM
It's not surprising. Allen flashed talent at times over the past two seasons. Sometimes those flashes fizzle out... but sometimes they develop.

To be a good football club you need to have good management and coaching yes, good scouting of course, but you also need a little lady luck now and then. After letting Lewis go under similar circumstances he went and had an elite year. Of course he's not doing so hot this season but... whether the Allen contract was a kneejerk or something more calculated, it was the kind of risk teams have to take sometimes, and he seems to be starting to come unto his own.

Perhaps there's something to be said for the adage "fortune favors the bold." Take a few risks and have two or three of them go right, and you're probably in better shape than the team that played it safe. Of course sometimes none of them go right, and you wake up from a hangover and somehow Kent Graham is your starting QB... but I digress.

86WARD
10-11-2014, 09:09 AM
I wouldn't say he's turned the corner, but he's turned the steering wheel and heading in the right direction...

GBMelBlount
10-11-2014, 09:14 AM
I wouldn't say he's turned the corner, but he's turned the steering wheel and heading in the right direction...

I think the same thing can be said for Bell & Blount.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/spacemonkey_fg/f6d5630a5433ea5be95a4ca46806d0cejpg.jpg

Steelerette
10-11-2014, 11:08 AM
What's with this place lately? The occasional levity is great but if I wanted entire threads derailed by nonsense instead of football talk, I could go to Steelers Fever for that.

GBMelBlount
10-11-2014, 12:31 PM
What's with this place lately? The occasional levity is great but if I wanted entire threads derailed by nonsense instead of football talk, I could go to Steelers Fever for that.

My wife is blind in one eye, on 19 medications and having major surgery Monday.

I apologize if my levity bothers you.

Please, put me on ignore.

zulater
10-11-2014, 02:05 PM
My wife is blind in one eye, on 19 medications and having major surgery Monday.

I apologize if my levity bothers you.

Please, put me on ignore.

Prayers to you and your wife. :pray:

I can only speak for myself, but I enjoy your nonsense. :chuckle: Keep it up .:high5:

That said I respect the dissenting opinion. Everyone comes to the board for different reasons. Sometimes we get a little too juvenile perhaps? But that's what men do. Generally speaking we're all morons, kids who never grew up except now we're old enough to drink beer. :alcoholic:

Hawkman
10-11-2014, 03:11 PM
Prayers to you and your wife. :pray:

I can only speak for myself, but I enjoy your nonsense. :chuckle: Keep it up .:high5:

That said I respect the dissenting opinion. Everyone comes to the board for different reasons. Sometimes we get a little too juvenile perhaps? But that's what men do. Generally speaking we're all morons, kids who never grew up except now we're old enough to drink beer. :alcoholic:


Where's the like button!!??

zulater
10-11-2014, 03:32 PM
What's with this place lately? The occasional levity is great but if I wanted entire threads derailed by nonsense instead of football talk, I could go to Steelers Fever for that.

Honestly I didn't expect much serious response to this thread, particularly from the naysayers, because Cortez is coming off a couple pretty good games. Let him give up a couple touchdowns tomorrow or somewhere down the road and this thread will blow up! :lol: No one is going to admit they're wrong on Cortez, because the jury is still out.

Me personally, outside of his atrocious tackling at times, I think he's been pretty solid in coverage most of the season. Even the couple touchdown he's been beat on, on at least one of them, his coverage was spot on, just took a real good pass and catch to beat him. And of the 6 penalties he's taken, at least half were suspect to say the least. Cornerback is just a real easy position to notice if you get beat. And again getting beat doesn't always mean you let down, sometimes the other guy just made too good a play.

That said I did hear one thing that's probably made a difference the last couple games. Tomlin has really been stressing to Cortez to "snap his head back" and get visualization on the ball. in practice the last few weeks. So maybe that's what it's all about? Combine good coverage with spotting the ball and now your batting balls down and lo and behold, getting interceptions! Keep doing this and they'll stop challenging his man. If your best corner can shut down the other teams best receiver the safties are free to help out elsewhere....

Yada yad yada.....

Steelerette
10-11-2014, 04:06 PM
I think it's probably easier to be negative than positive. Mistakes stick out more than consistency, which oddly enough may be why people don't look at Beachum as closely as they should - he's not great but what we get out of him is at least predictable. So one blown coverage and it's easy to throw down and say Allen was a wasted signing, crazy to give him the money, etc. In reality what the coaches probably saw was enough development to think that the risk could work out in their favor. We all love Ike for his career here (even if we didn't love him last season) and it took him three years to break into the lineup and be well-regarded too.

You have to wonder if Ike's story - the guy with size and athleticism but almost zero polish eventually developing into a very good CB - is part of what inspired them to draft, for instance, Shaq Richardson instead of picking someone earlier. We may need to reach a little higher next time for one, but I have a feeling it won't be on Allen's account. Barring a major injury or some other crazy situation, I think the rest of this season plus next offseason is going to get him polished nicely and he'll be a staple of our defense for years to come.

I think fans have to be a little kinder to each other too: next time Allen gets beat for a touchdown you know in the heat of the moment people are going to wail and say he sucks, why pay him, etc (heck I do it too)... when in fact he'll be on his way to a good career. Even Rod Woodson messed up now and again. Don't back people into a corner forever holding them to things they said in the heat of battle, or after the pain of a loss, etc, and maybe some of the extremes on either end will tone down a little bit. That's not toward you of course, but a comment in general, and a reflection on what you said about how people don't like to admit an incorrect analysis, etc. One side will always have it more right than the other in a given discourse - once it's settled, let it be.

I wonder if Ike will retire after this season. I'm content with Allen but we may need someone to play beside him - Gay is fine in packages but I don't know if I see him as CB1/CB2. Maybe they feel they have the answer in Richardson or Webb?

Count Steeler
10-17-2014, 08:18 PM
Didn't turn the corner quite quick enough.

Steelerette
10-17-2014, 08:40 PM
I think it's a scare tactic. Make him get his head on straight. We were seeing some nice things from Allen and he just had to get the consistency down. Having to sit and watch McCain play should get him thinking.

86WARD
10-17-2014, 09:39 PM
Didn't turn the corner quite quick enough.

Turned left and should've went right.