Al Harris

Re: Next Year

Al Harris got smoked plain and simple. For a guy that was constantly getting in Burress' face after plays you would think his play was stellar. Burress burnt him in bump and run, and soft man coverage. This isn't Harris' only bad game this year. There were more than a few bad games, including penalties that almost cost us a game or 2 early on.

Even before he was man handled by Owens his play was not pro bowl cailber.

He needs to go. As a coach I would have benched him mid 2nd quarter. Not only for his lack luster play, but his constant smack talk after getting burnt.

Hopefully after the coach's review the season tapes they will wake up to his lack of abilities. I would wager a bet his season stats rank well below average in the league. He will also be up in the top 5 for penalty yardage, and pass yards given up.

I beleive the coaches are as much to blame as anyone. After seeing Al can't cover him 1-1 why did they insist on not giving him any help. I'll agree Harris didn't play well but we have to remember he's put in a spot where he can look foolish because he is so good he's asked to shut down the top WR's in the leageu by himself. Not too many other CB's are even tried to do that

When the receiver is running by the packers bench yelling "he can't cover me" we have problems. This should be the number one goal in free agency this year, if the packers want to get into the NFC championship game next year they can not wait for a rookie to develop, they need a proven corner and Al Harris IS NOT IT. When was the last time Al showed up for a big game?

January 12, Seattle at Green Bay, divisional round of playoffs

To give Al harris some credit the giants Kept plax in motion and off the line so Al couldn't jam him to much at the line early in that game. Plus Eli made some good throws to him. Al and the defense did piss me off alot lastnight but most of it was done with the 3rd down penalties.

Good call

Interesting that JSOnline posted an article about Plax vs Harris match-up.

That article makes a very good point: the Giants deserve credit for finding the weakness is Al's coverage and exploiting it to no end.

Basically the Giants took advantage of the fact that Al had to turn his body around and run behind Plax after pressing Plax at the line. Al had to react to Plax, and the ball was delivered just as Plax came out of his route. Al never had a chance to begin with, and safety help wouldn't have made much of a difference.

Al only knows one thing best: man-to-man coverage. Give a ton of credit to the Giants coaches and players for being on the same page. To execute their strategy, you need such precision timing between the QB and WR, and it was there last night.

Al didn't have his greatest game, but after reading the JSOnline article, I'd say you have to give more credit to the Giants plan and execution than blame Al for allowing Plax to make tons of catches and gain a lot of yards.

Here is the article, I highly recommend reading it: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=709599

What happened is Al Harris got in over his head in this one, he does that often when facing dominant receivers like Burress and Owens, I don't even want to think about what had happened if we had faced Moss in the Superbowl.

He talks to much trash and takes his focus away from the game. I think he can cover Burress, but this time he was more interested in talking the talk instead of walking the walk.

Read the article at the link LT posted.

Al Harris got owned because the Giants had a terrific plan of attacking him, and executed that plan better than anyone could have expected.

I agree. I think he got WAY too caught up in the trash talk. Then he couldn't back it up.
Moss would have KILLED him.

Al doesn't seem to do well against receivers who are as physical as he is.

Can we give you Harris and have Sharper back?

al is 33 I think so he could be headed for the decline

I think you just found his weakness.

That said, we should have known and given Al some help. Good Safety help could have turned exploitation into interceptions.

Why wasn't Woodson on Buress more?
I would think after the first half..they would adjust and switch them over?

Sometimes Woods is a better match up on a certain receiver and vice versa?

I don't know. I don't know why they didn't try that.

What's really bad though is that Harris wasn't getting Safety help. Bigby intercepted four passes in four games. He could have had a shot at one, which could have changed the game.

If you believe this nonsense then what happened vs the Cowboys, or many other games he was penalized while trying to recover after he got burnt?

Look at it this way. Even if he played 17 perfect games, and the Giants found his "only" weakness, wouldn't you now consider him a possible liability? Yes, you would give him help every chance you could. This is where the coaching staff failed 100%, but a supposedly "premier shutdown CB" shouldn't require ANY help, period. I personally don't believe the Giants are the only team to find an exploit against Harris. He was exposed LONG before the Giants game.

I feel the packers coaching staff needs to address this issue as a priority for the off season. Why people continue to deny the obvious decline in his coverage ability is beyond my comprehension.

Because Harris isn't versatile. Meaning Harris can only excel when lined up on the outside, because (as Woodson said) Al Harris doesn't play nickel and he has problems when asked to go in motion with a WR.

Guess what the Cowboys did? They lined TO close to the Slot WR, and had TO going in motion.

With Woodson not playing against the Cowboys, I'm guessing Al was forced into playing TO when he was lined up in the slot, something Al doesn't do (if we are to believe Woodson) but was forced to in that game.

I recall a key third down play near the end of the fourth quarter where Al was lined up over TO, and TO was in trips bunch in the Slot WR position. Al was over TO, but he let TO slip outside after attempting to press him a the line. I originally thought Al had a communication breakdown, but now I think it was intentional because Al was asked to play nickel back, which appears to be something he doesn't do.

Do you know how hard it is to exploit that weakness? Manning was throwing the ball before Plax even broke his route, meaning that Plax hadn't even turned his head around when Manning let go of a pass intended for Burress.

Burress came out of his route a fraction of a second before the ball was going to get to him, catching it before Al even had the chance to turn around.

That requires amazing precision, and more importantly it requires the WR and QB to have impeccable timing. How many WRs and QBs do you think could pull that off? I'm guessing less than a handful, and that too on their best day.

Harris shut down a healthy Burress in New York back in week two. And Plax isn't physical. He lined up off the line, went in motion, and rarely got good, lockdown presses from Al.

Burress is NOT a physical receiver, by reputation or otherwise.

it was 24 below weather. People react differently to that kind of situation. Manning & Burres had the day of their lives and Harris played bad but he's still very good. Champ Baily & Dre Bly got toasted by Jennings & James Jones. Are they done?