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Why Aren't Booker and Hilliard Playing More?

-5 HS
buckbornbred's picture
September 30, 2018 at 8:44pm
98 Comments

I watched the condensed version of the game before it was taken down from Youtube. The linebackers, including Harrison, played bad.

Borland is as slow as a snail and missed several tackles, including one that led to a big gain by McSorley. He also gave up a touchdown reception, garnering a pass interference penalty in the process.

Werner was a nonfactor as usual. He was woefully out of position and had a really hard time getting off of blocks. He's also unusually small for a linebacker. You would think that he might be able to compensate for his lack of size with speed, much like a Darron Lee or Ryan Shazier. But he can't. He's not fast. 

Harrison, while decent, is overrated. True, he runs better than Borland and Werner. However, he is not a sure tackler and doesn't play with adequate physicality. I've noticed that, like Pryor, he takes really bad angles when trying to make tackles.

Browning is a cipher. I haven't seen anything from him yet.

If our linebackers are so godawfully bad, why haven't we seen more of Booker and Hilliard? Booker was defensive player of the game last week running against the same ones that our starting linebackers ran against. As for Hilliard, he's looked pretty good in limited action. Furthermore, he is a really good special teams player, which requires speed and tackling ability. Only #1 (don't know if it's Dixon, Okudah, or both) and McLaurin seem to get down the field faster than he does on special teams.

I simply don't see how people who have decades of experiencing coaching and who make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars cannot see the elephant in the room. It's crazy on their part and maddening for us fans.

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