Appleton/News

By Ron Borges

For several days now New England Patriots’ cornerback Ellis Hobbs has taken a pounding in the local media and on talk radio for his supposedly poor coverage of Plaxico Burress on the game-winning touchdown pass from Eli Manning in Super Bowl XLII. Hobbs was quoted by one reporter after the game as saying the writer didn’t understand his assignment on that play and the writer’s response seemed to question the truthfulness of Hobbs’ statement.

Well, Ellis Hobbs’ first duty on that play was to do just what he did, which was prevent the slant. The reason for that is the Patriots went to a full blitz, which included safety James Sanders on Hobbs’ side of the field. If he did not prevent the slant Burress bursts into wide open territory in the middle of the field for an easy touchdown not unlike the one Randy Moss had just scored on the other end of the field to give New England the lead..

Hobbs’ next assignment was to get some kind of contact on Burress if he broke to the corner. That Hobbs was unable to do but the fact of matter is with the coverage and blitz scheme that was run if the Patriots failed to get to Manning quickly, Ellis Hobbs was toast.

Tennessee Titans’ assistant head coach Dave McGinnis, the former Cardinals’ head coach and Chicago Bears’ defensive coordinator (as well as linebacker coach on the Super Bowl winning team that destroyed the Patriots in 1985), was asked the day after the game about the play and his thoughts certainly exonerated Hobbs.

“He did his job,’’ McGinnis said of Hobbs. “When you blitz inside on the goal line the corner has to take the inside away from the receiver. The only chance he had after that was to get his hands on him and he missed him but it’s hard to get your hands on him in that position.

“If he played the fade, they run the slant and it’s an easy touchdown. With all the contact rules they have today, and with a 6-5 receiver against a 5-7 corner in that defense, there’s an 80 per cent chance of a touchdown if he gets the ball off. That’s against a normal receiver. It’s damn near impossible with an elite receiver like Burress for the corner to stop that play if they don’t get to the quarterback in a hurry. They didn’t.

You want to blame somebody there’s a lot of other guys they could blame. Blame (safety Rodney) Harrison for not making that play on David Tyree. You have GOT to knock that ball loose. How about the three guys with their hands on Eli and they don’t bring him down? You want to blame somebody blame those the guys. How does he escape?
“If you’re carving up the blame pie for that loss Ellis Hobbs gets a pretty small slice. There’s a lot of other guys deserve bigger slices for that last drive.

“Hobbs did his job. Randy Moss did the same thing the other way when they took the lead. The corner was trying to protect against the fade and he ran a little slant, the corner slips and it’s an easy touchdown. Everybody wants to blame the last guy on the last play. It wasn’t Hobbs fault in my opinion. It was the defense they were in. Why were they blitzing in that situation? I have no idea.’’