Vernon Davis' play doesn't back up his talk

by JasonB on Dec 22, 2009 6:00 AM EST in News Comment 11 comments

This is just one of the fun football machismo stories...

Before Sunday's game, 49ers TE Vernon Davis decided to run into the Eagles huddle to talk trash and call out one specific Eagles rookie.

"He came in our huddle almost, in our little warm-up, calling me out," said rookie linebacker Moise Fokou.

"Vernon Davis kind of got under our skin before the game. We took that personally," linebacker Tracy White said. "He was calling out Fokou. He was like two feet away from our warm-up drill. We just got fired up off of that."

A classy, sportsman like move for sure, but to be fair Davis was probably just responding to Fokou's comments earlier in the week. The two were teammates at Maryland.

"I kind of know what he likes to do and what he doesn’t. I kind of know how he releases. For me, knowing him personally and also watching his career helps me in terms of film study," Fokou said. "I’m going to be out there talking trash. He’s going to talk trash whenever he gets our defense. We were talking trash over the summer when I worked out with him. He thinks he’s more athletic than most linebackers," Fokou said. "We’ll see on Sunday. Me vs. Davis."

The Eagles defense took offense to Davis' intrusion of their huddle and promptly shut him down. Davis manged just 3 catches on the day. Vernon Davis is a good player and he's having a great year, but if you're going to challenge a defense and get up in their face before a game, you've got to do better than three catches to back up that trash talk.

In the end though, all was cool.

"At the end of the game, we shook hands. We said good game and everything and let bygones be bygones."

Oh and Fokou rarely drew Davis in coverage, which is something I predicted to 49ers fans on Saturday (scroll down to the bottom).

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Davis wrong?

Is it me or isn’t Davis largely right that Fokou largely sucks? Fokou really hasn’t shown much and he has really pissed me off a couple of times with dumb penalties/running his mouth to the opposing team.

by MG77 on Dec 22, 2009 6:10 AM EST reply actions

It seemed like the Eagles used a ton of CBs (Hanson/Patterson) and safeties (Demps/Jones/Mikell to a lesser degree) on Davis all game long. Don’t remember hit giving much 1-on-1 LB coverage at all.

by MG77 on Dec 22, 2009 6:14 AM EST up reply actions

It's You.

I’m not even going to get deep into this. Here are the relevant points:

Fokou has replaced Gocong as the starter at SAM. Sean McD says that has happened because he was “consistently producing at a starter’s level.”

Sean knows a lot more about linebacker play than you do.

Fokou is not polished but he does not “suck.”

Veritas Liberabit Te

by DSmith215 on Dec 22, 2009 9:39 AM EST up reply actions

We'll see

I would bet you bottom dollar that is more of an indictment of how Gocong has played this year than what Fokou has shown so far. Gocong simply has been a real liability in pass coverage that McDermott is willing to give up Gocong’s ability to stop the run to have a bit more speed especially in nickel packages.

Then again, you extolled how awesome Harris was 2 weeks ago and since then the only thing he has done is lose his starting job as a kick returner to Demps and ride the pine as Jones/Demps get an almost all of the snaps at FS.

by MG77 on Dec 22, 2009 10:56 AM EST up reply actions

A little pessimistic there aren't you

I’ll admit that an indictment on how Gocong has been had a part to do with it, but Sean wouldn’t put in a rookie unless he believe he could do the job. There would be more linebacker shuffling. To say he has been a sucks is way too much way too early. Not every 7th rounder can turn out to be Marques Colston. He’s cooled down with the penalties and remember he did a pretty good job at San Diego. So don’t be so pessimistic so fast. Expecting that much from a rookie is almost unreasonable. He was bad in the Dallas game but most defensive rookies are in there debut, but he has been pretty good.

As for Harris, lay off the kid. He didn’t lose his KR job to Demps. Demps was always the number 2 behind Hobbs, but when Hobbs went down and Demps injured his ankle he was forced into the job. Demps (since Hobbs got hurt) has and still is the primary KR. He lost his job to Jones, based more on experience than bad play. He won Sheldon, Asante, and Mikell over. They said he was doing good. Remember he was originally fighting for a spot when the camp began and by camp end he was the starter. No he hasn’t lost snaps to Demps at FS, Demps and Macho have both played corner and Free. All 3 (Jones, Demps, and Harris) all still take snaps at FS and McDermott has said that. Lay off the rookies. Let them grow a little.

by macjack09 on Dec 22, 2009 11:51 PM EST up reply actions

AND

…..this is a big one. He’s only a ROOKIE. Sure he is going to make mistakes but he is making them going about 100 mph. I’ll take that right now from him, he’s doing some good things too. In year two or three if the penalities and mistakes are still happening then I’d say he might suck but 7th round pick, year one…..Jesus give the guy a chance, he did replace a 3 year starter so it can’t be that bad.

by slandog on Dec 22, 2009 11:04 AM EST up reply actions

He didn't

I noticed Joselio Hanson on him often. He was never going to draw single coverage against a LB.

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by JasonB on Dec 22, 2009 10:14 AM EST up reply actions

That's been working recently too...

Putting defensive backs on tight ends was our remedy to guarding them? Gonzo was pretty much shut down at Atlanta as well. Footage kept showing Macho on him.

Andy Reid is 43-5 when running the ball at least 30 times in a game( Ray Diddy on Eagles Post Game Live after Bears Victory)

by Route36 on Dec 22, 2009 11:51 AM EST up reply actions

LB shuffle in general

MLB has been a carousel all year long but it seemed like McDermott used a lot more of Fokou/White in passing downs and on nickel situations because they bring more speed to the table than ’Spoon & Gocong.

Going to be really interesting to see going ahead forward just how McDermott utilizes everyone at LB including getting Jordan on the field enough. There really isn’t any LB right now who is a 3-down player.

by MG77 on Dec 22, 2009 11:09 AM EST reply actions