I would give Cooper a pair of arms. Has he wrapped up on a tackle all year, or is the plan just to keep spearing opponents?
Its how he plays. I never really bought into Cooper as a star safety. He isn't very fast, and he runs very stiff. Gerry is a fluid athlete back there and he is obviously a superior safety athletically. Cooper is Stafford 2.0, can't tackle but can hit if your served up on a platter
Other than not using his arms, I don't have any complaints about Cooper. He's not mentioned too often during games, which could be good or bad, or both. I wasn't a big fan of Stafford, nor that dude from 2009, Larry Asante. Gerry is a stud. He is, in my opinion, one of the best defenders on the team: a fast as hell eraser.
Yep, that's one thing I didn't like about Asante: the PIs every game. Both he and Stafford seemed to show up only for some games, and go missing for others. Both were hard hitters, but when they missed it turned into big plays. My enduring memory of Stafford is getting beat over and over against Wisconsin in the CCG. Probably not his fault entirely, but still... I think both played or are playing in the NFL, so maybe it was more a function of their immaturity, or the scheme, or whatever.
If my choice is have the blackshirt shirt-handing-out-tradition in tact, or have the defense playing like blackshirts, I'll chose the latter. Generally, the defense has improved enormously since Bo returned in 2008. To me, that's what is important. I think he tried too hard with the shirts to make it meaningful again and ended up overcomplicating it. I agree with you, just hand them out to the starters in practice and call it good. Overall, the defense's mentality is probably as fixed as it's going to be.
