Even if that's the case, then the narrative still doesn't hold up.
Note: I still don't think that's the case, though. I think it was Prince on Blackmon the whole game.
Which narrative? The one about Prince being "abused"? If so, yes, I agree. That narrative is no where near accurate. Even if Prince was removed from the Blackmon matchup as much as I'm remembering, 2-3 plays for Blackmon on him is no where near enough to qualify as abused.
In this video...
That play at :50 is clearly offensive pass interference. Blackmon obviously push off on Prince as the ball was overthrown. At 1:20, Prince, though he was beatin-no way of discrediting that-made an all-star play by interfering. Saving a TD in exchange for 15 measly yards. And at 2:00 is the flea flicker play in which Prince gave Blackmon a bump, noticed the pitch back and was the only one not to bite. As seen @ 2:40, both safeties bit really hard on the fake. That is the play in which Prince was supposed to pass Blackmon off to the safeties until he saw them jumping the fake. Other than those three plays, Blackmon really didnt do all that much. Notice the title of the video is "Prince vs Blackmon".
Couldnt find a complete game vid, but I'm willin to bet you would see Fonz on Blackmon quite a bit in that second half. I have a pretty keen memory for details of the such.
I don't know about that. Our corners played exclusively man to man pretty much all season. Nothing about that play makes it any different from what I saw. Prince thought it was a run, got lazy, and let Blackmon get behind him. Our safeties are nothing but support. If it's run, they treat it as so. If it's pass, they treat it as so. They bit too on the run, but Prince should have been blanketing Blackmon, regardless.