Great/good players have bad games too. In this case, it just happened to be in the championship game. To say he's not an SEC caliber player is laughable. He got invited to New York, but he's not SEC material? Tell me, please.....what, exactly, would make him an SEC caliber player? I'm all ears....
Exactly. Some peoples brains on this board should be donated to science. Using their logic:
None of our Gator defenders.are big east caliber because they got owned from the jump by Louisville. None of our Gator defenders last year were SEC caliber because Alabama and LSU rolled over us.
Making a tackle isn't getting tripped over. There are a lot of pictures out there, including a TD run, where the hit was on the two, and the RB that was tackled, was four yards deep in the end zone when he landed.
Teo will be fine and go on to the next level, but the bigger backs ran over him at will. The pictures tell a different story than the stat line.
Bama went after him in the game. Throwing over him, running over him. Blocking him. It looked like they went after ND's best, and it worked.
__________________
"In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing."
In this country, we jump all over newspapers for being biased and spinning whatever they propagate out to us consumers. We should applaud this paper for showing something like it was. I can't imagine another picture that would have better embodied the title game.
vs. Navy: 6 tackles (3 solo), 0 TFL, 0 sacks
vs. BC: 5 tackles (4 solo), 0 TFL, 0 sacks
vs. WF: 6 tackles (3 solo), 0 TFL, 0 sacks
vs. USC: 5 tackles (3 solo), 0 TFL, 0 sacks
The guy made some decent plays on some INTs where the ball was deflected or the QB didn't see him, but other than that there really isn't much there. Everyone makes a big deal about his tackle count but that is only good for ~50th in FBS and worse than 100th for solo tackles. And, only 5.5 TFL and 1.5 sacks on the season? Really?
He did have 10 tackles in the NCG, but only 3 solo, 0 TFL, and 0 sacks.
I think the paper was a dick for running that picture. If my hometown newspaper put a picture of my son, whose team was playing in a National Championship game, in an embarrassing position, I would be a little pissed. Teo didn't stink up the field by himself and is easily the best player on NDs team.
Its your hometown paper, the town you grew up in. To kick Teo like that is just low class.
Alabama ran right at him, if he was all he was hyped up to be, he would have had about 20+ tackles. I wouldn't even give him credit for the 10 tackles he had. It was more like the Alabama RBs were tackling him.
I think the paper was a dick for running that picture. If my hometown newspaper put a picture of my son, whose team was playing in a National Championship game, in an embarrassing position, I would be a little pissed. Teo didn't stink up the field by himself and is easily the best player on NDs team.
Its your hometown paper, the town you grew up in. To kick Teo like that is just low class.
I think the paper was a dick for running that picture. If my hometown newspaper put a picture of my son, whose team was playing in a National Championship game, in an embarrassing position, I would be a little pissed. Teo didn't stink up the field by himself and is easily the best player on NDs team.
Its your hometown paper, the town you grew up in. To kick Teo like that is just low class.
As REM08 said--that photo embodied what the game actually WAS it a nutshell. Period. It isn't like Te'o probably hasn't had more than his share of good press all over the island throughout his senior year, but when a photo shows him in a somewhat negative light--albeit the friggin truth---everyone should boycott the paper and cancel their subscription?? Yeah, right.
You can bet that there were photos of Te'o up on stage at the Heisman wearing his lei or whatever that was. Fine--it was him in a moment of glory. There were no doubt photos of him making one his many tackles over the course of the season against mediocre opponents....fine. But in a game that was for all the marbles, a photo showing what was a very common sight...ND player on their arse being run over and run around by a Bama player--sorry, the truth may hurt and be embarressing to his dad but the game was what it was--a slaughterfest and this photo states it perfectly.
How many folks were bellyaching and whining when the photo of Tebow crying at the SEC game loss to Alabama back in 09 was plastered on every paper in the free world? Rallying the public to boycott the papers which showed THAT photo?? Admonishing folks to cancel their subscriptions simply because the photo was an iconic image of how much that loss meant to Tim (and Gator fans as well)?? I don't remember much outrage from that one, and it had FAR more significance than this photo.
So Te'o had a bad game...big friggin deal. He was likely the ONLY local home boy from Hawaii who has ever played in a game of that magnitude and the whole sports world has seen or heard about him all season for a multitude of reasons. The photo ran--the photo made an accurate statement. Sorry dad--the truth is what it is and your boy's team lost and played like manure---it wasn't as if Te'o lost the game himself either. The whole team played badly and need to accept the good with the bad....especially a photo which paints the entire game story concisely and ACCURATELY.
Manti already got a "participated" ribbon for playing in the title game, now some want the newspaper to find a pic of him not star gazing or daisy hunting, during live action.
They plan to find some pics of him playing Pitt, to prove he is the best once more.
__________________
"In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing."
Freeze vid at 26 seconds. That appears to be the picture. Te'o didn't get trucked at all on that play, but he clearly missed an attempted flying arm tackle. Something that ND was doing all night.
You're probably right, but Oklahoma wasn't pimping him for Heisman as much as ESPiN/Notre Dame were both pimping Te'o for Heisman.
And to think he actually got second place in the Heisman voting? Complete, and shameless, pimping by that network. It reminds me of how hard ESPiN tried to get Michigan in the BCSCG to play OSU instead of us in 2006.