Rising senior safety Marquel
Carter was one of the players the coaches really challenged in the 2012
offseason to pick up his intensity. And I know I wasn’t the only one who
noticed that he met the challenge in the fall.
The most noticeable improvement in the very talented Carter’s
game was the way he stepped up as a pass defender. Carter only broke up one
pass and had no INT’s in 2011, but he upped that to six total passes “defensed”
with one INT last season.
That interception came at a point in the week three game
against Princeton where it looked like Columbia had a chance to turn the tide.
The score was 17-6 Tigers with about 6:30 left in the 3rd quarter.
Carter stepped in front of Connor Michelsen’s pass at the CU
28 and he returned it another nine yards before Princeton’s Connor Kelly caught
up with him at the 37.
Considering how the game started, you could argue this
moment was the emotional high point of the day for Lions fans.
Unfortunately, Columbia’s offense couldn’t even get one
first down on the ensuing possession. And when Carter recovered a Princeton
fumble early in the 4th quarter, the offense couldn’t do anything
with that either.
5 comments:
Jake, the comments about the offense lead me to ask the same question I have been asking for a long time. Sean Brackett played his best football as a freshman. The Brown win that year was the best game he played in his entire four years. And in many respects was the best all around game from a Columbia QB since the days of Archie Roberts. His sophomore year was good enough to put him on the first team all Ivy team. Yet his last two years were not even close to his first two years. I had always blamed Vinnie for misusing Sean and for causing him to get hurt so much by calling for those inside running plays, especially in the opener against Fordham his sophomore year when he took a shot to the shoulder. Is it as simple as that: he was playing hurt all the time for his final two years, or did his skill set regress?
He was hurt in that Fordham game and never fully recovered. He also had worse pass protection as time wore on.
Letting Brackett run was one of Vinnie's better moves. It gave us lots of thrills and the team more chances to win.
If you want your QB to run up the gut, you had better make sure that you have more than ONE!
IMHO: truth be told; he was not as accurate as all the other returning Ivy QB's whom you recently reviewed.
Someone in the Lion backfield needs to be 20 and 5 in 2013 for them to have a shot at + 500%. Even a combo of two people would be a big help.
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