Troy Polamalu’s quiet appearance in Super Bowl XLV has drawn the attention of many. Gerry Fraley of DallasNews.com wrote that he thinks if Polamalu played healthy in the Super Bowl, then the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award is being tarnished.
Polamalu denied the claims that he was hurt. “Best I’ve felt since halfway through the season,” he said.
Polamalu performed well below that level in Sunday’s 31-25 loss to Green Bay at Cowboys Stadium. He was noteworthy for not making plays.
He finished with three tackles — two after completions of more than 30 yards — no passes defended and no sacks. The Steelers followed Polamalu’s lead and had no takeaways.
When Pittsburgh’s pressure defense, keyed by Polamalu, does not generate takeaways, the Steelers have problems. Including the playoffs, Pittsburgh was 14-2 this season when it had at least one takeaway and 0-3 when it didn’t.
While Polamalu told the media that his Achilles injury did not slow his play on Sunday, I am of the opinion that it certainly did. If that is the case, then you have to agree with Fraley’s assessment. Shouldn’t these awards be given out after the season has fully concluded?
The reason that the awards are given out based purely on the regular season is simply because of the fact that it would discriminate against players on losing teams were they not to make the playoffs.
For example, let's say Nnamdi Asomugha has a stellar year and totally deserving of the DPOY Award, but misses out on it because of a guy having 3 or 4 spectacular games in the playoffs and putting that second guy over the edge.
Demarcus Ware had 16.0 sacks for the Cowboys this season, but had no chance to improve upon his stats in the playoffs because… well… the rest of his team sucked. Yet if he had been the deserving DPOY, then the stup of the award would make sense again in this situation.
The award is meant to be equally looked at for all players, a task that is mostly impossible if the playoffs are included. Yeah, I'm probably speaking with a bit of bias, but it's also in an attempt to explain the policy as it stands now and why it will not change.
I think it just showed some of the flaws in Troy's game, and that too an extent he is somewhat of a system player in Pittsburgh. He is obviously an excellent defender and can be very disruptive, but when the Steelers are forced to drop him into coverage all game long he does not excel. Pass defense is definitely the weaker part of TP's game and it is even moreso when he has to cover a guy like Greg Jennings 1-on1, with Aaron Rodgers throwing him the ball.
I tend to think that a one game scenario is not the best way to judge an awrd like DPOY and it does need to be based on regular season performance. It is also easy to be critical of TP because the guy next in line for the award forced what was the biggest TO of the game, but Matthews also looked bad a few times when he was over-persuing in run defense.
Dude, weak article. I'm not gonna judge your whole writing career on it though.
Jake, you should judge Zach's writing as he is a stellar writer that rivals the best that the sports magazines have… You may want to grab an autographed photo or book ("Understanding the Bikini Aspect of Beach Volleyball" published by "Pendant Publishing") of his right now before he hits ESPN…
Plus, I'm goina have to judge you by your use of that ever popular 1990's word… "Dude". Do you greet people with "Dude" when your riding your "Vespa"?