Albert Haynesworth was't the only player to struggle under the weight of a gigundous contract on Sunday. DeAngelo Hall -- he of the $54 million deal -- stunk. He's getting paid as if he's a No. 1 cornerback, and, well, he played like No. 2.
It seemed like every time the Skins needed a big play or a big stop to be made, it wasn't. Not all of it's DeAngelo's fault, of course, but there were enough missed tackles and enough soft passes covered poorly to give most fans watching a bit of heartburn.
The soft coverage the corners gave left plenty of underneath routes for the Giants receivers. What compounded it was Hall's poor tackling. He had a few chances to wrap up the ball carrier, but just couldn't do it. He's not exactly a hard-hitting corner in the first place, but he needs to do a better job than that.
The best example of that was on Mario Manningham's long touchdown catch, where he tiptoed down the sideline for what seemed like an hour. After Manningham broke free, Hall had a chance to take him out; all he had to do was tackle him by pushing him off the sideline. But when Hall attempted to make a play, his half-hearted delivery caused him to bounce right off Manningham. From there, it was an easy TD for the Giants. A more forceful play would've knocked the receiver out of bounds and saved the touchdown.
In an eventual six-point game, that was a huge play.
Hall, to his credit, knows he stunk, telling reporters (as noted by The Bog) that he felt "like the guy that just couldn't make a play to save my life...I've got to go back to the drawing board and work on some things."
When asked what he needed to do better, he said:
"You know, we definitely need to tackle better, myself probably No. 1 on that list. We've got to get off the field on third down, that's the money down, that's the most crucial part of the game is third down. We've got to get off the field. Hell, I even made a stupid mistake on special teams, you know, got a block in the back. So all around, I just didn't execute and play to my ability at all."
Give him credit for standing up and realizing his mistakes. We'll give him even more credit next week if the words are backed up by action.
