Lowery staying in the mix- TJB

[KentuckyJet]

Lowery Staying in the Mix … and for Good Reason
Posted on November 15th, 2008 by Bassett

Although people might wonder about Dwight Lowery, it’s clear that Mangini likes him, and expects him to continue contributing on the field for this team. Thus spake Mangini:

“We have been rotating them through and putting other guys in different packages. It’s important that Dwight continues to progress and to fix some of the things that have come up. He’s a young kid. He’s been given a lot of responsibility for a young kid and there are going to be a lot of mistakes and there are going to be a lot of growing pains.

“There’s a lot of pressure on him because so many people work towards him, instead of working towards Darrelle , which is understandable … it’s pretty unique for a young guy in the fourth round to come in and play as much as he has played.”

What’s lost in this whole thing is that for as much trouble as we think he might be having … for a fourth round rook, the kid is ROLLING. Swipe already has 13 passes defensed (Revis has 14) and would be tied for 12th (not bad when you consider there are 64 starters) in the league .. if it showed up on the NFL site correctly. Although he’s yet to grab a pick, he has three forced fumbles so far .. not bad either.

I love this time of year, because it’s now that we get to see if all the preconceived notions coming into the season were way off base, or close to the mark. Here’s what I wrote back before the start of the season when Miller was injured and looked to be sidelined, paving the way for Dwight Lowery to start.


Mangini seems to be pretty demanding when it comes to his young secondary players and we’ve seen some guys languish on the bench after big mistakes - Drew Coleman vs. the Bears in ‘06 and Eric Smith vs. the Eagles in ‘07 come to mind. If Mangini really wants Lowery to play, he should let Lowery play through some his mistakes, and he’s gonna have them … he’s a rookie. There’s no need to rush Lowery into the game only to then yank him when something goes wrong.

I’ve loved this about Mangini this year. Lowery is his guy and he’s going to let him grow into his role by playing through some tough times. That doesn’t mean that he’s immune to getting yanked though. Mangini is ready to insert other players if needed.

That’s why the Law signing was so masterful. Law isn’t going to make this team world-beaters, but he makes the third corner on any given that much of a better player, be it Lowery, Law or Revis. Law won’t be an every down player for this team, but he’s providing a hand, and his presence Thursday (mugging Randy Moss by the way) freed up Revis to play Welker (who still had a big day) and it allowed Lowery to work with Gaffney.

Now as far as Gaffney, I’m aware he had a big (8 REC, 86 YDS, 1TD) day, but I think that was an outworking of the scheme. When you take away something, it’s naturally going to free up something else. Moss was a mostly (3 REC, 26 YDS, 1 TD) non-factor, while Welker gashed the team, yet again.