Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Mailbag question: Obi Ezeh & Jonas Mouton


Posted at 12:00pm -- 2/3/2010

Mailbag question: Obi Ezeh & Jonas Mouton

I'd like your opinion on this upcoming season's ILB play. I thought that last season both Ezeh and Mouton would have been more of a force in the middle. Do you see them making more of an impact in their second year under Coach Robinson? I have high hopes that they will mature into the LB’s we need inside. Thanks for your opinion and also all the work you guys put into this site.

JP in SC

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Thanks for the question.

GBMW observers have been waiting for Obi Ezeh to make an impact for three seasons. Every spring when we watch Obi it does seem like he finally is going to turn the corner and impresses us with good, smart, sound play. And then the season starts and there is again disappointment.

Obi is a very classy, smart young man. He has all the tools, size, movement, and experience to make an impact. He still has not picked up the finer points of linebacker play.

Obi still takes on lead blockers with the wrong arm; he still either over-pursues or gets to the hole very late, and he still has not really picked up the necessity of linebacker play, namely filling a hole to stuff a runner.

We still feel that for this defense to be better, Obi Ezeh or another linebacker, indeed as you mention must step up.

Jonas Mouton has bounced around and still not found a home. He started out as a safety and has played all three of the linebacker positions at one point or another.

Last season Jonas had difficulty maintaining proper back-shoulder leverage. He too has all the necessary skills to play linebacker and like Obi just has not put it all together.

We would not be surprised to see Jonas Mouton given a shot at Stevie Brown's spinner position.

Written by GBMW Staff

Go Blue -- Wear Maize!


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Seems like neither Obi or Jonas shed blockers very well and do not fill gaps. They get locked up by blocking linemen and the RB goes by or goes through a different gap. After watching various bowl games, seems other teams D, especially Iowa, had great LBs that fill gaps.

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