Okay, so I’ve been diving deep into this whole Tariq Woolen vs. Sauce Gardner debate. It’s been all over my football feeds, and I finally decided to do my own digging.
First, I pulled up their stats from last season. You know, the basic stuff: tackles, interceptions, passes defended. Just trying to get a raw number comparison.
- Looked at total tackles.
- Compared interception numbers.
- Checked out passes defended.
- Added a fild for forced fumbles and fumble recoveries.
Then, things became * I started watching game footage. I mean, a lot of game footage. Hours of it. I wanted to see how they actually played, not just read numbers on a screen. Because I have watched a little football match.
What I did
I focused on a few key things while watching:
- Coverage technique: Were they playing tight man coverage? Zone? How did they handle different types of receivers?
- Ball skills: When the ball was in the air, how did they react? Were they making plays on the ball?
- Tackling: Were they wrapping up? Were they missing tackles? How physical were they?
- Run support: Did they shy away from contact, or were they getting in there and making plays in the run game?
I initially created a simple spreadsheet and jotted down my notes for each game I watched. Stuff like, “Woolen got beat deep on this play, but recovered well” or “Gardner made an amazing interception here, great anticipation.”
After a while, my spreadsheet started getting pretty messy. So, I switched to a more visual approach.I made a rough mental rating system like plus,check,minus system.
I went back and re-watched some key plays, making sure I was being consistent with my “grading.”
Finally, after all that watching and note-taking, I started to form my own opinion. It’s still tough to say definitively who’s “better” – they’re both incredibly talented. But I definitely have a much better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses now, and it’s not just based on some random tweet or article I read.
