Brian Cushing — a Vanishing Act

[CretorFrigg]

I've been going through posts and could not find one dedicated to Brian Cushing. So I decided to present Cushing with his own thread!

Brian has simply vanished from our defense. His presence is relatively unknown and frequently misses tackles and assignments. Many of the holes gifted to the Charger's runningbacks can be attributed to Mr. Cushing.

As we all know, his career has been plagued with allegations of steroid abuse dating back to high school when he ballooned from 165 lbs to 225 in one year. The speculation proved to be true as Brian Cushing was suspended this season for violating the league's substance abuse policy.

So that leads us to the debate: was Cushing's dominance last season a product of steroids? Or is he placed in a position to fail courtesy of our brilliant defensive coordinator, Frank Bush?

[Dwade]

He's off the roids

...and Frank Bush's brilliant coordinating probably isn't helping.

[eriadoc]

He needs to go back to trying to get pregnant ... errr .... overtraining. Or whatever.

[Texecutioner]

Originally Posted by Dwade

He's off the roids

...and Frank Bush's brilliant coordinating probably isn't helping.

I thought from reading most of the posts in here that he was never on the roids and that he was just "working out to hard."

Yeah, I totally agree with you though. He hasn't done hardly a thing since he came back. He has been playing a different position though at MLB the last two games. But yeah, it's definitely making me worry now that the roids may have helped him last season more than people thought, because I'm not seeing the same guy that I saw last year.

[wagonhed]

Our defense is terrible, and Brian is adapting to MLB, a position he has never played (I assume), and you want to bring up another steroid debate? Give me a break.

[mattieuk]

Originally Posted by Dwade

He's off the roids

...and Frank Bush's brilliant coordinating probably isn't helping.

Yup. All we need is the #1 ranked defense from last year! Lol.

The more he is invisible, the more the 'overtraining' argument seems ridiculous.

[CretorFrigg]

Originally Posted by wagonhed

Our defense is terrible, and Brian is adapting to MLB, a position he has never played (I assume), and you want to bring up another steroid debate? Give me a break.

Adapting...

What about the first couple of games he played WITH DeMeco Ryans at his former position? He wasn't much of a factor then.

[Thorn]

Can yall imagine how much MORE putrid the defense would be with out Cushing? Jezzzzz. Wrong guy to pick on IMO.

[otisbean]

Originally Posted by CretorFrigg

Adapting...

What about the first couple of games he played WITH DeMeco Ryans at his former position? He wasn't much of a factor then.

Do you really expect a guy that missed 4 wks of practice to come back in mid season form?

[DerekLee1]

The defensive scheme and the defensive play calling are just flat out not working. The offense is due a bad game every here and there (Indy, anyone?), but if your defense is bad, you're not going to be making any playoff runs.

[BullNation4Life]

Cushing is no different than Marriman. Merriman is nothing more than a shell of his self since coming off the juice...

Cushing will be the same...

[Maddict5]

was demeco exactly a standout every game at mlb? the run game for the chargers didnt get going + none of the big plays were on him= cushing prob having a good day

[cdollaz]

I think that moving him to the middle was a bad move. He is an all-pro at a position, you leave him there. Instead of having a stad at one position, you are just weakening two positions.

[PockyAF]

DeMeco Ryans must have also been jacked up on steroids when he first came into the league. Considering how he pulled the same vanishing act forn 2 years now; playing behind the same defensive tackles that Brian has.

[gtexan02]

Cushing looks like a different player. Position change or not, he's been easily blocked this season after being a monster last year. He just doesnt shed blockers like he did last season

[wagonhed]

There's a lot of things about this board that I don't get, but threads hating on our best players is a total mystery to me. Cushing, Williams, Smith, etc. It makes no sense.

[PockyAF]

Originally Posted by gtexan02

Cushing looks like a different player. Position change or not, he's been easily blocked this season after being a monster last year. He just doesnt shed blockers like he did last season

To be fair, our 2nd year players have all regressed from their rookie season. With the exception of Mario and Diles. Also, I know I'm talking about pre-season, but Cushing looked like the same beast that he was last year in this year's pre-season games.

I'm more inclined to blame the poor coaching of our defensive staff for the continuous trend of regression on our defensive players.

[wagonhed]

Also please look at body of work. He had 2 games at his old position after missing 4 games. 2 at a brand new position. This is enough to start talking mad **** about his performance and steroids? At least we are level-headed around here.... oh wait.

[Hervoyel]

Brian I fear is going to be our Sean Merriman. I wouldn't get real attached to Brian Cushing if I were you guys. I'm beginning to think I'm glad I didn't pick up a jersey when I started to earlier in the year.

It's starting to look like he's just another steroid user who lied to everybody. I know there are a lot of extenuating circumstances here what with his move to the middle and everything but he looks nothing like the player who won DROY last season. That's hard to deny.

I'm trying not to think the obvious but it's hard. Around these parts the obvious is usually exactly what's happening.

[Porky]

Originally Posted by BullNation4Life

Cushing is no different than Marriman. Merriman is nothing more than a shell of his self since coming off the juice...

Cushing will be the same...

Agreed. Cushing is now JAG on the field....and that predates the move to MLB.

Roid boy - and Rick Smith and/or Kubes and/or Bush needs to answer for this because they had to know he was a roid freak. How much time is spent now on first rd picks?

And speaking of which, my God is Kareem Jackson a bust or what? He couldn't cover the worst receiver on the Little Sisters of the Poor wheelchair football team - female division 85 yrs old and up.