Can a cornerback have a slump?
That was the question posed to Aaron Ross yesterday, a day after he allowed the only offensive touchdown by San Francisco in the Giants' 29-17 win over the 49ers and a week after he allowed Braylon Edwards to gather 154 yards in the loss to the Browns.
"I don't know,"
he said, smiling. "I've never been in a slump."
They say cornerbacks need short memories, but don't think for a second Ross has forgotten the last two games. He certainly recalls Edwards' performance and he remembers the second half Sunday, when he found himself temporarily demoted to nickel back, with Kevin Dockery taking over the main cornerback responsibilities. Ross returned later in the game to play with the base defense.
"Last game against Cleveland, I had a bad game; this game, I had a bad play,"
he said. "We were watching film and I had pretty good coverage. It was just that one play that everybody's seen on TV that makes it seem like it was bad. I wouldn't say I'm in a slump. I just have to make the plays when they come."
Tom Coughlin agreed. He said Ross played "very tight coverage the majority of the day and played well."
Why, then, was he taken out for the start of the second half?
"A guy makes a mistake and he needs to come to the sideline to talk about it or discuss it or take a series to kind of go back over his thoughts and get himself collected,"
Coughlin said."There is nothing wrong with that."
And, apparently, there is nothing wrong with Ross. It was just one of those things - call it the curse of the cornerback - in which the glaring negative plays overwhelm the majority of the positive ones. And even a coaching staff, apparently, can dwell on those trumped-up negatives before seeing the tape of the game.
In this game, it was coverage on rookie Josh Morgan, who caught a 30-yard TD pass from J.T. O'Sullivan with 11:25 left in the second quarter. Ross appeared to be in tight coverage, but he swiped at the ball a hair too late, which created a window for the ball to reach its target.
"Coach came up to me and told me he hadn't lost any confidence in me at all,"
Ross said. "By the end of the game, I was back in with the ones, so it was a couple of series I had to sit out, get my mind right, and they put me back in there."
It's not only the coaches who haven't lost confidence in Ross. His teammates are behind him, too. Particularly the two veteran corners who have their lockers next to Ross': R.W. McQuarters and Sam Madison.
After the loss to the Browns, both of those players made certain to pull Ross aside and relate to him some of their own trials. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Ross, for all the big plays he has made in the Giants' secondary, has been a full-time starter for only a year or so. He was last year's first-round draft pick, so he still needs the words of experience.
"When I was young, I had the older guys talk to me and it helped out a little bit,"
McQuarters said, adding that it's extremely difficult for a young player to get over his first bad outing, which is what the Browns game was for Ross. "This is the National Football League. It's a humbling game, but one game doesn't define his career."
"He's coming off his worst one, but it happens to a lot of guys,"
Madison said of Ross' demeanor after the Browns loss. "He's a professional. We had a talk. The good thing about it is he wasn't expecting [a conversation], and for it to happen, it helps. I've been in that situation before, where older guys called on me."
Ross said he doesn't know if he'll be back in his starting position when the Giants face the Steelers on Sunday. Dockery said he'll be ready if called upon, but it sounded as if Ross will return. The Steelers have no shortage of top-flight receivers who need covering, and Ross - despite his recent troubles - is one of the Giants' best at it.
"I think he's going to be one of the best that the Giants ever drafted,"
Madison said. "The one good thing about it, he has another game to redeem himself."
