A Question about Deion Sanders.

[Staggerlee]

Let me preface this question by pointing out that i am 19. Unfortunately i don't remember any football games before the 2000's and i didn't really have much knowledge about football before 3 years ago. And no im not a wagon hopper or whatever you call them, my dad and mom were both cowboys fans long before i was ever born. I remember my dad screaming at the t.v. when i was a kid and love for the cowboys was passed on to me from them at an early age. I guess it just took some time for me to "grow into it" haha.

The question i had concerns Deion sanders and Jerry rice. Many people consider Deion to be the best cornerback ever. And obviously a majority of the people believe Jerry to be the best Wide reciever ever. I was curious how this matchup played out when they played against each other. I know Deion would have played against him when he was with the falcons and with the cowboys. Please give an unbiased, factual response, no homers saying deion shut him down everytime, unless its actually true. I read a few things about this online. One was an interview someone did with Jerry where he said deion was one of the best defenders he'd ever played against and that he had trouble sleeping the night before be played against him. Also i found this website that said Jerry had scored 14 TDs on deion. can anyone confirm this? Thanks for the input, like i said im too young to remember much of either of these two but i sure wish i had started paying closer attention when i was younger.

 

[Clove]

I don't know the statistics or anything, but Jerry was a dang good player, the best I'd ever seen. Deion was a cat you wanted no part of as a QB. Your best bet was to not even throw it in his direction.

 

[Next_years_Champs]

A few receivers had good records against Sanders including M. Irvin. He could be beat but it was also likely that if you went to that well once too often you would watch as Deion returned one for a touchdown. Deion was fast enough that he could bait QBs by playing loose and when the QB threw the pass he could close and make the breakup or interception. Most offensive coordinators just stayed away from his side of the field.

Jerry Rice was great he was disciplined with his routes, he always caught the ball and he was very elusive after the catch. A lot of Rice's yardage came after the catch, he didn't have sprinter speed but he was fast with great vision and instincts and he was strong. IMO the Dallas CB who played Rice the best was Kevin Smith (pre injury), Kevin played him very physically and always seemed to quiet Rice down by the 3rd or 4th quarters.

Anyway those were some good questions and I hope my answers were of some help in you research.

 

[Big Country]

True about the QB fear and not throwing Deion's way because he was so adept as glueing onto his WR...

Oppposing offenses did know Deion's penchant of not liking to tackle, so they purposely ran the RBs his way and then later... in order to get their star WRs an opportunity to make plays, they would line them up in the slot and Deion most always covered the lone WR outside that position. That allowed for the WRs to make plays and other YAC opportunities that Deion was not initially responsible for.

It worked on a long TD by Grbac to Rice in 1995, Deion was in Dallas by then and was not covering Rice... you sure cant cover Jerry Rice with linebackers. I think it was just a couple of plays into that game too and Dallas was heavily favored to win. SF just killed us that day.

 

[THUMPER]

Good QBs with big WRs could and did burn Deion fairly regularly. Mark Brunell went to Keenan McCardell over Deion a number of times in a game and Aikman went to Irvin over and over against him but you needed an accurate QB and a WR who could muscle Deion out of the way.

WRs like Rice, Irvin, Herman Moore, Randy Moss, and other big WRs had pretty good success against him.

Deion was not the best cover corner I ever saw, that spot goes to Michael Haynes IMO, but he had incredible closing speed and would bait QBs into thinking a guy was open and slide in and pick it off.

IMO, Deion lacked the physicality needed to put him in my top-5 CBs of all-time. He was one of the most dangerous to throw against but the statement that "he shut down half the field" was all hype. QBs avoided him because it was usually easier to go against the other CB but if they wanted to throw his way they did.

That's my opinion on him.

 

[joseephuss]

Good QBs with big WRs could and did burn Deion fairly regularly. Mark Brunell went to Keenan McCardell over Deion a number of times in a game and Aikman went to Irvin over and over against him but you needed an accurate QB and a WR who could muscle Deion out of the way.

WRs like Rice, Irvin, Herman Moore, Randy Moss, and other big WRs had pretty good success against him.

Deion was not the best cover corner I ever saw, that spot goes to Michael Haynes IMO, but he had incredible closing speed and would bait QBs into thinking a guy was open and slide in and pick it off.

IMO, Deion lacked the physicality needed to put him in my top-5 CBs of all-time. He was one of the most dangerous to throw against but the statement that "he shut down half the field" was all hype. QBs avoided him because it was usually easier to go against the other CB but if they wanted to throw his way they did.

That's my opinion on him.

Of course hall of fame QBs and WRs had some success against Deion. They were some of the best. Guys like Rice and Irvin could have success because they were good and not just lucky.
McCardell made one circus catch on Deion when the Jags played Dallas. It was actually very good coverage, but McCardell came down with the ball. That to me is not beating Deion regularly. That is luck, which is part of the game. Rice and Irvin could regularly go after Deion, which were great matchups to watch. And Deion won his share of those battles, too.

I don't recall ever matching up with Randy Moss. When Dallas played the Vikings they put Deion on Carter and Carter usually got shut down. And Carter is a hall of famer in my opinion. Deion shut out Alvin Harper in the 94 NFC championship game. Harper is not one of the greats, but he was a big receiver.

Deion is easily a top 5 CB. I don't care for the particular order once you start talking the top 5 guys at any position, but I don't see how you leave off Deion from being one of those top 5.

Sure there is always some over hyping when it comes to players, but some of that hype of Deion shutting down half the field is based partially in fact. You had to be upper tier to go after him. Of course Dallas could go after Deion because the Cowboys had one of the great teams of all time in the early 90s. They dictated the game instead of letting the opposition dictate it for them. Dallas started struggling when they began letting the opposition dictate the game.

A fine example was when Dallas went to San Fran in 1997. Instead of trying to get the ball into Irvin's hand when Rod Woodson was covering him, Aikman looked to the other side of the field to try and find Anthony Miller. It didn't work. I remember Irvin being very frustrated that day and angry on the sidelines. Irvin owned Woodson and was still capable of beating him, yet Dallas decided not to test Woodson. In the early 90s, they challenged Woodson, Sanders, Green, Allen and whomever else.

 

[Jon88]

I thought he was a clown who showed the physicality of a figure skater.

 

[tecolote]

I thought he was a clown who showed the physicality of a figure skater.

And we probably don't get ring number 5 without him.

 

[Hostile]

When the ball was in the air I never saw a better CB than Deion Sanders. He had incredible closing speed and he could either knock the ball away or take it. If he took it away once again I never saw anyone better. When he had the ball in his hands and people had to try and catch him, it was simply unreal to watch.

If the pass was completed it was another story. Deion was not a tackler. Yeah, he could do it, but he looked uncomfortable doing it. In fact, he looked amateurish doing it.

WRs could beat Deion, but the thing is QBs feared throwing it his way quite often. Thus a lot of wide open WRs were ignored because QBs knew that if their throw were not precise it could go the other way for 6. If a QB got in a groove Deion could be exploited because he was not a tackler.

Lots of people couldn't stand him because of his Primetime and Neon Deion persona. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the man play football.

*****
​

Jerry Rice is the greatest football player I ever saw. He ran perfect routes and he had incredible hands. Once he had the ball in his hands magic happened. He had a knack for wrong footing defenders and getting them turned around. He'd do that and get open and catch the ball, they would adjust, and he'd do it again and then they had to try and catch him. He wasn't blazing fast, but he was no turtle either.

Jerry moved the chains. He got in the endzone. He frustrated defenses and he delighted fans.

Jerry Rice did not have a weakness as a football player.

*****
​

As a football fan you live for watching matchups like Deion vs. Jerry.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

He was great and generally shut down WR's or QB's simply didn't throw his way. However when he had to cover a guy like Rice, or Irvin, one on one then he was beatable and did routinely get beaten by those two. I don't know any specifics. I know in the 1994 Championship game Irvin beat the piss out of Deion to the tune of 12 catches and well over 100 yards. He scored 2 times I believe that day, despite our loss.

In fact the exact stats were 12 for 192 and 2 TDs. The vast majority of that locked up one on one with Deion.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

When the ball was in the air I never saw a better CB than Deion Sanders. He had incredible closing speed and he could either knock the ball away or take it. If he took it away once again I never saw anyone better. When he had the ball in his hands and people had to try and catch him, it was simply unreal to watch.

If the pass was completed it was another story. Deion was not a tackler. Yeah, he could do it, but he looked uncomfortable doing it. In fact, he looked amateurish doing it.

WRs could beat Deion, but the thing is QBs feared throwing it his way quite often. Thus a lot of wide open WRs were ignored because QBs knew that if their throw were not precise it could go the other way for 6. If a QB got in a groove Deion could be exploited because he was not a tackler.

Lots of people couldn't stand him because of his Primetime and Neon Deion persona. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the man play football.

*****​

Jerry Rice is the greatest football player I ever saw. He ran perfect routes and he had incredible hands. Once he had the ball in his hands magic happened. He had a knack for wrong footing defenders and getting them turned around. He'd do that and get open and catch the ball, they would adjust, and he'd do it again and then they had to try and catch him. He wasn't blazing fast, but he was no turtle either.

Jerry moved the chains. He got in the endzone. He frustrated defenses and he delighted fans.

Jerry Rice did not have a weakness as a football player.

*****​

As a football fan you live for watching matchups like Deion vs. Jerry.

Well said Hos. That was a perfect response.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Deion was stupid quick and unbelievably fast. He would bait QBs by playing off of them and the second the QB would let go of the ball he was on top of the receiver before the ball could arrive. If your QB had an average arm, it wasn't a good idea to throw in the direction of Sanders. He would let receivers run by him on fly patterns and the QB would throw deep. Deion would then blow past the receiver like he was a left tackle.

Jerry was in a different league as a receiver. He didn't have blinding speed like the way say Santana Moss has, but he was fast, he was strong, and he ran routes as if he were on rails. He was exactly where he was supposed to be at all times, and his breaks were angles, not curves like most receivers run and when he made the breaks, they happen at full speed.

The 49ers ran a lot of timing routes and those routes happen to be crossing the field. When Jerry would break, the CB was offically behind him and sometimes way behind him due to Rice faking a different break. That left him all alone in the crossing route and there weren't any LBers that were going to catch him. It had to be a safety or the other CB or someone stupid fast like Deion Sanders. Otherwise, Rice would score. Which is exactly why he has more TDs than any player in history.

 

[Scranton Tiger]

He was great and generally shut down WR's or QB's simply didn't throw his way. However when he had to cover a guy like Rice, or Irvin, one on one then he was beatable and did routinely get beaten by those two. I don't know any specifics. I know in the 1994 Championship game Irvin beat the piss out of Deion to the tune of 12 catches and well over 100 yards. He scored 2 times I believe that day, despite our loss.

In fact the exact stats were 12 for 192 and 2 TDs. The vast majority of that locked up one on one with Deion.

Irvin had a great game that day. It also should have been three TDs and probably would have been if replay was used at that time. Having said that, Deion also had a great game that day. I know he had at least one pick and broke up numerous other passes as well. I've bee an avid football fan since the early 80s. In all that time, Sanders is easily the best corner I have ever seen. Yes he got beat occasionally but he also played 90% of the time one on one with no safety help.

Another aspect of his game that was the best at the time, maybe the best ever, was his return skills. Especially on punts. I never understood why Dallas didn't let him return punts his first two years here.

 

[Staggerlee]

Thanks for the input, this is pretty much what i've read and heard other places as well. Now i know there aren't any CB's or WR's like Jerry or Deion in the league now, and probably wont be for a while but, are there any matchups in the nfl now that somewhat resemble this one, in your opinion? If not then are there any players in the league now that you think may develop into being close to one of these guys?

 

[jobberone]

If an OL blocks well, a QB throws an accurate pass, and the WR runs a good route then no CB is going to stop that. Position and a half step will generally beat you with the above. That just doesn't always happen.

I do think it was hard to get separation on Sanders. He did have unreal speed and quickness along with great instincts and he knew the game. He could return as well as anyone this side of Gale Sayers. And he was faster than Gale. He probably was no better than Dick Lane but I can't think of anyone else nearly as good except maybe Haynes, Adderley, Barney and Green. Maybe Mel Renfro. And I compare the older players with the players of their time. Lott was good but a better safety.

 

[joseephuss]

He was great and generally shut down WR's or QB's simply didn't throw his way. However when he had to cover a guy like Rice, or Irvin, one on one then he was beatable and did routinely get beaten by those two. I don't know any specifics. I know in the 1994 Championship game Irvin beat the piss out of Deion to the tune of 12 catches and well over 100 yards. He scored 2 times I believe that day, despite our loss.

In fact the exact stats were 12 for 192 and 2 TDs. The vast majority of that locked up one on one with Deion.

No, the vast majority of the time Deion was locked on Alvin Harper while Irvin was being doubled. Not only being doubled, but beating that double coverage. Irvin and Deion did match up several times during that game and Irvin did very well against Deion. I still don't know how the refs did not throw a flag when Deion tackled Michael while the ball was in the air.

 

[Apollo Creed]

Slightly off topic but I really would've loved to see what Pup would've done had he not gotten injured. That man was a football player, and the more I read about him the more I like him.

I'm alot like the OP, too young to really remember, but I do remember watching it.