Leave Riley Moss alone!!
By Adam Uribes
· Opinion
·
· 3 min read
Any step back would be expected in losing the reigning DPOY to injury, and yet the defense hasn’t missed a beat while waiting for PS2 to return, with Moss playing a huge part in that success.
Why does Broncos Country go looking under rocks for things to be upset about? Not 24 hours removed from the biggest win of the season last Sunday versus the Cabo-bound Kansas City Chiefs, the Orange and Blue faithful were in their feelings, this time about the continued whistles and cornerback Riley Moss.
I am not mad, but I am disappointed that the term liability and Moss are being lumped together. And in the rush for fans to distinguish themselves, hyperbole takes the place of reason.
Yes, two more costly flags were thrown in the direction of Moss on Sunday. Yes, there is a fair argument that Moss has shown to be too handsy at times to his detriment. And if I were in the business of lazy analysis, you could make those two points and conclude that it is not a matter of it, but when Moss and his penchant for penalties will come back to bite the Broncos.
For most, that is where the mindset will begin and end. Moss takes too many penalties; it will be a factor at some point. Crude, but fair. Calling someone who is playing at the level that Moss is playing at a LIBABILITY is…a choice and creates tunnel vision where you can ONLY see the flags while disregarding the other aspects of his play that have been good to great all season.
First, there needs to be a distinction between the words liability and targeted. Jon from the Monday postgame show made the point that Antonio Cromartie saw a ton of traffic on the other side of Darelle Revis, and no one called him a liability. For Broncos fans, Andre Goodman was nowhere near the player that Riley Moss is in any facet of being a cornerback. No one called Goodman a liability either.
Put the penalties to the side and consider this. The trio of Xavier Worthy, Rashee Rice, and Hollywood Brown all had pedestrian receiving numbers and minimal impact on the game Sunday. Ditto for Tyler Locker and Tre Tucker the week prior in the win versus the Raiders. At the same time, Moss is drawing the top assignment in the place of injured cornerback Patrick Surtain II. Any step back would be expected in losing the reigning DPOY to injury, and yet the defense hasn’t missed a beat while waiting for PS2 to return, with Moss playing a huge part in that success.
Stop with the “liability” nonsense.
Finally, let's pull apart the "penalty will come at the worst time" chants, picking up steam. The flag at the end of the Giants' win against Moss was…suspect, but it easily could have cost Denver the game. But, it didn’t. And continued whining about "what if" is defeatist, and implies questions that need to be answered. They do not. It’s easy to get caught up in what MIGHT happen, but that shouldn’t be at the expense of the present, where it hasn’t and no promise that it will either.
Riley Moss is a lot of things. He seems oddly miscast for the position that he plays; you can read into that what you will. Judging from seeing some of his facial expressions on the bench, you can also conclude that he's a little nuts as well. The point being, yes, you can gripe and complain about Moss being a lot of things, but “liability, ain’t one of them.
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