Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne is four games into his second season and coach Jason Garrett is looking for more from the 2012 first-round pick.
Garrett wants to see Claiborne do a better job of shutting down his man and thinks he has zeroed in on the the reasons why Claiborne has struggled to do so this season. Garrett thinks that Claiborne is guilty of using poor technique and lacking confidence on the field, a combination that the Chargers exploited last Sunday on their way to a 31-20 victory.
“I think it’s probably a combination,” Garrett said, via Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com. “Technically, you go back at each of the completions against him and you say, ‘Hey, you should do this. You should do that.’ But I also think confidence, playing that position, is critical. And usually those two things work hand in hand. When you’re playing technically sound and you have ability, you tend to have more and more confidence because you’re in the right place. They went to him too much in this ballgame, and they were too effective. He’s just got to play better, and he will play better.”
Claiborne has already been knocked out of the starting lineup by Orlando Scandrick, who kicks inside when Claiborne is in the game. B.W. Webb and Chris Greenwood are the other corners on the Cowboys roster, although Claiborne remains ahead of them in the pecking order. Neither player has Claiborne’s pedigree, but that won’t end up mattering if Claiborne continues to get picked on early and often by opposing offenses.