I tend to take PFF grades with a grain of salt since they are based on a 3rd party's opinion of what they think a player was supposed to do on a given play, but fair enough. Does PFF provide any more clarity on what specifically they think they did poorly or not, or just the rating?
I just went and watched the first 3 quarters and a little of the 4th of the condensed game specifically for the play of Brown and Fusile. There were a few plays where both pulled and someone came through that spot (eg King's 1st TD). IDK if they were both supposed to pull or not and maybe there was confusion, but we did it several times so I'm kind of thinking it was intentional. Outside of that, I really didn't see any big issues from the two of them that hurt us. They kept their guy(s) off of King and generally far away on pass plays, and were able to win or stalemate on run plays. They weren't just kicking their opponent's butt and pancaking them every time, but whoever lined up across from them was generally a non-factor. There was 1 play around the 12 minute mark in the 4th Q where Fusile got knocked on his butt by a blitzing linebacker and the linebacker and 2 guys coming off the left side all got to the ball carrier - it appeared Fusile and Brown were supposed to block down towards the center, but Fusile getting knocked back messed that up.
Our pass coverage was hands down the biggest problem that game. Rewatching, we actually got good penetration a lot, to where if McCord had to hold the ball 1/2-1 second longer on pass plays, he would have gotten absolutely lit up several times. He made a number of throws under heavy pressure, but the DBs were often out of position, unaware the ball had been thrown, or giving 5 yard cushions that made finding an open target pretty easy. King by comparison had plenty of time to throw and really never had anyone pressuring him, at least through the portion I just rewatched.
