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If you weren't yet convinced that Lardarius Webb can be a very good NFL cornerback, pop in the tape - or bring up the DVR, if you prefer - and watch the second half of Sunday's game against the Steelers.
Throughout much of that half, Webb was matched up against Mike Wallace, the Steelers wide receiver who has blazing speed (he ran a 4.33 at the Combine last year) and big-play ability (he's averaged over 20 yards per catch in his two-year career).
Wallace continuously tried to sprint past Webb and make a play deep down the field. Time and time again, Ravens' second-year corner, who is coming back from a torn ACL, was up to the task.
"We knew coming into the game that he was going to be a deep threat, so we had to take that away," Webb told reporters after the game when asked about Wallace. "He's a fast guy, and he runs great routes. My whole week was focusing on #17, making sure #17 didn't beat me deep. He didn't have a game on me."
Despite being targeted a team-high six times, Wallace ended the day with just two catches for 24 yards, largely because of two big pass breakups by Webb.
Both times, Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch looked for Wallace deep down the sideline, and both times, Webb ran step for step with the wide receiver. He didn't grab at Wallace before the ball got there, and he didn't faceguard and fail to make a play on the ball.
Instead, the Nicholls State product played sound technique, turned his head for the ball, and knocked it away from Wallace at the perfect moment. Both times, the pass fell incomplete.
"That's probably the first time you got a chance to see him in a one-on-one situation going up to make a play," head coach John Harbaugh said of Webb. "[It was similar to] some of the things you saw last year, too. Since he didn't go through training camp, this time of year you don't get too many of those kind of battles in practice. Just playing the ball is something he does extremely well, and that showed up in those two plays.
"Mike Wallace can run, he can go up and get a ball, and Lardarius made up a little ground on him and then timed it perfectly and got the ball out twice. Those were huge plays in the game."
Cornerback play like that is a welcome sight for Ravens fans who got used to watching Frank Walker get flagged for pass interference time and time again on deep balls when he was left in one-on-one coverage.
It's also a welcome sight after Webb tore his ACL last December and missed all of offseason minicamps and training camp.
Webb made his season debut Week 2 against the Bengals, and since then, he's been getting increased reps in games and looking more like the lockdown corner that the Ravens hoped they had prior to his knee injury last year.
