those stats are off if you ask me...
there is no doubt that Bailey is one of the best in the league, so it's true opposing teams stay away from him... but keep in mind this guy has played wide receiver and Corner, so his tactics are different. He plays the ball... not his zone or his man.. just the ball.. he has the awareness and the speed to do that... so when other defenders and corners are just chasing the receivers and throwing their hands up in the air hoping to block the ball when they actually have no clue where the ball is, Bailey is smart enough to be aware where it is at all times...
many of his interceptions, in fact, probably most of his interceptions were due to horrible passes that went right at him rather than him making any kind of a special play... keep in mind that alot of these quarterbacks are afraid to throw his way, so when they do, it's a bad pass... just watch some of these throws...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMzlLjs6i9g
from that season:
Charlie Frye threw a perfect pass to Bailey who was wide open in the endzone. Too bad Braylon Edwards, who was the intended receiver, was nowhere even around to at least defend it.
The Raiders Walters' threw a perfect out pattern to Bailey who caught it and just kept his feet inside before going out of bounds... too bad Moss was supposed to be the intended receiver there.
Hasselback overthrew Darrell Jackson in the endzone for a Bailey INT..
Roethlisberger underthrew Hines Ward badly giving Bailey the easy catch..
Palmer threw way behind Chad Johnson which allowed Bailey to catch it easily... had Johnson had a perfect throw on the run, he could've been gone...
McNair threw an underthrown jumpball to Clarence Moore that allowed Bailey to just jump up and catch it...
the list actually can go on... but the point I'm making is that all these bad throws would probably be dropped or ignored by other defenders who don't play the ball like he does.. like I said, he's played both receiver and corner...
also of the 35 thrown his way, saying '21 defended' sounds a bit distorted to me as well.. it makes it sound like he was the reason they were incompletes, but I remember reading somewhere he had like 11 deflections last season... so that means with the 10 interceptions, and supposedly the four receptions against him, the other 10 balls had to be just receiver drops or overthrows/underthrows where neither he or the receiver had a chance to get the ball... like I said before, many qbs throw bad passes because they are afraid of him.. thinking he'll get the interception...
As for the four receptions allowed, I guess it's possible, but I find it hard to believe.. I remember Wayne having like a 30 yarder against him and Harrison catching like a short 15 yarder against him... I also recall Moss catching one against him... so if you are saying he only allowed one other catch in the other 14 games, then that's hard for me to believe.....
I'm not dissing him or taking anything away from him... as I said before.. the guy is a tremendous corner, arguably the best in the league... but those stats have to be off.
