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The hard part was over. Ken Crawley manufactured the opportunity he wanted.

The Saints cornerback did everything right. He sat back in zone coverage, read the play and crashed down to the right spot as Buccaneers running back Charles Sims broke toward the middle of the field during the first quarter of last season’s Week 17 game. All he had to do was the catch the ball and he'd have his second interception of the season.

The ball hit Crawley in the hands. Then it fell to the turf. It was another squandered opportunity in a season full of them.

“I just got to catch them,” Crawley said. “I had my hands on a lot of them that should have been picks. Probably, I’d say, plus five could have been picks. I just got to finish.”

A review of last season's film only turns up two more obvious examples where Crawley could have padded his interception total. One came in Week 8 when he dove and put his hands on a pass intended for Chicago wide receiver Tre McBride but dropped it while going to the ground. The other one happened in Week 14 against the Falcons when he nearly intercepted a pass down the sideline to Marvin Hall.

Crawley's frustration with the moments shows clear on film. While kneeling over McBride, Crawley emphatically slapped the group like someone counting out a pin at a wrestling match. After the Falcons play, he dropped to all fours and put his head in the ground. There's probably good reason for him to have been frustrated beyond the obvious lack of execution.



This has been a process for Crawley. One of the reasons he went undrafted was because he didn’t do a good enough job spotting the ball early enough to make a play on it. That's why he went through his college career at Colorado with 25 passes defensed but only three total interceptions. Despite identifying and working on the issue as a rookie, Crawley completed that season without an interception.

Last summer, Crawley detailed how he needed to “trust his eyes,” which basically means to make sure you're seeing what you're supposed to see and reacting to it. This helped him get in better position to make plays, and allowed Crawley to break up 17 passes after recording eight as a rookie.

He says now that it's just about finishing the play. Can it really be that simple?

“There’s a mindset to taking the ball away,” defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said. “When the ball is in the air as a defensive back, the really good ones look at it as that’s their ball. When they’re in good position, you quit defending the man and then you really look to be the receiver and play the football. That’s where he’s got to improve.”

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