It was mind-boggling how we made no adjustments all game to fix this simple coverage flaw.

You’re right and no one ever did. No one is saying Talib shouldn’t be better than back ups either. I am wondering what the heck you were reading.

Talib is still a first tier CB. He did get away with a lot of cheap little holds on his coverage but he still did all that can be expected of him when in single coverage of one of the best receivers in the game getting thrown to by the best qb in the game.
The myth of the shutdown corner does not mean they can stop every single pass in their direction. During the Giants-Jets pre-season game, Eli threw at Revis constantly with Cruz catching passes at ease against Mr Premier Shutdown. And Nicks is the better receiver than Cruz.

“and it’s not like he was going against megatron or anything” SMH
Education time
Last year Megatron had 105 receiving yards per game
Cruz was the #3 WR at 96
Nicks was the #8 at 80 (76 receptions 15 games)
In 2010, Nicks was #5 (and 79 receptions in only 13 games) and Johnson was #9. (So, in the previous year, Nicks outperformed Johnson in less games)
And in the 2011-12 playoffs, he only had 28 receptions for 444 yards. #2 in both categories all time.

Hakeem Nicks has better numbers compared to Vincent Jackson over their last 2 full seasons. He’s the most underrated receiver out there. Would you expect Revis to shut down Jackson an entire game?

Eli does back shoulder fades and other throws that only the reciever can make the play. Don’t look at the stats… look at the play on the field. In the Superbowl, the throw to Manningham – a perfect 38 yard strike that no one but the reciever could catch – was not a one-time fluke. Eli is that good.

He did not have all the time in the world to throw… with all the blitzing the Giants had the RBs and TEs stay in to block – and he was making very quick throws. There were 3 INTs after all. He just goes into a whole other gear in 4th quarters of games that he refuses to lose. He did it 7 times last year against some of the best teams in the NFL.
Tampa did not play an average team – they played the Giants aka the Superbowl Champs. A good team doing the right thing can still lose to the best team playing its best. And the 2nd half was the Giants at their best.

In the Superbowl, Belicheck can be clearly heard…
“This is still a Cruz and Nicks game,” Belichick said. “I know we’re right on them tight, but those are still the guys. Make them go to Manningham, make them go to (Bear) Pascoe. Make sure we get Cruz and Nicks.”
That didn’t work out for the Patriots.
So Tampa tried blitzing and leaving Talib on man coverage. That didn’t work either. Manning passed to 7 different receivers. Did Talib guard the other 6 as well?? Instead of blaming Talib realize that a 2 time Superbowl MVP had a career day 2nd half to make up for a bad 1st half.

It gets easier for Tampa from this point forward.
And you cannot compare players from last year to this year. New Coaching and new schemes.