It was very weird watching that game last night--it looked like every one of our receivers were blanketed and every time a Lion QB threw the ball it looked like it was to a guy wide open. Were our receivers really that bad or our DBs really that bad? _
It seems like everybody does the same thing to us, week after week. Line up with 3-4 receivers, have both inside receivers run crossing routes over the middle in the 2nd level (underneath the safeties, over the linebackers). Those two receivers or at least one of them will always be wide open. Our ILB's don't understand zone concept it seems. Maybe Harris does but he's not fast enough to run with those guys. Demario might be but he doesn't understand coverages. And we can't do anything about it. Stafford could literally tell us before the game how they're gonna beat us and we couldn't do anything about it. I'd really consider taking Demario off the field in nickel situations and line up Skrine in the middle with Marcus playing in the slot. Something like that. We need somebody inside who can run, cover and tackle.
I would like to have seen Petty get one drive with the first team offense before they left the field.
In trying to remain postive here, I am thinking that despite losing our starting QB earlier in the week, we have a new coach, and our two best players were out, we didn't look all that bad on the 1st unit. What I really want to see is improvement especially in the 2nd and 3rd preseason games. Let Bowles adjust what he needs to work with the team on.
Would have been nice for sure, him having Decker and Marshall to throw the ball to, and better blocking. He didn't have to face their starting defense, just let your starters out there for 1-2 more drives against the Lions backups. Could have really been a confidence boost for him.
I think the pass rush was what got us the most. A couple of times Petty stepped up and had some time and when he found somebody "downfield" (20 yards) they couldn't hang on. It didn't help that a Austin Hill or Hakim or whoever, doesn't know how to run routes so they were always in tight coverage also. Enunwa got open but the ball hit him right in the chest and hit the ground.
In all fairness to Davis his main roll is to guard against the outside run so when Abduala juked to the outside (first) Davis bit on in and was unprepared to respond to the inside juke-run. Box saftey Pryor is supposed to have his back in the middle while Davis covers sideline to sideline.
Nah, Pryor lined up as an OLB on the other side on that play. Skrine played slot so he had the outside. All Davis had to do was close the inside and that would have been a 2-3 yard run. But he decided to freelance (he meant well, he didn't know Skrine was behind him ready to stop the outside run) and was out of position when Abdullah made the cut inside. If you really focus on Davis each snap he does this a lot. He doesn't see anything, he just goes by what he thinks is going to happen, so he gambles, he overcommitts and is out of position, out of the play. It really hurts the defense when he does that because it's basically a whole in the middle of your defense, like playing with 10 guys.
I would say having your running back tell you that you're supposed to be under center can be filed into the "not ready to play" column.
Did I say that his career was over? I just said that it's a good indicator that he's not ready to play. You're not going to see Bilal Powell shove Ryan Fitzpatrick under center. Everyone says that Petty is going to need a lot of time to pick up the nuances of an NFL offense. It's just a good visual representation.
The season doesn't start tomorrow, he's got plenty of time to learn the offense, plenty of snaps, games and practices to get it all down. This is to be expected from a rookie QB in his first live action, especially one who was supposed to sit all year and work on his mechanics, rather than studying the playbook and get ready to play. He'll be fine, he's a smart kid.
