Guys who looked good: Revis (did as well against Edwards as you can really expect... Edwards is just freakishly good) Pace (really seemed like our only OLB who had any clue how to get off of a block) Jenkins (definitely the brightest spot on our starting D last night, looks like a true NT) Guys Who Looked BAD: Gholston (it's been commented on a lot- he simply looked lost/overwhelmed) Miller (same problems he's had as a CB since day 1) Every LB except Barton and Pace looked TERRIBLE in coverage, and soft against the run... Everyone else was unspectacular. I think having Ellis & Harris back in the lineup will help, but we still have a lot of work to do... Also, in the second S battle, Smith really outshined Elam (to my delight)... Elam showed the same over-aggression that led to problems for him last season, badly over-pursuing on a blitz where he was beaten to the outside, and taking a poor angle on another outside run...
It looked pretty bad... just as anyone would expect in the first pre-season game, playing extremely vanilla, missing two of their better starters, against a good offensive team. The sad thing is... if they come out of the gate looking bad again this year, some people will actually point to last night's game as if they saw it coming.
-Pace got in there for a hurry and hit on Anderson. Looked pretty fast and good. -Jenkins looked decent occupying space and actually got one tackle for a loss. -Gholston looked lost and had that sorry excuse for a tackle that let the receiver get an extra 5 yds. He had good pressure on one play. Hometown hero Brandon Renkhart broke up a TD pass:up:
It wasn't really that bad, considering they penalized J. Miller for a long pass interference penalty. It looked to me like Justin Miller was little bit ahead of B. Edwards running towards the end-zone but wasn't looking for the ball. When B. Edwards saw the ball released he sped up and ran into J. Miller. It wasn't bad coverage. J. Miller just needs to look for the ball. If his head had been turned around there would have been no flag. If Pace and Gholston can do their job, rushing the passer, the defense will be very good even with only 2 good players in the secondary.
I learned years ago not to pay attention to preseason games, unless it's in evaluating a new player or a young player. The vets simply don't care about these games, c'mon. Neither would I.
There's still room for improvement. Look, I understand it's vanilla defenses and all but we're seeing the same things we saw the past 2 years up to the bye week. If the first team defense continues to play like that throughout preseason and then proceed to suck for the first 4 weeks why wouldn't we say we saw it coming? Just because it's vanilla defense doesn't mean the players can't shed blocks, fill gaps, cover receivers, cover the correct zones, etc ... I could give 2 shits about the score of the game, but when I see the same things that have plagued the defense in the past I get nervous about it. Players that make plays in practice make plays in the game. I'm not saying the defense is going to be bad based on last night. There's still time to improve. If the defense gets better I won't say it sucks anymore, but until then I will call a spade a spade. I probably am over reacting a bit, but don't think it can just be ignored. Harris being out definitely hurts the D.
I was one of the posters on the game thread who mentioned that the D didnt look ready to play, and I think Sutton has been doing a lousy job. But to be fair, when you remember the impact Harris had, and the number of tackles he made last season, it WAS apparent that his presence was missed last night.
don't agree with the "browns could do whatever". other than the first play of the game for them, they couldn't really run more than a couple yards. i like what i see out of jenkins. he really doesn't get pushed around. the first cleveland drive, i saw one bad PI call on justin miller and a pushoff/fantastic catch by braylon edwards. the play before the TD, we stuffed jamal lewis near the goal line. i think we'll see how great jenkins is in the coming weeks. the guy is amazing. i'd be screaming bloody murder about the crap calls if that first drive was a regular season game, but it's the preseason so i don't care that much. pace and barton looked good, harris, ellis didn't play. gholston showed some ability. all in all, not a bad performance. lowery should get more reps at cb.
I agree the 1st team was shaky (but other than the first run, Jenkins did a solid job up the middle) and I thought Gholston played really slow and tentative. For the backups, however, I liked Murrell and Cummings. Bowen was good too but those young guys got in a lot of plays. Nobody else saw these guys get in on the action?
Preseason games mean nothing. They could of held Cleavland to 0 point and -20 yards and it would mean jack shit.
The last two TCs I attended, I watched an awful lot of 11-on-11 practice involving short yardage passing situations (and defendeing against same). There were a lot of drills that started, for example, at the 25-yard line. Then into the Red Zone at the 18-yard line. Then the 10 and even down to the 3-yard line. Could it be that we just haven't had enough open-field practices? Anyone else been to TC recently where they were addressing more open field situations (not compressed at the goal line)? Also, as Kurt pointed out to me as far as Gholston is concerned, he seemed to be somewhat lost and therefore uncomfortable with doing anything other than staying in his lane and taking care of business, not venturing out for fear of screwing up. He's beenpracticing "safe," in other words. Perhaps Kurt could explain this better, but this is what he was noticing and it looked like that same sort of thing last night. He's a rookie who has missed all of mini-camp and came in cold after his school finally let out. So yeah, this is all a huge learning curve for him. Not trying to make excuses for anything or anybody, but just offering some reasons and maybe things that have to be worked on. This is all stuff Sutton should be on top of and attending to big time.
My opinion they its sucked real bad. The browns marched down the field on the first drive and on the second drive the Jets got lucky and had the ball tip into Bartons hands for int.
Ive only seen about 4 plays that our starting D were in...and I listened to the rest on the radio. From what i heard and saw....aside from the first running play and the crumby PI call...it wasnt half bad. I commented to section 227 at TC and mightve mentioned under my obserations, that i was pleased w/ the frongt 3 not surrendering ground and getting penetration, but that the 1s team D really missed the Thumper Harris in the middle. Frankly, the back-ups at that spot are a HUGE downgrade and really dont belong in a 34 defense. From what i saw, This was the main issue. We lack starting depth at LB and w/o arguably our best defender and def. our best run stuffer...things were out of whack. Alot of good 1st d's looked shakie last night including New England and Chicago. Unless you have a sick pass rush or are going upagainst a horrid QB..preseason tends to favor the offensive 1st teams.
Didn't see the game but not overly worried. I read reports of Ellis, Harris, and Coleman not seeing the field coupled with vanilla play calling and you have yesterday's performance.
It wasn't so much that Harris WASN'T there.. it was that the ex-Pats Kassell and Chatam were. And playing in Harris' spot. How those 2 guys still have a job is beyond me. That was seriously it... The first few plays it was like 'What the hell is wrong with.. oh... Harris isn't there.. yeah, but still... oh.. oh wait... Fuckin Kassell. Figures" Those guys are the two biggest wastes of roster space I have ever seen.
