I didnt catch most of the game but how did Dbrick do? I was really interested how he would hold up against Mario.
He did pretty well. He has had better games, but he played mistake free for the most part. He did get beat once that i can remember, and it was the play where Pennington got injured. Mario faked an outside rush, then did a swim move to get past D'Brick on the inside. He then hit Pennington on his way down, thus sending him out for a play. Besides that one play, i would say that he played fairly well.
Ferguson got torched by Mario Williams on at least two occasions that I can think of, one of which real early in the game (Williams didnt get the sack, but he got through Ferguson and made Pennington step up into the pocket where another lineman got him) was real bad, Williams practically walked right through him. But hey, this was hardly unexpected. Regardless of the fact that both were high picks, its not as though how they fare against each other really means anything more than how they fare against any other player in any other week, and frankly, a player like Williams (gigantic defensive end) is usually going to have the advantage on a guy like Ferguson (lighter-than-average left tackle).
chad got sacked once and hurried a couple of times... not a big deal. Almost blew out his shoulder again, but we're all expecting that anyway. He did fine. End of story.
This may have been his worst game of the season. He really is going to need to gain 15 pounds this offseason. The stronger ends really give him problems.
As Stu said, there were two clear plays where Williams killed Brick. Otherwise, nothing overwhelming stands out. The entire O line was awful in run blocking, however, a throwback to the beginning of the season.
That's the nature of offensive line play. All it takes is a few mistakes to ruin an otherwise good game (not saying that happened here, but generally speaking, that's the way it is).
he did good.. he sure as hell didnt get ''torched''. the two times when pennington got hurried it was clements fault and the other on the RB. forgot which one
The stats dont say it all. I know the NBC highlight package (that show really sucks by the way) showed the play that I was talking about from early in the game... Williams doesnt get the sack, but he storms right through Ferguson and forces Pennington to step up into a collapsing pocket and get sacked. Ferguson didnt by any means get torched, he did fairly well, but clearly got beat on a handful of occasions in pass protection, and he was part of what was definetely a crappy effort in the run game. More than anything else, I think Id have to say that I was just very impressed with Williams. I know hes been criticized in some circles for not putting up great stats, but watching him today makes me feel like if im an offensive coordinator and I have to play the Texans, Id be sweating, because this guy is big enough and fast enough not just to beat offensive lineman, but hes also big enough and fast enough to seriously hurt your quarterback. By the way, its not as though its really unfair to look at the handful of bad plays an offensive lineman makes, because as we saw today, anytime a guy like Williams gets a chance to take a shot at your quarterback, bad things can happen. Think about it this way, if Williams came away from today with three sacks, most people would agree that that is a very, very productive day. Do you then gloss over those three plays when evaluating Ferguson?
