PW1: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Overall it was pathetic performance by the entire team. Offense, defense, special teams. The players did not look ready, at all. You saw blown coverages on defense, plenty of drops on offense, missed blocks, missed tackles on defense, in fact most of the tackle attempts were a joke. An infant could have walked or crawled through those arm tackles. Anyway, here's my take on it:

THE GOOD

- OLB Lorenzo Mauldin played only about a quarter I think, but he showed what hopefully we'll see him do all year. He was extremely disruptive, explosive off the edge, always got to the QB. He should have had 2 sacks, he also got flagged once for a late hit on the QB. All that in just one quarter. I think he has a good shot at going double digit in sacks this year if Bowles gives him the playing time he should be getting instead of counting on old farts like Pace & Babin who are completely ineffective in terms of rushing the passer. It's a shame we lost IK, I think him and Mauldin would have been something that could have made this defense really dangerous. Now it's all on Mauldin, I don't see another quality pass rusher on the roster.

- QB Bryce Petty I thought looked excellent considering where some people had him in terms of expectations. He already showed move than Geno did early on. In fact he's got some habits that Geno hasn't figured out yet. He does not get rattled. If he sees the pocket collapsing, edge rushers coming after him, what does he do? He doesn't spin around and scramble to the outside, he doesn't take the sack, he doesn't panic and throw an interception. He just simply steps up in the pocket and suddenly he's got all the time in the world to find an open receiver. Bravo, kid. I also loved his selling on some of the handoffs to the RB (draws/delays). At the very beginning he was off with 1-2 throws but again, I'll chalk it up to him just getting his feet wet, him being nervous. He's got a great arm, he doesn't miss a wideout by 5 yards, that never happened to him in college. I could have been more accurate on those throws, it's not about whether he's ready or not, he was obviously just excited & nervous. In the 2nd half you saw a different player the way he handled pass rush, his accuracy, decision making, all of it. He looked very calm and I'm very excited to see how he progresses the next 3 preseason games. If he keeps making progress at a consistent basis until week 1 I don't see why he shouldn't be starting games this year for us. I'll get to the pathetic receiving corps later on, don't worry.

- CB Marcus Williams had a great day. He gave up some catches but his coverage was always top notch. Very tight, he was all over receivers. I think he was guarding Greg Salas 1-2 times and he defended him very well, but Salas runs great routes and their backup QB (Kellen Moore) was really accurate last night, it was almost impossible to break up those passes. Williams also had a beautiful interception in the endzone, showing great ball skills by turning his head and going up and making the catch. I'll get to Cro in a minute.

- RB Bilal Powell looked extremely explosive and agile. He can catch, he can block, he reads blocks well, great vision. He just looked really good. If anything happens to Ivory I wouldn't worry whatsoever. This guy can take over and be productive for us.

- ILB Joe Mays was probably the best ILB out of all the guys we threw out there (except for Harris who barely played). Made some decent tackles, was always around the ball in the 2nd half. Finished with 8 tackles, one for a loss. If he can keep it up he might have the inside track on the backup ILB job. Unlike the rest of the backups he at least looks like he understands the ILB position.

- NT T.J Barnes and Deon Simon both did a good job in the middle. Barnes might be the biggest player I've ever seen. There was one play where he looked like he tied up the entire offensive line by himself. He's impossible to move in the running game, he just needs to continue improving his technique and hand placement. He's gotten so much better than last year with that and if he keeps it up we'll have no trouble replacing Snacks next year if he decides to walk. Deon Simon had a couple of nice plays himself but he needs a lot of work still with technique. Those older veterans handled him when he was out there in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. He also had a nice pass deflection when he batted down a pass at the LOS, showing good awareness.

- SS Rontez Miles didn't have a GREAT game, but he did what most of us thought he would do. Be around the ball, make tackles. Solid performance overall. He missed one tackle but he was blocked by a TE there and kind of fell into the RB and tried to bring him down with an arm, I'm not gonna put him down for that. In coverage however he's still a liability.

- RB Chris Ivory gave us exactly what he's known for. Tough runs, lots of yards after contact, consistent yardage (4+ yard runs each time) to move the chains.

THE BAD

- TE Jeff Cumberland stepped up in a big way tonight. Got wide open and of course he drops the long ball to him. Same ol', same ol'. Tired of this guy, he really doesn't get it. Whatever happened to Jace? He got dinged up late in the game I think, where was he the first half? Why don't you force the ball to him to see how it works out in the new scheme? Waste of a game.

- RB Daryl Richardson couldn't get anything going. Whether it's him running the ball (4 carries for -1 yard), whether it's him fumbling, just a game to forget. He's better than that, and the O-Line didn't exactly create huge holes for him. Still, this was bad.

- WR Corps overall was just flat out pathetic, not much more can be said about this group. Leave out Decker and Marshall who did what they usually do, the other guys behind those on the depth chart were just garbage. Quincy Enunwa, who I hoped would step up bigtime today, had a ridiculous drop on a perfect dart from Petty right in Enunwa's chest. That was pretty much it for him. WR Austin Hill should be cut today, I wouldn't be shocked if they cut him today. DeVier Posey at least didn't drop anything. Had the best performance of all the receivers. It took him a bubble screen and a short inside slant to get that done. Shows you how awful the rest of the guys were. We really need Devin & Owusu back ASAP. I don't trust the guys behind Decker and Marshall one bit. Kerley maybe, but he had a bad game as well.

THE UGLY

- CB Antonio Cromartie was about as bad as we all remember him to be from a couple years back. He's not getting better, please stop that. He doesn't play at 10%. He's not turning into Deion come week 1. The guy is clumsy, he looks lost in coverage and his tackle attempts are worse than I remember actually. No amount of sun lotion on this planet will protect him from getting burned like crazy this year. Mark that down. I pray to God Bowles throws him out of the starting lineup before week 1. Marcus Williams & Skrine both showed so far they are by far the better corners. I can see Skrine sticking to the slot because he's so good at it, but Marcus is a better corner than Cro. Easily. He just doesn't make enough money to start ahead of Cro, which is pathetic.

- ILB Demario Davis never looked any worse than last night. I think he gave up at least 2 bigplays. In one quarter. Ameer made him look like a fool on one run over the right side where Davis took a bad angle. Ameer just cut inside and Davis was left with two broken ankles. A couple plays later Davis gets burned in coverage for a touchdown or a bigplay over the middle to the left side, I don't remember who the receiver was right now. There was another play a couple minutes later where he whiffed on a tackle. He absolutely stunk.

- OG Brian Winters. I don't know why Bowles keeps giving this guy reps, or a job for that matter. We've seen him struggle for years, he is a backup at best and I wouldn't even want him as a backup here. Qvale didn't look any better, but at least the guy can get better. Winters is just garbage, the guy has no upside, he needs to go. Whether it's him holding somebody or just get his ass beat in a split second and shoved around, he doesn't add anything to this offense.

CONT.

 

I'm sure I forgot a couple guys, I'll throw them in later on when I rewatch the game. I want to focus more on the O-Line and the OG battle, the D-Line and the receivers/Petty. Anyway, that's about it. We have a lot of work to do but watching the Patriots and Dolphins I don't feel too bad or upset actually. It's just preseason week 1. But that doesn't mean playing guys like Winters, Cumberland, Pace/Babin and Cro will pay off. It won't. I don't understand why Bowles sticks with these chumps despite their performances. Being old should not be a guarantee for a starting job.

My expectations haven't changed. I still think we will make the playoffs, but we really need to fix a bunch of things that CAN BE FIXED. If it was something that couldn't be fixed (if Cumby was our best TE, if Pace was our best pass rusher, if Cro was our best corner) I would have said this season is not going to go too well, but all this can be fixed. Plus we were missing two of our best players in that starting lineup and the playcalling wasn't exactly geared towards winning this game but more to utilize all the players. Outside of Jace of course.

 

Are you serious? This was my first post of the day so chill out, I don't even know what anyone else has posted here regarding the game. If it makes you happy feel free to contact the admin to get this merged to your thread, you have my blessing.

 

It's all good, just came out of nowhere. Like I said, the mods can merge this one with yours, I have no problem with that. I didn't go out of my way to not post in your thread. It's just part of my routine to do this after each game (on those other boards I was active at) before I look at the news or post in other threads and all that stuff.

 

I did yesterday, for like the first half. After that I just went and watched the game on my phone and I hate using Tapatalk when I watch football on my phone, it's a pain in the ass.

 

He wasn't good but with no receivers and no running game, no blocking, it's hard to look good. I liked how he ran the offense, I'm just going more by mechanics. Good footwork, he lined the guys up properly, now delay flags (Geno struggled with that), the way he operated the offense, how comfortable he got in the 2nd half, getting rid of the ball quick. He's got a long way to go but personally I really liked what I saw. Bowles pointed out in his presser that he still struggles identifying the "mike". I'm not sure what that means exactly. Don't most MLB's play that position the entire game? Don't you know beforehand who the "mike" is? And what is the Center doing? That should be his job to point that out to Bryce. I think it was Dalton Freeman.

 

I hope I'm wrong with Cro but when I see him miss tackles like that all the time it's really hard to think that he will be better. What you can hope for is that he makes plays, I guess that's the gamble. As long as he creates turnovers and gives us a pick 6 or two this year I'm ok with him starting.

 

That kind of bothered me more than anything, how they handcuffed Petty because of the disastrous WR play / blocking. I wanted to see him go downfield every once in a while, use the boot/rollouts, playactions, but with these receivers and the blocking we had it was impossible.