ckparrothead
Premium Member
As I said when I originally just checked the stat sheets on the game, it's hard not to be optimistic about this game. It played out exactly as you would imagine the way they appeared to be building this franchise through the off season.
And by that, I mean, they called 29 run plays to Ricky, Patrick, Jalen, Lex or the kneel-downs by Beck, while only calling 23 passes by Pennington or Henne. Unfortunately, Trey Darilek tossed a shotgun snap straight to Beck's left ankle and so we have no idea whether that was going to be a pass or a run. Personally, I believe it was going to be a shotgun handoff...as it would have fit with the motif they were going for at that point in the game. Either way, only 43-44% of the calls were pass plays. The defense held the opponent scoreless, they tossed in a special teams score, the only things keeping this game from being called the epitome of 2008 Miami Dolphins football were the penalties (9) and turnovers (3). The latter especially contributed to a lower time of possession than they wanted (26.5 minutes).
The three things they did this off season from a personnel standpoint, that we've been talking about forever, was strengthen the special teams, the run defense, and the run game. You could tell. They bring in a Jumbo Elliott clone at left tackle at #1 overall, moving Carey to his strongest spot RT, grabbing Justin Smiley for $5-6 million a year, spending more draft picks on the interior. They bring in Ernest Wilford, noted for his red zone receiving skills and his blocking abilities. They trade a 4th for a blocking TE in Anthony Fasano, team him up with another blocker in Sean Ryan (or Justin Peelle). They bring back Ricky Williams, spend two draft picks on big 225+ pound runners. I mean, it's as obvious as it gets. Meanwhile on D they spend a bunch filling up the front seven with plugger after plugger: Jason Ferguson, Phil Merling, Kendall Langford, Randy Starks, Akin Ayodele, Reggie Torbor. They pull Matt Roth out to OLB, which is nothing if not a move to set the edge and stop the run. They get rid of Zach Thomas because he's too small for their tastes. Filling out the personnel with run stoppers is as obvious as filling out the offensive personnel with run producers. But on STs, they spent almost as much attention, grabbing guys like Nate Jones, Keith Davis, Boomer Grigsby, the previously mentioned Sean Ryan, Reggie Torbor, keeping on Camarillo, Cobbs, Ed Miles, hiring John Bonamego.
What they did with respect to the run game, run defense and special teams, stands out when you compare it to the aspects of the team that they knew they could not necessarily afford to help more significantly. Namely, the pass offense and pass rush. They traded Jason Taylor, which gave us a significant downgrade in pass rush consistency. They tried for Calvin Pace but he wasn't a truly significant pass rusher in Zona, and they didn't grab any great pass rushers in the draft. The WRs are loaded with young guys and, quite frankly, guys that aren't exactly all that good. The TEs are leveraged toward ground blocking and the only pass catcher is terribly inconsistent (Martin). The quarterbacks are what they are, obviously they spent on Henne for the future knowing full well it's not going to do much for the passing game now.
Anyway, all three strategies showed up just the way you'd hope in this game. Williams, Parmele, Cobbs and Hilliard produced 156 yards on 26 carries (6.0 ypc). The Chiefs couldn't get anything done on the ground on the first team D, Larry Johnson carried 13 times for 36 yards. And, on Special Teams, well...we all saw what happened there. But, even aside from that, they averaged 22.6 yards per kick return, and 7.5 yards per punt return. Patrick Cobbs returned our only kickoff of the game for 39 yards. Davone Bess had a very nice punt return calles back on penalty. Special teams were all around pretty darn good.
I really had a lot of notation on this game, mainly because I had the opportunity to watch it out how I would want to watch it: recorded.
First thing is first, I read through some reviews of this game but I'm surprised there isn't more talk about the fact that Phil Merling played almost the entire second half as a Strongside Outside Linebacker. First is the bad, at times it really looked like his first action at that position...which it was. He didn't play with the same high energy that Matt Roth played at in the game, which is kind of interesting. Then again, there's the good. He looked like quite the mismatch taking on TEs and RBs on his way to the backfield, and sure enough he got a sack from that SOLB position. It was hard to get a real beat on what he looked like in coverage, but I can tell you he showed the same chase and redirect abilities on his feet that first had me talking about him at OLB before the draft. This is his position of the future, IMO...he just can't be 290 pounds when he does it because he needs a little more burst than that right off the snap.
Now, rewinding back to the beginning of the game, I'll say that the passrush looked ok, but inconsistent. I have a feeling that will plague us all year. It's not like it should be a surprise. As I said, we focused on the run defense, run offense and special teams. Obviously, next year they're going to focus on the pass offense, and pass defense.
Inconsistent means sometimes good, sometimes bad. That's what you really see in pass rush from everyone in our four defensive line formations. One play, Quentin Moses would show really good pass rush. Next play, completely washed out like he doesn't belong out there. Randy Starks has the ability to every now and then pressure the pocket from defensive tackle, and other times he just looks helpless. Langford and Merling still go through that, too. Joey Porter, who got a sack rushing the passer from Right Defensive End in a four down linemen formation...looked bad on a few other occasions doing the same. Most of this also applies to the 3-4 formations.
Believe it or not, our most consistent pass rusher in the 3-4 may actually be Matt Roth. I don't mean to say that he's our BEST pass rusher because he's not. But, he might be the most consistent and predictable. We all know his tendency to rely on the bull rush. He also added some speed rush to his repertoire in this game, with some decent results. From the OLB position, his bull rush at 280 pounds is actually pretty effective. He gets a good four yards of steam going before he makes contact with guys a lot of time, whether that be a tailback, fullback, tight end or even sometimes an offensive guard. He's got such power and hand usage that he does a really consistent job breaking the pocket's integrity in those situations. If you get an offensive tackle on him before he can get a head of steam, I think you don't really have to worry about him. But, if you're doing that, someone else has an opportunity. Anyway, Roth not only looked good in pass rush, he looked alright in coverage on fullbacks and tight ends. There was one moment where he disengaged coverage from a FB to give Croyle chase and Croyle got it off to the FB. But that's nitpicky.
Joey Porter gave way to Quentin Moses in the game pretty early. Kendall Langford also gave way to Randy Starks early and often. Porter, I imagine, was limited because of injury...and yes, I'm getting worried about that one. Langford though, I imagine that they really want to get Randy Starks involved in the rotation heavily, and that means the rookie will have to come off the field.
Akin Ayodele really showed up in this game. I had one note about him doing a superb job defeating a block from a guard in order to put pressure on a screen play. Then, there was the goal line stand, where he and Phil Merling teamed up twice to stop the Chiefs from scoring. That was pretty huge. Akin definitely gets a gold star, even if he's not fast enough to track Larry Johnson out to the flat effectively on a swing pass.
If you ever get depressed about the prospect of watching Matt Roth cover people, watch Quentin Moses. Yikes.
Speaking of which, was that Randy Starks dropping back into coverage on a zone blitz from a four down line setup? Double yikes.
Jason Allen got his hands on more balls than Debbie on her latest trip to Dallas. Funny how far this guy has come. Now, he's even looking good playing cornerback? On a day when Chris Crocker got his big chance, starting ahead of Allen supposedly so that the coaches could get a better idea of whether they should keep him or Renaldo Hill...Jason Allen decided to make some noise himself and say, hey don't forget about me.
And you know what? Renaldo Hill did the same. This is what happens when you put quality veterans like Hill and Crocker together and force them to compete for their livelihoods. Hill jumped one pass beautifully. He also got his hands on another he could have picked off.
Chris Crocker was ok in man coverage when asked to do that and ok as a safety but don't ever ask this guy to blitz. His effort was pretty poor in that department. He and Will Allen were also caught trailing a streaking open Dwayne Bowe on a poorly thrown ball. Then again, he had a forced fumble on special teams that was called back by a Justin Peelle formation penalty.
While we're on the secondary Lehan looked nice with that pick but really you can't say that he's fully back. Or that he's not. There just wasn't much to go on in this game, you never got to see him run down the field with people. His pick came on a short jump of a predictable pass, not any special athletic effort. I still believe Goodman starts. He worked with the first unit before Lehan even got hurt, and I think they're confident in both guys and the difference is the health. Goodman is for sure healthy, Lehan is not for sure.
Courtney Bryan made some plays back there. How did safety go from being so unbelievably weak last year to pretty good? Keith Davis is the only guy that has yet to really stand out back there to me in preseason, but one would have to think he has his place on this team.
Or does he?
Jumping back over to the offensive line, Jake Long certainly had his stiffest test so far as a pro from Tamba Hali and he fared decently. Not great, but certainly decent. There were at least two occasions where Hali broke the pocket integrity a little bit on Jake but I am not comfortable saying he got any clean cracks at the quarterback...because I didn't notice any. That in itself is an accomplishment for the rookie Long, who really is coming along quite nicely.
Samson Satele really had a tough game. I saw shouright harp on this earlier so I paid attention and he was right. The guy missed several times some blocks out in space. Once was a screen, guy got a shot at Ricky. Another was the big toss to Ricky Williams, Satele missed his man on the pull and Ricky had to break his tackle. On a third play I have Satele allowing a pressure to go right by him on a pass play. The play was completed, but that still doesn't look good. But, it wasn't all bad he bounced right back after that play and made a great block on a pull.
I thought Donald Thomas had a decent game, but that should be viewed within context. Outside of Parmele's 80 yard run, the OL paved the way for about 3.0 yards per carry...NOT good enough. The second string OL blocked that 80 yard run. Ricky got about 3.9 ypc which is pretty decent, especially when you consider he got a high amount of those carries toward the goal line. But then, didn't that series end in a FG? Yeah, it did. About 3.9 ypc plus a TD on that goal line series would have been ok. About 3.9 ypc with just a FG to show for that goal line series is not ok. So Long, Smiley, Satele, Thomas and Carey need to do a better job next time.
Boomer Grigsby was open for a touchdown on that play where Pennington threw it to Fasano and Fasano didn't quite get depth enough for a TD. By the way, that had to be three different times Fasano didn't get enough depth for the first down or touchdown. That guy needs to be a lot more aware of the sticks.
Reagan Mauia did his part to help him back into the race at FB. It might be too little, too late...but he is responsible for that Jalen Parmele TD run. Without the Juggernaut making a heads up play to get up from having just made a block, to run to Parmele's back and push cart him into the end zone...that TD doesn't happen. That play was 3rd & 2, so without Mauia's efforts, it's a 20-0 ball game. Those 4 points in other games could be the difference between victory and defeat.
Ted Ginn did an ok job receiving. I mean, of course that punt return was brilliant but the receiving was just ok. Good shoe top catch on a low pass.
Pennington's long vertical throw to Hagan was a mooooooooooonball. Get use to that with Penny.
Armstrong had a tough game. He had a drop hit him in the chest. He got absolutely CRUSHED by a linebacker on that one STs play, showing very definitively that he should not be covering kickoffs. Punts? Maybe. Kickoffs? Absolutely not. He did block well downfield for Parmele on the 80 yard run, but when that's the only good thing you do? Not good enough to make the roster.
Cobbs, Camarillo, Bryan, Hilliard, Jason Allen all made STs plays. One guy who stood out as being bad on STs though was Jalen Parmele.
Chad Henne had some ok throws but this was a pretty inconsistent outing for him. That interception to Peelle (poor guy kept showing up in bad ways all over the field) was poorly thrown, period. Can't lay that one on Peelle in my book. He did have a nice on-target throw in the red zone to Bess over the middle that got them valuable real estate toward the goal line.
What questions got answered for me?
1. Q: John Beck or Josh McCown? A: John Beck. The snaps that John Beck took were symbolic in nature. You can't claim that he took those snaps in some effort to showcase him for trade. All he did was hand off the ball and then take three victory formation kneel downs. In a race where the coaches view reps as so supremely valuable that they've constantly been a handful of players under every roster limit, those reps are symbolic and I'd be willing to bet that Beck excelled in practice in order to get those reps. That could be the edge he needs JUST to make the roster. Yes, I realize he's in a dog fight to make the roster. But, I also happen to think he's done it and the snaps he took last night may have been a sign of that. I haven't been trolling enough but I'm waiting to hear someone imply that the fumble was his fault somehow. That would be pretty hilarious, haven't seen it yet but I'm sure someone will do it at some point.
2. Q: Who are the WRs? A: Greg Camarillo, Ernest Wilford and Davone Bess. Anthony Armstrong surely made some noise, but in a night where he needed to impress, he played like he was choking a little bit. The dropped pass, the STs flattening, there was another play where Chad Henne threw a cutoff to Armstrong down the left sideline right at where the first down sticks were and Armstrong did not cut his route off at the sticks he just kept going. Given Henne's history of being a pretty heads up player, I would be willing to bet that Armstrong made the gaffe. Wilford has been TRYING to play his way off this roster, but IMO neither Armstrong nor Foster did enough to outweigh the work that Wilford has done in the NFL, during regular season games, including in the playoffs. Some would have you believe that David Kircus did enough, but the coaches disagreed and booted Kircus off this roster even before Armstrong and Foster.
3. Q: Which safety is out? A: Would you believe if I said Keith Davis? The reality is we know they won't keep 6 safeties...but you could make a case for all 6 of them. Truthfully, Keith Davis is right there with Courtney Bryan and Renaldo Hill as far as possibly being out. Bryan got victimized deep by Hoag last week in Jacksonville. Renaldo Hill has only started coming alive lately. The only play I can honestly remember Keith Davis making in all preseason was where he almost recovered that fumble in the end zone that Paul Soliai caused, but even that wasn't a high impact play. I guess the answer to this question is that I still don't know.
4. Q: Which TEs are in? A: To me, Fasano, Martin, and Peelle. I know that Peelle got his name into this game for mostly wrong reasons. But, I have to look closely at how he actually played, aside from penalties and whatnot, and the reality is he was on the verge of making two big touchdown plays. Can we fault him because the refs said, for some reason, that he didn't catch that touchdown? That was a great route and catch if you ask me. Then there was Henne's interception and I can't fault him at all for that. He ran that route well, was a size mismatch, and did a good job leaping over the CB's back and trying to take the ball from him even though the ball looked like it was thrown to the CB more so than Peelle. Henne's got to learn to put that ball more on the outside because that ball really was thrown like it was intended for the CB, not the TE on his outside shoulder. Better thrown ball and I believe Peelle has that touchdown. Bottom line to me is Sean Ryan just NEVER did anything to secure his spot, and I know Justin Peelle can show up and play. I remember some people arguing last year that if they could only keep five players on the roster, Peelle would be one of them. I never agreed with anyone that argued that, but it is a testament to how good he looked before the wheels fell off the whole offense mid-season.
I'll tell you what questions I can't answer.
1. Q: Which RBs are in? A: Clueless. Reagan Mauia really fought back but I'm sure Boomer Grigsby is above him. But, what of Patrick Cobbs and Lex Hilliard? Hilliard has run pretty good and hard, not special but neither has Cobbs run special. Cobbs has been making some STs plays but in this game I noticed Hilliard making some STs plays as well. Hilliard drew my attention a week ago by really digging in on a tough block from the other side of his quarterback to allow his QB the time to throw the ball. So, maybe it'll be Hilliard after all?
2. Q: Which OLs are in? A: Outside of Shawn Murphy and MAYBE Trey Darilek, who knows? Darilek has admittedly not gotten much action at backup C but his botched snap flat out turned the ball over toward the end of a ball game when the team just needs to hold onto the ball and let the clock work its magic. Murphy stays on just because of his draft standing and you need to give a guy more than just a year sometimes when you see such potential in them. Ndukwe never did enough to make it, if you ask me. Heerspink MAY make it. Byrne and Spanos, I don't know.
That's about it.
And by that, I mean, they called 29 run plays to Ricky, Patrick, Jalen, Lex or the kneel-downs by Beck, while only calling 23 passes by Pennington or Henne. Unfortunately, Trey Darilek tossed a shotgun snap straight to Beck's left ankle and so we have no idea whether that was going to be a pass or a run. Personally, I believe it was going to be a shotgun handoff...as it would have fit with the motif they were going for at that point in the game. Either way, only 43-44% of the calls were pass plays. The defense held the opponent scoreless, they tossed in a special teams score, the only things keeping this game from being called the epitome of 2008 Miami Dolphins football were the penalties (9) and turnovers (3). The latter especially contributed to a lower time of possession than they wanted (26.5 minutes).
The three things they did this off season from a personnel standpoint, that we've been talking about forever, was strengthen the special teams, the run defense, and the run game. You could tell. They bring in a Jumbo Elliott clone at left tackle at #1 overall, moving Carey to his strongest spot RT, grabbing Justin Smiley for $5-6 million a year, spending more draft picks on the interior. They bring in Ernest Wilford, noted for his red zone receiving skills and his blocking abilities. They trade a 4th for a blocking TE in Anthony Fasano, team him up with another blocker in Sean Ryan (or Justin Peelle). They bring back Ricky Williams, spend two draft picks on big 225+ pound runners. I mean, it's as obvious as it gets. Meanwhile on D they spend a bunch filling up the front seven with plugger after plugger: Jason Ferguson, Phil Merling, Kendall Langford, Randy Starks, Akin Ayodele, Reggie Torbor. They pull Matt Roth out to OLB, which is nothing if not a move to set the edge and stop the run. They get rid of Zach Thomas because he's too small for their tastes. Filling out the personnel with run stoppers is as obvious as filling out the offensive personnel with run producers. But on STs, they spent almost as much attention, grabbing guys like Nate Jones, Keith Davis, Boomer Grigsby, the previously mentioned Sean Ryan, Reggie Torbor, keeping on Camarillo, Cobbs, Ed Miles, hiring John Bonamego.
What they did with respect to the run game, run defense and special teams, stands out when you compare it to the aspects of the team that they knew they could not necessarily afford to help more significantly. Namely, the pass offense and pass rush. They traded Jason Taylor, which gave us a significant downgrade in pass rush consistency. They tried for Calvin Pace but he wasn't a truly significant pass rusher in Zona, and they didn't grab any great pass rushers in the draft. The WRs are loaded with young guys and, quite frankly, guys that aren't exactly all that good. The TEs are leveraged toward ground blocking and the only pass catcher is terribly inconsistent (Martin). The quarterbacks are what they are, obviously they spent on Henne for the future knowing full well it's not going to do much for the passing game now.
Anyway, all three strategies showed up just the way you'd hope in this game. Williams, Parmele, Cobbs and Hilliard produced 156 yards on 26 carries (6.0 ypc). The Chiefs couldn't get anything done on the ground on the first team D, Larry Johnson carried 13 times for 36 yards. And, on Special Teams, well...we all saw what happened there. But, even aside from that, they averaged 22.6 yards per kick return, and 7.5 yards per punt return. Patrick Cobbs returned our only kickoff of the game for 39 yards. Davone Bess had a very nice punt return calles back on penalty. Special teams were all around pretty darn good.
I really had a lot of notation on this game, mainly because I had the opportunity to watch it out how I would want to watch it: recorded.
First thing is first, I read through some reviews of this game but I'm surprised there isn't more talk about the fact that Phil Merling played almost the entire second half as a Strongside Outside Linebacker. First is the bad, at times it really looked like his first action at that position...which it was. He didn't play with the same high energy that Matt Roth played at in the game, which is kind of interesting. Then again, there's the good. He looked like quite the mismatch taking on TEs and RBs on his way to the backfield, and sure enough he got a sack from that SOLB position. It was hard to get a real beat on what he looked like in coverage, but I can tell you he showed the same chase and redirect abilities on his feet that first had me talking about him at OLB before the draft. This is his position of the future, IMO...he just can't be 290 pounds when he does it because he needs a little more burst than that right off the snap.
Now, rewinding back to the beginning of the game, I'll say that the passrush looked ok, but inconsistent. I have a feeling that will plague us all year. It's not like it should be a surprise. As I said, we focused on the run defense, run offense and special teams. Obviously, next year they're going to focus on the pass offense, and pass defense.
Inconsistent means sometimes good, sometimes bad. That's what you really see in pass rush from everyone in our four defensive line formations. One play, Quentin Moses would show really good pass rush. Next play, completely washed out like he doesn't belong out there. Randy Starks has the ability to every now and then pressure the pocket from defensive tackle, and other times he just looks helpless. Langford and Merling still go through that, too. Joey Porter, who got a sack rushing the passer from Right Defensive End in a four down linemen formation...looked bad on a few other occasions doing the same. Most of this also applies to the 3-4 formations.
Believe it or not, our most consistent pass rusher in the 3-4 may actually be Matt Roth. I don't mean to say that he's our BEST pass rusher because he's not. But, he might be the most consistent and predictable. We all know his tendency to rely on the bull rush. He also added some speed rush to his repertoire in this game, with some decent results. From the OLB position, his bull rush at 280 pounds is actually pretty effective. He gets a good four yards of steam going before he makes contact with guys a lot of time, whether that be a tailback, fullback, tight end or even sometimes an offensive guard. He's got such power and hand usage that he does a really consistent job breaking the pocket's integrity in those situations. If you get an offensive tackle on him before he can get a head of steam, I think you don't really have to worry about him. But, if you're doing that, someone else has an opportunity. Anyway, Roth not only looked good in pass rush, he looked alright in coverage on fullbacks and tight ends. There was one moment where he disengaged coverage from a FB to give Croyle chase and Croyle got it off to the FB. But that's nitpicky.
Joey Porter gave way to Quentin Moses in the game pretty early. Kendall Langford also gave way to Randy Starks early and often. Porter, I imagine, was limited because of injury...and yes, I'm getting worried about that one. Langford though, I imagine that they really want to get Randy Starks involved in the rotation heavily, and that means the rookie will have to come off the field.
Akin Ayodele really showed up in this game. I had one note about him doing a superb job defeating a block from a guard in order to put pressure on a screen play. Then, there was the goal line stand, where he and Phil Merling teamed up twice to stop the Chiefs from scoring. That was pretty huge. Akin definitely gets a gold star, even if he's not fast enough to track Larry Johnson out to the flat effectively on a swing pass.
If you ever get depressed about the prospect of watching Matt Roth cover people, watch Quentin Moses. Yikes.
Speaking of which, was that Randy Starks dropping back into coverage on a zone blitz from a four down line setup? Double yikes.
Jason Allen got his hands on more balls than Debbie on her latest trip to Dallas. Funny how far this guy has come. Now, he's even looking good playing cornerback? On a day when Chris Crocker got his big chance, starting ahead of Allen supposedly so that the coaches could get a better idea of whether they should keep him or Renaldo Hill...Jason Allen decided to make some noise himself and say, hey don't forget about me.
And you know what? Renaldo Hill did the same. This is what happens when you put quality veterans like Hill and Crocker together and force them to compete for their livelihoods. Hill jumped one pass beautifully. He also got his hands on another he could have picked off.
Chris Crocker was ok in man coverage when asked to do that and ok as a safety but don't ever ask this guy to blitz. His effort was pretty poor in that department. He and Will Allen were also caught trailing a streaking open Dwayne Bowe on a poorly thrown ball. Then again, he had a forced fumble on special teams that was called back by a Justin Peelle formation penalty.
While we're on the secondary Lehan looked nice with that pick but really you can't say that he's fully back. Or that he's not. There just wasn't much to go on in this game, you never got to see him run down the field with people. His pick came on a short jump of a predictable pass, not any special athletic effort. I still believe Goodman starts. He worked with the first unit before Lehan even got hurt, and I think they're confident in both guys and the difference is the health. Goodman is for sure healthy, Lehan is not for sure.
Courtney Bryan made some plays back there. How did safety go from being so unbelievably weak last year to pretty good? Keith Davis is the only guy that has yet to really stand out back there to me in preseason, but one would have to think he has his place on this team.
Or does he?
Jumping back over to the offensive line, Jake Long certainly had his stiffest test so far as a pro from Tamba Hali and he fared decently. Not great, but certainly decent. There were at least two occasions where Hali broke the pocket integrity a little bit on Jake but I am not comfortable saying he got any clean cracks at the quarterback...because I didn't notice any. That in itself is an accomplishment for the rookie Long, who really is coming along quite nicely.
Samson Satele really had a tough game. I saw shouright harp on this earlier so I paid attention and he was right. The guy missed several times some blocks out in space. Once was a screen, guy got a shot at Ricky. Another was the big toss to Ricky Williams, Satele missed his man on the pull and Ricky had to break his tackle. On a third play I have Satele allowing a pressure to go right by him on a pass play. The play was completed, but that still doesn't look good. But, it wasn't all bad he bounced right back after that play and made a great block on a pull.
I thought Donald Thomas had a decent game, but that should be viewed within context. Outside of Parmele's 80 yard run, the OL paved the way for about 3.0 yards per carry...NOT good enough. The second string OL blocked that 80 yard run. Ricky got about 3.9 ypc which is pretty decent, especially when you consider he got a high amount of those carries toward the goal line. But then, didn't that series end in a FG? Yeah, it did. About 3.9 ypc plus a TD on that goal line series would have been ok. About 3.9 ypc with just a FG to show for that goal line series is not ok. So Long, Smiley, Satele, Thomas and Carey need to do a better job next time.
Boomer Grigsby was open for a touchdown on that play where Pennington threw it to Fasano and Fasano didn't quite get depth enough for a TD. By the way, that had to be three different times Fasano didn't get enough depth for the first down or touchdown. That guy needs to be a lot more aware of the sticks.
Reagan Mauia did his part to help him back into the race at FB. It might be too little, too late...but he is responsible for that Jalen Parmele TD run. Without the Juggernaut making a heads up play to get up from having just made a block, to run to Parmele's back and push cart him into the end zone...that TD doesn't happen. That play was 3rd & 2, so without Mauia's efforts, it's a 20-0 ball game. Those 4 points in other games could be the difference between victory and defeat.
Ted Ginn did an ok job receiving. I mean, of course that punt return was brilliant but the receiving was just ok. Good shoe top catch on a low pass.
Pennington's long vertical throw to Hagan was a mooooooooooonball. Get use to that with Penny.
Armstrong had a tough game. He had a drop hit him in the chest. He got absolutely CRUSHED by a linebacker on that one STs play, showing very definitively that he should not be covering kickoffs. Punts? Maybe. Kickoffs? Absolutely not. He did block well downfield for Parmele on the 80 yard run, but when that's the only good thing you do? Not good enough to make the roster.
Cobbs, Camarillo, Bryan, Hilliard, Jason Allen all made STs plays. One guy who stood out as being bad on STs though was Jalen Parmele.
Chad Henne had some ok throws but this was a pretty inconsistent outing for him. That interception to Peelle (poor guy kept showing up in bad ways all over the field) was poorly thrown, period. Can't lay that one on Peelle in my book. He did have a nice on-target throw in the red zone to Bess over the middle that got them valuable real estate toward the goal line.
What questions got answered for me?
1. Q: John Beck or Josh McCown? A: John Beck. The snaps that John Beck took were symbolic in nature. You can't claim that he took those snaps in some effort to showcase him for trade. All he did was hand off the ball and then take three victory formation kneel downs. In a race where the coaches view reps as so supremely valuable that they've constantly been a handful of players under every roster limit, those reps are symbolic and I'd be willing to bet that Beck excelled in practice in order to get those reps. That could be the edge he needs JUST to make the roster. Yes, I realize he's in a dog fight to make the roster. But, I also happen to think he's done it and the snaps he took last night may have been a sign of that. I haven't been trolling enough but I'm waiting to hear someone imply that the fumble was his fault somehow. That would be pretty hilarious, haven't seen it yet but I'm sure someone will do it at some point.
2. Q: Who are the WRs? A: Greg Camarillo, Ernest Wilford and Davone Bess. Anthony Armstrong surely made some noise, but in a night where he needed to impress, he played like he was choking a little bit. The dropped pass, the STs flattening, there was another play where Chad Henne threw a cutoff to Armstrong down the left sideline right at where the first down sticks were and Armstrong did not cut his route off at the sticks he just kept going. Given Henne's history of being a pretty heads up player, I would be willing to bet that Armstrong made the gaffe. Wilford has been TRYING to play his way off this roster, but IMO neither Armstrong nor Foster did enough to outweigh the work that Wilford has done in the NFL, during regular season games, including in the playoffs. Some would have you believe that David Kircus did enough, but the coaches disagreed and booted Kircus off this roster even before Armstrong and Foster.
3. Q: Which safety is out? A: Would you believe if I said Keith Davis? The reality is we know they won't keep 6 safeties...but you could make a case for all 6 of them. Truthfully, Keith Davis is right there with Courtney Bryan and Renaldo Hill as far as possibly being out. Bryan got victimized deep by Hoag last week in Jacksonville. Renaldo Hill has only started coming alive lately. The only play I can honestly remember Keith Davis making in all preseason was where he almost recovered that fumble in the end zone that Paul Soliai caused, but even that wasn't a high impact play. I guess the answer to this question is that I still don't know.
4. Q: Which TEs are in? A: To me, Fasano, Martin, and Peelle. I know that Peelle got his name into this game for mostly wrong reasons. But, I have to look closely at how he actually played, aside from penalties and whatnot, and the reality is he was on the verge of making two big touchdown plays. Can we fault him because the refs said, for some reason, that he didn't catch that touchdown? That was a great route and catch if you ask me. Then there was Henne's interception and I can't fault him at all for that. He ran that route well, was a size mismatch, and did a good job leaping over the CB's back and trying to take the ball from him even though the ball looked like it was thrown to the CB more so than Peelle. Henne's got to learn to put that ball more on the outside because that ball really was thrown like it was intended for the CB, not the TE on his outside shoulder. Better thrown ball and I believe Peelle has that touchdown. Bottom line to me is Sean Ryan just NEVER did anything to secure his spot, and I know Justin Peelle can show up and play. I remember some people arguing last year that if they could only keep five players on the roster, Peelle would be one of them. I never agreed with anyone that argued that, but it is a testament to how good he looked before the wheels fell off the whole offense mid-season.
I'll tell you what questions I can't answer.
1. Q: Which RBs are in? A: Clueless. Reagan Mauia really fought back but I'm sure Boomer Grigsby is above him. But, what of Patrick Cobbs and Lex Hilliard? Hilliard has run pretty good and hard, not special but neither has Cobbs run special. Cobbs has been making some STs plays but in this game I noticed Hilliard making some STs plays as well. Hilliard drew my attention a week ago by really digging in on a tough block from the other side of his quarterback to allow his QB the time to throw the ball. So, maybe it'll be Hilliard after all?
2. Q: Which OLs are in? A: Outside of Shawn Murphy and MAYBE Trey Darilek, who knows? Darilek has admittedly not gotten much action at backup C but his botched snap flat out turned the ball over toward the end of a ball game when the team just needs to hold onto the ball and let the clock work its magic. Murphy stays on just because of his draft standing and you need to give a guy more than just a year sometimes when you see such potential in them. Ndukwe never did enough to make it, if you ask me. Heerspink MAY make it. Byrne and Spanos, I don't know.
That's about it.
