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Did Anyone Notice...

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Eight_one

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Did anyone notice that almost 70% (22 of 32 teams) of teams scored 10 points or less in the 1st half of their 3rd preseason games. The rundown was:

- 0 Points: Eagles, Bills, Cowboys, Titans
- 3 Points: Redskins, Patriots, Packers, Raiders, Ravens
- 5 Points: Browns
- 6 Points: Vikings, Lions, 49ers, Falcons
- 7 Points: Colts, Chargers
- 9 Points: Panthers
- 10 Points: Dolphins, Seahawks, Chiefs, Steelers, Jaguars

Admittedly, Packers, Cowboys and Ravens didn't play their week 1 starting QB, but the general trend of 1st team offenses not lighting up the scoreboard holds true.

I wonder if a combination of the CBA restrictions on practice time (O takes longer to hone than D), combined with:

- better athletes playing D than in the past
- coaches holding their cards close to their chest during preseason
- players trying to avoid injury

is a major factor in more dominant preseason defenses?

Are teams maybe just planning on working through the rust during the first month of the season?

So what does that all mean for the Fin's O? To me it says:

- the preseason doesn't necessarily mean a huge amount
- stats for individual players and units through the preseason (eg. only 1 sack given up by o-line; Tannehill: 29/39, 247yrds, 74.4%, 1TD, 0 Int, Qbr 99.0; Drake: 15att, 102 yards, 6.8 yrds/att) could be looked at as a positive, but again don't mean much
- The first team appears to be right in line with the rest of the league

Looking around the league just gave me some perspective...

I mean should NE be jumping off a cliff because Brady and Co only mustered 3 points against essentially the same unit that Miami dropped 12 on the week before?... How many times have we seen the Pats start the season slow only to end up with the best record in the conference/league?

Likewise, should all the teams where their number 1s failed to score a TD, or failed to score period, be expecting a dire offensive outlook for the season?

From a wider team perspective, should teams give a **** if in the second half of their 'dress rehearsal', players that are most likely not even going to be on the roster come week 1, surrendered leads or failed to do much on O or came from behind to win a game?

I mean should Tampa who gave up 20 points in the 4th to surrender a 20-6 half time lead vs Detroit be concerned about their defensive frailties or Detroit be celebrating their capability of being able to come from behind?... me thinks a big fat "No!" to both.

My point is that shouldn't we just:

- keep things in perspective
- take the fact that the 1st team O and D appear to have corrected issues from week to week as a positive

and just wait until the season actually starts before claiming this season is going to be garbage and contemplating suicide?
 
Very well written post, thanks for the contribution and welcome!

I’m of the mindset that we should watch the preseason for exactly what the coaches watch for: individual performance. These are job interviews for every player on the field. I don’t care if you are a vet starter or a rookie, coaches and coordinators (from EVERY team) are looking to put the best 11 people on the field in the best situation to win. That’s what these games are for - don’t get riled up about wins and losses, this is trial and error scrimmage to help decide the 53 man roster and the depth chart.

I think we have a lot of promising standouts this year, and a fair amount of lackluster performances (looking at you, Tank) and I think it will be an interesting cut down.
 
I don't know what happened to the Patriots in Week 3 but they were really, really good in 1 & 2.
 
First of all, scoring over 1 quarter isn't really off. If a team scored 10 points a quarter, they would have an offensive explosion for 40 points a game on average. Those are rare. A more average number would be 20 points a game, but that comes down to 5 points a quarter … and only one oddball team, the Cleveland Browns, managed that. I mean … how sad is it when your offense scores 3 points and your defense scores almost as many (2) and that's the reason you're no longer on the bottom of the scoring rankings, LOL.
 
The last 2 posts kind of back up what I'm saying. The sample size of 1st team action is very small, so you can't really draw any conclusions from preseason. Also, the timing of the games relevant to the preseason process for each team has an impact...NE could look really good in first 2 weeks because they are running what they've been running for ever, while another team may be a little behind but catches up in later weeks...
 
I take heart in what looks like problems on O and D being fixed week to week, with my fingers crossed that come week 1 the team will be fully primed. However, if you look at the message boards and media, there seems to be a big deal being made about a 2nd half beat down by the Ravens of the Fins backups, as if they are a reflection of what the team is going to put on the field week 1
 
Just a little nugget...It seems at least winning 1 preseason game should be on your to do list. No team has won the Super Bowl since the expansion without at least scoring more points in one of them.
So if your goal is to win it all and you believe history...
 
Other than the back up QB performances, who else will people be looking out for on Thursday?

Potentially Tank & Lippett, maybe Ford?
 
Eight_one said:
Other than the back up QB performances, who else will people be looking out for on Thursday?

Potentially Tank & Lippett, maybe Ford?
Click to expand...

I just can’t watch anymore preseason football. I’m not even going to record this one. I especially cannot listen to Griese and company call another game.
 
A string of offensive oriented coaches are revealing zilch of their offensive strategy in these preseason games. We have seen nothing of how offenses on good teams will operate and it's deliberate. Lots of teams haven't played their star starting players because they don't want them injured.
 
It's pre-seaon and evaluation of the roster is more important than points.

It's not to say that Miami isn't going 3-13 or 13-3 it's just the pre-seaon and I'm not even watching overall team talent. When I watch games I'm watching individual players for execution and performance more than overall team play.
 
A lot of teams are using the 2nd preseason game as their dress rehearsal. They want that extra week to get healthy if somebody gets dinged up.
 
spot on, OP.

Some people are incredulous when I've been saying we're going to have a very good offense.

RT is back to form; OL is better than it's ever been for RT; We have faster, deeper,smarter, and more disciplined WRs than before; We have a TE; our RBs are deeper and more versatile; we have a coach that knows O (despite what some think).

Now the D needs to toughen, but I think it actually shiws signs of being one of the better ones in RT's tenure.

and per Gase, this is more of a TEAM, which may be the best thing of all.

CAUTION- SLOW DOWN for one fun season!
 
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