BLUEPHIN
Starter
Ok guys, I watched the game this morning and paused, re-peated and backed up all over the place. I found some silver linings to the grey cloud of 8 fumbles and numerous drops and missed tackles.
The Quarterbacks: Gus was not great but he was certainly not as bad as his stat sheet looks this morning. He made alot of throws that an AGGRESIVE receiver should make. The long throws to chanbers and booker were two prime examples. On the chambers throw he was rushed out of the pocket and let loose - chambers had two guys on him and the throw was short, I have seen this type of hookup work against us time and time again. Chambers, if focused on the throw should have at leats attempted to cut short his route and come back to the ball. You cannot blame him but he could have done more. The booker toss was a no-brainer. Booket jumped but short armed the catch instead of goibg up to catch it. If he had attacked the ball the defender (who was behind him) would never of poked it out. Gus also threw behind a few guys but the balls were catchable. Not one of them were way out of the players grasp. again, catches that should be made by pros. A couple of sideline throws were also not bad, chambers actually may have had both feet in on one called out of bounds. The one thing I really liked was gus's obvious familiarity with the O - on one play he was rushed from the left and literally turned and threw to a spot without a pause - it was incompete but the runningback was moving to the spot up-field. It was a throw made on instinct and knowledge. Gus again was not great but I am not as down on him as others.
Feeley: Short, controled throws - did a nice job, moved the team when we were not putting it on the ground. Showed more maturity - he actually threw a couple balls away when nothing was there.
TE: Randy was BAD! Not only did he drop everything around him but he was a revolving door as a blocker. He nearly got people killed back there. Diamond is a keeper, he is not fast but has quick feat and great hands - good blocker aswell.
Runningbacks: Morris was good. Dropped a ball or two and missed an assignment but ran hard and showed his power. Gordon had one really nice run where he stuttered and exploded up field. Minor was ok - very good on special teams. Ricky was nothing special.
O-Line: At first I was horrified by the play of the o-line but after rewinding and pausing a bunch I saw somw pretty good play from some of the guys. Carey was very solid. Actually the left side of the line picked up the blitzes pretty well. Mckinney was not nearly as bad as he has been but he was getting help from hadnot. This may have caused some of their problems because the area around mcdougle was bad. That side of the line is where most of the pressure was coming from. The steelers were also rushing everyone except the kitchen sink and found some room - with gameplanning the QB's would have been safer. The o-line took some hits for the inability of the rb's, TE's and fullbacks missing their blocks on some of the blitzes. The one area they got no push was in the middle for the running game - Mckinney is just not strong enough to push back - he was stood up time and time again. One upside is middleton - on the second team he was smushing guys - he will be in there as soon as hes in game shape - he will help.
Receivers: BAD for the first teamers PERIOD! Poor separation, bad concentration and bad drops all around. Boston was very good! Mann, despite the drop had a good game and welker is a weapon.
Defensive line and linebackers - great pressure all night long! I counted on one hand the number of plays the qb had where he had good throwing lanes - he was constantly having to move around - pressure came from everywhere. The area of concern is there were some breakdowns as far as containment and lanes were concerned in the running game. Some runs busted outside when there should have been a guy there. Another week area was the tackling - guys were not rapping people up. CROWDER is GREAT! I am not overstating it - he hits like a train and was in the right place at the right time - very good instincts. Ireally liked most of what I saw from the line and the lb's.
Secondary: MUCH improved! Good coverage and only a few breakdowns - I am very pleased with the week to week improvement. Russle, daniels, tillman, bell, shulters and others were solid. Well done boys - there were some breakdowns near the endzone but I am not sure whose assignment it was to pick the guys up so I gave them a pass.
Coaching: There was none. No challenges on a couple calls that in a game I would assume would be made - the fumble by pitt. at the endzone was close and chambers catch on the sideline was another. We were very vanilla in all areas and I am sure that is by design.
Special Teams: After last week we showed huge improvement! Good coverage and return play - good growth!
Overall: Guys, if I were to tell you we would have 7 lost fumbles - several in enemy territory and a few in our zone you would say score 35-0. Preseason or not! Well, we were in it, we actually did move the ball and if not for the drops and fumbles would have moved the ball well. Our D WILL has a chance to be very disruptive and i AM NOT totally convinced that our O can't be respectable. Clean up the mental errors and we may be dangerous - if we do not we will be competative but perenial losers. There is hope, I am excited to see what saban does next week.
The Quarterbacks: Gus was not great but he was certainly not as bad as his stat sheet looks this morning. He made alot of throws that an AGGRESIVE receiver should make. The long throws to chanbers and booker were two prime examples. On the chambers throw he was rushed out of the pocket and let loose - chambers had two guys on him and the throw was short, I have seen this type of hookup work against us time and time again. Chambers, if focused on the throw should have at leats attempted to cut short his route and come back to the ball. You cannot blame him but he could have done more. The booker toss was a no-brainer. Booket jumped but short armed the catch instead of goibg up to catch it. If he had attacked the ball the defender (who was behind him) would never of poked it out. Gus also threw behind a few guys but the balls were catchable. Not one of them were way out of the players grasp. again, catches that should be made by pros. A couple of sideline throws were also not bad, chambers actually may have had both feet in on one called out of bounds. The one thing I really liked was gus's obvious familiarity with the O - on one play he was rushed from the left and literally turned and threw to a spot without a pause - it was incompete but the runningback was moving to the spot up-field. It was a throw made on instinct and knowledge. Gus again was not great but I am not as down on him as others.
Feeley: Short, controled throws - did a nice job, moved the team when we were not putting it on the ground. Showed more maturity - he actually threw a couple balls away when nothing was there.
TE: Randy was BAD! Not only did he drop everything around him but he was a revolving door as a blocker. He nearly got people killed back there. Diamond is a keeper, he is not fast but has quick feat and great hands - good blocker aswell.
Runningbacks: Morris was good. Dropped a ball or two and missed an assignment but ran hard and showed his power. Gordon had one really nice run where he stuttered and exploded up field. Minor was ok - very good on special teams. Ricky was nothing special.
O-Line: At first I was horrified by the play of the o-line but after rewinding and pausing a bunch I saw somw pretty good play from some of the guys. Carey was very solid. Actually the left side of the line picked up the blitzes pretty well. Mckinney was not nearly as bad as he has been but he was getting help from hadnot. This may have caused some of their problems because the area around mcdougle was bad. That side of the line is where most of the pressure was coming from. The steelers were also rushing everyone except the kitchen sink and found some room - with gameplanning the QB's would have been safer. The o-line took some hits for the inability of the rb's, TE's and fullbacks missing their blocks on some of the blitzes. The one area they got no push was in the middle for the running game - Mckinney is just not strong enough to push back - he was stood up time and time again. One upside is middleton - on the second team he was smushing guys - he will be in there as soon as hes in game shape - he will help.
Receivers: BAD for the first teamers PERIOD! Poor separation, bad concentration and bad drops all around. Boston was very good! Mann, despite the drop had a good game and welker is a weapon.
Defensive line and linebackers - great pressure all night long! I counted on one hand the number of plays the qb had where he had good throwing lanes - he was constantly having to move around - pressure came from everywhere. The area of concern is there were some breakdowns as far as containment and lanes were concerned in the running game. Some runs busted outside when there should have been a guy there. Another week area was the tackling - guys were not rapping people up. CROWDER is GREAT! I am not overstating it - he hits like a train and was in the right place at the right time - very good instincts. Ireally liked most of what I saw from the line and the lb's.
Secondary: MUCH improved! Good coverage and only a few breakdowns - I am very pleased with the week to week improvement. Russle, daniels, tillman, bell, shulters and others were solid. Well done boys - there were some breakdowns near the endzone but I am not sure whose assignment it was to pick the guys up so I gave them a pass.
Coaching: There was none. No challenges on a couple calls that in a game I would assume would be made - the fumble by pitt. at the endzone was close and chambers catch on the sideline was another. We were very vanilla in all areas and I am sure that is by design.
Special Teams: After last week we showed huge improvement! Good coverage and return play - good growth!
Overall: Guys, if I were to tell you we would have 7 lost fumbles - several in enemy territory and a few in our zone you would say score 35-0. Preseason or not! Well, we were in it, we actually did move the ball and if not for the drops and fumbles would have moved the ball well. Our D WILL has a chance to be very disruptive and i AM NOT totally convinced that our O can't be respectable. Clean up the mental errors and we may be dangerous - if we do not we will be competative but perenial losers. There is hope, I am excited to see what saban does next week.
