What an awesome first win but I'm more excited about the culture, heart and swagger demonstrated by a few our new additions , especially Moreno. There was a sense of heart, fire and passion that seemed to be contagious, even to a no heart bum like mike Wallace, that helped solidify the win. Hopefully this will break the love spell this staff seemed to have with Lamar Miller, who if not for his speed is a marginal NFL talent.
Now onto some more general thoughts and take aways;
Mike Wallace is a bum. A one trick, chest catching, fingerpointing, football IQ devoid, bum. The fumble is on him. Sorry, you caught the ball and had the time to not only make a football move, but take about 2-3steps with the ball. Could the ball have been thrown better? Of course, it was slightly behind him but this blaming RT17 for a WR fumble is ridiculous.Another big 20 yard completion left on the field when he let a ball go throughhis hands and hit him in the helmet. Really? Number one wr money for that is inexcusable.The blown TD where he walked out of bounds on a ball easily catchable had me cursing his name for a good 5 minutes at the bar too. I will give him somecredit, the TD catch on the "tipped" ball was heads up on a poor decisionto throw into double coverage to a baby poop soft WR but a number one WR makes that play without the dramatics. I was on the fence with Wallace as a player before this game and these incidents didn't help matters but the play on the crossing route on the game sealing touchdown drive, where he actually put his head down and punished the defender on the end of the run, gave me hope that maybe he's starting to pull his head out of his ass and play with some heart.Here's to that hope.
Lamar Miller has had enough time in the NFL to not be making these mistakes. The revamped O-line creates a semi truck sized hole and he fumbles in the open field. Really? More troubling, aside from the usual complaint that he has no clue in pass blocking and goes down when you breath onhim, was the square in route that he pulled up short for in the red zone, effectivelytaking points off the board. I don't know which is worse, that he cut the route off short because he's a moron or stopped short because he's a coward and didn't want to get hit.
Offensive line play that didn't suck! Finally! a totally revamped line and look at the difference. Even the above mentioned bum, Lamar Miller, appeared effective due to the enormous holes. RT17 didn't have to playfrom his back and what a difference in the end result. Not a single player fromlast year started and that should tell you something. We were a fringe playoff team last year with THE WORST LINE IN FOOTBALL that was also decimated with borderline NFL talent starting and later getting benched due to the "bullygate" nonsense. The whole left side of the line was a swinging saloon doorall season. If we can run the ball like we did and keep RT17 off the ground, anAFC east championship is in our near future. It's insulting that train wreckslike the Jest and the Bills get media consideration in reference to giving us a run for the second place spot in the division. You never hear about our improved line and the good job our new GM did fixing our weakness, at the very least making it serviceable.
MORENO!As soon as I saw him touch the ball in preseason game number 3 I felt a rush ofexcitement. This man is playing with a huge chip on his shoulder. The former first round pick that I jokingly dubbed "No-Show" after his extremelyslow and disappointing start in Denver as a first round pick, has won me over. The media and a lot of regular fans attributed his Denversuccess to Manning and to an extent that's true but from what we saw yesterday,the dude can play. His passion was contagious, causing other players to make big plays, fight for yardage and get up yapping at the Patsies. I conclude thatMoreno is that catalyst for the passion you saw. The game sealing TD was a game breaking playthat we haven't had in a RB since Ricky. Making Vince Wilfork whiff and drivingmultiple defenders over the goal line is something we should all be extremelythrilled with.
WRS not named Wallace...still not a huge fan of chest catching, go down like a cheap hooker Hartline as a starter but he didn't do much to piss me off yesterday. He got mugged on a couple of no calls, had acouple of catches, nothing spectacular. I hope he's just a place holder untilLandry gets his stuff together. I'd also like to see Gibson, Matthews andLandry on the field more. They all make plays with the ball in their hand. I'd understand Landry getting worked in slowly because he's a rookie still tryingto adjust to the speed of the game and make those rookie mistakes, like thebotched punt return he should have caught at the 20 instead of letting itbounce inside the ten, but Gibson should be pushing Hartline for that WR spot at this point. Only thing I can attribute to Gibson not being on the field moreis the injury recovery. Clay is the typeof TE I love, as opposed to the Anthony Fassno, I do nothing great type.nothing spectacular from him either. Didn't really get targeted in the firsthalf is my only gripe. Simms, a guy I have high hopes for, dropped a would be TD pass. Hopefully he gets worked in and progresses. I really like this player.
RT17 had an average first half, missing a couple throws and being a little less than 100% accurate on some plays but the second half he wason fire accuracy wise. A couple key drops I already mentioned, Simms and Wallace specifically, and that horrendous quitting on the route by Miller...I wasn't thrilled with the touchdown pass to Wallace because of the double/triplecoverage but it worked out. The play were Wallace haphazardly wandered out of bounds could have been a game killer on a place he basically created on his own, escaping the pressure and throwing a very catchable ball 30-40 yards downfield on the run. A solid day overall with only one bad being the errant INT hethrew off his back foot and pressure in his face. Would have liked to see himeat that sack but I'm happy with his day.
The defense was lights out. We upgraded our secondary withDelmas and Cortland, providing us with thatswagger much like Morenodid on offense. Cameron Wake was Cameron Wake. Vernon continues to make me eat crow and ourback up LBers were fantastic. I liked what I saw from Jenkins and feel like heshould get more playing time. Trusnick looked lost at times to be honest. The D kept us in it long enough to let our offense pull their heads out of their asses.
I initially figured us to win 9-10 games and maybe squeak inas a wild card. Yesterday has me far more optimistic about this season. Themedia is giving us no credit for the win, going with the narrative that thePats lost it instead of us outplaying them. I'll give them about 4 weeks tofigure it out lol! GO PHINS!
Now onto some more general thoughts and take aways;
Mike Wallace is a bum. A one trick, chest catching, fingerpointing, football IQ devoid, bum. The fumble is on him. Sorry, you caught the ball and had the time to not only make a football move, but take about 2-3steps with the ball. Could the ball have been thrown better? Of course, it was slightly behind him but this blaming RT17 for a WR fumble is ridiculous.Another big 20 yard completion left on the field when he let a ball go throughhis hands and hit him in the helmet. Really? Number one wr money for that is inexcusable.The blown TD where he walked out of bounds on a ball easily catchable had me cursing his name for a good 5 minutes at the bar too. I will give him somecredit, the TD catch on the "tipped" ball was heads up on a poor decisionto throw into double coverage to a baby poop soft WR but a number one WR makes that play without the dramatics. I was on the fence with Wallace as a player before this game and these incidents didn't help matters but the play on the crossing route on the game sealing touchdown drive, where he actually put his head down and punished the defender on the end of the run, gave me hope that maybe he's starting to pull his head out of his ass and play with some heart.Here's to that hope.
Lamar Miller has had enough time in the NFL to not be making these mistakes. The revamped O-line creates a semi truck sized hole and he fumbles in the open field. Really? More troubling, aside from the usual complaint that he has no clue in pass blocking and goes down when you breath onhim, was the square in route that he pulled up short for in the red zone, effectivelytaking points off the board. I don't know which is worse, that he cut the route off short because he's a moron or stopped short because he's a coward and didn't want to get hit.
Offensive line play that didn't suck! Finally! a totally revamped line and look at the difference. Even the above mentioned bum, Lamar Miller, appeared effective due to the enormous holes. RT17 didn't have to playfrom his back and what a difference in the end result. Not a single player fromlast year started and that should tell you something. We were a fringe playoff team last year with THE WORST LINE IN FOOTBALL that was also decimated with borderline NFL talent starting and later getting benched due to the "bullygate" nonsense. The whole left side of the line was a swinging saloon doorall season. If we can run the ball like we did and keep RT17 off the ground, anAFC east championship is in our near future. It's insulting that train wreckslike the Jest and the Bills get media consideration in reference to giving us a run for the second place spot in the division. You never hear about our improved line and the good job our new GM did fixing our weakness, at the very least making it serviceable.
MORENO!As soon as I saw him touch the ball in preseason game number 3 I felt a rush ofexcitement. This man is playing with a huge chip on his shoulder. The former first round pick that I jokingly dubbed "No-Show" after his extremelyslow and disappointing start in Denver as a first round pick, has won me over. The media and a lot of regular fans attributed his Denversuccess to Manning and to an extent that's true but from what we saw yesterday,the dude can play. His passion was contagious, causing other players to make big plays, fight for yardage and get up yapping at the Patsies. I conclude thatMoreno is that catalyst for the passion you saw. The game sealing TD was a game breaking playthat we haven't had in a RB since Ricky. Making Vince Wilfork whiff and drivingmultiple defenders over the goal line is something we should all be extremelythrilled with.
WRS not named Wallace...still not a huge fan of chest catching, go down like a cheap hooker Hartline as a starter but he didn't do much to piss me off yesterday. He got mugged on a couple of no calls, had acouple of catches, nothing spectacular. I hope he's just a place holder untilLandry gets his stuff together. I'd also like to see Gibson, Matthews andLandry on the field more. They all make plays with the ball in their hand. I'd understand Landry getting worked in slowly because he's a rookie still tryingto adjust to the speed of the game and make those rookie mistakes, like thebotched punt return he should have caught at the 20 instead of letting itbounce inside the ten, but Gibson should be pushing Hartline for that WR spot at this point. Only thing I can attribute to Gibson not being on the field moreis the injury recovery. Clay is the typeof TE I love, as opposed to the Anthony Fassno, I do nothing great type.nothing spectacular from him either. Didn't really get targeted in the firsthalf is my only gripe. Simms, a guy I have high hopes for, dropped a would be TD pass. Hopefully he gets worked in and progresses. I really like this player.
RT17 had an average first half, missing a couple throws and being a little less than 100% accurate on some plays but the second half he wason fire accuracy wise. A couple key drops I already mentioned, Simms and Wallace specifically, and that horrendous quitting on the route by Miller...I wasn't thrilled with the touchdown pass to Wallace because of the double/triplecoverage but it worked out. The play were Wallace haphazardly wandered out of bounds could have been a game killer on a place he basically created on his own, escaping the pressure and throwing a very catchable ball 30-40 yards downfield on the run. A solid day overall with only one bad being the errant INT hethrew off his back foot and pressure in his face. Would have liked to see himeat that sack but I'm happy with his day.
The defense was lights out. We upgraded our secondary withDelmas and Cortland, providing us with thatswagger much like Morenodid on offense. Cameron Wake was Cameron Wake. Vernon continues to make me eat crow and ourback up LBers were fantastic. I liked what I saw from Jenkins and feel like heshould get more playing time. Trusnick looked lost at times to be honest. The D kept us in it long enough to let our offense pull their heads out of their asses.
I initially figured us to win 9-10 games and maybe squeak inas a wild card. Yesterday has me far more optimistic about this season. Themedia is giving us no credit for the win, going with the narrative that thePats lost it instead of us outplaying them. I'll give them about 4 weeks tofigure it out lol! GO PHINS!
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