There were plenty of positives. The starting defense is utilizing plenty of formations and schemes, all aggressive and you can see the disruptive potential once the personnel is to Saban's liking. I certainly can't predict our defensive formations and strategy every play like recent years. Early in the game I doubletaked when Kevin Carter lined up at RDE with Jason on the left. One play later Jason was back at RDE and Kevin was inside. We didn't get the 5 early sacks like last week, but the pressure was there only Roethlisberger sidestepped several potential sacks, often by inches. Traylor has more left than I thought. He has superior instincts to Chester and moves laterally much better than Chester even at his age and bulk.
There are athletes in the secondary. Travis Daniels looks like the type of sleek sticky secondary guy I'm used to watching with my Canes. He might be a better 4th rounder than Will Poole last year.
The special teams were excellent early on. Sammy Morris made a great one-on-one tackle on punt coverage. Welker is like a '70s glory era player, so smart and resourceful. That fumble was bad luck. Welker was smack on the 10 yard line where the cutoff point is supposed to be for fielding or letting it go. Don't overlook the great play he made on an earlier punt by blocking a Steeler cover guy into the end zone to prevent him from keeping the ball out of the end zone.
