Unlike most of you, I'm pretty happy with the Tampa vs Miami preseason game

[normaldude]

First of all, for preseason games, I don't care which team "wins". What I'm looking for is for individuals to answer question marks, and see who makes plays and who makes mistakes.

Among our starters, most are veterans. Only two starters are unproven rookies - Sean Smith and Brian Hartline.

So my questions going into this game were:

1. Can Sean Smith continue being a shutdown corner? The answer was "yes". Sean Smith continued to impress in coverage.

2. Can Brian Hartline burn NFL cornerbacks deep? Brian Hartline averaged 23 yds/catch his senior year, and regularly burned CBs deep. Some have said that he wouldn't be able to do it against NFL CBs, but tonight he showed that he could. While he's not a true deep threat, he will stretch the field more than Bess/Cam/Turner can.

Personally, I think we have a better team this year. Guys like Donald Thomas, Jason Taylor, Sean Smith, Brian Hartline are addressing weaknesses and providing upgrades. If we can stay healthy, I think we'll be one of the better teams in the NFL.

 

[ronnieb_23]

First of all, for preseason games, I don't care which team "wins". What I'm looking for is for individuals to answer question marks, and see who makes plays and who makes mistakes.

Among our starters, most are veterans. Only two starters are unproven rookies - Sean Smith and Brian Hartline.

So my questions going into this game were:

1. Can Sean Smith continue being a shutdown corner? The answer was "yes". Sean Smith continued to impress in coverage.

2. Can Brian Hartline burn NFL cornerbacks deep? Brian Hartline averaged 23 yds/catch his senior year, and regularly burned CBs deep. Some have said that he wouldn't be able to do it against NFL CBs, but tonight he showed that he could. While he's not a true deep threat, he will stretch the field more than Bess/Cam/Turner can.

Personally, I think we have a better team this year. Guys like Donald Thomas, Jason Taylor, Sean Smith, Brian Hartline are addressing weaknesses and providing upgrades. If we can stay healthy, I think we'll be one of the better teams in the NFL.

That's what I was watching too man an was impressed with how they played in these conditions. In another there was a list of weaknesses from tonights game and they all could be brought back to the weather. Obviously that's not the ONLY reason the D let some recievers roam free or make our run D look terrible but when the ground is wet won't the running backs have more of an advantage with seeing the field and knowing what they're going to do where as the D has to try and break down and tackle him? This game is not as bad as ppl are making it out to be but these guys better get used to this rainy weather!

 

[JT-forpresident]

there was absolutely nothing impressive in that game...

the two biggest surprises were sean smith and hartline who both made nice plays, but if you pitch in the plays they botched, it's not what i would call an overrall impressive performance...

seriously, it was one of the sloppiest game i've ever seen in my life (from both ends ! tampa really played poorly also ) , total waste of time, i would've been better served watching two CPUs face off at madden ....

 

[fishypete]

I'm not so happy as you are...and here's why. The Bucs reserve receivers beat both our starting corners...not their starting receivers...they didn't play.

 

[Awsi Dooger]

Smith looks the part and I really like him. Athletic arrogance. But he could have been burned several times in key situations tonight by an accurate QB.

 

[FinHopeful]

I'm not so happy as you are...and here's why. The Bucs reserve receivers beat both our starting corners...not their starting receivers...they didn't play.

You have a good point. I am not disappointed in Sean Smith because he is a rookie, and I expect him to have growing pains. I am disappointed with Will Allen. I was hoping that the injuries last year were the reason for Allen's inability to make plays. This game makes that hope seem unreasonable.

 

[FinHopeful]

there was absolutely nothing impressive in that game...

Your opinions seem to harsh to me. The team was not impressive, but I was impressed with a number of qualities I saw in Hartline. He truly seems to understand his role within the offense. I remember Ginn looking lost during his rookie year. I never saw Hartline lost or saw Hartline miss an assignment. Hartline drew a number of penalties, so he was challenging the CBs. He does not seem like a starter. He just made to many technical errors with handling the bump and positioning his body.

 

[Cobra84]

I can't say I have any real feelings for what happens during preseason football.

If the preseason had anything to do with the regular season, the Lions should have been 19-0 last year as they were 4-0, had the 8th ranked offense, and had the best scoring defense (only 8 points a game) during the preseason.

I remember Ginn looking lost during his rookie year.

To be fair, everyone except Ronnie Brown looked lost that year. Being a rookie on a team with clueless coaches is not good for development.

 

[Awsi Dooger]

You must have bet the under

 

[Phin-o-rama]

it's preseason


if we play like that in a real game, I will be worried.

 

[Butterfrog 2.0]

Smith was far from impressive in coverage last night. He let up several passes and like someone said above with an accurate QB would have gotten BURNED. This wasn't against top flight WR's either. I still like Smith and think he will be a very good player for us, but he didn't have a good game by any means last night. Vontae played better than Smith did.

 

[az fin fan]

the long third down coversions we kept giving up were pretty bad. cant believe w allen was getting beat like that. I gotta go with the team just being tired.

 

[Danny]

in defence of the corners, the pass rush(or lack of)wasn't really there....their QB had plenty of time to trow for the most part.

Ozzy rules!!

 

[Butterfrog 2.0]

in defence of the corners, the pass rush(or lack of)wasn't really there....their QB had plenty of time to trow for the most part.

Ozzy rules!!

What game were you watching? The pass rush was maybe the biggest positive from last nights game. Everybody was getting after the QB.

 

[Sirspud]

I can't say I have any real feelings for what happens during preseason football.

If the preseason had anything to do with the regular season, the Lions should have been 19-0 last year as they were 4-0, had the 8th ranked offense, and had the best scoring defense (only 8 points a game) during the preseason.


To be fair, everyone except Ronnie Brown looked lost that year. Being a rookie on a team with clueless coaches is not good for development.

Look, we're 3-0 in the preseason and nobody is opening champagne bottles. Everyone knows that winning and losing in the preseason is completely meaningless, but how you play certainly is not. We're upset because our team played like crap even though we won!