dolfan4good said:
I agree on Boston and Diamond.... maybe Morris. I was not impressed by frerotte.
You guys are taking me all wrong. I am NOT predicting DOOM and GLOOM for the season. I have hope that we can play well. However, afterreading ALL the camp reports and listening to all the optimistic posts on here, I had higher expectations for individual performances! That's all Im saying.
You've got a good point about the individual performances with the good TC reports. But again, you have to realize that we weren't trying to win. In TC, they're working on strategy... they're implementing things and actually have a plan to follow.
In this game, it should have been quite obvious that they were being quite vanilla. They were prepared for a scrimmage essentially, where they could get some of the younger guys some game experience... the general tempo, some situations, and the whole atmosphere of being suited up against someone who isn't on your team.
The Bears, in contrast, made no illusions to not playing to win. They blitzed on just about every play... to the point that the announcers commented that they were playing extremely aggressive for such a meaningless game.
I expected them to look better, sure... but when you've got one team out there scrimaging... and the other playing like it was their home opener... the one that is scrimaging is bound to be made fools of.
Everyone likes to equate the superior performance of Frerrote as his being the superior QB... but they also have to take into account that the OL made a few adjustments and did a little bit better job giving him some time. You also have to take into account that he was playing against the 2nd string defense.
That's also another thing I noticed... our late game QBing looked very impressive... but I think that was more a factor of the bears toning it down more than anything. From what I could tell, the 1st team wasn't really working on things in a scrimmage type setting... they were playing a game. As the Bears 2nd and 3rd and 4th string guys started comming in, they played much less intense... and seemed to bring it back to the regular 'ole scrimmage speed that our starters were running at.
I chalk it up to the difference in philosophies that Saban and Lovie had on the game more than anything. Again, if they're still playing like that the last preseason game... or worse in the 1st game of the season, then we're in trouble. Until then I'm not going to get worried... even about individual performances.
