I liked what I saw of the DL, Clark and Lowery in particular. I don't really know who the back ups were going against, didn't pay attention, but they were getting decent push and saw lots of effort as well.
I think Gannon hexed the safeties. He no sooner got done talking about how great of a tackling group they are and Burnett, Brice and everyone else seemed to miss a tackle right on cue and "shoulda" been tackles for loss turned into 10 yard gains. ( I may be exaggerating so don't quote me)
Overall, there was so good play out of the defense. Those misses wouldn't even concern me in the least had we not just seen a season of it last year. But I am maintaining they have a lot of time to clean things up, so we'll see. I wasn't expecting it all to be solved in preseason game 1.
Did not like 1st team run game success. Fumble, blocking didn't seem to be there. After that though, I did like WIlliams. He looks like a RB. Didn't see much from whoever came next, Jones? By the end it was such a cluster i take nothing from it unless I can watch it again and focus in. Was Rip being held out? I could of swore Kerridge got most of the work early, or all of it even. I wasn't paying that close of attention at FB. I heard he's fumbled a few times in camp. If we have a guy that can do what Rip does and hang on to the ball too, i have no doubt we only keep one and it's not Rip if that's the case.
I liked all the WR's. Hope Dupre is ok. he took a good shot. All they guys were battling out there. Hundley has to step up. Underthrowing a lot, but looked to be in control most of the time. his INT I think was because he expected McCaffery to clear out that defender and he was actually throwing to the deeper receiver, but he rant right into him, holding them both up. By the time he started into his route again, Hundley was throwing it and the defender was right there.
He has to see that, hopefully he learns from it. At least that was my interpretation. The 2 yahoos announcing the game said he was looking for Max, but I don't think so, and they hardly showed any replays last night at all. and you couldn't rely on them to accurately tell you what was happening on the field. I get that your job is being paid to talk, but I'd prefer they actually talk about things really happening on the field rather than a bunch of lines they may have memorized or are currently reading off of a script.
M. Clark looks like he could catch that TD pass all day long. I just get the feeling he could make the team and get 14 passes to him all year and all 14 would be a high back shoulder in the endzone for TD's.
Callahan sure is fun to watch. He just goes with whatever he feels like. can move and throw. Has to learn when to protect the ball some.
Didn't like all the injuries. Seems we're off to a great start. Randall doesn't need a concussion, he needs to practice and get better. Other than that TD play there was nothing too terrible out there. King's coverage needs a lot of work along with some others, but I think everyone's expectations should come back down to earth after seeing it first hand last night. Kid can come up and tackle well, and that's important too, but there's more to being a CB. As for Jones, I didn't see anything from him that stood out at all, other than a whiff where he was mostly left standing and didn't even grab air. Certainly not what I was expecting after reading about all this praise. Other than his arm sleeve out there, I wouldn't have even known he was on the field. Dix, Burnett and Brice are clearly our best safeties.
Brice was just an injured finger. Maybe he's held out of contact, but i'm not worried about him. Barclay was competing for a back up spot. His injury looked to be longest lasting. Might make some happy, but at this point i'm fine with competition. I'd rather guys earn it, than win it because their competition was injured. I'm sure there's more but that's all I have off the top of my head.
I'm looking for sure tackling and stubborn defense. Looking for Randall to not get hurt...whoops first defensive series...oh well... Fire Capers.
