Such a poor head coach he brought a team to 2 afcc and got a horrible team to 8 and 8 last year........or maybe all that was luck and he didn't have any part in that
You can think whatever you want about my opinion.I'm through making excuses. Scrimmage or no scrimmage;Bad offense is bad offense.I already clarified that I'll reserve concrete judgement till the events are slightly more meaningful & competitive.That said..we've seen this before under Rex. You can draw your on conclussions but to me this offensive ineptitude is a bad bad sign. Yes perhaps the QB,TE, & OL positions have question marks.But surely you can agree that those positions are vastly improved over what was there as little as 2 years ago.Why is the finished product still so shitty? For the record I never said the 2nd team OL is what sent me over the edge. I actually think w/ the exception of that 4th string OT spot that the 2nd team OL talent is above average.It's filled w/ high ceiling young players who were actually drafted & reportedly have had bright spots in their development.That's a far cry from Tannenbaum's OL depth philosophy of just keeping the best or most experienced of the dirt cheap UDFA crowd.That's why it frustrates me that they got absolutely manhandled in this scrimmage. Seems like every preseason going back to the HERM era..we have back-up O-liners who are incapable of pass blocking or sustaining run blocks. It ends up holding the entire offense back which not only makes for ugly football but also prevents the team & fans the ability to evaluate ANY skill players or for them to make any production based progression.Don't you find that maddening? I wanted the offense to come out & make a statement in this scrimmage.I wasn't asking for alot of points or any specific stat line..what I was looking for was COMPETENCE.Doesn't seem like that occurred.
I'm also worried about the offense although it is early. We should take bets on how many TDs we score in the preseason or how many games it takes. Did we even score any last year?
Are we getting too paranoid? While I have consistently appreciated many of the folks that provide savvy inputs to TTG I can't help but notice that this year the expectations for this team starting in training camp have been borderline over reactive. People stress over the offense and get freaked out because we had 3 running plays in a row from the one yard line. They are already clamoring for Rexs dismissal as if he was calling the plays. Relax. Did it ever dawn on some that may be, just maybe, MM is trying to get the OL solidified and blocking schemes for short field situations evaluated and improved arguably against some of the very best both in the first and second defensive team. This was not about winning or scoring as much as it was about getting better in areas of need. Our O, particularly the OL and QB, as well as the timing with the TE /WR is still work in progress. You know we are skeptical when Hill catches the ball on a forty plus yard play with great separation and all we notice is his form was not perfect, never mind the fact that the ball in that instance is usually expected on the outside shoulder. OK he was not perfect, but if he makes those catches in a real game week after week Ill take it every time. I am surprised that we are reading so much into a first scrimmage. It smacks of past frustrations and I'm guilty as charged. Here is what I took out of last night's green and white. The defense is as tough as we thought up front. That is good news. LB are more than adequate. The secondary might still be a bit of a question mark but we need to see more action first. Some surprises as who stays and who goes might be on the making. Salas, Miles, Reilly. Some rookies might be loosing significant ground. Evans? First preseason game could not get here soon enough. Yes, yesterday the OL and running game sputtered at the goal line, with no game planning. Do we really think that on a real game against such a superb front four we would run the ball down the gut for 3 consecutive times. I don't think so....but if we ever do, then I'll be the first to scream for a coaching change. I think we might be seeing the making of a superb all around D that is making our offense look worse than they really are. No better way to learn that to challenge and train against the best. Personally if this is what it takes for our O to be ready and much better when the season starts, I don't care if they ever score a touch down in practice as long as we do it when it counts. I'll patiently wait to be critical when the real season starts or at least for the second and third pre season game. For now, IMHO they are working out the kinks and what we see is work in progress. Had the offense smoked them yesterday, then we would be worried sick about the D. LOL.
The ceiling for our O is middle of the pack, and I think that's achievable. Our D has a ceiling of best in the NFL. Its not surprising that our middle of the pack O (#optimism) struggled against our top flight D. I'm withholding judgement on the O until the preseason games.
I can see that people are overreacting here and I did not even read 6 pages. They tried to run the ball a ton and probably averaged 3 yards per carry. Sound familiar. Also, how do you get in any sort of rhythm when the 1st 2nd and 3rd team offenses are rotating. Wait until the 3rd preseason game to panic at least.
I don't think Hill's catch was that awkward, he basically was hit by two guys as he came back to the ground. If he had reached out and extended to make the catch without jumping he would have been very exposed to those hits. It was basically that exact play where Polamalu flattened him last year so I can understand it.
As you said, the ball placement left him very exposed and he made sure he secured the football, I'm not sure he would have fared any better had he tried to catch and run there, He probably would have gotten crushed by Landry. The throw here should be deep and over Hill's outside shoulder. If Hill jumps and makes an awkward catch like that on the sideline with no one around him then you can judge.
Geno. They were driving and the play was a down and out on the left side in which Walls (#30) was close enough to the receiver to be able to jump the route. Had he secured it, he was gone (WR was going towards the sideline while Walls 'stepped up' and was already headed in the other direction. - Salas had a busy little game. The guy had a number of catches and though he had one drop, on another play which was a curl pattern for 8 yards, Salas battled 2 DBs to get the extra 2 yards; gritty fight for YAC. - Rontez Miles had a sack and on one other occassion as a WR was being wrestled to the ground he closed from his safety position and nearly took the guy's head off. I mentioned his build in the "official training camp" thread and I must say that while it's very early, it'll be interesting to see what happens to him. He's got a little Calvin Pryor 2.0 in him in a slightly bigger package. - Bohannon was blah last night running the ball. Had one nice block in pass protectio to pick up a blitz but overall, meh…then again the OLs on both the 1st and especially the scrubs were nothing to write home about. - Michael Vick's athleticism even at 34 is something else. The previous practices on let's say, a 7-on-7 drill, Vick (with an 'invisible' DL rushing) would go through his progressions when the primary receiver was covered by drifting and sliding around in the imaginary pocket. Last night on two occassions in particular, his moving around in the pocket…drifting…sliding….and then taking off gained the offense a 1st down when they were faced with long yardage (the first time was with 18 yards to go for a 1st down which he picked up). - Crowd noticeably larger than last year. They counted it at around 7,200 but could've been higher and there were a lot of SRO's folks scattered around as well. - Game ended with 3rd string (with Simms who looks even more out of the mix than last year) directing a "30 yard drive" …. except it was in the wrong directions (penalties, 'touch sacks', etc.)….at that point Rex waved both arms in an "incomplete pass" gesture and pulled the plug on it. - As for the Hill 42-yarder: you could see it was going to be complete and yes he could've kept in stride, but someone hit on the TroyPalamalu hit and it did appear that Hill was bracing and didn't wanted to be planted or "rooted" as he anticipated the hit. It wasn't however as 'pussy-ish' as some might be trying to make it sound. Also in the "official training camp" thread, I made an observation about a previous practice and noticing that many of the receivers (while running a double-move or "Z" pass pattern drill) had a tendency to unnecessarily leave their feet with this little 'jump step' EXCEPT for Kerley and Hill, yes Hill. - What's more concerning than Hill's little leap to glory was the supposed 'running game' was not good last night however it should be noted that a couple of starters (Ivory, Decker, Colon) didn't play that much and were pulled. - Swing passes were often losses of between 3-7 yards and runs wide (sweeps) didn't really generate squat; defense set the edge. - On a bad note (I haven't seen any post-game updates) but Jermaine Cunningham (#55) had his right knee injured and pretty badly from the way he couldn't put any weight on it as he was carried into the clubhouse by a pair of trainers. Didn't look good. Edit: achilles tendon. - UDFA FB Young (#47 out of SDSU) received more playing time and didn't have a bad game. I thought he was going to look like Mike Alstadt (Bucs) but he's a pee-wee height-wise. Jacoby Ford's smaller than I had recalled as well although he's turning into a nice depth pickup-I like him and hope he stays healthy. - Michael Campbell (WR, #18) with a bad comeback pattern that cost Boyd a 1st down completion on a 3rd and long - Campbell didn't break off his pattern in time (Boyd called him over and corrected him as well as give him a slap on the noggin). - Geno overall not bad, again, the OL didn't generate enough 'run balance' to force the defense to load up on the box more allowing Rex to dial up blitz packages and shoot gaps. Bottom line: remember, it is waaaayyyy too early to make hay out of this……and remember, time-wise, this is still way in advance of the relative time frame when the Brett Ratliff-David Clowney combination terroized 5th stringers and sent shock waves of alarm throughout the NFL. Weather-wise, heard it sucked downstate. Upstate, after a rain storm on Thursday morning, beautiful weather.
Every one is bitching about how Hill caught the ball too awkward and didn't position himself the best, I'm just happy he caught the damn ball for once.
Let's remember that this team is going to make it's bones on defense. If you want fireworks...vote for Pedro...I mean Vick.
But what about the STATS?!?!? What were the stats??!!?? Relax, it's a scrimmage. Not shocked the defense was more on their game, it may take a little while for the offense to gel. _
So we get a trophy for making it to the AFC Championship game? Dallas goes to 8-8 every year. Who gives a fuck. I want to get to THE Game and win. This will never happen while Rex is here.
