To read the headlines you wouldn't know it, but it hardly looked like the end of the world last night. When your first team offense hasn't scored a TD in two and a half preseasons, though, you're not allowed the benefit of the doubt. Not scoring is a story, not THE story, but still one that gets more attention than anything else. 

Five things to like:

1. Execution. Well, other than Marc Bulger, both sides of the ball played, mostly mistake free football. Alex Barron threw in a false start in the second quarter for old times' sake, but the offensive line played very well. They opened holes, they made plays. They did allow two sacks, one potentially scary for Bulger, but it was an encouraging performance  and a teaser of what this team could do with Steven Jackson running the ball. 
2. Intensity. Check. That's a factor that can compromise good execution, and we saw that on a couple penalties: Looker's personal foul late in the first and Wade's unnecessary roughness in the third. The defense, the toast of the evening, looked really good, tough and hard to beat, with some nice stands in the red zone. 
3. The d-line looked really good, and the starters came away with 4 sacks. Ok, starting LBs Witherspoon and Culberson had two, but Little looked like a man reborn on his sack and Clifton Ryan put one on the board too. In fact, the front seven together had a great game. Backups too. Chamberlain had 4 tackles, tying for the most with Bartell and Culberson.
4. The tight ends got in on the action. McMichael looked particularly sharp, and if Bulger can get the cob webs out of his brain, talk of his big season should hold up. The backup runners, especially the speedy Pittman, looked good too, thanks largely to the o-line. 
5. The return unit(s) played well too. Dante Hall had two nice kick returns. That helps the offense. The coverage units were okay, with one glaring 36 yard punt return from Chris Davis in the 3rd quarter marring their night.