Rams Recap: Bradford era starts slow behind weak offensive line
by Ryan Van Bibber on Aug 14, 2010 10:35 PM CDT
in 2010 St. Louis Rams preseason
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PrintSam Bradford got a very Rams-esque welcome to the NFL, getting sacked 3 times, and making the spotlight a little more uncomfortable. Fans and pundits will be anxious to see how the St. Louis Rams' first overall pick responds both physically and mentally from his opener. The coaches will be under scrutiny for a couple of their decisions as well.
Ultimately, Bradford did nothing to disappoint, even as he underwhelmed high expectations. When he finally got on the field after Danny Amendola's touchdown followed promptly by a return fumble, Bradford showed his accuracy and didn't look lost in running a vanilla playbook. Then things got weird. Pass protection, which had been solid in the early going, failed at all spots. Rodger Saffold and Jason Smith both struggled with rushers...on the Vikings' second team. A questionable decision to start Hank Fraley at C and Jason Brown at LG reaped dividends dividends at less than expected rates. One of the first hits Bradford took came from up the middle. The Rams running backs got forced outside further than they should have been, and Vikings rushers started making contact with Bradford.
Mercifully, the half time whistle blew. Out on to the field, stepped Sam Bradford and the same offensive line combo. Fortunately, Bradford seemed none the worse for wear; otherwise, things might have gotten ugly in a hurry in St. Louis. Expect this to be a tough week for the Rams, particularly the players vying for jobs on the offensive line. They really stunk up Bradford's debut. Bradford clearly had some rookie moments himself, but he was really let down by pass protection tonight.
Stiff upper lip. It's only the first preseason game. Plenty of time remains to tighten up play on both sides of the ball and get players healthy.
There were some other high notes on the evening. The first team defense looked good, particularly the front seven. A starting four of Chris Long, Fred Robbins, Clifton Ryan and James Hall, with a pinch of George Selvie, were disruptive and held the line well, keeping the running game a non-factor and putting pressure on the QB. They kept a secondary staffed entirely with second teamers or below from getting too exposed until the guys further down the depth charts started trickling into the mix. As the second teamers started getting work in, the results were a little mixed. The secondary was playing without Bartell, Fletcher, King and James Butler to start the night. Kevin Dockery and Jerome Murphy left the game injured, leaving the depth chart exposed.
The Rams kept the play book pretty vanilla, not unusual for the preseason opener. Doubtlessly, it frustrated a lot of fans. Don't get too worried, yet. This is an offense that looked better but has work to do. With the pass protection the way it was tonight, an extra second with the ball in hand might have meant the end for the QB. The receivers need some work too.
In the end, 7 points, a pithy amount of total yards, and too many sacks to settle for made it bad trip down memory lane for Rams fans. The team has to show some real improvement in the week ahead.
High notes
- Predictions of a Chris Long breakthrough make more and more sense.
- Larry Grant looks like a man possessed. The Rams may have a gem in this guy.
- George Selvie is one to watch. He looked really good out there again tonight, not perfect, but like he's ready to contribute.
- Danny Amendola seemed to have the return job locked down with his TD. His fumble put Mardy Gilyard back in the picture. I thought he looked good as a receiver.
- If the Rams can get some pass protection Laurent Robinson looks poised to pick up where left off.
- Michael Hoomanawanui showed those hands and definitely has some potential at TE.
- Chris Ogbonnaya did well for himself as a receiving threat, but not so much as regular old running back.
- Marquis Johnson could have played a lot worse for a seventh round pick. Keep an eye on him as the preseason progresses to see what kind of progress he makes.
- The defensive first team clearly understands their roles and assignments. They did well in that department.
- Sam Bradford...we talked Bradford above, but it's worth repeating. He did nothing that should scare anyone away. The future belongs to him if he wants it...and if he can get some pass protection.
- Brian Westbrook was winner. I can't imagine the Rams won't be itching to sign him after tonight. The vision of life without Steven Jackson, easing back into it following back surgery, is just too frightening.
Low lights
- A.J. Feeley was rusty, understandable since he hasn't really played much outside of practices since 2007.
- Saffold and Smith struggled. They'll have lots of pressure on them now.
- Cornerback injuries. The Rams backfield was a trouble spot to begin with since they started the night without both starting corners. A healthy season from this unit is a must.
- Hank Fraley. Why was this guy starting in place of Jason Brown, who's the one most consistent part of the Rams OL? Did they just want to see what Brown had in him as a guard? Fraley as a center? Both?
- Donnie Avery, did anybody see Donnie Avery?
- Bobby Carpenter we didn't notice you.
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Really liked what I saw out of the first-team front seven. The Vikings’ running game didn’t find a rhythm at all until the third-stringers started trickling in.
O-line play started off okay, then got inexplicably ugly. They should mesh better in the next game as they get more work together and Jason Brown (hopefully) returns to center.
Just can’t wait for the next game, really. Definitely some highs and lows today.
Bottom line; sucks don't it?
It’s that nasty 80% factor. Only 20% of this team is NFL caliber. And before tonite I was countin’ Jason Smith as one of the elite. Bust!!! How ‘bout that Hank Fraley?? And that Pat Shurmur play calling? We better find some O-Line help somewhere and put Jason back under C where he belongs. I’ll be happy to see Westbrook aboard and Jackson ready to play. Problem is who’s gonna block for them and Sammy? First impression is that Smith-Saffold combo with a little Fraley tossed in is like sh*t on a shingle. Barf!!
you can't call him a bust
though he sure was terrible. he deserves 3 years, like any other player, before he’s considered a bust.
Unleash King Sam #8
by douchiedude on Aug 14, 2010 11:04 PM CDT up reply actions
leaf did,
boz retired in his 3rd year due to injury, which didn’t take away the fact that he was horrible. is smith is forced to retire early due to injury then yes, he’s a bust, and if he sucks after 3 years and on then yes, he’s a bust.
Unleash King Sam #8
by douchiedude on Aug 15, 2010 12:00 AM CDT up reply actions
Bull Mularkey
He was a friggin Tight End in College who got switched to LT for Baylor.
Smith IS A BUST AS I SAID HE WOULD BE WHEN THE LAMBS DRAFTED HIM.
So, yah, 3 NFL years ought to be enough time for a “newer” positioned player to fully develop….NOT!
This is why the Rams DON’T HAVE PLAYERS FROM PAST DRAFTS BLANKETING THEIR ROSTER, Go Figure?
Anyhow, if Bradford thinks “pre-season” hits are the get up and walk ’em off type, well, he only has a regular season game to experience.
tell me 210...
What kinda idiots start Hank Fraley at center during Sam Bradford’s debut? For now I’m labeling the tandem of Smith and Saffold as “Sh*t and Shingle.” And some insanely optimistic people are bragging on our run defense. Why run if you can pass for over 300 yards? And, Peterson wasn’t even playing. Unless the guys were dogging it on purpose, the Spagnuola regime is gonna be very short lived and relieve Scott Linehan of the title “worst Rams coach in history.”
RamChop they glorify every little thing a player does on TST
sure our Run Defense play well against backups but after the game you hear our run defense was great lol and as far as the Devaney Regime cause spagnolo is only a puppet I already stated what you just said some time ago and every one here was defending there every move,guess we don’t see eye to eye with every one here lol .But bottom line this is all on the coaching with the bulls eye on Shurmur
I guess if carpenter did well in coverage
then we shouldn’t have heard his name, but man Larry Grant looked crazy tonight. He took a lot of pressure off of Laurinaitis
Keith Null won't accept my friend requests.
i missed the game after bradford came out due to retarded streams
but hull had 8 tackles, was he actually playing well? he’s a penn state linebacker so i really believe he can be a gem, joepa knows how to prepare his backers.
Unleash King Sam #8
by douchiedude on Aug 14, 2010 11:05 PM CDT up reply actions
Meanwhile...
…Seattle isn’t bullshitting with Russell Okung and they have him on the Left side. He just demolished like 4 people on consecutive plays.
Why do we do this to Jason Smith?
Does anyone really believe that Saffold will be the better LT after it pans out if the Rams play it this way?
"I was just letting the shots fly. You know, I don't leave any bullets in the chamber."
"Everything negative- pressure, challenges- is all an opportunity for me to rise."
" 'So what if I hit the wall?"
(Reporter): 'Why?'
'Because I'll run right through it."
-Kobe Bryant
i'm with you on the saffold thing.
despite our earlier argument, i think it’s unfair that smith lost his left tackle job because of injury even though the coaching staff kept saying “he definitely looks more natural there” and all i’ve read about saffold before the draft was that he’d flourish as a right tackle but would be limited at left. i know he’s had great practices but the fact that they didn’t put in smith on the left at all bothers me. i still stand by what i said though, i wanna see some progress soon.
Unleash King Sam #8
by douchiedude on Aug 14, 2010 11:09 PM CDT up reply actions
Well I'm glad we can agree on that.
Sorry if I came across as an ass earlier. I know he has to make progress, but I also feel he’d be better suited to do that on the Left side. Also, it’s preseason people!
Go Rams!
"I was just letting the shots fly. You know, I don't leave any bullets in the chamber."
"Everything negative- pressure, challenges- is all an opportunity for me to rise."
" 'So what if I hit the wall?"
(Reporter): 'Why?'
'Because I'll run right through it."
-Kobe Bryant
by TrojanRam on Aug 15, 2010 1:20 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Okung - I said to draft him if OL was an option in the first 2 Rounds
But, apparantly the Rams brass think they know better!
well some of us were.
i used to upload ncaaf 09 and 10 rosters onto madden and draft bradford onto the rams because he was my favorite player in college. obviously, you can tell how i excited i am that he’s really a ram :)
Unleash King Sam #8
by douchiedude on Aug 15, 2010 11:25 PM CDT up reply actions
Offensively the blocking overwhelmed everything else tonight.
And let’s be honest here, the blocking was brutal. I was already bearish on Jason Smith. Now I’m… well, a whole lot more bearish.
I loved the performance against the run early, though. That was a real positive.
anyone else notice sam holds the ball lower and has a lower release point nowadays?
Bradford to Onobun!
i didn't notice where he was holding the ball and i honestly thought his release point was fine
but that is an awesome rookie card you got there.
Unleash King Sam #8
by douchiedude on Aug 14, 2010 11:14 PM CDT up reply actions
yeah i think it's fine too, but it was definitely lower than i saw from his days at OU
he used to hold the ball up to his chin too…
and it’s not mine lol found a pic and avatared it, but would be awesome to have it!
Bradford to Onobun!
4 times!
He was sacked 4 times, not 3.
Which projects to what, 500 this season?
OTOH, at least when he ends up being physically debilitated starting at middle age from the abuse he takes over the next few years, he’ll be incredibly rich (which wouldn’t be the case for say, Null or someone else signed cheap).
Well Bradford only played about 1 Quarter
So it’s really 4×4×16 which is 256. If we give up 64 sacks by week 4, we should just give up and not play any more games.
Onubon > Gates
256 my lucky number
Or, 16 squared.
Something about the universe’s beginning has something to do with 256 too.
Now, what is it?
can't wait for next week now.
i hope colt mccoy is okay, i would love to see sam beat him in the nfl :)
Unleash King Sam #8
I was there and they stunk it up.
We left before the end of the 3rd Quarter. The offensive line couldn’t block anyone. The Vikings were going through to the QB like we didn’t have anyone there. When the QB is hit before he even finishes his drop, you know it’s bad. What’s more, I don’t think Shurmer called for a pass play of more than 3 yards the entire night. Everything was little dinks and dunks to the outside. Oh, and Saffold got the memorial Alex Barron false start penalty on our first series.
Our defensive line did a good job against the run, really stuffing the Vikings most of the time. We didn’t do as well rushing the passer, although they did get to Rosenfels a few times. One big problem was that the reserve defensive ends never kept their contain and let Rosenfels fake a handoff and run a naked bootleg outside them time after time. When Long was in that didn’t happen, but once he came out it was terrible. Selvie did make one very nice play on a screen pass to the opposite side of the field. He was playing right DE and got all the way across the field to stop a screen play for a very short gain when all the defenders on that side were nowhere near the receiver.
Our CBs were pretty bad for the most part. I don’t understand why Van Ram thinks Johnson played so well. He was beaten by the receivers time after time. Everyone sitting around me felt he should be cut tomorrow. He gave up the Vikings first TD, and when they got their long one with Chamberlain chasing the receiver, the problem was that Johnson gave it away far too soon that he was blitzing, so Rosenfels and the receiver knew they had a freebie. Chamberlain had to come from inside and try to catch a receiver who had a free path from the line of scrimmage. No LB can do that when the offense knows the CB is blitzing.
Overall I would say the defense was improved, particularly against the run. If we had our first team CBs out there, we might have done a better job against the pass. But our offense was worse than last year, if you can imagine that. Most of the time the line was useless and the play calling was atrocious. If they don’t make some big improvements before the regular season, we will score less than we did last year. Bradford can’t do anything when he is wearing a defensive lineman around his neck before he can even set up to throw. They were pathetic.
by andyhawk on Aug 14, 2010 11:29 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
i thought murphy gave up the first td, guess not.
good post though, streams kept dying after sam went out so i missed all of that.
Unleash King Sam #8
by douchiedude on Aug 15, 2010 12:02 AM CDT up reply actions
Vikings 2nd's and 3rd's (receivers) played ALL-NIGHT-LONG
ALL NIGHT LONG, YEAH. People in the streets, all night long now. DA DA DA DA DA, da da …da da..
joke!
Oh, there was one other good thing.
Bradford took all the hits, and there were plenty, and got back up without any hesitation and got ready to run the next play. At no time did he look like he was even hurting.
Better title: "Bradford era starts lousy, but it ain't his fault."
He’s got a UFL team around him for the most part.
You know what, your so right
I don’t know why the Rams play football. They suck so bad, they’ll probably all be injured soon enough, and probably before that everyone will be fired, or the team will be moved, or all their brains will melt, or maybe they’ll play a good team and lose… Gah, can’t you see the irony in your ‘blind childlike’ pessimism.
It’s not game 1, it’s preseason and I still have faith that we can look competent by the time things count. I hope the Rams prove you wrong and maybe it will slow your “the Rams are garbage!!” reflex that you’ve been cultivating all offseason. I mean, football’s just starting, can’t lose faith yet, at least not until week 5 or so.
Julio Jones for Rams 2011
As long as Spags says things are great, we gotta believe. Right?
He’s the same guy that was clapping his hands last year as our players came off the field in the 4th quarter trailing 42-6. Conversely, Mike Singletary would’ve been kicking each ass individually.
RamChop, you are just one big negative person...
Don’t you ever say anything positive at all? It’s been my experience that ever since you’ve been making your comments at TST you just continue to give off negative vibes. For Christ’s sake, give it a rest. This is only the 1st preseason game and the Rams went into it with a bunch of players already injured, and they just played against a team that came close to taking the NFC in the playoffs last season.
You must have a pretty unhappy life if you can never see anything positive about things.
Go Rams!
"We can't run. We can't pass. We can't stop the run. We can't stop the pass. We can't kick. Other than that, we're just not a very good football team right now." --- Bruce Coslett, New York Jets Head Coach circa 1990s
we're all realists
in that we know how bad we are and how bad our situation is. doesn’t mean you have to be so pessimistic. man i’d hate being around you for more than 30 minutes.
Unleash King Sam #8
that was hilarious.
i’m seriously laughing so hard…
Unleash King Sam #8
by douchiedude on Aug 15, 2010 11:27 PM CDT up reply actions
Thanks for the link to the article.
It was a very good one! Sam is special, no doubt about that!
I'm still watching the game and I haven't read anything in this post
Just answer me this question, does Sam Bradford go back out for the second half? Just yes or no, no more details.
Onubon > Gates
And that was for a Saturday night
Come Sunday afternoons, we’ll have to split them up into multiple GDTs
You don't seem to want to accept the fact you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In *St. Louis* his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition. Well, *Steven Jackson* was the best.
by 3k on Aug 15, 2010 2:24 AM CDT up reply actions
To: andyhawk
Just one comment. Why do you think Shumur’s play calling was dink and dunk? lets break this down. ignoring the fact that pre season is generally a biut “vanilla”- you stated in your post that Bradford didn’t have anytime. The line played terrible.
Routes that are intended for deep or even mid range passes take time ti DEVELOPE. what would have happened to Bradford if he called alot of those plays?
Initially Bradford had time,
as did Feely. As the game went along and the defense realized they didn’t have to worry about the longer passes. They brought everybody up close, ran blitzes and blanketed the short routes. If we had thrown some longer passes early in the game, they couldn’t have used the same defense and Bradiford would have had more time on at least some of the plays. As it was, he rolled away from pressure a few times and looked for someone to throw to. The problem was all his receivers were close to the line of scrimmage and closely covered. No one was 15-20 yards downfield and moving to the sideline with him.
On Johnson at CB, I forgot to mention it was his man that scored the 3rd TD as well on a long pass. That means he was basically responsible for the Vikings first 3 TDs. Let’s hope the starters get well soon so we can cut him. Butler and Murphy weren’t bad at CB, but Johnson was awful.
Yeah
Tough to do much when they roll everyone closer to the line. I know it’s only preeason but Shurmer needs to get a clue or get gone.
You can pick your friends and
you can pick your butt.
But you can't pick your friends butt.
JohnnieWarthawgism
by johnniewarthawg on Aug 16, 2010 7:13 AM CDT up reply actions
My thoughts after watching the game.
Rodger Saffold and Jason Smith both played really badly. Fraley look okay, Brown looked good, and Goldberg looked okay. Overall, too many sacks allowed and one bad breakdown by the starters, but really only Saffold and Smith looked bad.
Defensively, too many breakdowns from the back-ups. Hopefully that’s just bad back-ups who are soon to be cut. Number 35 looked bad (he was starting alongside Murphy). Murphy looked okay. Chris Long, George Selvie, and Clifton Ryan looked very good. Laurinaitis looked great, so did Larry Grant. Diggs looked okay, Carpenter looked bad.
Feeley actually looked okay, but when Bradford came in the offensive line sucked. He did a good job to avoid pressure and just throw the ball away, he also had some good throws.
Ogbonnaya Kenobi made an okay case for the number 2 running back job (or #3 if Westbrook joins the team), Toston looked fine, but Darby looked really bad (as always). Hoom’ looked really good, made Martin Kilcoyne look stupid when trying to pronounce his name.
I really like Thaddeus Lewis.
Aeneas Williams is a great broadcaster, although you could tell that he got really pissed off when the Vikings player did a dance after a touchdown (“I want to see some stats of this guy when he actually does have people within 15 yards of him.”).
The Vikings player who did a dance after a touchdown is a poor-man’s Donnie Avery on the dance floor.
Danny Amendola looked really good, but that fumble was disappointing. He got overzealous and forgot to catch the ball, but his returns were nice. I don’t think he had any fumbles last year, so that was kind of an anomaly.
New Rams commercial is awesome.
I’m really sick of all those Oklahoma fans who are only here to root for Bradford and not the time.
Overall Grades:
Quarterbacks: C-
Running Backs: D
Receivers: C
Tight Ends: B
Interior Offensive Line: B
Jason Smith and Rodger Saffold: F
Defensive Line: C
Linebackers: B-
Secondary: D-
Kicking: A+ (didn’t miss anything)
Punting: A
Kick coverage: A-
Punt Coverage: B
Kick Returns: B+
Punt Returns: B- (A without the fumble)
Overall: C-
Player of the game: Chris Long
We can improve on a lot, especially Saffold and J. Smith. The quarterbacks actually looked okay when they weren’t on the turf. Besides Murphy and Craig Dahl, the secondary was awful. The starting linebackers looked fine, but everybody else was bad. Same with the defensive line.
"I turn around and I’ve got Cueto kicking me in the back with his spikes. It’s super unprofessional. I don’t know where he learned how to fight."
-Chris Carpenter commenting on a bench-clearing fight with the Reds, 8/10/10
by StopSpe on Aug 15, 2010 1:24 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs
I learned two things from this game
- We really need our starting secondary healthy. We were missing the entire thing. Our run D looked strong, and our secondary secondary looked terrible.
- Our O-line needs help. Jason Smith should go to the left and Saffold to the right. Having Bell, and Brown playing in the right positions would be helpful. Also, knowing who to block is helpful. I’ve never seen a QB get sacked on a one step drop until tonight.
I think a healthy D could be fairly good this year. Offense is up in the air. We won’t know until we get to run it, which we couldn’t today because the O-lineman forgot to block half of the defense. Ugly game, should improve next week with more of our starters back, like Bartell, Fletcher, and I’m not sure how much Atogwe played, but I didn’t even notice he played. That O-line is going to give me nightmares.
Onubon > Gates
Oh yeah, Feeley was terrible
he kept staring down his target which should have led to interceptions.
by Buck Nasty87 on Aug 15, 2010 12:14 PM CDT up reply actions
I mean
I knew he’d be bad, but he was pretty awful. How is a guy with only 23 games played in his career entering his 10th NFL season. I think I’d rather have Null play than Feeley if that choice had to be made.
I also thought Feeley may have a slight leg up because of his NFL experience, but he clearly does not. Sam made better decisions on every play. Feeley should’ve easilythrown two TD passes except they were dropped. The only problem is that those would-be TD passes were to the wrong team.
We have no choice but to play Bradford. Bulger is at least twice or three times as good as Feeley. I’ll be willing to change my opinion if he shows some sort of ability in the coming weeks, but I don’t see it. Bradford better be ready to play 16 games this season, because he’s our only viable option at QB. I want to see Null start, Bradford second, and then see what Feeley can do against 3rd stringers. Ease him into the game since he’s barely played in the NFL. I hope I’m wrong about Feeley, but I have no reason to think that I am. I think me and you can agree on something for once, RamChop.
Onubon > Gates
Well I didn't get to watch the game but
I followed along your comments as much as a guy who’s not supposed to could. It sounds like our O-line got exploited when our franchise QB went in. That should be expected from a pass-rush happy team like the Vikes. It was the first game, and though I pined for more O-line help in the off-season, it probably wouldn’t have stopped a lot of that anyway. It sounds like we could use some veteran help now, not rookies through the draft.
The biggest issue with the o-line wasn't that the Vikings were "pass-rush happy," it's that the
starting line struggled even against the back-up Vikings. Also, the o-line looked pretty bad against the VIkings starters, it’s just that Feeley was forcing passes that our other QBs weren’t. He had at least 2 or 3 passes that should have been picked off.
"I turn around and I’ve got Cueto kicking me in the back with his spikes. It’s super unprofessional. I don’t know where he learned how to fight."
-Chris Carpenter commenting on a bench-clearing fight with the Reds, 8/10/10
I must have been watching the right game
My thoughts are like a lot of others already posted here.
Offensive line and secondary need help. They looked so bad that I would suspect bad coaching here. Or maybe inexperience. On the long Viking pass completions it looked like no Rams were even trying to cover the recievers. They were wide open and there was no one deep to stop them after they made the catch. The same could almost be said for the offensive line. Vike rushers were comming through unmolested. Reading the above posts makes me think the secondary needs some coaching and our O line suffered from inexperience due to players out of position.
Our starting Defensive line and linebackers looked good, really good. Grant and Long were making plays left and right. Grant had one go right between his hands that he probably should have caught. Even so he was getting his hands on the ball. Long tackled a RB for a 4 yard loss and had a sack. I still don’t understand why they took the penalty on that one. Bad coaching again?
Sanford is already better than Feeley and we need to start playing him as soon as we can find a blocker or two. Do they have Craigslist in Stl.? Want ads in the papers?
Our buddy Payne was all over the place. I think he’s a keeper. The only bad thing is it looked like he was having to make some of those plays because the guy who was supposed to didn’t.
I saw some good. Even enough to think that we might win more than the 2 I expect. Overall the game reminded me of last year were we would play good for a quarter then fall apart. I still have hope because the Vikes are a really good team and some of their pass completions, I feel, were because of players out of position.
i had high hope too until i realized that we played our starting offensive line
how horrible is it that our starters got killed by their 2nd and 3rd string. that is horrible. spags is gonna kill someone for letting bradford get sacked 4 times in a quarter.
positive note:
Spags himself seemed was more into the game than last year. noone has really mentioned how he carried himself this game. Challenges and going for it more. I loved to see him show emotions about bad plays and penalties. He finally looked like a head coach yesterday.
Also, Chris long looked beast out there. from first series til he got pulled. i didnt realized how big of a man he was lol
I was only able to watch the first 15 minutes
So my assessment is based on a lot of comments and the such but let me say this – if they were going to play this badly, let it be in the first preseason game. Now the coaching staff has a better read on the problems, they can make the appropriate changes. I liked what I saw from the defense and that’s important – especially if we play with a rookie quarterback. Smith will play better or he won’t play at all. They will not let King Sam be beat down because of crap play on the OT, they had to learn a lesson from Bulger.
Overall, they need to go into the next preseason game with a different gameplan – they need to be more aggressive offensively and they need to not shoot themselves in the foot with dumb penalties, turnovers, ect
Players that shift positions
KNOW coaches are in lala land.
Sign of a weak coaching staff and front office because they don’t know what their talent is, yet they said they did when they drafted the players.
Well, at least JL is working out so far!
One thing I noticed...
the WRs don’t seem capable of breaking a tackle or making someone miss. They also don’t seem to grasp the concept of downfield blocking after a fellow receiver has caught a pass. They definitely need to work at being more physical.
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