Originally Posted by
yashi
Thoughts from the first half...
I was mostly focused on the defense, because I think the offense will be fine.
The play where Leggett sacked Schaub was AWESOME. 1 down lineman (Magee), rushed 6, and the OL had absolutely no idea what to do as 2 guys were immediately in the backfield and Leggett went through untouched. We haven't seen a blitz like that in years, and we got to see it on the very first drive. Awesome.
The first team run defense was excellent, aside from a couple runs by Chris Brown late in the drive. On pass plays the guys up around the line looked hungry. Pass coverage wasn't great aside from Flowers, who did well and made some plays.
Dorsey played surprisingly well all around.
Cory Mays has really long hair.
I was really impressed with LJ. The run blocking wasn't great and he was working for a couple extra yards on every play.
On the end around to Kevin Walter, Hali made a very nice tackle in the open field that saved an extra 10 yards (at least). He definitely looks slim and quick, and explosive in pass rushing. He got a little anxious on one 3rd and long and drew a neutral zone infraction though.
I already strongly dislike Wright and Lawrence. Can we get a real return guy please? These guys struggle to catch a punt without falling over. I wonder why Savage isn't returning kicks.
Jackie Battle looks really impressive and I see why Haley seems to like him a lot. I could see him at a minimum being a very good short yardage guy for us down the road.
At one point I saw some white guy wearing Jared Allen's old 69 playing NT on 1st down. I looked him up and he's some 6'6" 265 lb guy listed as a tackle? Not sure what that was about, but he was taken out the next play.
We were able to get to the QB with just 4 guys rushing the passer at one point on 3rd and long (Hali, Jackson, Magee, Studebaker). I don't remember seeing that last year. Studebaker actually looks really good in a situational pass rushing role.
I LOVE the safety blitzes. Neither Page nor Pollard are particularly good coverage safeties, but I think both guys can excel if they're thrown in around the line of scrimmage sometimes. Both made a lot of plays when they were around the line last night.
McGraw is still a special teams stud and I'm really glad we kept him.
Our defensive line gets shuffled around a lot depending on the situation, with Jackson sometimes playing inside and such. Same with the OLBs, I saw Hali playing both left and right. Hopefully this keeps offenses on their toes.
Bowe is incredible and made Croyle look good. Croyle made some really bad throws at times, throwing behind receivers and the play where Bowe had to dive for a ball when he was standing still. Croyle did make some pretty nice throws too though.
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