Preseason Game 2 Thoughts
not awful
- gee, that donovan mcnabb can play a little, no? it's pretty easy to forget how good he is when he's out injured and the media guys are bleating about how good jeff garcia is to stir up controversy. what a difference. there's no doubt that mcnabb is the most important player on this team. westbrook is good, can't dispute that, but you can get running backs anywhere. every team has running backs who can play. very few teams have a QB this good. the starting tandems tonight were: delhomme and williams for carolina and mcnabb and westbrook for the birds. would you rather have delhomme and westbrook or mcnabb and williams? you're nuts if you'd take the former over the latter. heck, i'd take mcnabb and buckhalter over delhomme and westbrook.
- i'll put this thought out there. brent celek is already a better tight end than LJ smith ever was. a) LJ may have it over brent in straight line speed and raw power, but celek is a more fluid athlete. his hips are looser and he can cut and separate from defenders better. b) after celek catches the ball, he's not a fumble waiting to happen. he secures the ball tightly to his body and wraps his arms when he's getting tackled. c) he catches the ball more naturally than LJ, who tends to fight the ball into his hands. remember the two dropped touchdown passes in LJ's first game? won't happen to celek. d) he doesn't look to be any worse at blocking than LJ.
- tony hunt looks to be our goal-line back this season. nice.
- holy trapzilla. did anyone catch westbrooks gigantic traps on his sovereign bank commercial?
- max jean-gilles did ok. he's not andrews, but he wasn't as bad as i was expecting. he whiffed a couple of times when i was watching him, but he looks strong and was able to push people off the line when he engaged.
- curtis looks pretty good. he's certainly not as fast as stallworth was, but i guess we all expected that to be the case. the mcnabb bomb to curtis on the third drive might have been caught by mr. hamstrung, but the out pass to curtis on the 4th drive probably wouldn't have been because it looked to me that curtis did a nice job coming back to the ball to cut off the defender. stallworth and reggie brown both had problems with that last season.
- it's sav rocca's job to lose. he may make more mistakes than johnson, but some of his kicks are unbelieveable. he'll make some kicks that win games and change field position.
- if there was any doubt at all about his making the team, juqua thomas probably secured his spot with that sack of delhomme. he's the second best speed rusher on the team.
- considine looks to be a bigger version of sean considine. now it's a 215 lb. guy eating a stiff-arm from deangelo williams instead of a 198 lb. guy eating a stiff-arm from deangelo williams.
- mike patterson stole corey simon's ass
- a QB sneak on 3rd and 1! definitely has to be mornhinweg calling the plays.
- kolb looks like he can't get anything on the ball when he is rolling left or right. he looks ok to me, but i don't see the "star potential" that people are talking about on the radio.
- trotter can't play anymore. i think it's possible that he's fighting for his job.
- bunkley looked pretty good for the few plays i was focusing on him.
- gocong looked ok. didn't see him do anything special or make any huge mistakes.
- spikes doesn't quite standout like he once did. a shame. hope he's still absorbing the defense.
- bloom's toe must be affecting him. he didn't have the same acceleration and top speed he did early in game 1
- our receiver corps is pretty good. i'll take this crew over the me-o, pinky, greg lewis, mcmullen crew anyday.
- the fat samoan running back doesn't look like he's going to make the team. too bad. i was hoping he'd turn out to be a player.
overall a nice game. what i'm looking for out of the rest of preseason is no new injuries and for the difference makers -- mcnabb, westbrook, andrews, lito, dawkins, kearse -- to stay healthy or get healthy.
- gee, that donovan mcnabb can play a little, no? it's pretty easy to forget how good he is when he's out injured and the media guys are bleating about how good jeff garcia is to stir up controversy. what a difference. there's no doubt that mcnabb is the most important player on this team. westbrook is good, can't dispute that, but you can get running backs anywhere. every team has running backs who can play. very few teams have a QB this good. the starting tandems tonight were: delhomme and williams for carolina and mcnabb and westbrook for the birds. would you rather have delhomme and westbrook or mcnabb and williams? you're nuts if you'd take the former over the latter. heck, i'd take mcnabb and buckhalter over delhomme and westbrook.
- i'll put this thought out there. brent celek is already a better tight end than LJ smith ever was. a) LJ may have it over brent in straight line speed and raw power, but celek is a more fluid athlete. his hips are looser and he can cut and separate from defenders better. b) after celek catches the ball, he's not a fumble waiting to happen. he secures the ball tightly to his body and wraps his arms when he's getting tackled. c) he catches the ball more naturally than LJ, who tends to fight the ball into his hands. remember the two dropped touchdown passes in LJ's first game? won't happen to celek. d) he doesn't look to be any worse at blocking than LJ.
- tony hunt looks to be our goal-line back this season. nice.
- holy trapzilla. did anyone catch westbrooks gigantic traps on his sovereign bank commercial?
- max jean-gilles did ok. he's not andrews, but he wasn't as bad as i was expecting. he whiffed a couple of times when i was watching him, but he looks strong and was able to push people off the line when he engaged.
- curtis looks pretty good. he's certainly not as fast as stallworth was, but i guess we all expected that to be the case. the mcnabb bomb to curtis on the third drive might have been caught by mr. hamstrung, but the out pass to curtis on the 4th drive probably wouldn't have been because it looked to me that curtis did a nice job coming back to the ball to cut off the defender. stallworth and reggie brown both had problems with that last season.
- it's sav rocca's job to lose. he may make more mistakes than johnson, but some of his kicks are unbelieveable. he'll make some kicks that win games and change field position.
- if there was any doubt at all about his making the team, juqua thomas probably secured his spot with that sack of delhomme. he's the second best speed rusher on the team.
- considine looks to be a bigger version of sean considine. now it's a 215 lb. guy eating a stiff-arm from deangelo williams instead of a 198 lb. guy eating a stiff-arm from deangelo williams.
- mike patterson stole corey simon's ass
- a QB sneak on 3rd and 1! definitely has to be mornhinweg calling the plays.
- kolb looks like he can't get anything on the ball when he is rolling left or right. he looks ok to me, but i don't see the "star potential" that people are talking about on the radio.
- trotter can't play anymore. i think it's possible that he's fighting for his job.
- bunkley looked pretty good for the few plays i was focusing on him.
- gocong looked ok. didn't see him do anything special or make any huge mistakes.
- spikes doesn't quite standout like he once did. a shame. hope he's still absorbing the defense.
- bloom's toe must be affecting him. he didn't have the same acceleration and top speed he did early in game 1
- our receiver corps is pretty good. i'll take this crew over the me-o, pinky, greg lewis, mcmullen crew anyday.
- the fat samoan running back doesn't look like he's going to make the team. too bad. i was hoping he'd turn out to be a player.
overall a nice game. what i'm looking for out of the rest of preseason is no new injuries and for the difference makers -- mcnabb, westbrook, andrews, lito, dawkins, kearse -- to stay healthy or get healthy.
Labels: football
posted by The Mean Guy at 10:13 PM
4 Comments:
After Celek made that nice catch, I turned to my wife and said "Who needs LJ"? How did this guy last to the 5th round?
Bloom didn't look very good. He needs to stop trying to juke so much and just get up the field.
I only saw parts of the first quarter since the Phillies were playing, but boy, did I draw some of the same conclusions that THG did.
It's simply astonishing that people don't seem to see what we have in Donovan. He is by far the most important player on this team. He makes everyone look and play better.
Let Celek start. LJ will be LG (long gone) by this time next season anyway.
Trotter looks slow and old.
Ed Wade
I don't know if this was the game plan-pump Mcnabb's confidence, but I was actually pretty disappointed with the game for one reason-the game plan of throw, throw, throw. Reid clearly has not learned his lesson about establishing the running game. They slung it all over the yard, and it was an on night for McNabb so they scored, but facts is facts, this team has no running game. And don't give me 2 one yard Tony Hunt TD because they also failed to convert 4th and a foot. As I watch the Giants run rampant all over the same Ravens team that made the Birds look like Ridley High a week ago, I realize running the ball is an attitude and the Birds don't have it or at least their coach doesn't have it.
Celek is better than Smith after 2 preseason games? I love you TMG, but that is drivel, especially for a man who usually uses a healthy set of data to prove many of his points. I agree the kid has skills, but let's see him do this a little before we write LJ off.
Akers looked good and hit a boomer. That was a plus. I have begun to lose confidence in him and no longer see him as automatic from 40 and in.
This team looks pretty good but has some gaping holes that need filled somehow. Bloom seems only Ok at returning, Mahe-like. Their safeties are pretty terrible and they will get run and thrown over the top on all year, especially if Dawk is no longer Dawk and all signs point to him no longer being Dawk. Trotter cannot play anymore, so they need Gaither to step up.
This D line is fast and deep. Hopefully they learn to stop the run, but they should have 9 good D linemen and good guys who get cut and picked up.
Did anyone see Darrin Howard carrying the fumbled ball like a loaf of bread? That is Pop Warner crap. He hasn't impressed me at all.
Donny looked great, better than any QB they have, but I still feel Westbrook is a much bigger loss only because they lack weapons who can go coast to coast besides Westbrook and they have 0 running game behind him. I don't want either out, but they have done a better job trying to address a backup at QB than RB. Hunt is not an every down back.
Let's be careful about killing Kolb. The transition to pro offense is a big one. In addition, he flicks the ball downfield pretty well. He ain't McNabb yet and God willing we won't need him to be for 3 years, but the kid has raw skills that can be developed. He should not be viewed as competition but rather successor to the Mac man.
Bumble
Reid clearly has not learned his lesson about establishing the running game.
i don't know that i would read anything into the playcalling mix here. i'm a big proponent of the run/pass mix, but in this game, the birds couldn't get anything going on the ground so all they *could* do was pass. seems odd to be saying it, but as long as marty has the reins the mix should be fine.
Celek is better than Smith after 2 preseason games? I love you TMG, but that is drivel, especially for a man who usually uses a healthy set of data to prove many of his points. I agree the kid has skills, but let's see him do this a little before we write LJ off.
i like to think i use a combination of data and scouting. at this point, there is no data on celek, but my eyes tell me that even without knowing the worst coast offense very well, celek is already a more natural and polished receiver than LJ. he'll only continue to get better as he learns the offense. LJ has been a disappointment from day one. his numbers are ok, good even, but when you factor in his repeated stupid mistakes, his inability or unwillingness to protect the ball, and his lack of blocking skill, pfft. you can have him. let someone else pay him like a top 10 tight end, he isn't one.
Donny looked great, better than any QB they have, but I still feel Westbrook is a much bigger loss only because they lack weapons who can go coast to coast besides Westbrook and they have 0 running game behind him.
i don't know if that's a true statement. i believe i read that the eagles wideouts lead the NFL in plays of longer than 20 yards and longer than 50 yards. i can't find a link to it after a quick search, but i'll look deeper sometime later.
I don't want either out, but they have done a better job trying to address a backup at QB than RB. Hunt is not an every down back.
if the o-line blocks, the running game will be fine, westbrook or not. if the o-line doesn't block, the running game will suck, westbrook or not. the broncos, steelers, falcons, among others have shown that the o-line matters more than the RB.
Let's be careful about killing Kolb. The transition to pro offense is a big one. In addition, he flicks the ball downfield pretty well.
i'm not killing him, and as i've previously mentioned several times when i was defending his drafting, if there's one thing i trust, it's that andy reid knows QBs. i'm just saying i haven't seen anything from him that tells me he's going to be a star. i just don't see where this radio hype is coming from, other than to start hyping him for the inevitable contrived controversy.
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