Day After Thoughts- Chargers game

[dbair1967]

Its just a preseason game, but there are obvious areas of concern. They still have time to get some of it straightened out, but with so many guys missing time we're going to be behind the 8-ball a little.

The good:

1) As I mentioned last night, I loved the OL play in the first half. It looked crisp, they opened some good holes for Jones and the pass protection was solid. Tyron Smith looks like an upcoming 10-12 year fixture in the probowl and Doug Free is really, really good too. Thought Gurode looked pretty solid as well. Nagy had some quality moments too and definitely looks like he belongs.

2) Only two penalties in the first half, and both were on the defense.

3) Felix Jones looks awesome. He has the burst I was used to seeing when he was at Arkansas and his first yr in Dallas before he got hurt. He also is showing tremendous cutting ability. If he stays healthy, he could be a 1300-1400 yd rusher and add another 50-60 catches easily. And for those who think Jones is a finesse player, he ran through tackles again (just like last week) and had a highlight film/textbook block on a DL.

4) Wish we could clone Demarcus Ware. He's the best defensive player in the league.

5) Other than the pick (see bad) I thought Romo looked solid. The first drive shouldnt have been a 3 and out as Bryant should have caught that pass, and according to him he might have scored as other than the CB there was nobody else on that side of the field.

6) Stephen McGee is really coming along. So much so that if he were the#2 guy this yr, I think we'd be in good shape. He has the best arm on the team and his accuracy is good. He also made quicker decisions last night. So glad we didnt dump him last yr. He has alot of talent. Wouldnt surprise me if behind the scenes some team/s start calling about his availability, but there's almost no way I'd trade him.

7) This Phillip Tanner kid can really run. Dont know how he is catching the ball or pass protection, but he can really run. Hits the hole (however small it is) pretty quick and runs with power. Looks like he could be a really good short yardage/GL back IMO.

Bad:

1) Romo pick...just no excuse for a seasoned veteran, especially in a preseason game against teams playing vanilla stuff to throw those kinds of picks. Play had no chance and he threw the ball right to the safety. Killed a scoring drive.

2) Backup OL play...other than a few plays they didnt block much of anything. McGee prob hates playing behind these guys.

3) Starting front 7 on defense, other than Ware. Unimpressive effort to say the least. Spencer and Ratliff were invisible, Victor Butler came back to earth a little and did nothing last night. If we are going to be better than last year defensively, somebody other than Ware in the front 7 has gotta make plays.

3) Lonyae Miller, you cant fumble the ball when you are trying to make a team. He's really fluid as a receiver out of the backfield and he had some excellent blitz/pass blocks, but he cant fumble.

Ugly:

1) Pass coverage is terrible. Last night the Chargers completed almost 75% of their passes, and that was after letting Quinn/Tebow complete about 67% last week. We gotta have a healthy Jenkins and Newman as none of these backups (including Scandrick) can be a week in and week out starter at CB. Sensabaugh made two nice plays (forced fumble inside the 10, nice leaping grab for a pick that didnt count) but otherwise he and Elam didnt do anything to show me much. Last night TE's and RB's were open at will, and the Chargers had one of the easiest 40-50 yd screens for a TD I've ever seen, but fortunately they were caught for an ineligible man downfield.

2) Sam Young...looks more like Rob Pettiti everyday. He and that Letuli kid were just terrible. They might need to consider looking for a veteran backup swing tackle as I dont think either Young or the Parnell kid can handle it.

3) I dont know if Costa played C the entire second half or not, but several shotgun snaps in the 4th quarter were "slow". McGee had to wait on several of them, and it definitely messed up the timing on a few plays.

4) The kick/punt coverage was pretty shoddy, although when you are running out alot of 3rd teamers into special teams that could happen. Hopefully Coach D can shore this up.

There's still plenty of time to get things going the right way, but after being so bad defensively last year I was hoping we'd see some noticeable improvement in preseason. This is where the lockout really hurt us, because Ryan's D clearly hasnt sunk in on alot of these guys.

 

[Cythim]

3) I dont know if Costa played C the entire second half or not, but several shotgun snaps in the 4th quarter were "slow". McGee had to wait on several of them, and it definitely messed up the timing on a few plays.

I was curious to hear how Costa did last night. He got praise mid-week for being a workout warrior, but that doesn't automatically make him a quality player. Will he be another Colombo type who gets into a starting lineup because of effort instead of ability?

 

[Midswat]

I like Miller, but Tanner really impressed last night. I'd like to see him earlier in the game to see how he does against #2's.

That reserve tackle, Parnell... we signed him late last year and at the time it made no sense to me. But shockingly, the scouts might know more than me. He's going to beat out Sam Young for the swing tackle role.

I was thoroughly impressed with our young guys on the Oline. I can't believe Houck is coaching these guys. I don't want to put the cart before the horse (or whatever the expression is) but what many thought might have been a 2-4 year process (revamping the Oline) might actually be almost complete already.

Chris Collinsworth spoke highly of Barry Church. At one point he suggested that many at VR thought that he would ultimately be the answer at safety, despite us signing Abe Elam. This is the first I've heard of that, and I wonder how much merit there is to that comment. Church did play well last night. He's a lot sleeker than I remembered. For some reason, I thought he was a more heavy safety without as good a mobility.

Where was Dwayne Harris? My pet cat was completely absent - unless I missed something.

This'll piss Laz off.. but I'll take 1 John Phillips over 2 Martellus Bennetts any day of the week. I like Bennett, and I think he's the more TALENTED player, but Phillips is a much more consistant and reliable player.

Why was Mario Butler wearing #31? Is that just a lack of numbers thing? Or did Mike Jenkins switch his number and I missed it?

 

[63echo]

I was really excited about the O line. That's an area of obvious concern and I think they're somehow managing to make me feel better. It was offputting to see good runblocking play from this unit...we haven't had holes like that in (what feels like) decades.

Not too concerned about the secondary...yet. Any more so than I was at the end of last season, anyway. I think we'll be mostly fine at safety, so I'll wait 'til Ball and Scandrick ain't out there starting before I slit my wrists.

 

[Midswat]

Also... I think that rule that negating Sensabaughs interception is a terrible rule. The kid got his toes down. Should be good enough.

 

[VAcowboy]

Awesome stuff, db.

Don't mean to regurgitate, but my first impressions were:

• Free, Smith and the #1 OL looked SB quality. Nagy definitely looked the part.
• So did Jones, just...WOW!
• Tanner >>>>>> Miller.
• Do we have a FB on this team? (much more on this later)
• What's with the dinking and dunking?
• Romo throws another pick that's starting to look way too familiar.
• Speaking of which, in hindsight, I'd rather have Weddle than Ossumwah.
• Gonna upset some folks, including Rat, but he needs to be playing DE, not NT.
• This is either very good or very bad, but Hatcher's absence was noticeable last night.
• We all knew Tyron Smith was 20, but I had no idea he was the youngest player in the league.

 

[superpunk]

Weddle just tricked Romo. Looked like when Romo read that side Weddle was coming down to the box, but he dropped. Romo came back, trusted his instinct and memory of where Weddle was going, and threw to a spot that would have been open if Weddle hadn't changed direction and dropped deep. Good play by Weddle.

 

[Theebs]

Without having seen it on tv yet the game was kind of better than I thought defensively. I thought rivers would just have a field day. He was good but at least we stopped them from scoring Touchdowns every drive.

I know this isnt a popular opinion, but I will say it again. we have taken a step back at defensive coordinator. I am not going to believe different until i see something of substance. Without Jenkins and newman it is hard to tell but our defense looked old, slow and confused to me. I am very worried the defense is going to get us killed again. Hopefully with Newman, Jenkins, brooking and hatcher back we will be ok.

As of right now I feel like the talent on this team has slipped. The injuries are playing a role in that. Hearing Garrett after the game last night it didn't sound promising that any of the injured guys will be playing soon. Thats not good.

Kevin ogle tree is a horrible blocker. Bennett is as erratic as ever. He simply has never furthered his skill level it seems. I imagine this will be the last season we see him, which makes me wonder what we do with Rucker.

To me it looked like Bailey and miller played there way off the team.

Jessie Holley looks awful in warmups then catches the ball during the game.

And my final initial thought, why do we not attack vertically? I don't know if romo feels pressure or if they are working on something specific or what, but they never throw the ball down the field. McGee also. It must be something they are instructed to do. Both qbs had wr open down the field and didnt throw the ball.

I think McGee is getting there dbair but I can't imagine anyone interested in his services yet. There are some good young backups around the league much berthed than him.

Just like last year this preseason has me officially concerned. Offense looks to be struggling again, we don't have a kicker, a punt returner, kick returner and the defense looked old slow and confused. Thankfully its the preseason.

I am curious to see how the giants do tonight. I have a feeling they will look really good.

 

[superpunk]

calm down theebs we ran some sweet blitzes and frankly I was kinda impressed with our starting secondary the Chargers with those tall receivers and Rivers just make some completions that no other team is capable of making.

I really think the biggest problem on D ends up being the pass coverage capability of our ILBs. They aren't athletic enough to cover anyone anywhere on the field. So unless we drop the safeties or our OLBs into the flat we are going to get lit up by TEs and backs all year.

 

[Theebs]

I am calm sp. Like I said I expected rivers togo bonkers last night. We did a better job than I thought but it looked like a mess. There was all kinds of confusion and turner made bradie look completely useless last night. It looked like 06 again where we colt cover a tight end or the backs in the flat.

I am disappointed in Brandon Williams. I had high hopes for him but he looked like a stiff last night.

Again that chargers offense is terrific, but they had tolbert and mcmichael out there with the 1's not gates and matthews.

Hopefully they play better against minnesota, and hopefully Jenkins is on the field.....we are going to be without newman for a while we need Jenkins ready to go.

 

[superpunk]

STOP GETTING SO EMOTIONAL WHEN YOU GET EMOTIONAL I GET EMOTIONAL AND WE ALL GET EMOTIONAL

 

[Theebs]

Lol...sorry!

Lots of concern for this team right now. At the same time I think there is a benefit to struggling in the preseason, we wont get cocky and everyone will stay on edge.

We need this injured guys back ASAP.....murray and Jenkins need to get on the damn field.

 

[superpunk]

Bradie is a nice player but he's getting older and the things that were easy to exploit against him before seem even easier now. Unfortunately, we can't draft ILBs so we can't move on from the kind of one-dimensional Bradie James era.

I'm not surprised they look confused we're installing a complex defense that relies on precision in order to be successful and we've only had a few weeks of going at it. But it was nice to get Elam, as I saw your boy lining up his teammates several times and coachin' em up on the field. I also saw several interior blitzes that worked perfectly to get a safety a free release, and every time we ran them we either tackled for no gain or a loss or forced a bad throw from Rivers.

 

[Midswat]

My homer stick is bigger than yours Theebs. I'm not near as worried as you are.

 

[Cr122]

1) As I mentioned last night, I loved the OL play in the first half. It looked crisp, they opened some good holes for Jones and the pass protection was solid. Tyron Smith looks like an upcoming 10-12 year fixture in the probowl and Doug Free is really, really good too. Thought Gurode looked pretty solid as well. Nagy had some quality moments too and definitely looks like he belongs.

Tyron Smith needs to get better with his footwork. Other than that he's been playing well.

 

[Theebs]

After watching the first half on tv, the defense didn't appear as poor as i thought last night. That blitz from mcray is something we have been doing in camp it seems every day...good to see it worked.

Sensebeaugh had a forced fumble, near int and he knocked out Floyd.....kind of how he played down the stretch..I am not worried about Elam at all.....

Felt like that was a dirty hit on Bennett. He took a helmet below the knees....second week in a row that a tight end has been hit low in the open field. I think there shouldbe a fine for that.

Oh and for the second straight week it looked like lissemore and geathers were active up front.

 

[Theebs]

Tyron Smith needs to get better with his footwork. Other than that he's been playing well.

In the stadium and then rewatching it smith looks awesome.

 

[Cr122]

In the stadium and then rewatching it smith looks awesome.

I recorded it, I'll watch it again. Even Collinsworth said he needed a little help on his footwork.

Overall though I'm impressed with him. He's very young, and I think his footwork gets better as season goes on.

 

[Theebs]

I recorded it, I'll watch it again. Even Collinsworth said he needed a little help on his footwork.

Overall though I'm impressed with him. He's very young, and I think his footwork gets better as season goes on.

Oh yea he is not a finished product but he looked damn good last night.

 

[superpunk]

It's funny when people see they aren't gonna beat him around the edge and then try to bullrush him. He just swallows them.

I don't think he's 20 either. Dude looks like he's 37.