Fla Cowpoke
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Just was able to download the vids off of the bittorrent link. Have put them on Bearshare, but need more people to do so and they might be downloadable in a reasonable amount of time. Hopefully Calico's bandwidth will kick back in on his host.
Anyhow, I came away with a lot of positive things.
First off, I though Bledsoe played very well. He had a couple of drops...but I did not see one poor decision. He fired the ball with authority, several times to his secondary receivers. One thing. If we never run another screen, it will still be too soon. Just take them out of the playbook. Maybe install the shovel pass we used to work so well to Preston Pearson and Ron Springs.
I thought Al Johnson, Andre Gurode, Rob Petitti and Stephen Peterman played excellent games. I saw pancake blocks at various times by each one of them. Gurode has earned his spot on the roster...and he is a legitimate challenger to Johnson. In fact, after watching him play I think it speaks highly of our depth that we have two starting quality centers. On Julius very first run, AJ completely buckled the nose tackle. On the 2nd and 17 run in the first series, he pulled very nicely. In fact, the whole OL looked good on that play. On the play that Petitti hurt his ankle, he actually pancaked the defender. And he impressed me with his toughness...sticking in there after he hurt the ankle. I am sold on him as the right tackle. He has gotten better every game and I do not see any real issues with his footwork.
Newman looks spectacular. He ran stride for stride with Johnson several times. Johnson is one of the faster receivers in the league. On the pick in the endzone, he baited Carr into that throw. He almost had another pick shortly afterwards. And throw in the nice return that he had that was called back on Ware's block in the back. Newman looked REAL good.
On the TD run by Jones, Petitti had a very nice block and did anyone else notice who got the crackback block on the corner? Terry Glenn!
Romo also played very well. He played smart, avoided the impulse throw, and moved the team right down the field on a couple of occasions. I am ok with him as the backup.
And Morgan actually made a tough catch. Only thing is, it seemed that he should have turned to the outside in the pass route, not the inside. Although maybe turning to the inside it kept the defender inside and he was able to shield him from the ball. It was a good catch.
The negatives...well, the special teams units were a mess. But I heard Parcells say they were trying a lot of different people out there, some that had not really played together. So I chalk it up to experimentation. Better see it cleaned up though. Reggie Swinton is fast when he gets a head of steam. Thornton and Jones both turned and started running as hard as they could on the angle but Reggie outran the angle. I wished we had kept Swinton two years ago and cut Randall Williams. :bang2:
Larry Allen and Flozell Adams seemed to not be very motivated. They did not handle the blitz well. Allen got dogged on the same type of stunt that Petitti got beat on last week on the play that Bledsoe got sacked on early. And twice he and Adams let blitzers split them. Gotta let the outside guy go on the blitz...the one up the gut is the biggest risk to the QB.
The middle of our zone, especially in the 3-4, is soft. Our LB's don't seem to be getting good drops consistently. To some extent it is understood with the intricacies of the system. But season is fast approaching.
The last disappointment is the nagging injuries. I would like to have had a game where we got to see the entire starting OL play. I wish Barber, Ferguson, Rivera, Beriault and Kalen Thornton could get 100% by game one. Kalen Thornton is clearly favoring his left leg but he is playing his heart out. I know they get paid a lot of money, but I really respect the guys who bust their a**** and play through any pain. And we have a lot of those.
Overall, I like the way things are shaping up. We all question Parcells about individual moves, but when you add up the whole package, it's hard to complain with the turnover in the roster since Parcells arrived.
Anyhow, I came away with a lot of positive things.
First off, I though Bledsoe played very well. He had a couple of drops...but I did not see one poor decision. He fired the ball with authority, several times to his secondary receivers. One thing. If we never run another screen, it will still be too soon. Just take them out of the playbook. Maybe install the shovel pass we used to work so well to Preston Pearson and Ron Springs.
I thought Al Johnson, Andre Gurode, Rob Petitti and Stephen Peterman played excellent games. I saw pancake blocks at various times by each one of them. Gurode has earned his spot on the roster...and he is a legitimate challenger to Johnson. In fact, after watching him play I think it speaks highly of our depth that we have two starting quality centers. On Julius very first run, AJ completely buckled the nose tackle. On the 2nd and 17 run in the first series, he pulled very nicely. In fact, the whole OL looked good on that play. On the play that Petitti hurt his ankle, he actually pancaked the defender. And he impressed me with his toughness...sticking in there after he hurt the ankle. I am sold on him as the right tackle. He has gotten better every game and I do not see any real issues with his footwork.
Newman looks spectacular. He ran stride for stride with Johnson several times. Johnson is one of the faster receivers in the league. On the pick in the endzone, he baited Carr into that throw. He almost had another pick shortly afterwards. And throw in the nice return that he had that was called back on Ware's block in the back. Newman looked REAL good.
On the TD run by Jones, Petitti had a very nice block and did anyone else notice who got the crackback block on the corner? Terry Glenn!
Romo also played very well. He played smart, avoided the impulse throw, and moved the team right down the field on a couple of occasions. I am ok with him as the backup.
And Morgan actually made a tough catch. Only thing is, it seemed that he should have turned to the outside in the pass route, not the inside. Although maybe turning to the inside it kept the defender inside and he was able to shield him from the ball. It was a good catch.
The negatives...well, the special teams units were a mess. But I heard Parcells say they were trying a lot of different people out there, some that had not really played together. So I chalk it up to experimentation. Better see it cleaned up though. Reggie Swinton is fast when he gets a head of steam. Thornton and Jones both turned and started running as hard as they could on the angle but Reggie outran the angle. I wished we had kept Swinton two years ago and cut Randall Williams. :bang2:
Larry Allen and Flozell Adams seemed to not be very motivated. They did not handle the blitz well. Allen got dogged on the same type of stunt that Petitti got beat on last week on the play that Bledsoe got sacked on early. And twice he and Adams let blitzers split them. Gotta let the outside guy go on the blitz...the one up the gut is the biggest risk to the QB.
The middle of our zone, especially in the 3-4, is soft. Our LB's don't seem to be getting good drops consistently. To some extent it is understood with the intricacies of the system. But season is fast approaching.
The last disappointment is the nagging injuries. I would like to have had a game where we got to see the entire starting OL play. I wish Barber, Ferguson, Rivera, Beriault and Kalen Thornton could get 100% by game one. Kalen Thornton is clearly favoring his left leg but he is playing his heart out. I know they get paid a lot of money, but I really respect the guys who bust their a**** and play through any pain. And we have a lot of those.
Overall, I like the way things are shaping up. We all question Parcells about individual moves, but when you add up the whole package, it's hard to complain with the turnover in the roster since Parcells arrived.
