Sunday night, you can replace that ? with your evaluation of Kellen Moore but in all fairness, judge his plays called against execution.
I am more excited about this opener than I have been in a long time, all because of a first time OC in his first game, we don't get to see this much in the NFL, Moore is about as green as a coach comes. But the challenge for James Bettcher, the Giants DC, who did improve the stats last season as he did in AZ before coming to the Giants in 2018, is that he has nothing to go by, no tendencies shown yet and facing a dual threat QB with some good weapons.
In that regard, the first game Prescott played, their DC at that time went back to his last season at Miss St and what AL, AU and LSU did, he's kind of in the same boat as the DC was in the first game of 2016, only this is with the OC this time. But he has little to go by and preseason gave him nothing except Moore didn't look like this is too big for him. Which is good because the young OC is going to have the bright lights on him unlike any OC before him.
I will watch this game a little differently than in the past when the O is on the field. However, I am not the X's and O's student of the game that some are here so I look forward to their evaluations after the game.
I didn't have to be a student of the game with Linehan, I could predict pretty accurately what he was going to call but I am looking forward to seeing how different Moore calls it in the same situations, particularly on 1st and 3rd downs and in the red zone. I won't even mind some 3rd and longs to see how he calls it.
One thing I am really looking forward to is beginning to answer that question that I've had for 3 seasons. Was Linehan's play calling restricted because of what he saw as QB limitations? Did he play it conservatively because of a lack of trust in the QB to execute certain plays in pressure situations? All I do know is he was a different play caller with Stafford and Romo. Then again, I don't know how many plays Romo changed in the huddle, at the line or once the ball was snapped so there is that.
Now, back to the first para, don't judge him alone on execution because I think a lot of that happened with Linehan but try and evaluate the play called on the circumstances and why the play didn't work instead of that being the wrong play to call in that situation.
And speaking of situation, and I was, I hope Kellen the Young has a better understanding of situational football than his immediate supervisor. And since this is his first real game, will the training wheels be off and Moore in full control? That will also be of interest. If the team struggles offensively, will Garrett let Moore work that out on his own? Will he weigh the play called against execution?
