My meaningless thoughts on the game...

[smarta5150]

JJ looked great where MBIII looked ok AT best.

How we still have JJ criticism is beyond me.

 

[Tristan]

Polar opposite on the RBs: I thought Julius looked good, save one run, and Barber looked sluggish until it was 3rd and long against the Colts' scrubs.

I agree, Julius looked explosive to me, great first step and he seemed to be running hard. The speed difference between the two was obvious to me.

Barber looked to be running with his usual tenacity, his elusiveness was subpar IMO, although I didn't feel he had great blocking. The first step of Julius seemed very decisive while Barbers hesitation may have cost him a few good yards.

 

[DallasInDC]

Yeah, I know. I just wanted to mention it to put it in some perspective. The good news is no injuries, several guys like Free and Fasano played well, etc.

I read free has a sprained knee. Hopefully it is nothing serious.

 

[Bizwah]

The bad:
Red Zone offense....Yuck. But, I really think we played it close to the vest (hopefully). We got inside the twenty, and immediately ran it into the pile. I don't think we really wanted to show anything.

Kick Coverage: Great distance on KOs....bad coverage lets the Colts get the ball at the 35/40 yard line.

Running Game: Again, we may not be trying to show much, but it sure looked like our backs were getting stuffed against a poor run defense.

The Good:
Offense in between the twenties. We had no problems moving the ball down the field. Chewed up a bunch of time.

OL: The onlyl bad thing about the game was the injury to Free. I thought our starting OL looked pretty darn tough.

Defense: Had a solid outing. I thought we had a decent pass rush at times without throwing a bunch of exotic blitzes. Ratliff continues to impress me. Ware was getting close a number of times.

TEs: Wow....our TEs were open all day long.

 

[smarta5150]

MBIII used the basketball move in where he "jump-stops" before hitting a hole.

He is trying to be a home run hitter instead of getting up into the hole.

 

[parchy]

I agree, Julius looked explosive to me, great first step and he seemed to be running hard. The speed difference between the two was obvious to me.

Barber looked to be running with his usual tenacity, his elusiveness was subpar IMO, although I didn't feel he had great blocking. The first step of Julius seemed very decisive while Barbers hesitation may have cost him a few good yards.

His first step is nice, yes, but he's still slow in getting to his cutback lanes. On at least three occasions Julius had avenues, saw them, planted, cut for them and was taken down before getting there. He's a quick-twitch kind of player playing without the ability to peel those runs back a little bit.

He's got the vision. He's seeing those holes. He just needs to get there faster. Because once he hits it, not many people can catch him.

 

[bbgun]

Wasn't exactly wowed by the pass rush. Didn't swarm or harass Manning at all. Looked very placid and "Tunaesque." We'll see.

 

[DallasInDC]

Re: the running game, don't forget we didn't have Flo or Columbo out there and we started with 2 tackles who have never played a donw in a regular season game.

 

[parchy]

Wasn't exactly wowed by the pass rush. Didn't swarm or harass Manning at all. Looked very placid and "Tunaesque." We'll see.

Remember, that Tuna defense made Manning look skiddish and unprepared last year. That was a fine defense there for a little while.

But you don't expect the D to look prim and polished in its first start in a newish system. They kept it pretty basic.

 

[dallasfaniac]

When your offense uses up so much time and your first string defense is out there for like 2 or 3 series playing pretty vanilla you're not gonna see much.

 

[Bizwah]

Re: the running game, don't forget we didn't have Flo or Columbo out there and we started with 2 tackles who have never played a donw in a regular season game.

But they were without McFarland, Bob Sanders, and a couple of LBs (IIRC). Plus, their run D sucks.....

We should've been able to run better. Jones had a couple of nice runs in between the twenties. I would've liked to have seen him get a couple of snaps in the redzone.

But for a first game, not bad at all. This has been our best PS opener in YEARS. I remember getting blanked by Arizona and Houston....last year our offense was only able to score 13 at Seattle.

 

[Vintage]

Wasn't exactly wowed by the pass rush. Didn't swarm or harass Manning at all. Looked very placid and "Tunaesque." We'll see.

Part of it was bland game planning. Not a ton of stunting/blitzing.

What bothered me moreso, was that we didn't seem to be winning a ton of the individual matchups in rushing the passer. Similar to last year.

Its game one. Im not putting a ton of stock into it. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit disapointed.

 

[dbair1967]

But they were without McFarland, Bob Sanders, and a couple of LBs (IIRC). Plus, their run D sucks.....

We should've been able to run better. Jones had a couple of nice runs in between the twenties. I would've liked to have seen him get a couple of snaps in the redzone.

.

if you are going to point out their MIA guys, remember we had two backups at OL, inclduing a rookie 4th rd pick at LT, and we didnt have Terry Glenn for them to defend

also, run blocking normally takes longer to gel than pass blocking

David

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Geez, fellas, this wasn't the Raiders we were playing. They only won the Super Bowl last year, and their QB is famous for not getting sacked.

also, run blocking normally takes longer to gel than pass blocking

That's right... And Wade said in the postgame that we've worked more on pass blocking than run blocking so far. They'll start picking up more work on the run game this week.

 

[Bizwah]

if you are going to point out their MIA guys, remember we had two backups at OL, inclduing a rookie 4th rd pick at LT, and we didnt have Terry Glenn for them to defend

also, run blocking normally takes longer to gel than pass blocking

David

Yes, I know....I was responding to someone that said we were missing players.

I was simply pointing out that they were too.

It's the first game so I'm not too worried. The Colts seemed to shut our run game down in our game last year too.

 

[speedkilz88]

As Wade said in his pc, with Manning in there the colts don't let you make defensive substitutions and they throw the 3wr set at you.

I thought the pressure was pretty good except for the one big play to Harrison. The rest were dinks by Manning because of the pressure.

 

[Bizwah]

Part of it was bland game planning. Not a ton of stunting/blitzing.

What bothered me moreso, was that we didn't seem to be winning a ton of the individual matchups in rushing the passer. Similar to last year.

Its game one. Im not putting a ton of stock into it. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit disapointed.

Manning is hard to sack.....I swear the guy could have five HS players blocking for him and still not get sacked. You also know that the Colts weren't about to take any risky pass plays.

Ware got close a couple of times.....On Manning's last pass, I thought Ware had him. He got close enough to wrap Manning up and take him to the ground.

But other than that....not much.

 

[trickblue]

The way we looked and beating the defending Super Bowl champs is certainly not a guarentee that we are going to win it all.

But I look at it this way: suppose we got trounced. Or suppose we played them straight up.

I submit we beat them 1sts vs. 1sts, 2nds vs. 2nds and 3rds vs. 3rds.

Given the three options (better, same, worse), it certainly is a much better sign than if we got trounced.

Don't put too much into it, but it does mean something we didn't look bad and beat up on the defending Super Bowl champs. It means we aren't god awful.

You have that faction onboard...

We lose: ****... Phillips is a bust... what a joke I will never root for this team again... Yes, this is preseason, but it is representative for what we can expect... 1-15 if we are LUCKY...

We win: No reason to be excited... this team sux and Wade sux... mark my words... this team will suck... TC too light, the Sun sets daily, JFK was murdered we hate life... what's up...

2-14...

 

[superpunk]

Geez, fellas, this wasn't the Raiders we were playing. They only won the Super Bowl last year, and their QB is famous for not getting sacked.

Werd. I know everyone wants to find the negatives, but there was very little negative to be found last night. They looked physical, fast, on defense and Romo looked precise on offense spreading it around. Not sure what more we were looking for in the first game.

 

[baj1dallas]

Remember, that Tuna defense made Manning look skiddish and unprepared last year. That was a fine defense there for a little while.

But you don't expect the D to look prim and polished in its first start in a newish system. They kept it pretty basic.

We did see one nice move out of Ware, set up his man and then worked across him with his right arm and forced Peyton to get rid of the ball early.