Picksix
A Work in Progress
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San Diego is such a nice city. I love coming here. I might live here if I could afford it.
Went to the game tonight. A TON of Cowboy fans there. My seat was good - halfway up the first section, behind the Cowboys bench, about the 35 yard line. Not the best view for trying to pick out certain things, but I'll do my best.
Like I said, Cowboy fans dominated the Cowboys side of the Stadium. Our cheer when the Cowboys ran out on the field was almost as loud as the Charger cheer was for them. Almost felt like a home game.
We looked pretty good on the first drive. OL was OK, not great. Weeden looked good, despite getting hit hard twice. There weren't any huge holes I could see for Johnson, but he ran hard and got what he could. Then came the snap. That play was just a big cluster. The defense after that wasn't bad. The play where Jones gave up the reception to Allen, I watched him the whole play, and he was step for step with him, and was physical with him. Then when the ball got there, somehow there were about 3 yards of separation. On the replay it was a blatant push off by Allen, but no call. On the TD play, Mincey got wiped out, and the LB didn't step up. That was kind of a theme for the night. The ends were going wide, but the DT's and LB's weren't filling the gaps well. Thus, the got some huge runs on the draws and off tackle plays. Coleman was the culprit on many plays.
I thought Vaughn was good, despite not getting much in the way of pass protection. If the back up tackles looked bad on TV, they looked even worse in person. Weems and Dill especially. Kept getting beat to the inside. Vaughn hit Street on a couple of really nice slants/deep ins, where Street ran very good routes to get open. The middle was pretty open most of the night. Couldn't ever really make anything work on the sidelines, though.
I thought the secondary, for the most part, looked good all night. No major blown assignments or just flat getting toasted that I can recall. White had some nice plays, where he had to cover one-on-one for a fairly long time because the rush didn't get there. Had 2-3 pass break-ups and even came close to an INT. The back up LB (#47) made a great and break on the ball late in the 3rd quarter, but couldn't haul in the pass. Might have been a TD if he hangs on.
Showers was pretty decent. Mostly running and checking down. Dude can run. Again, when he tried to throw to the sidelines, there was just no separation.
Damien Wilson made a couple of nice plays, including a great read and react to get a huge TFL. Other times he got blocked out of the play. Overall though, he looked really good.
Didn't notice much from Gachkar or Brinkley.
Johnson is a strong runner. Did a great job of getting the "dirty yards" on the 4th down play and the TD
Collins looked really good, and was out there most of the night. The rest of the backup OL...well, lets' hope the starters stay healthy.
Jones gave up a few passes, but nothing horrible. Played with good positioning and technique.
Kick coverage was pretty awful. Looked slow and couldn't get off blocks. Returners had a lot room to run. As for our return game, I thought they executed well when they got the opportunity. Even on Whitehead's fumble, the blocking was good and the return was solid.
Overall, the pass rush seemed to get better push, but had trouble getting home until the 4th quarter. Gardner looked good. Had a TFL and played with a lot of energy all night. Edwards got penetration a couple times and made it count. I heard Russel's name quite a bit tonight for making tackles, so that was good.
Wilcox was very active at the LOS on the first drive. Still seems more natural moving forward than moving back.
Saw Gregory and Hardy walking around on the sidelines and behind the bench. Gregory has monster hands, and Hardy's arms are massive.
Hanna came up gimpy on one play. Didn't seem to be anything serious, but reports are he sprained his MCL and will miss 1-2 weeks. Gus Johnson sprained his shoulder, but I'm hearing it's not too serious.
They had Clutts line up wide at least a couple times, and even threw to him once out of that formation. Not sure what was up with that.
That's about all I got. Had a great time. Sat next to a girl that went to high school with Swaim. Got real exicted on the pass he caught and ran up the sideline. She and her dad were huge Cowboy fans, too. Dad had a Witten jersey and the girl was wearing Romo socks. I was taking notes and she asked if I was a reporter. Dad said I looked like I could be JG's brother.
Overall, other than the TO's, it was a decent performance. Some good things. Some not so good. Plenty to feel good about, but plenty to work on, too.
Good night.
Went to the game tonight. A TON of Cowboy fans there. My seat was good - halfway up the first section, behind the Cowboys bench, about the 35 yard line. Not the best view for trying to pick out certain things, but I'll do my best.
Like I said, Cowboy fans dominated the Cowboys side of the Stadium. Our cheer when the Cowboys ran out on the field was almost as loud as the Charger cheer was for them. Almost felt like a home game.
We looked pretty good on the first drive. OL was OK, not great. Weeden looked good, despite getting hit hard twice. There weren't any huge holes I could see for Johnson, but he ran hard and got what he could. Then came the snap. That play was just a big cluster. The defense after that wasn't bad. The play where Jones gave up the reception to Allen, I watched him the whole play, and he was step for step with him, and was physical with him. Then when the ball got there, somehow there were about 3 yards of separation. On the replay it was a blatant push off by Allen, but no call. On the TD play, Mincey got wiped out, and the LB didn't step up. That was kind of a theme for the night. The ends were going wide, but the DT's and LB's weren't filling the gaps well. Thus, the got some huge runs on the draws and off tackle plays. Coleman was the culprit on many plays.
I thought Vaughn was good, despite not getting much in the way of pass protection. If the back up tackles looked bad on TV, they looked even worse in person. Weems and Dill especially. Kept getting beat to the inside. Vaughn hit Street on a couple of really nice slants/deep ins, where Street ran very good routes to get open. The middle was pretty open most of the night. Couldn't ever really make anything work on the sidelines, though.
I thought the secondary, for the most part, looked good all night. No major blown assignments or just flat getting toasted that I can recall. White had some nice plays, where he had to cover one-on-one for a fairly long time because the rush didn't get there. Had 2-3 pass break-ups and even came close to an INT. The back up LB (#47) made a great and break on the ball late in the 3rd quarter, but couldn't haul in the pass. Might have been a TD if he hangs on.
Showers was pretty decent. Mostly running and checking down. Dude can run. Again, when he tried to throw to the sidelines, there was just no separation.
Damien Wilson made a couple of nice plays, including a great read and react to get a huge TFL. Other times he got blocked out of the play. Overall though, he looked really good.
Didn't notice much from Gachkar or Brinkley.
Johnson is a strong runner. Did a great job of getting the "dirty yards" on the 4th down play and the TD
Collins looked really good, and was out there most of the night. The rest of the backup OL...well, lets' hope the starters stay healthy.
Jones gave up a few passes, but nothing horrible. Played with good positioning and technique.
Kick coverage was pretty awful. Looked slow and couldn't get off blocks. Returners had a lot room to run. As for our return game, I thought they executed well when they got the opportunity. Even on Whitehead's fumble, the blocking was good and the return was solid.
Overall, the pass rush seemed to get better push, but had trouble getting home until the 4th quarter. Gardner looked good. Had a TFL and played with a lot of energy all night. Edwards got penetration a couple times and made it count. I heard Russel's name quite a bit tonight for making tackles, so that was good.
Wilcox was very active at the LOS on the first drive. Still seems more natural moving forward than moving back.
Saw Gregory and Hardy walking around on the sidelines and behind the bench. Gregory has monster hands, and Hardy's arms are massive.
Hanna came up gimpy on one play. Didn't seem to be anything serious, but reports are he sprained his MCL and will miss 1-2 weeks. Gus Johnson sprained his shoulder, but I'm hearing it's not too serious.
They had Clutts line up wide at least a couple times, and even threw to him once out of that formation. Not sure what was up with that.
That's about all I got. Had a great time. Sat next to a girl that went to high school with Swaim. Got real exicted on the pass he caught and ran up the sideline. She and her dad were huge Cowboy fans, too. Dad had a Witten jersey and the girl was wearing Romo socks. I was taking notes and she asked if I was a reporter. Dad said I looked like I could be JG's brother.
Overall, other than the TO's, it was a decent performance. Some good things. Some not so good. Plenty to feel good about, but plenty to work on, too.
Good night.
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