Preseason Week 1 - My thoughts on the game...

[theogt]

- First team offense and defense looked very good. Nuff said there.

- Zach looked crisp and alert, with surprising sturdiness despite his size and age. He could be a real treat to watch this season.

- Felix Jones > Julius Jones. Yeah, it's early, but Felix just looks in a different league compared to Julius. Choice showed some moves, but missed picking up some blitzes. I think in time we could have the most talented backfield in the league.

- Mike Jenkins looked on the money. In fact, he looked better than Pacman. Scandrick looked good too. For a small guy, he's a hitter.

- Neither Tony Curtis nor Martellus Bennett can passblock. They had me calling for Anthony Fasano in the chat. This was just a terrible decision, in my opinion.

- Carpenter is still too timid, and Burnett is still weak against the run. It was really a mixed bag from Carpenter. He flashed at times, but sucked at others. Very frustrating.

- Lekerkerkker has no chance of making the roster.

- Pacman looks a little rusty. But even when he gave up plays he was in very tight coverage. His run defense was pretty bad.

- Special teams is abysmal. This is a serious problem for this team that must be addressed or we'll pay for it.

- Miles Austin looked amazing tonight. He got open and caught just about everything thrown his way. He looks like the real deal and I'd honestly prefer to see him take Hurd's spot as the #3 sooner rather than later (it's inevitable). Hurd dropped a pass that hit him right in the hands. Other than that, he was nowhere to be seen.

- Doug Free was solid at left tackle, both in pass protection and run blocking. He makes me not feel bad about signing Flozell til he's 38.

- Spencer looks very instinctive. He's reacting to the play much quicker and works really well against the run. He made an opposite side tackle that looked almost Ware-like.

- Erik Walden looked better than expected. With the 3 on his jersey I often mistook him for Spencer, which is a compliment. Justin Rogers didn't impress at all.

- The refs hated us.

 

[Woods]

Nice re-cap.

I can honestly say that in a PRE-SEASON game, and the 1st one at that, I'd be more concerned if my 1st team offense and defense got manhandled like the Chargers' did rather than the end score. Seriously, Romo and the 1st team were rolling on these guys.

Clearly, our 2nd and 3rd stringers didn't play as well. But hey, there are only going to be 53 spots available in 3 weeks time, and most of those bubble guys will be gone.

As for STs, once we get our core guys in there, it will improve. I'm sure we're mixing and matching a lot on STs. And let's remember, guys like Jay O. from Stanford aren't going to be punting for us in the regular season!

 

[RCowboyFan]

One thing I agree, refs really did probably hate us. I can't believe they San Diego didn't have a penalty till 3rd quarter or well into it.

 

[ejthedj]

Austin definitely looked better and I think probably passed Hurd after tonight.

He just needs to keep it going. Use that confidence and that big body to make those tough catches and we got ourselves a receiver!

 

[theebs]

Its preseason game 1, but I think carpenter is in big trouble.

And what was burnett's deal? He looked pretty poor.

Bennet nearly got brad johnson killed trying to blick phillips!

Miles austin used his body and his size well.

This team looks to be lacking discipline and the places that shows up are penalties and special teams and both were horrendous tonight.

This was the worst preseason showing since campo was the coach. I have never seen our backups play this poorly, I hope it is a wake up call to this organization. You can not lack discipline and expect to be worth a darn.

oh and I love choice and jones.

oh and I forgot scandrick was great.

 

[Woods]

Its preseason game 1, but I think carpenter is in big trouble.

And what was burnett's deal? He looked pretty poor.

Bennet nearly got brad johnson killed trying to blick phillips!

Miles austin used his body and his size well.

This team looks to be lacking discipline and the places that shows up are penalties and special teams and both were horrendous tonight.

This was the worst preseason showing since campo was the coach. I have never seen our backups play this poorly, I hope it is a wake up call to this organization. You can not lack discipline and expect to be worth a darn.

oh and I love choice and jones.

I'd guess that around 17-21 points against us were due to PI calls and turnovers, no?

 

[theebs]

I'd guess that around 17-21 points against us were due to PI calls and turnovers, no?

Everything was the result of poor play. Bad punts, bad punt coverage and terrible pass defense.

 

[cowboyeric8]

I'd guess that around 17-21 points against us were due to PI calls and turnovers, no?

Yeah, that about sums it up.

 

[Woods]

Everything was the result of poor play. Bad punts, bad punt coverage and terrible pass defense.

Fortunatley for us, we know the only reason that the other punter was brought in was to give our starter's leg a break.

I have to think (hope) that once we get closer to finding out who makes the roster that our STs coverage will improve.

 

[RCowboyFan]

Its preseason game 1, but I think carpenter is in big trouble.

And what was burnett's deal? He looked pretty poor.

Bennet nearly got brad johnson killed trying to blick phillips!

Miles austin used his body and his size well.

This team looks to be lacking discipline and the places that shows up are penalties and special teams and both were horrendous tonight.

This was the worst preseason showing since campo was the coach. I have never seen our backups play this poorly, I hope it is a wake up call to this organization. You can not lack discipline and expect to be worth a darn.

oh and I love choice and jones.

oh and I forgot scandrick was great.

I doubt there were descipline issues, other in Special Teams. Punt team just plain was horrendous. I don't care if it is pre-season or third teamers. Bruce Read, is plain bad.

I am not sure why he still has a job, but then seems like Wade Phillips achilies heel might be that, just like in Buffalo, unless we see some dramatic improvement by second game.

My other thought is, some of the backups might have been reading too much press clippings or were trying too hard, instead of trying to play according scheme. I.e. overreacting to things or trying to force plays etc.

 

[theogt]

Fortunatley for us, we know the only reason that the other punter was brought in was to give our starter's leg a break.

I have to think (hope) that once we get closer to finding out who makes the roster that our STs coverage will improve.

We were trying all sorts of different personnel packages for special teams. Unfortunately, all of them were consistently poor. I don't think it can really continue to be that bad, though.

 

[theebs]

Fortunatley for us, we know the only reason that the other punter was brought in was to give our starter's leg a break.

I have to think (hope) that once we get closer to finding out who makes the roster that our STs coverage will improve.

they have to. Of course they will be better when the roster is set.

mcbriar was not good tonight either punting though.

these guys are in the middle of two a days and a ton of meetings, its hard to judge anything. I am just dissapointed in the lack of discipline. That was a bad showing I thought.

 

[dbair1967]

-

First team offense and defense looked very good. Nuff said there.

and thankss to NFL Network, I (like many I assume) missed the opening series on offense and defense..glowing reviews though from everyone, including the Charger announcers

- Zach looked crisp and alert, with surprising sturdiness despite his size and age. He could be a real treat to watch this season.

he did look good...only one preseason game, but he showed vastly better playmaking and range than Ayodele ever did here...Ayodele wasnt horrible, but he never stood out and rarely made any plays...Thomas looks like a huge plus for us

- Felix Jones > Julius Jones. Yeah, it's early, but Felix just looks in a different league compared to Julius. Choice showed some moves, but missed picking up some blitzes. I think in time we could have the most talented backfield in the league.

the new Jones really does look special...he's a big play waiting to happen...liked what I saw from Choice too

- Mike Jenkins looked on the money. In fact, he looked better than Pacman. Scandrick looked good too. For a small guy, he's a hitter.

Jenkins looks like a good one...Scandrick moves well...I thought Jones got hosed on his PI call, from the one angle I saw it appeared the WR just ran into him...nobody else will probably say this, but jenkins looked alot better than Cason IMO and I'm glad we chose him between the two

- Neither Tony Curtis nor Martellus Bennett can passblock. They had me calling for Anthony Fasano in the chat. This was just a terrible decision, in my opinion.

both of them have WR type builds IMO...Bennett may end up being a good one but probably needs a yr to gain weight and strength...I wont be surprised if they look for a veteran TE after final cuts

- Carpenter is still too timid, and Burnett is still weak against the run. It was really a mixed bag from Carpenter. He flashed at times, but sucked at others. Very frustrating.

they both missed some easy tackles too...as did a number of the other 2nd and 3rd teamers...maybe they need to start being more physical in practice

- Lekerkerkker has no chance of making the roster.

never thought he had a chance anyway

- Pacman looks a little rusty. But even when he gave up plays he was in very tight coverage. His run defense was pretty bad.

he was definitely rusty, though as I said above I thought he got hosed on the PI call...bad missed tackle on the one run play

- Special teams is abysmal. This is a serious problem for this team that must be addressed or we'll pay for it.

I was really surprised this was so bad, since it was obviously such an issue last yr...with the athletes we have the coverage units shouldnt be this poor, and this has been the case basically since Read showed up...even the return units were poor too, and I thought we'd see improvement there too...field position just killed us in this game (albeit a meaningless one) and as you said, they cant be this bad week in and week out or it will kill us at some point, and it would royally suck to lose a playoff or championship game because this team cant do routine punt and kickoff coverage

- Miles Austin looked amazing tonight. He got open and caught just about everything thrown his way. He looks like the real deal and I'd honestly prefer to see him take Hurd's spot as the #3 sooner rather than later (it's inevitable). Hurd dropped a pass that hit him right in the hands. Other than that, he was nowhere to be seen.

I've thought Austin would be a factor this yr since the end of last yr...he definitely showed improved hands and concentration, and a couple of his catches he plucked it right away from DB's...Hurd will be fine, but I do agree with you that Austin could see more PT

- Doug Free was solid at left tackle, both in pass protection and run blocking. He makes me not feel bad about signing Flozell til he's 38.

I cant say I was impressed by any of the backup OL's, in fact I thought they all pretty much got abused...they had one series where I thought they "won", but otherwise they were pretty lousy I thought

- Spencer looks very instinctive. He's reacting to the play much quicker and works really well against the run. He made an opposite side tackle that looked almost Ware-like.

am excited to see him in our regular defense alot more

- Erik Walden looked better than expected. With the 3 on his jersey I often mistook him for Spencer, which is a compliment. Justin Rogers didn't impress at all.

I really dont see why they like Rogers at all...they keep saying its because of special teams, but he was a big zero there too...Walden obviously has alot to learn but appears to have some skills to work with

- The refs hated us.

not sure if they hated us or just loved the Chargers...their definition of PI definitely seemed different for us and them though...the Jones PI I thought was pretty lame

David

 

[Woods]

We were trying all sorts of different personnel packages for special teams. Unfortunately, all of them were consistently poor. I don't think it can really continue to be that bad, though.

Yes, I think that's the reason.

Mostly poor punting, and mixing and matching packages on STs.

Unfortuntately, for many of those guys, that was their best chance to make the roster and they may have blown it.

 

[dbair1967]

Its preseason game 1, but I think carpenter is in big trouble.

he wasnt any worse than any of the other backups IMO...all of the backup defense looked pretty medicore to me...

And what was burnett's deal? He looked pretty poor.

missed a couple of tackles he shouldnt have, something that the entire 2nd and 3rd team did as well...

Bennet nearly got brad johnson killed trying to blick phillips!

as the Charger announcers noted, you arnt going to block an OLB with pass rush skills like Phillips has with a TE, especially a rookie...it was stupid to put him in that position

This team looks to be lacking discipline and the places that shows up are penalties and special teams and both were horrendous tonight.

I'm absolutely convinced the ST issue is the ST coach...the only penalty that made me mad was Hamlins, otherwise the others werent horrible and a couple were definitely borderline at best

This was the worst preseason showing since campo was the coach. I have never seen our backups play this poorly, I hope it is a wake up call to this organization. You can not lack discipline and expect to be worth a darn.

oh please...some of Parcells preseason games were way more putrid than this...remember being clobbered by Arizona and Houston for example?

David

 

[Woods]

I suppose with Bennett trying to block Phillips was in a sense "welcome to the NFL". Phillips is really a quality player and Bennett has a long way to go.

 

[DallasInDC]

Its preseason game 1, but I think carpenter is in big trouble.

And what was burnett's deal? He looked pretty poor.

Bennet nearly got brad johnson killed trying to blick phillips!

Miles austin used his body and his size well.

This team looks to be lacking discipline and the places that shows up are penalties and special teams and both were horrendous tonight.

This was the worst preseason showing since campo was the coach. I have never seen our backups play this poorly, I hope it is a wake up call to this organization. You can not lack discipline and expect to be worth a darn.

oh and I love choice and jones.

Definetely agree on Carpenter...Even against the third team he didn't perform well. This is looking like a wasted 1st rd. pick.

Miles austin was impressive. So was crayton and Witen.

considering all the talk of how our secondary was so deep, I was truely unimpressed, especially given the three long PI.

I am afraid to watch the offense when BJ is out there. If we can get Chris Simms I would do it in a heartbeat. Anything has to be better than old man BJ (even Vinnie testervede- aggghh).

Backup OL looked horrible and as someone else mentioned Curtis and Bennet didn't block well at all.

Barber/Felix is going to be awesome to watch - true definition of thunder and lightening.

Glad to see the first team offense and defense play well (actually didn't see it since the skins-Bills game ran over - arrrghh), but ST's was atrocious. We need to get that fixed ASAP or it will cost us at least a couple of games this year. It seem we lacked the speed to get down field and nobody knows the basic principal of maintaining their lanes. On returns everybody bunched up and couldn't block anybody. This is showing a big weakness on the this team.

On the bright side, this should keep the team from getting overconfident.

I was a little concerned about bradie james comments about not getting the defesnive plays in on time and defense not huddling up to get the calls. I'm sure that will get taken care of during practice.

Overall I was disappointed given the talk about how deep this team is. I expected a better showing out of the back ups. but I am not willing to change my opinion of this team off of one preseason game - especially the first one.

 

[28 Joker]

When your line is getting knocked back (the backups), your inside linebackers are going to get blocked by bigger guys. I thought Burnett and Carpenter played well when you consider this aspect. Those two guys didn't have a chance on the goalline after the d-line was knocked backwards. Carpenter had 6 tackes and one assist and he ran well in pursuit and played hard. Burnett had three tackles and two assists and made a nice play on third down in the opening series to force a punt on the screen pass.

You have to remember, these guys didn't play in the base defense with the first team.

This was the best game I have ever seen Miles Austin play. He had 5 catches for 64 yards. If he could play like that against a good corner like Cason (Austin got him good twice), he could really help Dallas. After this performance, I think he is the guy Romo was talking to Galloway about. In fact, if he can show this performance two or three more times, he may take the number 2 WR position. I wish he would and soon. Crayton made both his big plays out of the slot where he makes his money. Crayton (big mouth excluded) is really good inside, and Austin could enable him to play in there all the time if he can keep this up.

If you want to worry about anything, worry about the poor punt coverage. They kept making the same mistakes over and over.

 

[theebs]

he wasnt any worse than any of the other backups IMO...all of the backup defense looked pretty medicore to me...



missed a couple of tackles he shouldnt have, something that the entire 2nd and 3rd team did as well...



as the Charger announcers noted, you arnt going to block an OLB with pass rush skills like Phillips has with a TE, especially a rookie...it was stupid to put him in that position



I'm absolutely convinced the ST issue is the ST coach...the only penalty that made me mad was Hamlins, otherwise the others werent horrible and a couple were definitely borderline at best



oh please...some of Parcells preseason games were way more putrid than this...remember being clobbered by Arizona and Houston for example?

David

I agree the backup defense looked to be counting the minutes till the game was over. No one seemed to have energy or something.

Yes I remember those preseason games and the 3rd and 50 or whatever it was!! I just think they still had some discipline!

Two years ago we had a top special teams unit. Now we look to be lucky to have a functioning unit. Looking forward to seeing how the starting groups shake out. Its hard to replace davis, elam, reeves, fowler etc...

We are looking for those special teams guys to step up. I am hoping brown, anderson and burnett will step up.

and for those that missed the opening of the game tank johnson simply abused newberry, he looked to be going 100 mph it was very impressive.

mcquistan was trying to help bennet block phillips but it didnt look like he ws out of his stance when phillips went past him! those young tackles played basically the whole game, that can only be good for them going forward.

 

[Clove]

For the life of me, what has happened to McBriar. His first year he was a star in the making, now he's kicking just like he did last year - way too short giving the returner all kinds of time to return the punt.