Well, being that I'm not in the New England region or the city of Philadelphia I have just gotten the chance to check out the first half. Here are a couple of things I'd like to comment on...
1.
We were pretty physical. Offensively, our line was getting a good push against what is a pretty solid Eagles defensive line. You wouldn't know it by the running lanes, but Brady was afforded very good protection tonight and could have been able to make a sandwich back there and still be able to deliver the ball on time. On defense, we were pushing the Eagles' OL around like they were a pop warner squad. Jason Peters is pretty much our *****. On top of that, every Philadelphia receiver that caught the ball in the first half was subjected to punishing hits. You could hear them and also see their effects judging by the amount of Eagles that got dinged up. Good stuff all in all.
2.
Edelman is a beast. I'm pretty sure that everyone here that actually saw the game and has been following TC knows this. I haven't yet had the pleasure to attend TC and probably won't, so this was my first glimpse of #11 and I like what I see. Very fast, good explosion, shifty, and has a good pair of hands. Combined with his throwing abilities, this guy should be a secret weapon in our offense this year.
3.
Maroney was not afforded a lot of running room. By my count, Maroney ran it six times when he was in. One of those times he bounced off his own man (I believe it was Matt Light) who was out in front trying to block for him. Others, it seemed as if Philly saw the offensive in an I-Formation and stacked the box. I had read about the dancing earlier and tried to watch for myself. While there were a couple of times where he danced in the backfield when he could have just gone straight forward and picked up a couple of yards, there were other times where the hole that he was supposed to run through would be plugged by the defense forcing him to try to shift and find a different hole. The one time when the defense wasn't expecting the run, Maroney was able to pick up a pretty good burst through the hole for five yards (the draw play). I was suprised that they didn't use him in the passing game more often as well.
4.
Joey Galloway needs to get in tune with Brady. Galloway was one of the guys that I was most excited to see before tonight. However, it looks like he and Brady still need to get in sync. By my count, Brady threw to him twice. One through was off either because Brady threw it behind him or Galloway was too far ahead in a timing route. Considering Brady's history with us, I'll blame it on Galloway.
The second chance he got, the throw was dead on but the ball bounced off of Galloway's hands. He needs to make that catch, especially considering how long he has been in the league.
5.
This is about as rusty as we are going to see Brady... and that's a good thing. I thought Brady looked almost like his old self tonight. He still needs some fine tuning but if I didn't know what happened last year and had to judge him just based on tonight, I would think that he's a pretty damn good quarterback. I had two main concerns when it came to Brady coming off the injury. The first was how he was going to handle pressure. Thanks to the stellar pass blocking tonight, he rarely had to encounter pressure. But the few times he did, Brady looked great (especially on that 35 yarder to Moss where he side stepped the pressure and made a great throw). The second was his deep ball. By my count he threw three deep balls tonight. The first was to Moss which would have been a sure touchdown had Asante not interfered. That throw was RIGHT on the money. The second he put WAY too much air under the throw causing the interception. He was pissed off at himself and I have to think that he put that much air under it either because of rust or because the coverage on Moss was so tight that he didn't want to zing it to him and instead wanted to put it up there for Moss to grab. We'll never know but he'll get it worked out. The third throw wasn't really "deep" when compared to his other two throws, but it was right in Moss' hands. Perfect pass and a great way to escape the pressure as I said before. Brady looks hungry and I expect that he's going to have a phenomenal year.
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I know that I'm going to get roasted by a few of you when I say this but I don't give a damn. I'm aware that this is only the first preseason game and the team still has a lot of work to do, but I have a great feeling about this year. Last year, before the season started, I didn't quite have that feeling. As a matter of fact, before the Chiefs game, I had a queasy feeling in my stomach but just dismissed it as diarrhea from the bean dip. Now I think that feeling might have been justified. Last year, I worried about the defense (specifically the secondary), the lack of a bonafied #2 receiver opposite Moss, and relative age in our LB corps. This year, the only worry I had going in was how Brady would react. Tonight a lot of fears subsided for me. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing great things from the team this year. For now, I will take it one game at a time. So here's to good health and similar results for next week!
Really liking our physicality (and other observations)
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