patfanken

BB clearly decided that this was the time to evaluate his younger players and see what Anderson had in the tank. since I think he was the only DL FA who played. I was a little surprised how FEW of the actual starters played in the game. I don't think any of the offensive starters played. I thought I saw Mankins out there, but if he was it was only for a play or two.And except for Anderson, I don't think any of the DL acquisitions played either.

The OBVIOUS Points -

a Taylor was a revelation.
b. Hoyer is better than several NFL starters already. He's eventually going to get us a 3rd round pick....maybe better if a team is desperate at the time.
c. Mallet was also impressive. That kid is SOOOOOOOO lucky that came to the Pats. Only the Eagles come close to the Pats in developing QBs. Both are the best since the Packers under Wolf and Holmgren By the time he becomes a starting QB he's going to be something. Needless to say, now and in the future the Pats are in good hands at the QB position.
d. Now we all got to see the surprising quickness and good hands we had been hearing about Riddley. If he's the future pound it out RB, I can hardly wait to see Ben Vereen.
e Dane Fletcher was the 2nd best revelation. He looked lightning fast and very decisive. I would be interested to find out what percentage of those plays he wound up in the Jags backfield were planned blitzes and what were just very aggressive reads. He was really blowing up the RBs that tried to block him on blitces

The LESS Obvious Points

a. I thought Solder looked a lot better than expected. I watched him closely very early when the Jags still had a few starters in there. I noticed on running plays he almost always moved his guy off the LOS. Even on those plays where he gave ground, on pass plays he ALWAYS remained in front of the attacker...and there weren't a lot of those plays. I was very impressed how low he kept his pad level on running plays. He looked every bit a value at the 18th pick of the first round.

b. I have to say that all in all I thought the OL in EVERY combination played very well in pass protection. The run blocking was less impressive. What amounted to the 2nd and 3rd teams didn't get a lot of push on running plays. though they were rarely pushed back. It was decent, but not as good as the pass blocking.

c. Which bring me to this point: I can't tell you how impressed I am at how good this coaching staff is. When you consider that the offense, without any OTAs, playing with virtual strangers, 2 weeks after the lockout, only 7 padded practices; that they put up 47 points. That's impressive, but even more impressive is that they only had FOUR Penalties TOTAL. That, my friends,, is simply an AMAZING coaching

d. Did the defense look quicker to you this game, or am I just being optimistic

e. My favorite stat of the night is when in the middle of the 4th IIRC, one of the talking heads commented that the Jags had only converted 3 of 11 3rd downs.

f. I know there will be a lot of talk about 3-4 and 4-3, but I think we will have to wait until we are going to have any idea, or even an indication, of what our base defensive philosophy is going to be. Certainly not until we see the staff actually game plan someone

g. I'll be VERY interested to see which of the young DLmen make the team. There will be several that don't make it, who played pretty well tonight.

h. I STILL think that the hit on Price should NOT have been a penalty. The Jag player didn't lead with his top of his head. He met Price with his face mask. His head in good position. That's the distinction I would make in the rule. Face mask to face mask should be OK. Top of you helmet is BAD. JMHO

Nothing NOT to like about tonight, but again for Pats fans, as much we have high hopes for this team, nothing really matters until we get to January and actually win a playoff game again. The regular season really nothing more than preparation for those playoffs.....and hopefully a measure of redemption. Meanwhile the Regular season is merely just a 17 week period of entertainment for the fans, before we get to the serious business of the playoff.

Now its on to the 2nd pre season game and the hope that when the "varsity" takes over from the JVs.....they do as well

Joker

that hit will be called 100 times out of a 100

this ain't the 80's anymore..or even the 90's

Box_O_Rocks

Randy Cross commenting on how Hoyer lead the unofficial workouts for players who stayed around Gillette was interesting and underscored Hoyer's performance last night, he really has a nice command of the offense.

Reiss reported the starting O-line was Solder, Austin, Orhnberger, LeVoir, and Maneri; with Light re-signed, Solder isn't a lock to start at LT to begin the season, so the "starting" unit's performance tonight was pretty impressive for a bunch of guys who haven't player together.

I thought Medlin did a nice job at RB after Ridley came out, with Vareen and Kettani yet to make an appearance it looks like BB and Ivan have some good depth to play with.

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Box_O_Rocks

Good thing too, numbers that large always tend to confuse me.

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patfanken

Oh I understand that, because that's how the rule was written. I agree with the intent of the rule, but I disagree with the contention that hitting with the face mask first (as you should in a form tackle) is dangerous. OTOH, hitting with the top of your helmet should be grounds for immediate ejection from the game. Spearing has been against the rules going back as far as I can remember (and I can remember far... ) But it was never really enforced....until lately. BTW - and I would go further. ANY hit with the crown of your helmet should be penalized, not just helmet to helmet. STILL I have a problem when I see a good, and IMO, safe, hit with the face mask called a penalty....even if the call is legally correct.

Box_O_Rocks

I was watching a live stream, but it appeared to be helmet to helmet in the replay I saw?

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NinjaZX6R

The Price hit...yeah it was. Does the NFL fine players during the pre season?

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muslimman

I was also very impressed by the OLine... but I also had to keep reminding myself that they were going against one of the worse DLines in the NFL for most of the game.

But speaking of this 47 point beat-down am I the only one who missed all the production from our TC phenom TEs? Did Yeatman/Lee have a great block let alone a catch?

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hellolin

They both look huge that is

Metaphors

Besides the obvious stuff:

- Love seeing the wide running plays. Outside of BJGE, the rest of the RBs have nimble feet to attack the edge and it is fun seeing the huge OTs/TEs lining up smaller defenders in space.

- If Ridley can catch and pass protect like he did in this game, I can't see how Morris can make the team.

- Hernandez is the X-factor for this offense. You can't commit a CB to cover him and a S/LB can't handle him. Absolutely need him to be healthy when the games really matter in January/February.

- Not surprisingly, this was a completely vanilla gameplan...particularly on defense. Outside of Fletcher's middle blitz, there wasn't any deception or surprises. Hard to evaluate anything but individual efforts.

- While Butler didn't have a great game, it was hardly the disaster that most people are making it out to be. On Cunningham's sack and Richard's 1st sack, Butler had the coverage that enabled the pressure to reach the QB.

- Wilhite on the other hand was a disaster...both on defense and ST. For his sake, I hope he was playing hurt.

All things considered, close to a perfect 1st game outside of the balls on the turf. No injuries and tons of experience for guys who needed it. The only problem at this point is that there are far more than 53 players who look to be worthy to stick on the roster. Nice problem to have.