Disco Volante

Playing better than Matt Cassel and having a performance that's not wrist slitting worthy is still not exactly impressive.

Didn't say he was horrible, just saying I didn't feel absolutely pumped about the guy based on last night's performance

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JSn

Yeah, but on that play I loved the way he slipped that defender. Add a completion to that and we'd all be raving about it.

Lloyd_Christmas

Holy Shnikeys! He must have sucked some serious A_S_S against the Ravens then. He was horrible last night! I don't care about his mechanics. He has no ability to manage an offense. There was never a glint of danger that he would throw the long ball and the other defense knew it. Just a bunch of predictable runs and dump off passes to build confidence for headlight boy. The play where he audibled and the defense changed and then he got completely flustered was a summation of his entire night. There is NO WAY this clown makes the roster.

Fifta and Smith did look pretty good to me. I like slater on returns as well.

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A Truly Vindictive Fanboy-type Poster

"My name is William Stephen Belichick, Coach of the New England Patriots, Three Time Super Bowl Champion, Defensive Guru, Pride of Karlovac, The Greatest Coach in the History of the NFL Since Vince Lombardi. Target of the spygate lynching, Defender of our Dynasty's legacy. And I will have my vengeance, in this game and the rest."

Lloyd_Christmas

I can agree to disagree then. He did throw many passes too high (a danger to receivers), sometimes chose to run too quickly, and there was at least once where I saw him stare down his intended receiver from snap to incompletion.

However, I liked his mobility and his willingness to throw downfield. He also seemed to have a command on managing the offense. Something Cassell obviously lacked.

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A Truly Vindictive Fanboy-type Poster

"My name is William Stephen Belichick, Coach of the New England Patriots, Three Time Super Bowl Champion, Defensive Guru, Pride of Karlovac, The Greatest Coach in the History of the NFL Since Vince Lombardi. Target of the spygate lynching, Defender of our Dynasty's legacy. And I will have my vengeance, in this game and the rest."

Mark Morse

I'll accentuate the positives and as hard as it is for me, stay away from the negatives:

Mayo again showed why he is going to be an every down ILB

Crable also showed that he can hold the edge. On one play he was being held and still made the play on the outside. He had a strip sack also.

Ventrone made a nice catch in traffic and looks like he knows how to find those seams in the defense (ala Welker). He put great pressure on as a ST gunner. One play he is ready to make the tackle and gets blocked in the back and no call). With the injury to Meriweather, having him as a DB might be invaluable.

Gostkowski's FG and Hanson punting were good too

Outside of those, I didn't see much else. Maybe when I look at the tape I will see something else

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mavfan2390

O'Connell on that first passing play, made a FANTASTIC move to avoid the rusher... it reminded me of how Brady moves in pocket (of course O' Connell was outside), but then he threw the pick.

Matt Slater was the best special teamer by far, that guy just has a nose for the ball, and also showed some skill returning... he can't block like Willie Andrews, but he should be a beast on the coverage teams.

Mayo and Crable both looked good, I feel a LOT better about our front 7 after this season than I did pre-draft. On the other hand, Redd didn't look too good, and missed a few tackles, I doubt he makes the team.

Hobbs tackles really, really well... I don't think those short/ intermediate throws were his fault, it probably was the play-calling (coupled with the fact that Woods was playing on the right side with Hobbs) but Hobbs reacted well, came up, and made the tackle.

The O-line was horrendous, if one of our main cogs go down during the season we're screwed, there won't be any time for Brady at all. I would love to see Shane Olivea brought in when he gets healthy. He could add some depth and maybe even start.

Wheatley looked good again, and might even be starting come opening day.

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George W. Bush

p8ryts

I thought Vince Redd made a few plays on defense and ST. I was disappointed in Gary Guyton, I thought he got run over several times. Mayo looked decent again. O'Connell showed flashes and has potential. I think he makes the team. I think we will see Gutierrez Friday. I prefer him over Cassel. I'm down on Chad Jackson. He terrifies me when he is back on punts. I don't think he has a clue. I used to like CJ JOnes but no longer trust him. It's so bad I prefer Ray Ventrone to either of them.

It still seems we are tipping the runs somehow. When Maroney is in, run is a first good guess, and when the TE motions back to the middle that is usually a run. Maybe Josh will get a HC job and Charlie will get fired at ND and we can rehire him.

Kenny Smith made some plays in the backfield for the second week in a row.

Crable mde some plays but got run over a couple times, it helped that the refs allowed the OL to tackle Crable.

I thought Britt and Kaczur were ok. My concern on the OL is RG. I couldn't see how Welbourn was doing but maybe he can play and plug the gap.

Connolly hurt himself with the shotgun snap, maybe Wendell can do better but that is a practice squad player at best.

Anyway, not to worry. DeOssie was right, a preseason game in Florida after camp ends. We've seen it before and will see it again. Sometimes the team just doesn't make the plane for these games. If you remember correctly, they have trouble making the plane for Miami and Arizona games anyway so the moral is expect a loss in Florida and Arizona and hope for the best because once in a while they win there regardless of how bad they play.

Metaphors

It all depends on what you were expecting from Cassel. I looked at his fundamentals since they seems horribly out of whack against the Ravens. Cassel's pass to Moss was a horrific decision and the screen to Maroney was rushed, but other than that he did his job pretty well.

If you judge Cassel by scoring output, he obviously didn't get it done. I just choose not to judge a QB behind a makeshift line in the 2nd preseason game using that criteria. Cassel didn't fumble on the TB side of the field. Cassel didn't snap the ball like a shanked FG. Cassel didn't drop consecutive passes to stall a drive.

I'm not a Cassel cheerleader by any stretch. I think he needs to go if Gutierrez can show any progress at all. I'm just saying that last night he did a pretty solid job given the circumstances.

RayClay

Besides Mayo/Crable...

Gostkowski, Mark Dillard

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jeffbiologist

What I saw was how valuable Brady/Moss/Welker really are.
CJ dropped a pass, didnt come back for another on 3rd down, lost his feet too early on a 3rd pass and couldnt make a move on a kick.
CJones dropped at least 2 more passes, so making 2(1 nice one by the goal line)is tempered.
Slater has to have at least 2 decent returns to get a roster spot....and hasnt had one yet--despite a good number of chances last nite.
The O-Line was AWFUL. Was it Britt at LT?? Yates is a problem and got hurt. Do we know how hurt Neal is? Did he need complete reconstruction on his knee? CJ took the whole season off after, how long do we give him??
Say what you want but that opening 17(!!!) play opening drive was a bit reminiscent of the SB no? They ran on VINCE!
Woods still looks out of place and didnt make a play at OLB.
The back up DT didnt look good.
Guyton has no place playing LB in the pros right now, may have played himself to the PS.
Nothing MAJOR, but some of these guys on the bubble just made BB's job ALOT easier.