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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.I'm scratching my head at the "McClain looked good" talk. After a particularly bad play, I keyed on him for significant portions of the first half and thought he was lousy. One or two visible good plays, but otherwise he looked like a guy who was an easy first cut. Frankly, I didn't even know it was McClain, it was more, "man, #22 is terrible."
What am I missing?
I think, other than Butler, the rest of the cornerback play is nebulous at best when trying to gauge performance after last night's action. There was some good, interspersed with some not so good that muddies the picture, so to speak.
Hopefully, the depth chart at the position becomes clearer as we push towards September.
I agree, but I watched McClain specifically and came away with a radically different opinion than the apparent concensus. I wasn't just watching him on throws in his direction, either.
The Patriots seemed to treat it as a way to probe or self-scout their own personnel in different situational football scenarios. There was no game-planning or scheming involved from what I could tell.
The Packers, OTOH, treated this more along the lines of an "actual" game. They kept their starters in throughout the first quarter (and I believe but am not certain that I saw a few sprinkled in with the back-ups in the second quarter). McCarthy actually threw a challenge flag, with I thought was, shall we say, interesting. And their defense was coming with jailbreak blitzes deep into the fourth quarter.
I completely agree. I didn't put much stock in the challenge flag, that could be explained as simply ensuring the staff was as prepared as the players, but the approach to play calling was abundantly clear. In the second half, it seemed like McCarthy was positively giddy about all the pressure his blitzes were creating whereas NE used it to learn how his players would react if the play call wasn't properly aligned.
Yes. He does infinitely better with the play in front of him.The more I see of Ryan, the more I believe he is meant to play safety.
I didn't watch the game, but I gather:
What else?
- Passing numbers were horrible when targeting Boyce. (1-8). And the media guys say he wasn't fighting for or holding onto the football.
- Passing numbers were actually very good when targeting anybody else.
- The "starting" OL was horrific.
- Two young pass rushers -- Flowers and Johnson -- each showed well and then got injured.
- Gostowski boomed a FG.
- Logan Ryan had a very mixed night.
I am concerned about the arm strength of JG. His short passes have no velocity, and I really didn't see the quick release that I've heard others talk about. Can't seem to deliver the ball outside the numbers. Just doesn't have the high-velocity, super accurate, point-down delivery on short passes that Brady has. This could really be an issue in bad weather.