My over-reactions after one meaningless pre-season game:
First - best possible outcome from a pre-season game: no injuries.
QB
Brady is the best QB in the league. Flawless.
Mallett is not ready. Pros - he runs the same offense as Brady, and can come in without changing game plans. Seems to read the defense pretty well. Cons - lacks touch and accuracy, throwing over and behind receivers.
Tebow is hopeless. Just reinforces my opinion from the day they signed him - hope he doesn't take a roster spot from a special teamer they can use. He cannot read a defense or make a decision quickly enough. Three sacks, all on him, from the second-half defense.
WR
Looks just fine.
Mildly surprised to see Kenbrell Thompkins starting with Brady and the ones, but he looks good. Gets open deep and short on third down. Good hands. Is where he's supposed to be, mostly. On one third down throw, he sat about a foot short of the first down marker, but pulled forward to make the first down.
Dobson looks good. Clearly the best rookie tandem ever, better than 2002's Branch/Givens.
Amendola didn't get much field time.
Edelman made a nice grab way behind him from Mallet to convert a third down, and made another catch well in front of him. Nice hands tonight.
The top five seem very obvious.
RB
The opening 62-yard run by Ridley was great blocking by the line on the opening play, and running straight Ridley couldn't stay ahead of the defense. Caught from behind with an open path - like he totally ran out of gas after 40 yards.
Shocking speed and agility from Blount. That guy cut twice and ran 80-90 yards in a sprint and outran 11 guys. Vision, power, speed, size. Based on this one game, no competition with Bolden.
Vereen is showing what we hoped for with a second round selection. A weapon.
Bolden is outside looking in, and if the decision were today, I doubt he makes the roster.
Washington didn't do anything to improve last year's woeful kick-off numbers. Hit and down by the first defender.
TE
Surprised that Ballard started with the ones after the generally poor reviews in camp. He did nothing obvious - although he was in on the 80-yard rushing offense on the opening drive.
Fells and Sudfeld looked tremendous. Both are weapons in the passing game. Both find the holes in downfield coverage.
Hooman was lined up in the backfield a lot, especially in the opening drive on short yardage and goal line, and made holes.
OL
Opening OL dominated the Eagles. 80 yard opening drive without Brady doing a single thing. That's scary. Svitek certainly makes the team based on what we've seen so far - good back-up tackle, and good back-up guard. That opening 60-yard run was his hole.
Can't blame any of the second-half sacks on the back-up line.
DL
I think I am going to like the Wilfork-Kelly combination. Kelly was disruptive. Definitely more of a traditional penetrating DL.
Nothing from the back-up interior line that created much pressure.
Didn't see much at all from Ninkovich or Jones.
Benard was a top back-up, and generated some pressure.
Didn't see much pressure at all otherwise - hard to sort out Buchanan, Francis, Bequette.
A lot of "NASCAR" fronts - Benard and other DE's spent a lot of time inside.
Eagles sliced right through.
LB
Jamie Collins had a nice inside blitz and ran right by the QB. He was in pretty early and looked athletic, but a little uncontrolled. A shot of him on a play in space - you don't get a lot of view of the middle of the field in these games - looked a little indecisive. Hard to know what his role was.
Tarpinian got a lot of early play and seems to have wrapped up the ST LB role.
Fletcher looked pretty good in his back-up LB role, played well in coverage.
CB
Secondary in general looked pretty much like the 2012 secondary. Especially the first team offense from Philly just carved them up, converted an early long third down over the middle, and then a deep TD. Not a lot of speed in this secondary.
Talib got torched by DeSean Jackson for a 47-yard TD. Gregory was seen coming into the viewscreen after Jackson was in the endzone. Not a good match-up for Talib. Jackson got Talib to shift his hips and then cut inside, opening 3-4 yards of space and cut to the endzone. Talib is not the guy to hang his head though.
Logan got a lot of play. Didn't really do a lot great.
S
No big plays from the safeties. On the long third-down completion on Philly's first drive, Tavon Wilson was in coverage in the middle and out of position. On the 47-yard completion, Gregory was the help and 20 yards behind. I don't see how this group is one bit better in coverage than last year. Hopefully McCourtney's presence helps, both physically and in communication.
I would not be disappointed to see Tavon Wilson released and someone picked up off the scrap heap after roster cuts.
ST
Gostkowski missed two field goals, and kicked off initially to the five, but then booted a couple through the end zone.
Allen, the competing punter, has a leg, and is a real threat. He maybe overkicked his coverage, but made the tackle. With this offense, whoever punts is sort of an afterthought.
Kick return team did nothing. No holes.
Edelman muffed a punt, but still found the hole when he picked up the ball.
Summary:
Offense looks just as good as last year, with a better running game.
Exciting possibilities with Blount, more Vereen, and Amendola-Thompkins-Dobson. Tight end doesn't look like a major drop-off, shockingly - they can run the same offense with their rotation.
Pass defense looks just like last year. Inconsistent pressure, lack of speed in secondary, and weak safety coverage.
Some things to get excited about, some things to improve.
