Offense:
1. Brady looked comfortable, even with guys falling at his feet. Dare I say nimble at one point. The sack he took was only after Neal let his guy through when either the ball should have already been out or he saw in his peripheral vision that Brady was moving to his right.
2. Morris looked slow to me, may be it was all of the outside run attempts, which are not his forte.
3. No Edelman, no Hernandez, basically asking Moss and Tate to run fly patterns or stops, and easing Welker back...and they still were able to make plays. I like it.
4. No Maroney puzzles me a bit. I like him but can live without him...Just wish we knew what was really going on.
5. Didn't watch the o-line terribly closely, but wasn't discouraged by the first unit. The Rams did get pressure a bit more than I would have expected but they also blitzed more than I would have expected.
Defense:
1. The corners looked like they were hung out to dry a bit by the safeties on some zone coverages. Either they were late getting there or the corners let the man get free too easily. Hard to tell which but the Rams wr's consistently found holes between the two levels of the defense. Methinks we'll see a bit more exotic coverage come 9/12.
2. The line got pushed around a little tonight. However Vince proved he is still a man amongst boys, shedding his block and scraping down the line and making plays when Wright, Warren, etc was beaten.
3. Brace and Wheatley made some plays...and also received medical attention. I hope they are all right as both could fill needs.
4. I have watched Darius Butler since his freshman year at UConn. He has always struggled with the ball in the air in man coverage. Some things just won't ever change and I am ok with that. However, I am disappointed in his tackling tonight. I root like crazy for this kid and know how talented he can be, I hope he puts it all together soon.
5. The pass rush is a concern going forward, everyone can see that. Hopefully Cunningham will get healthy and can help. The question is, when would he be ready? When will he get the reps?
Special Teams:
1. Tate. Wow.
2. Zoltan had a great punt, pinning the Rams inside the 5. A few of his punts didn't have great distance but had outstanding hang time.
3. Coverage units were blah.
Overall:
I think this team got knocked down a peg tonight. The Jets, Colts, and Ravens haven't exactly looked great this pre-season either. Teams are trying different things, combinations, schemes, what have you. We can begin to draw some conclusions about position battles and potential performance but I won't get too worked up one way or another until 9/12.
EDIT:
Also I remember hearing that this team had two very long practices Monday and Tuesday. I wonder if that contributed to the defense looking a bit slow and sluggish tonight. Also, with so many young/new players, have they hit a wall, physically and/or mentally that BB just has to get them over?
