Patspsycho
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A few things to look for tonight:
1) Secondary: I would expect us to play the same way we played in the game against the Rams. We are probably going to do the same “soft coverage” that has been driving most of you nuts; but I think that’s going to continue until it gets done right. One thing that particularly bothered me from the last game was poor communication, something that was a big problem last season, and which seems to have carried over into this preseason, persistently. The last TD that put the Rams over us, came out of a bunch formation where you had players standing around in zone wondering who’s responsible for who. And unfortunately that’s going to continue now that we have a very young backfield. We may not see it tonight but once regular season starts we are going to see a lot of stack, bunch, and trips looks out of the other team’s offensive formations, and we will see double moves, cross routes, etc. anything to get assignments mixed up. The few times we were in cover 0 or 1 (Mayo in spy), we stopped them, with a sack, interception, and turnover, so we were particularly effective there. However, look for a lot of zone coverage tonight. That is what preseason is about.
2) One other thing I’d like to see is for Butler to stop relying on his athleticism to keep bailing him out of trouble (it is starting to catch up with him). He has to start focusing on proper technique, focus on winning leverage, focus on correct hand technique, and being between his man and the ball, and most importantly, knowing where the ball is at all times. McCourty is going to get a trial by fire again. Last game he got faked out so bad on a fake hitch-and-go by Avery. He is going to get targeted tonight until he proves he can hold his own.
3) Motivation: this is still a relatively young team on D, and when the Rams came to town, we played them like the 1-15 team we thought they were, and once we scored on them 12 seconds in the game, we hit the snooze button. An inevitable challenge for any young defense is to stop this up and down performance trait, to try to create the mental toughness to sustain a consistent performance. Both sides are going to come out firing tonight, but what we want to look for is if they are able to sustain this all game, to sustain it consistently, when key players are rotated out, and the mistakes start piling up. It's hard to keep the momentum going when the mistakes are just pushing you back. We need to see who can break through that.
4) Last chance: I expect Brady to do no more than one drive if he plays at all. The same will be true for key players, so as to give the guys at the bottom a chance to fight for a spot. Areas to look out for are DL, hit by injuries- Brace and Deaderick not expected to play tonight. OL will also probably get rotated big time to see who’s worth keeping and who will hit the wire this Saturday. McKenzie is wearing the green dot tonight so this will be a big game for him to call, to show that he is worthy of a roster spot. Arrington and Wheatley are not expected to play tonight as well, so we will see who gets the alternate reps at the CB spot.
1) Secondary: I would expect us to play the same way we played in the game against the Rams. We are probably going to do the same “soft coverage” that has been driving most of you nuts; but I think that’s going to continue until it gets done right. One thing that particularly bothered me from the last game was poor communication, something that was a big problem last season, and which seems to have carried over into this preseason, persistently. The last TD that put the Rams over us, came out of a bunch formation where you had players standing around in zone wondering who’s responsible for who. And unfortunately that’s going to continue now that we have a very young backfield. We may not see it tonight but once regular season starts we are going to see a lot of stack, bunch, and trips looks out of the other team’s offensive formations, and we will see double moves, cross routes, etc. anything to get assignments mixed up. The few times we were in cover 0 or 1 (Mayo in spy), we stopped them, with a sack, interception, and turnover, so we were particularly effective there. However, look for a lot of zone coverage tonight. That is what preseason is about.
2) One other thing I’d like to see is for Butler to stop relying on his athleticism to keep bailing him out of trouble (it is starting to catch up with him). He has to start focusing on proper technique, focus on winning leverage, focus on correct hand technique, and being between his man and the ball, and most importantly, knowing where the ball is at all times. McCourty is going to get a trial by fire again. Last game he got faked out so bad on a fake hitch-and-go by Avery. He is going to get targeted tonight until he proves he can hold his own.
3) Motivation: this is still a relatively young team on D, and when the Rams came to town, we played them like the 1-15 team we thought they were, and once we scored on them 12 seconds in the game, we hit the snooze button. An inevitable challenge for any young defense is to stop this up and down performance trait, to try to create the mental toughness to sustain a consistent performance. Both sides are going to come out firing tonight, but what we want to look for is if they are able to sustain this all game, to sustain it consistently, when key players are rotated out, and the mistakes start piling up. It's hard to keep the momentum going when the mistakes are just pushing you back. We need to see who can break through that.
4) Last chance: I expect Brady to do no more than one drive if he plays at all. The same will be true for key players, so as to give the guys at the bottom a chance to fight for a spot. Areas to look out for are DL, hit by injuries- Brace and Deaderick not expected to play tonight. OL will also probably get rotated big time to see who’s worth keeping and who will hit the wire this Saturday. McKenzie is wearing the green dot tonight so this will be a big game for him to call, to show that he is worthy of a roster spot. Arrington and Wheatley are not expected to play tonight as well, so we will see who gets the alternate reps at the CB spot.