QB - Thought JG looked like he has taken a few steps in the right direction, the ball came out faster and he was pretty accurate, saw a few over the middle I'm sure he'd like back but I thought he placed a few throws really nicely outside the numbers and down the field. Still work to do but I'd call today a positive, Mcbride looked terrible but he was playing with a really patchwork offense.
RB - I'd call it solid, Jordan and Chandler looked good and made some people miss, that move in the backfield Jordan made on Sapp stands out to me. Not much to be gained from Coleman and Fant the second team O just couldn't get any push in the run game.
TE - Not a ton of notes here, Eli looks solid as a receiver and I thought Pope looked good blocking in a FB role
WR - Thought all of our top 5 guys had their moments, Murphy got open a good bit but McBride couldn't connect with him, Williams flashed some good speed on that TD but I would have liked to see more effort going up for the ball that Reid intercepted. Good days by Johnson and Callaway kinda did what I expected, Palmer might be the X factor in this group he was very inconsistent with his hands today but he did consistently get open and made a few nice catches.
OL - Overall this group was better than I expected. I thought the left side of the line with Richmond and Locklear had a solid day where as the right side struggled more. Carvin has potential but was beat pretty consistently by Phillips. The second string was as expected best part of that was that Calbert played the full game and looked OK. I left the game more optimistic about this group. I think LT-LG-C are ok if we can get Trey Smith back at guard then the line might be decent.
DL- Inconsistent is a good word for this group. On the positive side I thought Kyle Phillips looked great, he had solid penetration the whole game and made a few good plays. Tuttle flashed all game but didnt finish enough plays and was getting reamed out by Bituli on the sideline, Kongbo had a few moments. I think the biggest surprise for me in this group was Bennett, yes it was against the second team Oline but I thought he consistently got pressure on the QB using his hands well to disengage from blocks and was able to hold his ground well in the run game.
LB - Most important person to talk about here is Sapp, I thought the OLBs looked just ok and that the rest of the ILBs are likely not going to play a ton this year with the exception of Ignot who looks good but unsure of himself in the scheme. Sapp on the other hand looked excellent. I thought his run fits were great, he moved well and was able to shed blocks. I think him, Bituli and Kirkland are going to make a very solid group of ILBs for us this season.
DB - This is obviously a hard group to judge based off the broadcast view and lack of replays we have to watch but from what I saw it looks like we had a lot of CBs in position on throws but very few times did they get their head around to make a play. Safety wise I thought it was more of the same from Abernathy and that Jackson looked like he had more range on the back end there but both of them had missed tackles in the game. Final note here but Alonte looked good for the most part but was beaten deep a few times including once by a walkon.
Some extra notes, Defense was pretty vanilla as expected with a lot of nickle and traditional 4 man fronts, only got in a true 3-4 a few times. I did like the Formation variety by the Offense and play calling wise they clearly wanted to test the vertical game with a good number of deep shots called. Anyway just my 2 cents.
RB - I'd call it solid, Jordan and Chandler looked good and made some people miss, that move in the backfield Jordan made on Sapp stands out to me. Not much to be gained from Coleman and Fant the second team O just couldn't get any push in the run game.
TE - Not a ton of notes here, Eli looks solid as a receiver and I thought Pope looked good blocking in a FB role
WR - Thought all of our top 5 guys had their moments, Murphy got open a good bit but McBride couldn't connect with him, Williams flashed some good speed on that TD but I would have liked to see more effort going up for the ball that Reid intercepted. Good days by Johnson and Callaway kinda did what I expected, Palmer might be the X factor in this group he was very inconsistent with his hands today but he did consistently get open and made a few nice catches.
OL - Overall this group was better than I expected. I thought the left side of the line with Richmond and Locklear had a solid day where as the right side struggled more. Carvin has potential but was beat pretty consistently by Phillips. The second string was as expected best part of that was that Calbert played the full game and looked OK. I left the game more optimistic about this group. I think LT-LG-C are ok if we can get Trey Smith back at guard then the line might be decent.
DL- Inconsistent is a good word for this group. On the positive side I thought Kyle Phillips looked great, he had solid penetration the whole game and made a few good plays. Tuttle flashed all game but didnt finish enough plays and was getting reamed out by Bituli on the sideline, Kongbo had a few moments. I think the biggest surprise for me in this group was Bennett, yes it was against the second team Oline but I thought he consistently got pressure on the QB using his hands well to disengage from blocks and was able to hold his ground well in the run game.
LB - Most important person to talk about here is Sapp, I thought the OLBs looked just ok and that the rest of the ILBs are likely not going to play a ton this year with the exception of Ignot who looks good but unsure of himself in the scheme. Sapp on the other hand looked excellent. I thought his run fits were great, he moved well and was able to shed blocks. I think him, Bituli and Kirkland are going to make a very solid group of ILBs for us this season.
DB - This is obviously a hard group to judge based off the broadcast view and lack of replays we have to watch but from what I saw it looks like we had a lot of CBs in position on throws but very few times did they get their head around to make a play. Safety wise I thought it was more of the same from Abernathy and that Jackson looked like he had more range on the back end there but both of them had missed tackles in the game. Final note here but Alonte looked good for the most part but was beaten deep a few times including once by a walkon.
Some extra notes, Defense was pretty vanilla as expected with a lot of nickle and traditional 4 man fronts, only got in a true 3-4 a few times. I did like the Formation variety by the Offense and play calling wise they clearly wanted to test the vertical game with a good number of deep shots called. Anyway just my 2 cents.
