Preseason Week 1 Thoughts

[DoYouSeeWhatHappensLarry]

I'm rewatching the game on Gamepass. Here are my thoughts/observations

- I really like Ish. I think he's a really good depth safety. He made a couple of plays in the first half that were pretty nice. He's always going to be limited to some respect but overall, I'm pretty pleased with the player he's become. 

- Beasley got by Morgan Moses pretty easily after the first couple of bad pass rush snaps. After a terrrrible spin move, he found his groove and beat Moses outside only to be dragged down from behind. Next pass snap he beat Moses to the inside on a spin. Nice match up of two young players with Beasley getting the best of it. 

- Matt Ryan = meh. Both throws to Julio were bad. One more concerning than the other. Sanu throw was a very good one. Throw to Robinson was after a good handling of pressure but the safety had a good charge on the ball. Super small window there. Mildly concerning performance. I'll be watching closely thurs

- Spoon looked surprisingly good. Would be a very pleasant surprise if he could give us 2011-12 Spoon. 

- King with a nice pass breakup in the endzone that was also sort of a drop. Follows it up with a nice tackle on third down 2-3 yards in front of the sticks.

- Think we probably missed the boat on Su'a Cravens. Not a huge regret but hes a player i liked a lot that was available and flashed in this game. SOmetimes they may it easy for you, if youre willing to not overthink it. 

- Freeman is really fantastic. A lot of fun to watch. His first couple of carries during the first Schaub series were really nice. Consistently shows off the ability to get small. 

- Schraeder w two false starts? Come on bruh. 

- Liked the Coleman run. Showed a bit more shimmy than last year. 

- Legitimately impressed with Schaub. Looked very comfortable. Arm was livelier than the last few times ive seen him. 

- Special teams flashed a couple of times in coverage. Impressive. Obviously the TD was terrific

- Man....Devondre Campbell forced a 3 and out on his own. Very impressive series. 

Overall, I felt pretty good about 80% of the performance of the first two teams. Obviously the 1st team offense needs to be better. Thats concern #1 and will be my focus as I watch Game 2. But liked a lot of what I saw from the defense, particularly the depth. 

[peoriabird]

7 hours ago, DoYouSeeWhatHappensLarry said:

I'm rewatching the game on Gamepass. Here are my thoughts/observations

- Matt Ryan = meh. Both throws to Julio were bad. One more concerning than the other. Sanu throw was a very good one. Throw to Robinson was after a good handling of pressure but the safety had a good charge on the ball. Super small window there. Mildly concerning performance. I'll be watching closely thurs

- Freeman is really fantastic. A lot of fun to watch. His first couple of carries during the first Schaub series were really nice. Consistently shows off the ability to get small. 

 

So when Matt doesn't perform well under extreme circumstances like being on the 1 yard line under heavy pressure, there is cause for concern but when Freeman drops a touchdown it is ignored.  Got you!

Edited August 16, 2016 by peoriabird

[Dem Birds]

3 minutes ago, peoriabird said:

So when Matt doesn't perform well on extreme circumstances like being on the 1 yard line under heavy pressure, there is cause for concern but when Freeman drops a touchdown it is ignored.  Got you!

Honestly, I'm not concerned with that drop because Freeman was our second leading receiver. Ryan's struggles backed up do concern me some because he's been known to make bone headed plays in that situation over the last few seasons. A situation we seem to find our selves in a lot more than what I'd consider normal, by the way. It's preseason so overall, neither concern me, but Ryans history and that start cause a little pause. 

[peoriabird]

6 hours ago, Dem Birds said:

Honestly, I'm not concerned with that drop because Freeman was our second leading receiver. Ryan's struggles backed up do concern me some because he's been known to make bone headed plays in that situation over the last few seasons. A situation we seem to find our selves in a lot more than what I'd consider normal, by the way. It's preseason so overall, neither concern me, but Ryans history and that start cause a little pause. 

Which is it?

[FentayeJones]

7 hours ago, DoYouSeeWhatHappensLarry said:

I'm rewatching the game on Gamepass. Here are my thoughts/observations

- I really like Ish. I think he's a really good depth safety. He made a couple of plays in the first half that were pretty nice. He's always going to be limited to some respect but overall, I'm pretty pleased with the player he's become. 

Yeah I agree about Ish. He has his limitations but for a seventh rounder, he has developed nicely.

It looked like its starting to click a little bit for Renfree also... another seventh rounder.

[DoYouSeeWhatHappensLarry]

8 hours ago, peoriabird said:

So when Matt doesn't perform well under extreme circumstances like being on the 1 yard line under heavy pressure, there is cause for concern but when Freeman drops a touchdown it is ignored.  Got you!

?

Not ignored...I just didnt write anything down about it. Drops aren't okay, obviously. 

Pump the brakes, bro. 

[notthatcool]

One thing that I wish we would change from week one....

On kick-offs kick the ball out of the endzone.  Bosher can do it, don't like the high kick to try to pin inside the 20.  Give it to them on the 25 and lets not get anyone hurt.  

[YoungHeezy]

41 minutes ago, notthatcool said:

One thing that I wish we would change from week one....

On kick-offs kick the ball out of the endzone.  Bosher can do it, don't like the high kick to try to pin inside the 20.  Give it to them on the 25 and lets not get anyone hurt.  

Special teams is how some of the lower level roster guys make the team. They have to make it so they can evaluate them in live competition.

[droopy1592]

24 minutes ago, YoungHeezy said:

Special teams is how some of the lower level roster guys make the team. They have to make it so they can evaluate them in live competition.

Yep. Even Washington was trying to kick it to an area where it was deep (other than that one kick) but still returnable. It's part of preseason.  

[Vandy]

3 hours ago, FentayeJones said:

Yeah I agree about Ish. He has his limitations but for a seventh rounder, he has developed nicely.

It looked like its starting to click a little bit for Renfree also... another seventh rounder.

Agree on ish, he is such a fundamentally sound player and good to have for depth. 

I thought renfree  performed best out of all our QBs.....

[Dem Birds]

5 hours ago, peoriabird said:

Which is it?

Overall, neither are greatly concerning but Ryan has a history in that situation and him not performing well backed up doesn't relieve any of the concerns of previous seasons. I won't worry about it now but I don't like to see continued struggles in the same area. I'm not worried about Freeman at all. In any area of his game. 

[notthatcool]

2 hours ago, YoungHeezy said:

Special teams is how some of the lower level roster guys make the team. They have to make it so they can evaluate them in live competition.

I get it, but I did see some ones and twos out there.  

[TheDirtyWordII]

12 hours ago, DoYouSeeWhatHappensLarry said:

- Think we probably missed the boat on Su'a Cravens. Not a huge regret but hes a player i liked a lot that was available and flashed in this game. SOmetimes they may it easy for you, if youre willing to not overthink it. 

Sounds like you weren't all that impressed with Deion Jones then considering they went back-to-back in Round 2.

[Vandy]

Glad to see Hageman play well...he's been very under the radar in all the talk on where this D is going 

[Lornoth]

Cravens was always my guy. Glad to see him playing as well as I thought he would. Jones looked better than I'd thought he might though, so no regret just yet.

[JDaveG]

I think Cravens was off the board when we got Neal.  Just guessing, but I don't see the Falcons seeing him as a linebacker.

[Lornoth]

1 minute ago, JDaveG said:

I think Cravens was off the board when we got Neal.  Just guessing, but I don't see the Falcons seeing him as a linebacker.

Cravens went one pick after we got Jones. 

[JDaveG]

15 minutes ago, Lornoth said:

Cravens went one pick after we got Jones. 

I meant Cravens was off of our board when we got Neal.  They would play the same position in our defense.

I understand we could have picked him twice, I'm just suggesting once we got Neal with the first of those picks, we no longer had any need for Cravens and were looking for a linebacker.

[DoYouSeeWhatHappensLarry]

41 minutes ago, TheDirtyWordII said:

Sounds like you weren't all that impressed with Deion Jones then considering they went back-to-back in Round 2.

Jones was good. Impressive. 

One can appreciate the play of a player on another team without indicting a member of one's own team. 

[Lornoth]

2 minutes ago, JDaveG said:

I meant Cravens was off of our board when we got Neal.  They would play the same position in our defense.

I understand we could have picked him twice, I'm just suggesting once we got Neal with the first of those picks, we no longer had any need for Cravens and were looking for a linebacker.

Ah I see. I liked him better at safety, but I don't think he wouldn't have fitted in at LB'er. I do suppose he would have made Campbell redundant before Jones, though... And I like Campbell. 

[JDaveG]

2 minutes ago, Lornoth said:

Ah I see. I liked him better at safety, but I don't think he wouldn't have fitted in at LB'er. I do suppose he would have made Campbell redundant before Jones, though... And I like Campbell. 

Oh, I think he could play LBer.  I just think they wanted more size at that position, hence the Jones pick.

I, for one, was in favor of Darron Lee in the 1st and Cravens in the 2nd, but I really, really like the Neal pick in hindsight, so I'm fine with Neal/Jones.

[Lornoth]

3 minutes ago, JDaveG said:

Oh, I think he could play LBer.  I just think they wanted more size at that position, hence the Jones pick.

I, for one, was in favor of Darron Lee in the 1st and Cravens in the 2nd, but I really, really like the Neal pick in hindsight, so I'm fine with Neal/Jones.

Cravens was only an inch shorter and four pounds lighter than Jones pre-draft, not sure size was the deciding factor. Quinn likes smaller MLB's. 

I like Neal as well, though I'm itching to see him actually play. 

[FentayeJones]

14 minutes ago, JDaveG said:

I meant Cravens was off of our board when we got Neal.  They would play the same position in our defense.

I understand we could have picked him twice, I'm just suggesting once we got Neal with the first of those picks, we no longer had any need for Cravens and were looking for a linebacker.

Yep.

We worked Cravens out as a safety so a more accurate comparison will be to Neal. But for our scheme, I think Neal is a better fit than Cravens. I like Cravens though.

[atlGM]

14 hours ago, DoYouSeeWhatHappensLarry said:

I'm rewatching the game on Gamepass. Here are my thoughts/observations

- I really like Ish. I think he's a really good depth safety. He made a couple of plays in the first half that were pretty nice. He's always going to be limited to some respect but overall, I'm pretty pleased with the player he's become. 

- Beasley got by Morgan Moses pretty easily after the first couple of bad pass rush snaps. After a terrrrible spin move, he found his groove and beat Moses outside only to be dragged down from behind. Next pass snap he beat Moses to the inside on a spin. Nice match up of two young players with Beasley getting the best of it. 

- Matt Ryan = meh. Both throws to Julio were bad. One more concerning than the other. Sanu throw was a very good one. Throw to Robinson was after a good handling of pressure but the safety had a good charge on the ball. Super small window there. Mildly concerning performance. I'll be watching closely thurs

- Spoon looked surprisingly good. Would be a very pleasant surprise if he could give us 2011-12 Spoon. 

- King with a nice pass breakup in the endzone that was also sort of a drop. Follows it up with a nice tackle on third down 2-3 yards in front of the sticks.

- Think we probably missed the boat on Su'a Cravens. Not a huge regret but hes a player i liked a lot that was available and flashed in this game. SOmetimes they may it easy for you, if youre willing to not overthink it. 

- Freeman is really fantastic. A lot of fun to watch. His first couple of carries during the first Schaub series were really nice. Consistently shows off the ability to get small. 

- Schraeder w two false starts? Come on bruh. 

- Liked the Coleman run. Showed a bit more shimmy than last year. 

- Legitimately impressed with Schaub. Looked very comfortable. Arm was livelier than the last few times ive seen him. 

- Special teams flashed a couple of times in coverage. Impressive. Obviously the TD was terrific

- Man....Devondre Campbell forced a 3 and out on his own. Very impressive series. 

Overall, I felt pretty good about 80% of the performance of the first two teams. Obviously the 1st team offense needs to be better. Thats concern #1 and will be my focus as I watch Game 2. But liked a lot of what I saw from the defense, particularly the depth. 

Definetly missed on cravens.

ish is good enough to start but we're building from the back in

and that pass to Robinson is the kinda pass that ended ovi's career.