Well... that was anticlimactic. Cousins 5-7 for 23 or 33 yards, both were announced, was terrible. Udoh and O'Neill looked decent but the rest of the line looked less than average. Cousins looked like he was playing scared already. Brown and Mond, though I don't have high expectations, looked terrible. I will say that their supporting cast was equally terrible so it was difficult to lay fault on individuals. I think to achieve "sucked" was the highlight of the Offensive effort this evening. Dropped balls, wrong routes... I knew we were in trouble from the first plays of the game but I didn't expect to see Mond having to help Offensive players line up or get the play right. Considering Brown has had two years with the team makes his performance even less impressive. Looks to me like we have no choice but to enlist the help of a journeyman back up or simply admit we'll lose every game Cousins isn't playing. Watching Cousins caused me to readjust my initial prediction of 10/7 to 8/9. Lets hope Theilen is just "nicked" and that it is not a "tweak"!!
Defense looked decent. Wonnum looked okay. Dye played above average but was not mistake free. Surratt played better than I anticipated. I don't know what to say about Dantzler. He shows both extremes some really good plays some horrible plays. I expected some sacks. I thought Hand had a decent game.
Kick off was a little better with ISM. KJ Osborn missed a wide open lane in the return. I thought Colquitt punted pretty well.
There's so much more that could be stated but I'm exhausted after watching that lol.
Hah, man, it is so hard to know what to take from a game in which our top 3 offensive weapons combine for 3 snaps. Matthew points out well how poor the offense performed from top to bottom. It doesn't even matter that Oli Udoh and Ezra Cleveland played extremely well (at least according to The Athletic, personally I don't like to trust my own OL play analysis), Hill looking rough was enough to make the OL an issue/disaster on the day. It is easier to provide help to a tackle than to a guard (just sit a TE next to the OT), but that is still a very big issue. Happily I would rather Hill struggle than Udoh, as I have more trust in Darrisaw eventually being good than I do Davis (such that by the end of the season we are more likely to overcome Hill being bad than Udoh being bad), but frankly in either situation we could be in trouble.
My inclination is to say that it was more important for our defense to play well yesterday than our offense, because an offense with Kirk, JJ, Cook, Thielen, et al. will probably eventually find its footing... that said, it is much worse for our team for our offense to be bad, given how much offense rules the day, such that one van easily argue that it is more troubling for our offense to struggle. Quite a quandry....
I agree with your point "... that it was more important for our defense to play well ". I thought Oli Udoh had a good enough game that it will be difficult for Davis to bump him out. We may end up seeing Oli at LT, Davis up at Guard, and Hill sitting. I didn't pay enough attention to Cleveland to make a statement. I chuckled about your trust in your ability to evaluate the O line. I'm in the same boat. Sometimes I think a guy has a terrific play only to find out that he was completely out of position and the runner made the wrong cut ha ha. We'll see what happens with the Chiefs. SKOL
As you said in the preview "The only point of interest with the starters is whether they stay healthy." Assuming noted thinker #19 is ok, great, and we're on to Cincinnati.
I would encourage anyone who is down on Mond after this game to rewatch the game and watch Mond's snaps closely. On a second watching, I'm much more encouraged by Mond's performance. He missed a few throws he should have made and he made a few very nice throws. But if you watch his snaps closely, you'll see how few options he had on most of the called passing plays. His receivers were getting very little separation and this presented him with few good options on the majority of his snaps.
After my 2nd watch of his snaps, my main takeaway is that I'd love to see what the kid could do with the 1st team. I liked the Mond pick but like all 2nd day QB picks, it's a roll of the dice. But I'm impressed with his performance yesterday, especially with his extremely limited experience.
It’s so hard to put stock in preseason. In 2018 The offense was great in preseason then the OC gets fired at the end of the regular season. In 2017 the offense was shaky during preseason then in the first game of the regular season the put up 30 points against a good defense. We won’t really know anything until after the first few games of the regular season
Well... that was anticlimactic. Cousins 5-7 for 23 or 33 yards, both were announced, was terrible. Udoh and O'Neill looked decent but the rest of the line looked less than average. Cousins looked like he was playing scared already. Brown and Mond, though I don't have high expectations, looked terrible. I will say that their supporting cast was equally terrible so it was difficult to lay fault on individuals. I think to achieve "sucked" was the highlight of the Offensive effort this evening. Dropped balls, wrong routes... I knew we were in trouble from the first plays of the game but I didn't expect to see Mond having to help Offensive players line up or get the play right. Considering Brown has had two years with the team makes his performance even less impressive. Looks to me like we have no choice but to enlist the help of a journeyman back up or simply admit we'll lose every game Cousins isn't playing. Watching Cousins caused me to readjust my initial prediction of 10/7 to 8/9. Lets hope Theilen is just "nicked" and that it is not a "tweak"!!
Defense looked decent. Wonnum looked okay. Dye played above average but was not mistake free. Surratt played better than I anticipated. I don't know what to say about Dantzler. He shows both extremes some really good plays some horrible plays. I expected some sacks. I thought Hand had a decent game.
Kick off was a little better with ISM. KJ Osborn missed a wide open lane in the return. I thought Colquitt punted pretty well.
There's so much more that could be stated but I'm exhausted after watching that lol.
Hah, man, it is so hard to know what to take from a game in which our top 3 offensive weapons combine for 3 snaps. Matthew points out well how poor the offense performed from top to bottom. It doesn't even matter that Oli Udoh and Ezra Cleveland played extremely well (at least according to The Athletic, personally I don't like to trust my own OL play analysis), Hill looking rough was enough to make the OL an issue/disaster on the day. It is easier to provide help to a tackle than to a guard (just sit a TE next to the OT), but that is still a very big issue. Happily I would rather Hill struggle than Udoh, as I have more trust in Darrisaw eventually being good than I do Davis (such that by the end of the season we are more likely to overcome Hill being bad than Udoh being bad), but frankly in either situation we could be in trouble.
My inclination is to say that it was more important for our defense to play well yesterday than our offense, because an offense with Kirk, JJ, Cook, Thielen, et al. will probably eventually find its footing... that said, it is much worse for our team for our offense to be bad, given how much offense rules the day, such that one van easily argue that it is more troubling for our offense to struggle. Quite a quandry....
I agree with your point "... that it was more important for our defense to play well ". I thought Oli Udoh had a good enough game that it will be difficult for Davis to bump him out. We may end up seeing Oli at LT, Davis up at Guard, and Hill sitting. I didn't pay enough attention to Cleveland to make a statement. I chuckled about your trust in your ability to evaluate the O line. I'm in the same boat. Sometimes I think a guy has a terrific play only to find out that he was completely out of position and the runner made the wrong cut ha ha. We'll see what happens with the Chiefs. SKOL
As you said in the preview "The only point of interest with the starters is whether they stay healthy." Assuming noted thinker #19 is ok, great, and we're on to Cincinnati.
Heh, "noted thinker." I'm going to steal that. That's mine now.
I would encourage anyone who is down on Mond after this game to rewatch the game and watch Mond's snaps closely. On a second watching, I'm much more encouraged by Mond's performance. He missed a few throws he should have made and he made a few very nice throws. But if you watch his snaps closely, you'll see how few options he had on most of the called passing plays. His receivers were getting very little separation and this presented him with few good options on the majority of his snaps.
After my 2nd watch of his snaps, my main takeaway is that I'd love to see what the kid could do with the 1st team. I liked the Mond pick but like all 2nd day QB picks, it's a roll of the dice. But I'm impressed with his performance yesterday, especially with his extremely limited experience.
I live out of market so I didn't get to see this yesterday. Thank you for watching it so I didn't have to. Yuck.
It’s so hard to put stock in preseason. In 2018 The offense was great in preseason then the OC gets fired at the end of the regular season. In 2017 the offense was shaky during preseason then in the first game of the regular season the put up 30 points against a good defense. We won’t really know anything until after the first few games of the regular season
How was Oli in pass pro? Did have many snaps against Deforest Buckner? He looked solid in the run game
Both Oli and Ezra looked great on the day, if the Athletic is to be believed. Could it be that we finally have a competent IOL??
How did Pierce look?
Though they only played one or two drives, Pierce and Tomlinson absolutely manhandled up the middle.
Thanks!
agreed