NFL preseason observations 2009

[Eja117]

Often I like the preseason more than the real season. I basically only watch the NFL when it's the Pats

I see preseason as somewhat of an extension of college football cause of all the rookies trying to make the team

Julian Edleman looked like a younger clone of Wes Welker and I couldn't be happier. Imagine Welker with QB skills. It's only the 1rst preseason game. I will not fall in man-love. I will not fall in man-love. Repeat 500 times.

They say Mark Sanchez looked sharp in his first preseason game. I check his stats. 3 for 4 passing and no yards rushing. Ok. Whatever. He threw for a lot of yards, so I can't tell if someone caught a short pass and ran or if he hit one guy deep or what. I can't tell if he read defenses and progressed to the third option. I don't know if he avoided sacks. But all he played was a series or two. How sharp can you be in a series or two. Erik Ainge had the way better stat line.

You can never tell in preseason if a defensive player played well from stats. You just can't. Almost never.

Does anyone know what a pass defensed is? Sounds self explanatory, but I don't know. I mean a QB has like 15-20 incomplete passes in a game and only 3 passes defensed and 1 interception. So the other 15 times the ball was out of bounds or hit the ground or dropped? That's a lot.

All hail the punter that ran the statue of liberty play for a long touchdown. That was sweet. Why such trickery in the preseason I'll never know, but good football is good football no matter when and where it happens.

Good to see undrafted college legends play well. My favorite of the moment in marriage proposing/Oklahoma busting Boise St running back Ian Johnson

Slightly sad to see hugely hyped guys playing so bad. Joey Harrington going 1 for 3. Reggie Bush going for 3 yards on 5 rushes.

Sorry to see BC's Chris Crane go 3 for 4 with an interception

Sorry to see that round 1 of the BC QB Brian St. Piere vs Matt Leinart goes to Matt.

Any major injuries yet? I don't think so.

Props to the first opponent of the Eagles that plays "Who let the dogs out"  I think it will be like week 2 and the team will be fined and possibly penalized 15 yards

Bring back the single bar face mask.

Eliminate fair catches like the XFL did.

I'm still nowhere near excited about Andrew Walta as the backup QB. I want to see Hoyer, just for fun.

Can't they give a team a special waver to sign a Pros vs Joes player for 3 weeks just once and see him get in a game against 4th string? It's the people's game [dang it]

Please please please bring back the college all-stars vs pros game. Make it college champs vs NFL chumps. Please

[jdpapa3]

Erik Ainge has looked solid every time I have seen him play. He had 2 sweet throws on the same drive.

The statue of liberty with the punter made no sense to me. That is a crazy rare play and they used it in the first preseason game to show off or something? Maybe I'm more mad because they did it against the Bills, but it seemed ridiculous to show off your trick play in the preseason.

Saw Vernon Davis do excessive celebrations for 2 11 yard gains. He looked very ridiculous.

[Eja117]

I forgot to mention a big one.

Chris Simms of the Broncos beat the pants off Kyle Orton in round 1. Kinda embarrassing seeing as they traded for Orton and sorta hand picked him, and Chris hasn't started a game in like 2 years

[FanInTheSouth]

I forgot to mention a big one.

Chris Simms of the Broncos beat the pants off Kyle Orton in round 1. Kinda embarrassing seeing as they traded for Orton and sorta hand picked him, and Chris hasn't started a game in like 2 years

I don't think they traded FOR Orton, but rather the two 1st rounders they are getting from the bears.  I think Orton was just the best QB they could get back from Chicago.  I do think it will be funny if Simms wins the starting job though, it sounds like Orton is doing his best to give it to him.

[wdleehi]

I saw that the Redskins have no chance of becoming an elite franchise the way they are run. 


Forget about the terrible showing.



They are so disorganized, they can't even get the right name put on the back of jerseys. 

[indyceltic]

Who will be the first team to play Who Let the Dogs out this season?

[Eja117]

Who will be the first team to play Who Let the Dogs out this season?

Philly

[angryguy77]

Can the season start already. I'm tired of hearing about this fraudulant Packer D.

[Eja117]

Against the Redskins  (I watched the first half)

It amazes me how fast Joey Galloway is at age 37. Can he play till he's 42 or something like Darell Green? (That was his name right? The Redskins DB?)  He should be PED tested every day as a matter of principal

I also though Fred Taylor looked fast as heck at age 33, which in Running Back years is 99.

His stats are horrid but I thought Maroney played pretty well

Kevin O'Connell's stats look horrid.

I am getting very nervous about our defense. I thought it had a good chance of being a top 6 defense. With our d line healthy I thought they'd be pretty good. I thought with Mayo, A Thomas, and Burgess at least our starting LBs would be good. With Bodden and Springs and newcomers Butler, Chung, MCGowen, and more development from B Merriwether, J Sanders, Wheatley, and Wilhite I thought our DBs looked like they could be good.

Instead Jason Campbell had very little problem carving our defense at will and it's not like the running game was being used a lot

Sometimes I think Brady and Moss are just playing pitch and catch and walk up to each other later and are like "Hey Tom, on a scale of 1 to ten how easy is this game for you?" "Well I'd have to say maybe 12 million"  "Yeah I was going to say 10 million". It didn't look to me like the offensive line was doing an incredible job either. They did ok.

Moss may not be the best reciever ever but I've never seen a reciever make things look so incredibly easy.  I assume most DBs would rather cover any other reciever while wearing a 15 lb weight than cover Moss even if he were wearing a 15 lb weight.  At some point some DB is going to be like "No. I'm not covering him. Not my job. Not what I signed up for. It was specifically put in my contract that I don't have to cover him"

Why do I get the feeling that Belichek would seriously consider signing Shaq, say almost nothing about it, make a weird play for him where he scores a touchdown, yell at him during an interview for talking to the media, cut him the next day and then refer to him as "she" or "it" or something?  I really think his sense of humor is underrated.

[wdleehi]

Against the Redskins  (I watched the first half)

It amazes me how fast Joey Galloway is at age 37. Can he play till he's 42 or something like Darell Green? (That was his name right? The Redskins DB?)  He should be PED tested every day as a matter of principal

I also though Fred Taylor looked fast as heck at age 33, which in Running Back years is 99.

His stats are horrid but I thought Maroney played pretty well

Kevin O'Connell's stats look horrid.

I am getting very nervous about our defense. I thought it had a good chance of being a top 6 defense. With our d line healthy I thought they'd be pretty good. I thought with Mayo, A Thomas, and Burgess at least our starting LBs would be good. With Bodden and Springs and newcomers Butler, Chung, MCGowen, and more development from B Merriwether, J Sanders, Wheatley, and Wilhite I thought our DBs looked like they could be good.

Instead Jason Campbell had very little problem carving our defense at will and it's not like the running game was being used a lot

Sometimes I think Brady and Moss are just playing pitch and catch and walk up to each other later and are like "Hey Tom, on a scale of 1 to ten how easy is this game for you?" "Well I'd have to say maybe 12 million"  "Yeah I was going to say 10 million". It didn't look to me like the offensive line was doing an incredible job either. They did ok.

Moss may not be the best reciever ever but I've never seen a reciever make things look so incredibly easy.  I assume most DBs would rather cover any other reciever while wearing a 15 lb weight than cover Moss even if he were wearing a 15 lb weight.  At some point some DB is going to be like "No. I'm not covering him. Not my job. Not what I signed up for. It was specifically put in my contract that I don't have to cover him"

Why do I get the feeling that Belichek would seriously consider signing Shaq, say almost nothing about it, make a weird play for him where he scores a touchdown, yell at him during an interview for talking to the media, cut him the next day and then refer to him as "she" or "it" or something?  I really think his sense of humor is underrated.

But how much did the defense attack and how much did they hold their hands on what they would do in the regular season?

[wdleehi]

After watching the Giants this morning, here is what I noticed.


1)  Defense will be really good when they get back those 5 starters.   It is already good with them out except the reserve secondary needs to tackle a lot better.

2) Offensive line, RB and QB are all looking good.  The WR will look good as soon as they stop dropping the balls.  I don't know how many ball bounced right off their hands last night (one leading to a INT and short field for the Jets).  The WRs had no issue getting open. 

3) Return game needs a boost.  The problem is that the best return man (Hixon)is a starting WR right now.  But there are two WRs (Nicks and Manningham) looking good enough to take that spot before the season is over.  And if they do, that should mean that the WR spot will be strong enough in the playoffs.

4)  I hate the kicker. 

5)  I still do not like the o-coordinator.  He likes to get to cute to often.   

[guava_wrench]

Erik Ainge has looked solid every time I have seen him play. He had 2 sweet throws on the same drive.

The statue of liberty with the punter made no sense to me. That is a crazy rare play and they used it in the first preseason game to show off or something? Maybe I'm more mad because they did it against the Bills, but it seemed ridiculous to show off your trick play in the preseason.

Saw Vernon Davis do excessive celebrations for 2 11 yard gains. He looked very ridiculous.

As a fins fan, I am happy about the rookie CBs, but Davis was a bit annoying with the excessive celebrating on plays against backup players.