Preseason Game #1 observations

While you sleep, I post. Here are some things I noticed without overreacting to anything:



- Byron Bell still sucks, and he sucked even worse on the left side. Please never put him there again.


- Everyone who insisted that WR was a need should be lined up in front of a firing squad. We have what we need. The Armanti hype is still kind of absurd (he caught two passes, wow!!), but he's at least playing like a solid 4th or 5th. Hixon is looking more and more like a needless signing every day.


- I frankly don't give a shit about Cam's evolution towards "leadership". He's still staring down receivers just as badly as he did two years ago. He did it on the interception and he even did it on the touchdown, although that's not such a big deal against man coverage.



- Blackburn, Keuchly, and Davis should be our lineup at LB, but it won't be.


- Watching Star assuming the "space eating" role on the line is already frustrating me. Hopefully we can create some ways to free him up during the season. I did see Hardy playing inside on a passing down, so maybe we're not completely done with that.


- Good for Josh Norman. The secondary as a whole looked ok but you can't take too much from this game. And how is Josh McCown still in the league? How in the blue hell does that work? Jesus.


- For a supposed "blocking specialist", Ben Hartsock can't fucking block at all. I gotta hope that somebody else can emerge as the #2 TE. And while I'm rambling about useless players, I'm still trying to figure out how Nakamaura developed such a strong special teams reputation in Baltimore. All I see him do here is miss blocks and jump on piles.


- Watching Derek Anderson bypass easy first down completions for "the big ball" is god damn getting old. I think I prefer Clausen over Anderson at this point, just because Anderson is so terrible. Either way we better hope Cam stays durable.


- Barner literally is Mike Goodson all over again. Yay!


- Ricky Proehl is one of our few coaches who has a presence on the sidelines. I love that bald ************.

 

Ted Ginn was worthless. At least with Anderson at QB. Broken routes, causing Anderson to miss badly. Gettis looked good though.

Defense...not bad

 

We all know you prefer Clausen for the cuckold jokes. There was one in Cam's reaction to Clausen's scramble by the way. Can't add much to the other thoughts besides agreeing with them.

 

Honestly, I hardly noticed Lotulelei. Short had nice pressure up the middle on that sack by Johnson. I think they gave them both 1/2 a sack. Didn't notice much from the safeties. All the interceptions Cam and Anderson occurred when they stared down the receiver. The Oline is gonna struggle this year in my opinion. Not sure we can take much away from the play calling after game one of the preseason. Gettis really likes these deep in routes.

 

I'm as cautiously optimistic as I could be after the first preseason game...

 

My critics will accuse me of being biased against Cam, but what I saw of him wasn't encouraging. In addition to what B&B said about him constantly staring down receivers, he isn't stepping into his throws or showing proper footwork. If he worked on anything during the off-season, I can't tell.

 

What did TD say to Cam when Cam was mugging for the camera in the 4th?
Was it something on the line of, so you want to be a captain?
Year 3 and Cam is still acting like he`s in middle school...

 

I'm worried that his INTs will be up without Chud. Not only because Chud is a better playcaller, but because Chud seemed to be the one person on the staff who didn't kiss Cam's ass.

He's doing the grunt work right now, which sucks but is understandable. It's not like Short or Edwards can play that nose shade spot. I'm sure they'll figure out some ways to free him up.

 

Him becoming a better QB is more important to me than him becoming a leader. This whole blitzkrieg about Cam being a "team guy" will fall apart pretty quickly if we start 1-5 again.

 

I`d say they go hand-in-hand.
When your teammates won`t go all out for you then its going to be a lot harder to be a better qb.