we are young and it shows

they did some good things and they did some not so good things.

i'm not going to put a lot of stock in this first preseason game, but we need work and I think we all knew that.

my top guys that did some good things were:

LSH nice vision and quickness. trouble is he's the only player we have with that skillset. i'm not sure if mcneal could eventually be that type of player but we could use another one.

tackles: no depth. starters did OK and bad at the same time, it just depends on what play it was. inconsistent, but shows some promise. a work in progress.

Guards: no depth. starters did OK, embernate will be missed as a backup I believe.

Center: malecki looked OK but the guards looked bad on the second unit.

Defense:

woods,rolle,wilson,mcfadden,williams, jones, cromartie-smith,golden, green,victorian,arnfelt,ta'amu, baxter,robinson all had pretty good games.

woods, rolle, arnfelt,wilson,mcfadden, Williams, jones, golden,c-s, were the top dogs in that game. we were worried about ILB, i'm not so worried now but picking a couple will be tough based on last night.

woods and arnfelt are keepers so far. rolle, Williams McFadden,wilson were all over the field. rolle really was.

Offense:

jd woods, brown wheaton,moye all look like they can play some ball. wheaton needs to play a little more under control at times. ST's mostly.

i'm not sure how good we will be with our bigger backs. quickness is going to come in handy early in the year. I hope LSH is up for the task. i'd sure like to see batch with the first team line.

gilbert and adams and beachum all had good plays and bad plays. I really don't think one distinguished himself from the other. they should get better as we go, but none will be joe Thomas any time soon.

the interior guys looked pretty good for now.

we miss heath.

will Johnson fuggin ay. LOL

AB needs to come to play. sanders is going to have a good year.


ST's:

this morning I have a hard time calling them special. danny smith, I hope you didn't unpack all your clothes yet.

butler, why do you punt with no urgency? moorman beats him this year I believe.

we need a friggin punt returner. I got a feeling AB may be doing this some this year as much as some hate that.

we have a lot of work to do to get back to as bad as last year.

overall, some good some bad, we looked young at times, which we knew was going to happen. some weaknesses are looking fixed or at least looking up.

ILB, D-line depth and future, OLB ( jones is going to be a good one), WR's we have a lot of young guys that could play. we really only saw a small sample of what they will be asked to do, but they seem made for Haley's offensive style right now.

backup safeties are looking good and I think we keep 5.

cortez will make a difference. depth still an issue because of injuries. Victorian is a gamer and so is green.

palmer is not a terrible blocker. Paulson has work to do yet. did I mention we miss heath?

OK now all we need to see is some big improvement from this week to the next. I hate the fact we have to go to London this year with so many young players having to improve in the next 4 weeks. I keep saying Baby Steps this year.

 

One thing I know on gay, there is no doubt lebeau will develop a disguise for him to have help through out the game (I hope)

 

we are really behind with so many backups and starters injured and not meshing right now. gay wasn't brought here to start. we are pretty vanilla right now. our vet secondary is being very careful against injuries right now. these games mean nothing and this defense will look quite different when they start counting. no worries here about that group yet.

 

yeah our depth is suspect, god help us if we get some injuries at key positions.

 

I also was NEVER a Gay fan and was glad when he was gone and then they bring him back. I REALLY REALLY REALLLLY hope that Cortez turns out to be the man or we might really turn out to miss Keenan as well. I wasn't a fan of him either but he was definitely not as bad as Gay. If our front 7 isn't strong our corners are gonna really glare. I thought there were some great holes opened up last night though. Mac you're more of an o line expert so did you think Adams looked bad or good? Also didn't you think Gilbert was pretty much Gilbert? They even commented on DeCastro so I'm glad he's showing some promise. As for ST I'm TOTALLY with you Mac. We ARE, HAVE BEEN, and apparently will continue to be HORRIBLE on ST. I wish Dunn could make the team if he's really that fast but the thing is that if he doesn't have good vision and instinct his speed can only take him so far in the NFL. If this ST dilemma continues the Rooney's make summon Tomlin to the office to address it. It's absolutely uncalled for and embarrassing!

 

i'm not sure a lot is going to change on the o-line anytime soon as far as the backups. we are giving so much time to the starters and rightfully so. as I said they all had their moments of good and bad. opening against a 4 man front let's them see some different rush patterns.

this whole preseason will be a work in progress, but I think they have improved some things. beachum is more mobile in pass protection, even when he runs his man past the pocket for the qb to step up, he's got his feet under him and ready for that guy to gather himself and make another charge at the qb.

adams and gilbert still are playing to high. i'd like to see them not overextending themselves as much. it would help with those bull rushes too. they are tall guys and that's hard to do. just keep practicing it until it becomes 2nd nature to them. gilbert was getting pushed back with that bull rush a couple of times. adams needs to use those hands better as has been reported from camp.

not terrible by any of them for the first game though and I hope improves as we go forward.

remember this , they didn't practice after they went on the IR last year, so they are taking up from when they got hurt last year. beachum actually has more practice time then adams or gilbert in the offense. I know the scheme is different, but he practiced all year in the offense itself.

 

Mac, I agree with 95% of your original post, EXCEPT Malecki...
I don`t usually focus in on the linemen (even centers), however, being a preseason game, I did wanna see who replaced Pouncey, so, I did happen to pay attention to him last night, and whenever the camera followed him beyond the snap, he seemed to be getting pushed backwards.
I don`t know how well he did calling out the protections, or anything, but from purely a physical standpoint, of moving his guy off the ball, or protecting the qb, he appeared to my untrained eye, to fail miserably!
I was never a big fan of Legs, but he at least seemed to hold his ground/move his man off the ball MUCH better than what I saw out of Malecki last night.
I assume he is our primary backup center?
Or is this just training for "position flexibility"?
Is he primarily a guard or tackle?
Cause if he is a "true center", I`m prayin Maurkice`s legs hold up, and he doesn`t miss a snap for us!raying:
GO STEELERS!

 

Losing Lewis is a killer. His stats last year backed up his play. Replacing him with Gay is not even close. Gay is a Nickel/Dime package player period. If anything the secondary is my biggest concern. The ST mistakes were not the coaches fault, but rather the kids running the plays. They missed the assignment on the blocked punt that was a result of he penalty the play before. Trying to return a punt from the 4 yd line? Fumbling a punt return? Definitely not the coaches fault, but rather players who may not be on this team in two weeks.

 

I hope youth translates into speed and intensity, neither of which I saw a whole lot of in the first preseason game or during my time at camp.

 

you do know Cheadle was playing a good bit of center in that game.

 

We arent replacing Lewis with Gay are we? Isnt the plan to have Allen start in Lewis's place? As far as I know, Gay is going to be the nickel/dime guy.

 

No, Mac, I honestly didn`t notice Cheadle, by whatever point he came in.
I was intently focused on Malecki tho, since he was Pouncey`s immediate replacement.
Either I got tired of watching our center get pushed back/slid by, or I started focusing on other things by the time Cheadle came in...Don`t remember, at the moment.
Either way, it may be a moot point. I heard that Cheadle was carted off the practice field today, although I haven`t read any details about it yet.
Not a good sign, if he was on a cart...
Anyhow, Am I right that Malecki is our 1st backup at center?
I have heard you say you have high hopes for him, but I don`t remember if that is his primary position.
I don`t watch with as trained of an eye as you do, but what I saw out of Malecki Sat. nite, was quite disappointing, to me.
I`m hoping he was playing a secondary(for him) position, or he just had an off night.
I really have nothing else to base my opinion of him on, other than that small sample against the Giants(who I am aware also have an overabundance of talent on the D-line, even down their depth chart),
So I could easily be wrong.
I`m hoping. Because what I did see, did NOT look good.

 

I watched him when he first got in with the first unit and he looked pretty good. he's the only guy in camp that hasn't been beat one on one. fangupo said he can't get by him because he keeps smacking his hands away.

now things went south as the backup guards came in. hubbard and Cheadle.

he played guard and center in college and here the last couple of years in the preseason. he played at pitt.

he also did ok in the cleve. game last year with the limited snaps he got. he's got some quickness only being 298. I think he's a lock at this point. he's got more experience then beachum at center. joe madsen is still here too. he and golic should see some extra reps along with hubbard but he's aweful light at 286. he got run over in that game.

 

Thanx for the info, Mac.
Did he face McClendon in camp?

 

Affirmative. But I think Willy's packages should ACTUALLY be called "aint worth a Nickel" packages. LOL. I think that one might catch on league wide!

 

no problem my friend.

that I don't know, bleed.

I did watch on a couple of those jail break looking rushes when the backup guards went in, that all 3 actually were locked up on a guy and the G men sent another guy through. no one broke off to take him nor did a back pick him up. it made it look bad for malecki like he missed blocks inside, but they sent more then we had blockers. that's more of a coachable thing.

I thought he held his ground well. heck, even pouncey got pushed back into ben's face once that game. we'll see, I think he'll be a good backup. he's like a little bulldog.

 

Ah, another season on the boards with Willie Gay.

Gad how I miss the screaming.

 

Hopefully with Allen and Brown he wont make the team. It will piss me off if they keep him saying "bla bla bla he is a veteran and provides leadership" and let a young guy go who may have a chance to develop. My point, you already know what Williams Gay brings, and honestly, i dont think its worth keeping. See him mugging it up with Tomlin on sidelines in 4th? Scared to say I think that may be the reason he will be around.