Good games?

At least after what was seen, I have to say we have some players to look at closer especially in the secondary.

Gilbert
Denmark
Killebrew
Pierre
Stiner


Rader looks good blocking. He had a good game.

Davis had a good game.

Haeg.

Moore.

Green.

Finney.

Najee.

Dobbs actually looked pretty good.

Sorry berry, this kid can flip the field.

Layne may be gone unless he really has a turn around.

UG3.

Ballage.

mason had a drive killed by a claypool drop of a perfect pass. Then claypool made a good catch.

Hawkins looked like the check down but tonight.

Spillane looked pretty good.

Sloman, c'mon man. Really?

Brooks.

Sutton.

Anybody you saw?

 

You basically have all of my Offensive Lineman players on there!! Even added Denmark and Gilbert as well. Fair enough!!


Regarding who I saw impressed me the most? Abdullah Anderson, Carlos Davis, Quincy Roche, Buddy Johnson, Mathew Sexton and Shakur Brown all had great debuts. As for the QBs themselves, I did not expect too many bombs away passes in this game anyway; consistency and capability being my biggest factors. Haskins was the better between Mason and he but Haskins' lower body mechanics still have some work to do overall. The gifts though flash like crazy when all goes well for him though.. just a matter of the finer points of the position he needs to get a hold of; something that will take time indeed.


Biggest winner no doubt was Harvin III. I figured he would have a coffin kick with some good punts. I did not for see such an exceptional performance though! He keeps this up, Berry is likely gone by the third Preseason game.

 

Mac a lot of what I saw from Pierre he seemed to be lining guys up or trying to and constantly looking into the backfield presnap and not watching his man. He did begin to redeem himself but I didn't get to see if that was because he stopped trying to quarterback the secondary and just played his position or because he made adjustments to his game.

 

That is by design of the play call; Zone Coverage; eyes have to shift to more than one person pre snap and sometimes post snap. That said, definitely something he will have to work on as I had noticed that too but only on a handful of plays. Realistically speaking, he should have been playing more zone though Pierre will have to work on becoming just as proficient in Zone Coverage as he is in Man Coverage.

 

Mason had better passer rating by a lot over Haskins and Harvin punt ave 45.8 vs Dal 50. If stats mean anything at this point.

 

Marsh actually looked good.

 

Aye, but he was kicking short for some of those - it was good to see him drop the ball around the 10-15 rather than straight into the end zone.

 

I am showing my age but in the 70s and at least early 80s the punters were graded on hangtime and coffin kicks.
I think it was Danny White of the Cowboys who would kick these rainbows where his gunner was always meeting the kick returner or the football itself an downing it.

Im sure all of us remember the defensive battles with the Ravens where every possession was so big on field position because both offense would sputter but the damn punter for the Ravens would punt from his own 20 yard line and literally flip the field. That was so frustrating but what a weapon to have that will not make any metric or box scores.

 

Ray Guy must be shaking his head.

 

https://steelersdepot.com/2021/08/positional-grades-steelers-vs-cowboys-2/

good start for many if they clean up some small things which at this point of camp isn't unheard of. i'm not surprised by the play of some of these guys. consistency will build. finding and keeping the right ones will be a challenge. we have some players, just young though. only game one but positive. i liked what i saw from some of these linemen, including dan moore. i just want it to keep improving.

rader was a guy that impressed me as a blocker last night as well. a couple of times he was the guy opening the hole for ballage and not only on the TD.

yes marsh looked pretty good glenn.

we have some talent on this team. i hope they stay healthy. that will be key.

 

Stats do not always tell the whole story for me. Need the All 22 to tell me.

 

That is unless You want them 2.
LoL.

 

I missed some of the 3rd quarter so did the much maligned patchwork line give up a sack last night? I know there was pressure at times but I don't think I saw them get home.

Also I was not impressed with Wormly and Monduex as part of the 2 down linemen. Buggs even less so.

 

Really Buggs wasn't bad. Except for the so called late hit ...about the same late hit as Dobbs took twice without a call

 

And that's why stats are useless as an immediate assessment. Stats don't begin to be useful until they have accumulated and can be used to look back on past performance. In a vacuum, they're meaningless. Harvin was punting on a shorter field than Dallas. One of his punts could have been 10-20 yards longer if it hadn't been muffed. Skewed stats. And Mason's rating was padded by one deep shot that Claypool hauled in. Skewed stats. Thoses statistics, after 4+ games will begin to even out and start telling a more accurate story.

 

Claypool also short armed a perfect throw from mason. That would have kept a drive going as well. Can't blame the qb for that. He only receives an incompletion stat for that one.

 

Mason had one off target dumpoff, a smart throw away, and a drop. Those are his only incompletions. Was he spectacular? No. Was he competent? Yes. He looks like a fully competent backup. People are way too tough on him. He almost certainly is not the heir apparent but that doesn't mean he is garbage or we have to invent things to rip on him for.

 

Yup. And again, that's why stats aren't meaningful in a vacuum.

 

Fully competent. You'll need to define that a bit more before I'll get on board. He's milk toast. He has the pedigree and stats to justify a roster spot. He's a fully competent QB on paper. He's not a fully competent QB on the field. That's my take.

He doesn't have the arm to make all the throws an NFL QB needs to make. He doesn't have enough competitive fire to take over a game. He doesn't demonstrate enough leadership ability to have a team follow him. That's my take. I wish I was wrong.

 

Nope.


Not me. Tape does not lie. Stats can be deceptive. Interceptions are a highlight of this.

 

QBR is another highlight of this. It doesn't take into account enough of what's important. Claypool's 45 yard catch and alligator-arm drop impacted Mason's QBR unfairly. The catch was a prayer by Rudolph and Claypool earned the 45 yards on that one. The drop was put in a bad spot, but was a much easier catch, and should have been brought it.

 

His arm is good enough to make all the throws. His ball was a mile an hour faster at the combine than Haskins, if I'm remembering correctly. I agree that Rudolph does not scream confidence out there but he's still inexperienced and again, he's a backup. As a backup he absolutely is competent. Look around the league. Rudolph is a fringe starter. If he started all year I'm pretty sure there would be starters who performed worse than him. None of that means I'm comfortable with him as our starter next year but I am comfortable with him as our backup this year.

 

I hope Ben can at least give Claypool a chance like that on deep balls. Too often last year he didn't even give the guy a chance to make a play.

 

He's in his 4th NFL season. Mason doesn't have the game starts, but he's not inexperienced.

I think he's hit his ceiling. Neil O'Donnell Lite.

 

See? How can you be so right about Mason and so wrong about JW?