EEEWwww!

1: Marcus Benard...who is this guy? Maybe we got another Hall here....

2: DA was bad. Quinn was merely mediocre. He SHOULD have had a TD pass, and I think a guy had him by the plant-leg on the interception. Edwards is a big strong guy and is supposed to win tugs-of-war. That's why everybody wants big recievers.

3: I told you about Coye Francies. Major steal there. With Benard, who knows? But Francies WILL BE at least a solid NFL cornerback, and I mean quickly.

4: The run defense was non-existant, check. But Ryan was vanilla (doing his RAC imitation) and they weren't attacking the way they will be. Although the more agressive, less predictable package will sometimes surrender big gains, it will also blow more plays up in the backfield.

5: Rodgers had all day on his first TD pass. I don't think he will when it counts.

6: I love the fact that Mangini held Rogers out.
A: Big Baby is like half the defense. Regardless of what they say, when you have a guy like that wreaking havoc, the other guys instinctively play "safe" and just "got his back", sorta. Mangini forced the whole rest of the defense to fight for themselves. Although it didn't show much in this game...especially against the run...it will later.
B: Rogers is known and a vet. Keep him healthy, and let the young guys get some reps. Like RAC never, ever did. Mangini knows how to develop young players, and keep the big fat guys healthy and fresh.

7: I'm not too worried about the running game. Mangini was mixing and matching the o-line throughout, and I have a hunch he wouldn't have played Ryan Tucker too much...like RAC would have. He was testing Sowells, for one thing, and needs to see what Foster can do. This includes Mack, who was in and out with the first team so that Mangini could see him against Green Bays' best.
We'll know more about that part of it when the offensive line is settled.

8: Cribbs did what he did as the Z-reciever? Wow! After last season, I wondered if he ever would become a good true wide reciever, but it looks like he has finally blossomed...or perhaps been allowed to.
Quinn has endorsed him without reserve, and a smart coach listens to quarterbacks talking about wide recievers. And what he said is true: Cribbs gets the ball in the open field and it's like a kick return, and he's already past most of the defenders.
Clearly, even as an outside reciever, he is getting open and has good hands. This is great news.
He'd be even MORE effective in the slot, where the defender can't use the sideline to help him.
This could be the case, when the dust settles. If he's still returning kicks and covering kick/punt returns as he's said he really wants to, making him an every-down player might be too much.

9: Besides, Robiskie showed some good stuff himself, including run-after-catch. He's physicly better-suited to the Z than Cribbs is.

10: I know the older guys kick butt out of the slot, too, but Mangini must have an eye to the future, and will be the opposite of RAC. YOUTH will be his tie-breaker. (If this were RAC's team, Mack wouldn't have played til late in the second, Tucker and Rogers would have played most of the half, and the young recievers wouldn't have got any shots at all vs. first-string defenses.)

11: It sounded like Harrison only ran inside. I like it. Mangini already knows he can get outside, and this is testing him. So he got stuffed--so did everybody else.

12: I also bet that Veikune played way more than Jackson or Barton, who are two more "knowns".

Overall, there's no excuse for the penalties and screw-ups--and it should be noted that Green Bay's defense was undermanned and not what they will be.

However, I do believe that Mangini was not following the traditional starters-first, then the young guys when the opponent takes out it's first string script. I think he carried his training-camp methodology right into this game, and gave everybody roughly equal reps against each level of competition.

For most teams, the first preseason game is to get the base offense and defense down, and establish chemistry. I believe that for Mangini, is was his first opportunity to evaluate many new and young players against some pretty damn good talent for real.

I hope that this and the vanilla schemes (I think they only ran inside, too) account for much of this atrocity.

So please withhold the "We're all gonna die!" self-soiling panic crap, k?