1: Stop the rationalizing. DA's passes were NOT "off a little all night". He was pretty much on the money, and you're trying to raise the bar again. The interception was a little high and harder than it should have been, but was a smart decision. It was a hair away from being a nice, big gain, and a pick off a deflection off the intended reciever's hands is NEVER EVER a "bad decision".
2: Quinn is still in it. He hardly got any chances, and did allright with what he had.
I'm now convinced that Mangini really and truly has no dog in this race, and will actually indeed pick the better quarterback. Not the best-looking, neccessarily, or the one with the strongest arm.
O B V I O U S L Y these were the Lions, and that sort of mitigates some of this. For DA-ites it will make no difference, but fortunately Mangini doesn't think like them.
If you can't figure out which QB I like better, I can help. Quinn has a lot less real game experience, can and has thrown deep but is more conservative on purpose, has better mobility, and, I believe, reads the field better. He'd also sell more tickets.
...but dammit, if DA outperforms him and gets benched anyway just to make a bunch of irrational/gay people happy, that's just plain stupid, plus just plain unfair and wrong.
I just think that when it's said and done, it'll be close to a tie, and Quinn will get the nod, owing to his lesser experience, hence greater upside, more than for any other reason.
DA does NOT suck. Only just about now does he have enough experience to really be called a vet and to be expected to stop throwing picks...since his name isn't Brett Favre. Eli Manning took longer before he truly blossomed. People who think he'll always and forever make bad decisions ass ume he can't improve with experience. That's irrational.
I think Quinn wins, we got great depth a QB this season, and get real good stuff for DA in a trade.
3: Did you notice that in his limitted time Wimbley was all over the field and got six tackles? This is the main reason why it never occured to Mangini to get rid of him and his salary, or to demote him. While everybody else has declared him a bust due to his sacklessness, he has quietly turned into a very good all-around linebacker who can cover and track down runs.
While in the 3-4 you really do need pressure from the OLB spots, and Wimbley has disappointed, he did do what he did do as a rookie. Clearly, these coaches believe that with a couple more moves, a more intelligent and creative deployment of him, etc. he can be a very good all-around linebacker who can generate some pressure.
They will not have showed how they'll be shifting him around when it counts, and probably haven't even sent him much. I remain optimistic.
4: How bout that Poteat? In fact the secondary in general? Even when Detroit's QB's had time, the DB's were mostly on it.
Well...the open recievers who were just overthrown or missed weren't lost on me. Nor did Detroit have Calvin Johnson. The coverage was far from perfect and the Lions QB's screwed up several times, but there was definitely good stuff to see. I had thought Poteat was a depth guy only, but maybe he's more. And Hoppel...who knows?
But did you see how the zone coverage was tighter than Romeo's ever was? The DB's were actually close enough to the recievers to close on the ball.
I guess that Ryan guy is just a big gambler. To have a defender less than a good ten yards behind a reciever is just unthinkable for the bend-into-the-end-zone defense.
5: Mike Furrey. There's our Brian Brennan. You can't cover that guy in a phone booth.
I had originally expected a two-TE based offense, but unlike all the sportswriters except Pluto you read, I adapt to changing circumstances. So will Mangini and co. Wide reciever depth was a problem, but now it's just the opposite. I don't count Leggett out just off of one catchless game. Cribbs has already mostly proven that he's not only ready to fill in, but to start at WR.
In order to get the best (and most dangerous) recievers on the field, this offense will need to run more three-wides.
Rucker is not emerging as the next K2. My dark-horse former WR hasn't done much either. Heiden is awesome but old and at this age could be injury-prone. Royal is a lot like Heiden, so there's a nice reliable blocker and reciever, but that appears to be it.
Really, three-wides force nickles. They lighten and spreads the defense. It makes blitzes riskier, gives the linemen fewer guys to block, and opens holes even before the snap.
When you got a guy like Furrey, plus a running back who can catch, you can go tight-end or fullback light because even if a blitzer leaks through right away, the QB has a ready target right in front of him.
And I say Furrey, but that could be Cribbs, too. In camp he's been getting open just about as much, and catching everything near him. It's just that Furrey has been doing exactly this for a long time, and it now appears quite possible that Cribbs will at least rotate in at the Z spot. Doesn't make much sense to take Furrey off the field to make room for anybody.
What about four-wide? Yeah I can see that, too. I mean, you got Edwards, Furrey, Cribbs, Robiskie--and then several others with a lot of talent who haven't had a chance to emerge yet.
Any kind of spread base will effect the QB race. More fast recievers with more blitzes favor Quinn--not DA as some would think. I believe that Quinn can see the hot read quicker against blitzes, and can go underneath to move the chains under umbrella coverage when he has to.
Remember Lindy Infante? "Well it looks like a pass but it's really more like a long hand-off". Remember how the Cardiac Kids did most of their damage turning dink-passes into long gains?
Yeah...Robiskie is pretty good at that, but Massequoi is better. Don't need to even mention Cribbs. This crew is for Quinn...not DA. (DA's favorites would be Edwards and Leggett.)
6: Who didn't know that James Davis in the sixth was a major steal?
Thing is, the main reason he slid so far--aside from the massive talent at running back--was that he didn't have many big plays. He uses shiftiness and power. He's a slasher and a grinder.
Don't compare him to Jamal Lewis. Lewis is shorter and as much as twenty pounds heavier--all muscle. Such comparisons were another reason why he slid.
But maybe--just maybe--this guy is one of those rare dudes who can do better in the pros than he did in college, like LaDanian Thomlinson. I mean, he bounced outside when he looked like he was doomed, right?
Well, in college the defenders are slower and general, and often slow to diagnose and react; to peel out of coverage in run support. In college, the inside hole might have been bigger and Davis might have taken it for his normal short gain instead. Here, he was FORCED outside by defenders who were quick to diagnose and converge on him, and ran around a couple who were closing on where he had been.
Just a thought...could be he was a bigger steal than any of us thought.
At any rate, we have no issues at running back. Whereas with Harrison even I couldn't say for sure that he can stop big blitzers or take an NFL-style pounding through a lot of carries, Davis can definitely do that.
Last season Romeo's ignorance wore Lewis down as he ran on a bumb ankle. Harrison could have helped, but wasn't allowed to. This season, the coaches have made no secret of their intentions to take carries off Lewis to keep him fresh and healthy, and we got the horses.
7: I liked Bernie's analysis. I hope everybody else listened to him too.
He does say that Mangini needs to name a starter NOW, and I do grok this. However, the guy who wins this is likely to be the Browns QB for the duration of Mangini's reign, and I also understand why Mangini feels he needs to make damn sure he picks the right guy.
Next week, they get to play another really really good team and will probably get kicked around pretty good. If I read Mangini right, he'll once again ignore convention and split first-team reps between the two quarterbacks.
I believe that this will be the final exam--each QB under intense pressure vs. one of the top defenses in the NFL.
Then in the final preseason game, the starter will have been named, and will get his tune-up for the first half or so.
Bernie is talking about repetitions with the recievers he'll be throwing to, plus repetitions reading defenses in-flux, and he's right. But Mangini and Daboll are talking about the backup being ready to go and both QB's accustomed to intense psychological pressure--and being able to adapt quickly--and they're right too.
In reality, they can't come out and tell you that with the Superbowl champs, another dominant team, and even the Bengals (who embarrassed the Pats last week) in this division, and with so many new inexperienced players on this roster...well they can't admit that this is a growth year.
But it is. Whichever QB wins should be as good as he needs to be by NEXT season.
Mangini: So far so good.
8: They shoulda paid Cribbs. He just got a lot more expensive.
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