Well THAT Sucked...

As is my wont, I'll leave most of the bad news to all the other commenters.

...ok well I'll try.  I mean there's so much of it.  But as I sift through the wreckage, I do come up with some chunks and pieces that, with a little superglue, steel wool, and solvent are salvageable.  Also, several excuses.

The third down defense was horrific.  In most cases, the very long conversions were accomplished through short passes.  Defenders were in position, but missed tackles or failed to wrap up.

Two excuses are no Skrine and no Haden.  The great Terry Pluto in his first half summary mentioned this, then went one to say "but"---

But nothing, Terry! The dropoff from these two players is significant.  This is two of your top three cornerbacks, do you get this?  Who was targeted the most?  Leon McFadden, who still might not even be on the team next week!  

On that, I don't agree that he sucked.  He only sucked compared to the guys he replaced.  Gilbert played pretty well overall, but did get torched a few times, but he's a RROOOOKKKIIEEE who will get BETTER ok?

One bright spot was Kirksey.  He was all over the place.  I knew he'd be good, but not this good this soon.  And he's certainly brought out the best in Robertson.

At any rate, what happened here should alarm nobody.  The talent is here, and Mike Pettine and his protege Jim O'Neil are here, so this will get fixed.  Unless there really is something in the Cleveland water that turns excellent coaches into dumbasses.

The offense is a different story.  Still, there were some good things.  They ran the ball pretty well.  THIS time, Hoyer was shaky and off-target sometimes.  The interception was all his fault (I think).  The recievers didn't drop as many catchable passes, but one was in the end zone.

Hoyer got most of the first team reps, but only for the first week.  Austin was rusty, too.  This will improve through repetition.

And Rodney Johnsonfield: Once again, Charlie took his limited reps and caught some passes.  Today, I seem to be the only one not tossing him out with the bathwater.  He did drop a tough third down catch, but Gordon dropped some as a rookie himself.

He ran almost exclusively underneath routes for Manziel.  Kyle Shanahan simplified the offense for Johnny to help him get rid of the ball quickly, and this was part of it: A big guy crossing in front of him short.

He couldn't turn any into big plays, as the Rams were fairly shallow and closed too quickly.  I guess to Grossi and others that means that's all he can do.  

Hawkins looked much better.  Nobody noticed that either.

Marqueis Gray showed some good things.  He ran vertically in front of Manziel after the other recievers had cleared the clutter out for him.  This won't work in game one, though.

And Johnny.  He was sharp and decisive.  He looked like the Heisman winner.  But again, this was with a "cut down" offense which Kyle tailored to him (and a great job he did, by the way!).  He played with and against second and third stringers.  Fortunately for him, two of those were Johnson and Gray.

And the hurry-up!  Great job for a rookie!  

Head Coaches use this time to evaluate the bottom third of their rosters, so things get pretty vanilla.  I loved what I saw from the kid, but vs. Dick LeBeau and his ilk in a real game with the big boys, you need the whole playbook, and he's still not ready.

But now I know: When he gets it, look TF out!

Pat Kirwan, to my amazement (not), picked the Steelers to win the AFC North again.  This was before they got humiliated by the Eagles thursday night.

But this is how it goes: Pat will say new offense, new personnel, the drug-bust distraction, etc. and not change his mind.  Then he'll look at the Browns' game and say "I'm not surprised".

Don't say preseason is meaningless.  It means everything to the guys fighting for their professional lives; their whole futures.  Without preseason, a number of Hall of Fame players would have retired as anonymous grocery store managers.

One last note: Tyler Gabriel (the microbe), almost certainly made this team with his returns.  I love it.  168 lbs.  And he is a scary reciever, too!