One thing I've noticed is the defense swarming to the ball quicker than in teh past. Fluellen again is looking good, as Wilson is carted off. Poor tackling by the Lions -- edwards, robinson, others. Those are some guys getting yelled at soon. LB Leon Joe seems to be having qutie a game still. Dizon doing pretty good so far.
Looked like Dizon missed the play, but replay form teh back showed an illegal block int eh back pshing hi away from the play. Pruitt not doing bad -- TD pass against...Edwards as his rough night continues. Still playing too much coushin -- same mistakes he was making earlier. With Wilson getting hurt, the secondary competition is still very open at CB.
Nice return by Middleton -- I think he has really tightened the competition for the 5th WR spot tonight. McHugh makes the catch, but stumbles - could have been a few more. Stanton still doens't look too comfy in the pocket. Antoher good catch by McHugh -- still sticking to short routes though. Nice, accurate throw though. Calhoun tries for one - and...again, no dice. Very disappointing. They need to be able to get thsoe short yarage lays. I wanted to see Felton, rather than Calhoun making that kind fo run. LB Leon Joe is having a good game still. If he gets a link on teh Depth chart, we'll know the Lions may be leaning to 7 LB and only 4 CB...so far, I haven't seen anyone really exciting me for the 5th CB spot -- so 5 S and 7 LB soudns better to me.
Now it looks like Davis, assited by Robinson, stops teh Giants on 3rd adn short. Finally, we get to see what Moore can do on PR. Made a coule people miss, but teh blockers weren't there, and he gets taken down before he can go anywhere. Drew Stanon takes off running on the rollout vs throwing it away. Nice play. Pinner is in at RB and he's running better than Bell, but about as solid as Cason so far. He more of a bruising style. They are still keeping it calm for Stanton -- and he makes another great play on the run. Nice catch and run by Pinner -- great pickup. So far, looking like he is behind Smith as 2nd best. AS soon as I say that, he fumbles it away. It's very close to tell wehter he is down or not. Lions challenge. Overturned. Down by contact. Nice job by th coachign staff with that challenge, win or lose. Somethign they have been workign on, it seems.
Huge opening left by teh D, Stanton makes a good run and gets out of bounds and avoiding being hit. Cherilus has been out there a long time, and he is looking really good this second half. Big offisedes -- called on Cherilus, but there were several guys jupming -- looks like a miscommunication. Stanton finsishes up a strong drive. capped by a FG.
Stan Kwan looks like he is going to implode in a qucik cut to him. There are a lot guys not making this team due to an inability to tackle on ST.
Avril gets a sack on Carr, busting inisde and getting sack. not quite offsetting penalites -- not so sure on the penalty and because they didn't show any replays. Dline looks like it's getting good pressure from what I can see -- which isn't a lot over the interview with Ernie. Intentional grounding by Carr and that's followed up by a sack from Fluellen. 4th and 15...the Lions backupsare really outplaying the Giants at this point. Their depth is supposed to be thier strength, but I haven't seen it. Greg Blue did great in coverage and nailed the WR so hard he goes flying about 5 feet out of bounds and takes out a Lions trainer.
Lions taking knees to end it -- got out the first game with only the injury to Wilson.
DetFAn1979 saying goodnight -- more analysis and thoughts to come in the following days as I have itme to review the tape.
10 comments:
really enjoyed all of your on the spot analysis, like you i want to change my 53 man roster now. who's that joe-guy-he really looked good?? chelious looked rough think it will be some time before he takes over. smith should easily beat out bell and i think cason and pinner moved up too-bell and calhoun may be the ones dropped. gaines looks good and now i think fitzsimmons is probably out. actually the whole team looked good and the way blue hits ive got to get him on the roster-he definately replaces my last choice-edwards. look forward to your detailed analyisis-especially on cherlious-is he close to being the starter or is he a ways off yet-i think he has a ways to go.
LIONS GREAT IN 2008-PLAYOFFS AND BEYOND!!
No kidding about that joe-guy. I mentioned to my friend on the first tackle of his that
"I don't know why they have guys like him out there, I've never heard of him and they should be giving more reps to the guys that have a chance of making the team".
Then "that joe-guy" went on to have a heck of a game and made me look pretty dumb.
Great game though. Special teams needs to get sharper and the o-line needs to get a bitter better in the run blocking, but it was a pretty encouraging preseason opener.
Lopper
A few of my initial thoughts on the game.
-K. Smith was pretty good. What I like about the guy is that he cuts north/south and falls FORWARD. I've often seen runners for other teams do that and wondered why the Lion's backs always fell stright down whenever they got tackled (A LA Tatum "Tinker" Bell last night.. sheesh.) The run game didn't gain a lot of yards, but it did enough to open up our passing game some, which is exactly what it's there to do.
- Our linebackers were pretty awesome pretty much all the way around. Dizon looked really into it and active, even if he didn't always look like he knew exactly where he should be.
- Kitna on the bootlegs was soo much better than last year when he had to stay in the pocket. when was the last time the Lions gave up ZERO sacks in a game? the mid 1990's? Dan O. looked like a capable backup, and Stanton was raw but you have to love his mobility. In some ways reminded me (play-style only!) of Mike Vick.
-Our O. Line wasn't very good yet. Our D. Line wasn't too bad. The Defense in general looked pretty fast and heaven forbid, they looked like they could actually tackle once in a while... something that not many Lions have been able to do the last few years.
-Our return game isn't going to scare anyone this year. Even if Moore has skill (which looked like he might) we didn't look like we could coverage block during kicks for anything; it was pathetic to see giants swarming all over our returners while they were catching the ball.
-Most importantly, CALVIN IS A MONSTER. 78 yards on 4 catches in one quarter of work, and he didn't even look like he was trying all that hard. Did he even break a sweat? Sheesh. the ONLY thing stopping him this year is an injury; I'm not even worried about double-teams.
-Roy looked OK, but Roy is Roy. He dropped a pass that was behind him, but it still hit him in the hands. The second it happened I said "Calvin would have caught that." Roy is like an A-, B+ receiver, while Calvin is clearly an A+.
I didn't watch the actual game unfortunately, but the highlights have me worried because the O-line was horrendous. Every play Kitna was passing the defenders were a second away from sacking him. We may not have given up any sacks...but I have little doubt that if it was our 1st team O v. the Giants 1st team D Kitna would have been flattened in the backfield.
I understand that the O-line is learning a new system, but they really have to step things up for both the running AND passing games as the pre-season continues.
-StreetWorm
Just a quick note that you should all check out Hondo's blog in the links section.
He did a really good analysis, backup up by going over the game tape, of individual performances during the game.
-Streetworm
I disagree with you on the O-Line to some degree. They didn't look spectacular by any means, but it was the first team Lions O vs the First Team Lions D. While they were "almost" sacking him -- that was the same Dline that thouroughly mauled the NE Patriots Line in the Superbowl -- and they handled them much better than I thought they would. Also, Davis was in for Mulitalo, and while he did okay, his inexperience showed.
I haven't had time yet to review the game tape again (although, I glanced at Hondo's blog, and it will be interesting to see how we agree/disagree)
The Oline is the one area where I have seen huge gaps in agreement as to how well they did or did not do. I think they need a lot of work, but they were'nt near as bad as some are saying, nor near as good as others think.
Correction - first team GIANTS D. Teh first teams played against each other, and the Lions actually began taking out starters before the Giants. The Giants were down two wideouts on O, but started the rest of their offense.
The highlights I saw did not do justice to the effectiveness having to defend the run opened up the passing game to Roy and CJ.
I broke down the passing game and running game of the OLINE. I was impressed by everyone except for Frank Davis. Frank may be the person cut. His run blocking was very poor. The left guard is usually the pull guard, and right now the Lions sorely miss Mulitalo. The guard was not getting out to get through his hole to take the trap man. Part of that is the seal blocking (which Raiola did get overpowered frequently).
Peterman did look good when he would pull left and trap out (or kick out) the DE. He did not look good on the inside trap when he would have to go up and trap block the DT or MLB.
HOWEVER, WITH THAT SAID:
The Lions offense clicked because of it. The overpenetration of the Giants front four was manipulated and burned several times. i.e.-rollouts.
Kitna is supposed to be tackled every time by the defensive end when he pulls. The TE's did a great job of double teaming or pinch blocking with the tackles to allow our QB's to roll out.
The change of the depth of the pocket was terrific as well. Three step drops worked very well to keep the defensive line and the backers out of rhythym. It was almost like the Giants defense was looking for the same offense they saw last year. I thought they may not have read the papers (or didn't believe the print). They sure weren't ready for the Lions new offense (pass-wise). The Giants did do a good job of bottling the run, but I would also expect that from last year's Super Bowl winners. They did that very well last year, and were probably gaining run support with the Strahan retirement.
All-in-all, I thought this was a good showing. It was very positive.
The only thing that was displeasing outside of Frank Davis (on the OLINE) was Gosder Cherilus' desire to imitate False Start Foster. Knock that shit off now. You know the snap count. Jon tells it to you in the huddle. It's not like Austin Kucher is going to pop out and yell "Tada-ya' got punked, Gos." Not gonna happen. But ya can get benched. And ya can get traded away, maybe somewhere like---Denver. Right back at ya' Broncos!!!
-nubs
Lets remember. We were told the Lions line play was not going to look pretty early on. They can’t practice all the blocks, especially the cut stuff. Given that I thought for the first preseason game, the running game was OK.
Bell is in trouble of making this team. If he doesn't run the ball with passion next week, he may see less carries in the third preseason game and be gone after the 4th.
Buster Davis looked good. So did Cannon. I think Gardner could be in trouble.
One thing I'd like to see next week. On a short yardage play I'd like to see Felton carry the ball. once fro the fullback spot, and once from the tailback with Bradley leading.
I was listening to the 1st quarter on the radio when the Lions had a 3rd and 2. I told my wife they need to try to pick up the first on a running play. They game the ball to Smith, and 3 yards later I yelled YES. I thought that was the biggest play of the game to me. It tells you something about Smith and what the Lions want to do.
Danny O looked good. I'd like for him to get a series with the #1 receivers next week.
Dizon made some rookie mistakes, but he also showed why they took him in the 2nd round. If he recognizes the run/pass better next week, then Lennon will get some work at SLB in the 3rd preseason game.
jj
No, I agree. The Lions were NOT a dominating offensive line by any means, nor will they be for a while.
They still don't do the little things, either, but that is to be expected.
What I was looking for was gap assignments, how well they executed the blocks, how well they knocked people around, and how well they knew where they were supposed to be.
Frank Davis literally looked lost, then looked afraid to hit someone if they weren't in the assigned hole.
If you as a pulling guard find "rub" or friction from a DT, you need to chip him. If there is complete penetration in the gap hole, you need to lower your head and blow stuff up. Frank would get a body in front of him before it was supposed to be there (from penetration) and not know what to do.
Instead of lowering his head and hoping for the best (or blowing the guy out of the whole for a pancake) Davis looked like he tried to execute an in-game time out.
It really looked like the perplexity of the moment caused air to seep to his inner-ear, causing a boisterous brain-fart and the muscles ceased, and stop-gapped.
I wanted more. I at least expect him to lower the boom on somebody. Sometime. I waited all night, the phone never rang.
Now, Backus did a decent job. Peterman, decent. The center-Raiola-ish. They didn't scream "WOW", but it's pre-season. The first game with a new offense.
They will build on this and it was solid. I was just tryig to point out that Frank is missing a step and is in danger of getting cut.
-nubs
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