The Good -
The LB's. Pratt, Bynes, and the Rookies. All showed they belonged and I may have been wrong about Bynes.
The Secondary. Bates looks good, WJII showed up, Phillips "battled", Bell was active, and Alexander looked like he belongs.
Gio usage. It didn't feel so forced.
Injuries. Nothing major it sounded like.
Short yardage Defense. How many 3rd and 4th's and short did they stop. 3, 4.

The Bad-
Oline play. It's time for Price to take over RG and make a name for himself.
The rest of our Weapons. Boyd, Tate, Higgins? Are we really deep?
Play calling. Taylor's offense doesn't pass the eye test. No identity.
Turnovers. Both turning the ball over, and not being able to create any.

5 up -
Green. Still the best wideout on the team after missing nearly 2 years.
Hopkins. For the block on the TD run alone.
DJ Reader. The Dline looked night and day stouter with him in.
Hubbard. Miss sack was huge, but his play continues to be a bright spot.
Bates. Pay the man.

5 down -
Ross. Nuff said.
Bullock. He did hit from 50, but the miss to tie the game defined his night.
Hart. Too many excuses for his struggles.
Mixon. Costly fumble.
Burrow, wasn't what we all wanted to see in his debut. I think Thursday we will see him play better.

That final drive. I expected Burrow to go 4-and-out on that last drive. I didn't expect him (as a rookie) to really take command and drive them down the field into a position to score. That push-off was not his fault. Neither is the missed FG. Result notwithstanding, he has "it".

Shout out to Huber

Way down should be the gunners on punt team, twice they screwed up downing the ball inside the 5.

gotta put huber up in that 5. That man was booting entire football fields it seemed today.

He's been playing for like 13 years or so right? I don't think he was kicking like that last year.

Phillips being a starter is going to be a problem. He did not look good.

I only saw about 60 percent of it on TV. Did Burrow have any balls batted down....

Good
LB play was a breath of fresh air. Much more athletic.

Carl Lawson is healthy and has a chance to have a good year

Lots of young guys flashed

BAD

ZT...lots of questions. He should have a warm seat
OL... embarrassing in the first half particularly

(09-13-2020, 11:33 PM)Goalpost Wrote: I only saw about 60 percent of it on TV. Did Burrow have any balls batted down....

Not that I can recall

(09-13-2020, 11:33 PM)Goalpost Wrote: I only saw about 60 percent of it on TV. Did Burrow have any balls batted down....

Nope.

(09-13-2020, 11:22 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Phillips being a starter is going to be a problem. He did not look good.

He got beat a few times, but also made some nice plays on the ball.  He should get better.  Williams isn't an easy matchup, either.  

Hart is not down Hart fell off a cliff. False start, sack, qb hit, pressure from his side on the Burrow INT that had Burrow scrambling. If he starts week two I seriously have concerns about Taylor.

Burrow remains neutral in my mind. I did not expect him to come out and be a world beater. He saw his first NFL action. He seemed flustered the first half but what QB wouldn’t be when you are being chased the whole damn time. His poise on the the last possession of the game was noteworthy. He basically led them to a TD winning drive, if not for AJs push.

Down- Zac Taylor. How the eff do you burn your 3rd TO with over 6 minutes left to play in the 4th?! Gee if we had one or even two timeouts then we get we get the whole playbook from the 3 yrd line to win as run is now a possibility. Learn how to manage timeouts man. I feel like Marvin Lewis is pulling an Arya Stark and punking us all just by stealing ZT’s face.


This all said I think they come out and get a W on Thursday night with Burrow looking much more comfortable.

(09-13-2020, 11:39 PM)Whatever Wrote: He got beat a few times, but also made some nice plays on the ball.  He should get better.  Williams isn't an easy matchup, either.  

I agree with you completely on this, while he had some plays he was beaten, overall the kid looked like he belonged on an NFL field and more reps and more experience will just lead to better results.

Our late Dline adds just missed the cut (Covington/Daniels) as they held their own, and look good along with Reader.

Ive bashed Simmons previously, He is our best coach bar none

(09-13-2020, 11:22 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Phillips being a starter is going to be a problem. He did not look good.

How did he not look good?


I watched the entire game (minus a few plays for snack getting or nature calling) and never thought he looked bad. He got beat a few times, which every CB in the NFL does. He had a pass defended on a very nice play, was in on several tackles. The leading receiver for the Chargers was their TE, which would be covered by a safety or LB usually. Mike Williams had 4 catches for 69 yards and did a lot of pushing with fully extended arms. Overall, I didn't see anything from him that made him stand out as he'll be great or he'll be a weakness. Just seemed like a guy who will be a solid CB. Not every guy that starts can be a star.

When the QB is 16/30 with a 28.6 QBR and 75.4 rating, it's hard to say any of the CBs played poorly.

Defense balled offense sucked including our QB.

(09-13-2020, 11:22 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Phillips being a starter is going to be a problem. He did not look good.

Mike Williams did push off a fair amount.

Twitter has the GIFs to prove it.

(09-13-2020, 11:52 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Mike Williams did push off a fair amount.

Twitter has the GIFs to prove it.

That’s fair. And I haven’t seen those, but he seemed like the weakest link on the defense. Pretty much everyone else played well. Hubbard has one bad play now that I think of it.

(09-13-2020, 11:56 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: That’s fair. And I haven’t seen those, but he seemed like the weakest link on the defense. Pretty much everyone else played well. Hubbard has one bad play now that I think of it.

The pushing off is why I have hope for Phillips, Williams had 4 catches and did plenty of pushing off on 3 of the 4. Phillips will be fine. 

The O-line however.....