saint5221

The things that jumped out after this game as opposed to the first preseason game was not so much the score but the effort, it was much better. There was still a lot of breakdowns and mistakes, which is what preseason is for, but we were winning some of the individual battles that counted and playing with some fire.The game was won by the reserves so I don't think the score is much to get excited about.

Individually Darren Smith stood out with a solid effort, even against the run. He came up with the big play on the goal line stand. Unless Ruff starts to get more comfortable in the defense and picks it up he will be sitting on sundays watching Smith.
Darren Howard looked good in the limited time he saw he was all over the Jets tackles and in the backfield several times. We need him to stay healthy this year.
Grady Jackson was impressive also, with a solid push up the middle and pressure on several plays including one in which he did an hysterical vault over a lineman to spook the QB. If he can loose more weight he will be solid for us.
Ashley Ambrose looked rough and should of had two interceptions , he failed to break on the ball and the play went for a big gain instead, another hit him right in his chest.
Tebucky Jones seemed to struggle in coverage again.
The Defense as a whole was not great, they did give up yards and there was confusion, particulary in the secondary. Hopefully this is just growing pains and what a new defense must look like in preseason. There was some fire in the play and we did a much better job up front. The coaches had a more complete game plan on the field and that helped, but the most encouragement for me came from seeing us just beat some people. The Jets made plenty of mistakes and were not nearly the competition Philly was but we did make progress with more work still to go. The goal line stand was a big boost to a unit looking for something, anything to be proud of.

On offense the effort was better as well. Play was sloppy for the first unit but individually some good things were happening. There were breakdowns that should be worked out by the seasons start.
Arron played well ,moved out of the pocket, tucked and ran a few ,and did'nt pass off his back foot.
Deuce was great, ran hard, made thing happen, he is the man.
Stallworth held on to thge ball tonight and made a tough grab over the middle with a man closing in on him hard, took the shot and poped up with attitude.He left with a tight hamstring, hope that does'nt start to bother him already.
Keaton did'nt look very good despite his one big gain on a passing play, Fenderson was'nt much better. We need help here.
Bouman played well and is proving what a good pick up he was.
We used the screen pass a few times and had better success with it, there seemed to be a real effort to work on it last night.
The Offense was able to move the ball, but mistakes killed drives and blew opportunities for scores, again it is early in the preseason so tough to get too worked up about it when we were making plays. If this continues later then we will have trouble. The team as a whole need to play smarter including the coach, who picked up his first penality of the season for his love for the officials.
All in all it was a better outing not great but someting to hang hopes for further improvement on.






[Edited on 8/18/2003 by saint5221]