Wicked's Thoughts and Musings from Pre-Season Game 1

[HotInHere]

237 yards rushing. Jebus Chrysler. Did we that many rushing yards form RBs in any two combined games last year?

We had 137 at halftime. As a team, we had more than 137 for an entire game exactly once last season (Bears.)

Part of that was due to 59 yards from Tyrod, but still.

[Justlovemybirds]

Pernell McPhee looks like he'll definitely make an impact in the pass rush. He's listed as an OLB but he was getting good pressure up the middle.

[Ngata_Ate_My_Lunch]

I think Joe went PA three plays in a row on that first drive. It was immense to see. That was some of the best OL play I've ever seen from this team, and barring any injuries they should only get better. I would have liked to see Steve Smith get a few more catches, but there's suddenly so many capable pass catchers and it was great to see Joe spread it around. Gone are the days of Joe Flacco staring down Derrick Mason until he's open enough to get the ball to.

The defense definitely seemed to play timid at first, but C.J. Mosely seemed to be in on every tackle. I noticed (and Q mentioned it in post game analysis) that after he got his first tackle everything was fine. I know we've been pontificating when he'd come in, what roll he'd have, and all that. After that showing, he ain't EVER coming off the field.

Way to go Sam Koch for that booming 57 yard punt from inside the end zone. I'd been reading so much about competition and thought maybe this was the end of Sam, but he looked sharp last night. Everyone did.

I thought it seemed like the refs in the 49ers first series were EXTREMELY flag happy. Chykie got flagged for absolutely nothing. The commentators even remarked about how he had one hand on the receiver, but the receiver had two hands on him. His biggest problem is that he doesn't turn around and look for the ball, and I guess that's going to draw a flag almost every time.

Overall, I'd saw the 49ers got out classed, out worked, and out gunned last night. It's only pre-season, but John is up 3-0 against his brother. That's gotta feel good.

[lobachevsky]

Cautiously optimistic.

OT1H the first-string offense looked awesome. OTOH offenses tend to be ahead of defenses early in the year; they know what they're trying to do & the defense, which is usually pretty vanilla in preseason, can only react.

OT1H the 2nd-string OL stunk in pass protection. OTOH they did pretty well on running plays. OT3H unless the team is utterly snakebit you won't see more than one of them with the first string, & they'd all play better than they showed last night.

OT1H The Great Lorenzo (extra brownie points for anyone who recognizes the allusion!) was romping & stomping. OTOH it was the Whiner scrubs. OT3H bodies is bodies.

OT1H Aiken's nickname ought to be "Hoover" since he vacuums up every ball thrown his way. OTOH, he's probably a genetic freak who sweats stickum.

Need to see more of Wenning, Campanaro, that Crockett dude, & FTR was there an Urschel sighting?

[RavenScallywag]

What I'm looking for in preseason is execution. If the OL is blocking and the RBs are hitting their holes, that's a good sign. Defense might not be as exotic, but neither is the offensive play call, and the DL and LBs aren't going to play at half speed because it's preseason.

Playing against 2nd string is a talent dropoff, but also ensures you are playing against guys fighting HARD for playing time or a roster spot.

[RavensNest]

Pro:
-KUBIAK!!!!!
- Offensive Line, osemele is a straight mauler and Zuttah looks solid
- Running Backs
- WR corp looks very good, lot of talent - I'm thinking we may take 6 maybe even 7 wr to begin the yr
- Mosley looked great, seemed to be all over the field
- Ditto for Brandon Williams
- Tucker is a beast
- NO INJURIES

Con:
- Nothing really on offense
- Ngata seems to be a shell of himself to me - no explosion or disruption
- OLB gave up the edge way to easy on runs (Suggs looked to be held on the 19yd run by Hyde)
- Secondary once again seems to be in the right position but their ability to turn and look for the ball is awful - which always leads to penalties
- Tyrod scares the shit out of me, only good at running - would have liked to have seen Wenning get chance to throw the ball
- I saw some big gaps on kick coverage which I'm hoping they can clear up


Overall, a great first game/start of a rebound season for the Ravens. John 3-0 vs Jim and now has the trifecta (Reg Season, SB and Preseason)

[saintmatthew]

One thing I did not like was seeing Tucker nearly get his head twisted off trying to make a specials teams tackle. THIS IS NOT THE SUPERBOWL! It doesn't matter enough to try and make a tackle when you're a kicker.

[alienrace]

That was so refreshing to see, an actual "offense". Such a huge departure from what they've been doing the past six years with Cam's system. Guys getting open. Flacco getting the ball out quick. Runners hitting the hole quickly. And, not least of all, actual GOOD blocking from the O'Line, that involved technique, and not just guys trying to maul and out-physical the opponent. The offense looked "smart" for the first time since I can recall.

The defense had a shaky start, though it was surely handcuffed a bit by the ridiculously overzealous refs. I guess it's their preseason too.

Overall, very impressed with the team last night.

[GOTA]

I saw bits and pieces. Asa looks like he's gunning for that 3rd spot. Mosley looked to be everything we thought he would be. Great plays by Elam; Tyson looked good.

Nice offensive look but you can't have 2 RBs fumble the ball; that has to be fixed. Damn solid LB corp.

Oh and Blaine Gabbert should go into broadcasting

I actually heard Gabbert compared to Steve Young last week. Since Young was a mess with Bucs and became a hall of fame QB with the 49ers history must be repeating itself, right?

Apparently Blaine Gabbert is still Blaine Gabbert.


Lots of positives for the Ravens. My favorite play though has to be the pass that Juice caught. Kubiak had a very good, but always banged up, TE/FB named James Casey in Houston. They had all sorts of clever mismatch pass plays to him that worked great. There was even a stretch where Casey was putting up good fantasy football numbers. That pass to Juice was the exact same thing and it's going to be very tough to stop for defenses seeing a FB and 2 TE out there and playing run.

[Jsmoove]

I know its preseason and im trying not too get hype but got dammit the offense look so smooth, so effortless, Joe look like he set to break some record, i swear i seen some rub routes and the screens!!! And they were successful screens!!! Lawd have mercy we have long awaited this for so many years our team finally has an offense!!

[BPF2]

Agree with pretty much everything said. I'm taking Tyrod's performance with a little bit of salt. At first I was aggravated that he took off and ran so much, but OTOH (if I can borrow one of Lobachevsky's 12th hand) our offensive line play was terrible. He wasn't even on his 3rd drop step before he had to run like hell most of the time. I would have like to see them at least let Wenning run the 2 minute offense. It's preseason, I don't think anyone would have taken it to be running up the score. You have 60 minutes to evaluate 90 players, you gotta use them all.

I liked what Jacoby showed. He was showing some of that last year too, so good to see him continue to progress. Someone commented on Marlon Brown slipping. I don't know if it's so much slipping, but he was stuck playing with Tyrod who rarely had time to try to throw the ball. I think next game he'll probably get some time with Joe, or at least I hope so.

Taliaferro looked damn good. Want to see what he can do against some better competition.

I mentioned in the "what do you want to see" thread that I hadn't heard much about Dominque Franks. He jumped one route that shout have been an INT, then a couple plays later made the INT. Showed good control to pause running to let a blocker get ahead and then turn the burst back on. That was nice. Wonder what he's been doing in practices that has him running with the 3's (or is it 4's at that point).

Asa showed flashes, much better than Brown. I'm really pulling for him, but I wish he would stop with the strutting and dramatic demonstrations. Dude you've been suspended for more games than you've played. Go out, make plays, line up and make another play.

[Jsmoove]

I wasn't mad at Tyrod for running that bum gino and shippley kept getting blitz over and over again, he had no choice but to run after a year as a starter and whole offseason gino is still a bum.