Rewatching the game. Something good.

[Art]

Rocky McIntosh did some things quietly that will pay huge dividends for us. If you have the game recorded, watch and try to focus on McIntosh. Two things he did really stood out. At the point of attack he stonewalled the blocker and essentially made the defensive play for the team. Arrington used to do that, only with more power. When Arrington took on the point of attack, people flew from him as that is what Arrington did.

So, it is good to see Rocky standing up well at the point. Where he did not get the explosion in those instances that Arrington used to, the key reason is because he engaged low and with arm placement. Arrington was a torpedo, shoulder thrust knocking a guy into hell. Rocky was controlled and strong. What he did very well was shed blockers. On a couple of instances he was engaged by blocker and quickly shed him. Arrington would get swallowed up whenever engagement was made. It was an area that severely limited Arrington as a positional linebacker. He was a missile who had to be sent into an area to destroy. Rocky isn't that, but does seem to have the ability to both take on blockers at the point of attack, and more importantly, get engaged and shed while maintaining a football position.

We've heard a lot of good things about Campbell and Rocky this offseason. Campbell wasn't bad, but certainly didn't reveal all the talk yesterday. Rocky did. This thread is mostly designed for people who took the time to focus on a player and a player only to discuss what that player did well.

I'd be interested in a true focus on Monte and Wade too. Might do that next.

[onnie007]

I feel that is a very accurate assessment of things. What did you think of Fletcher and Landry?

[LoudMouth12thMan]

Interesting observation. I'll have to look at it, but I did notice the one play where he completely shed his man and destroyed the ball carrier. So your saying Rocky had a lot to do with London making so many plays? I'll take a look. Thanks for the post Art :

HTTR

[emor09]

i loved Rocky's play...Rockey, Fletcher, and Blades all impressed me at LB last night

[jrfriedm]

I agree that McIntosh did play extremely well last night. He put himself into postition to make a lot of plays and was able to really help out the team.

I was also extemely happy with the play of Fletcher, and Golston, both seemed to in the right postion on every play (especially Fletcher), and in general our Run Defense look pretty strong.

Overall I'm pretty happy about the defensive side of the ball at this moment in time.

[ArmchairRedskin]

I thought we saw some of Rocky's ability to shed blocks last season as well. I didn't get to watch the game as I don't get NFLN, but it's good to hear he's continuing his progress.

Who the heck is Monte? Is that Montgomery?

[onnie007]

Who the heck is Monte? Is that Montgomery?

Yup. He had a pretty good game as well. He destroyed the first string center for the Titans a couple of times.

[boysetsfire]

Going into the game I was going to focus on Fletchers play. Let me just say that this dude from what I saw, is just a straight up animal. Almost every play he was in on in someway. His tackling is solid and with him in there this defense is in very good hands.

[ArmchairRedskin]

If Montgomery emerges this year as a bonafide tackle this year I'll be ecstatic. I hate hearing how a player hasn't played up to his potential and then never does anything about it. For once I'd love to see a lazy player get up off his ducket and produce. I'm rooting for you Montgomery!

[jnhay]

I think Rocky had one of the defensive plays of the game when he easily shed that one blocker at the right side of the line to make the tackle on the runningback (I think it was the runningback).

[BigMike21]

Fletcher was an absolute beast and ball hawk. The best part about him is he tries to tackle, not to hit. I also thought the middle or the Defensive Line played great lat night, Golston was impressive to me.

[Hooper]

Moved post to other thread.

[Portis N Pals]

Fletcher might be the best "QB" this team has had on defense in a loooong time. I'm EXTREMELY happy to have him.

[TradeTheBeal!]

Defense is always ahead of the offense this time of year. Still, LBs look much improved.

[jflagg215]

Landry looked great. He flies all over the ball and his number was either in or around every pile along with 21. I'm really excited to see what happens when the season starts for this kid. He looks great.

[dfos81]

VERY IMPORTANT and a key stat to our D this year.

The D held the Titans to a 2.5yd per rush avg. :applause:

they also held them to 0 tds in 72plays :applause:

To all you guys that belive you must have SACKS to be a good D, not really, forcing the Qb to get rid of it before he wants is one of THE MOST UNDERRATED STATS!

We hurried the heck out of the Qb and look at what our D did w/o ANY SACKS!

So anyone that tries to argue that sacks are needed to play good D, how did we play last night?

Overall Offense gets a C-

Defense B+, the backups get just about an A b/c they stuck in their and won the game :applause: :applause:

[CGSKINS]

I thought JC did well considering he was running for his life. He threw no picks and when he had time he threw some great passes. For A first preaseason game I dont know what the hell people wanted to see. The defense is normaly ahead of the offense in the beginning of the season. And please spare The " he should have held on to the ball" crap. I challeng anyone to take a hit like that and hold on to the ball. I'm glad that JC got a taste. Its going to make him tougher. The second fumble was just a good defense play and protection breakdown. The D was solid but lets be real. COLLINS WAS THERE QB?

I will admit. I'm not to high on this team But last night I saw energy and emotion. They where flying around the ball and going full speed.

JC has command of the huddle and he knows the O.They where in and out the Huddle when calling the plays.

People, JC is going to make mistakes. You have to be patient.

[terpfan44]

anyone have an observation on Anthony Trucks..the roster has him wearing 57..but I thought he was number 51 last night??

he looked active too..went to Oregon..listed at 6'1" 230...looked a bit slighter..but all the same made some semblance of a prescence

[Skins81a]

I thought JC did well considering he was running for his life. He threw no picks and when he had time he threw some great passes. For A first preaseason game I dont know what the hell people wanted to see. The defense is normaly ahead of the offense in the beginning of the season. And please spare The " he should have held on to the ball" crap. I challeng anyone to take a hit like that and hold on to the ball. I'm glad that JC got a taste. Its going to make him tougher. The second fumble was just a good defense play and protection breakdown. The D was solid but lets be real. COLLINS WAS THERE QB?

I will admit. I'm not to high on this team But last night I saw energy and emotion. They where flying around the ball and going full speed.

JC has command of the huddle and he knows the O.They where in and out the Huddle when calling the plays.

People, JC is going to make mistakes. You have to be patient.

You cant excuse the fumbles, the first fumble was a real bad play by Campbell, he didnt see the blitz which was real easy to see and his responsiblity. I have high hopes for him but I thought last night was a below average performance. Mis-fired on some easy throws, missed reads, threw the ball late at times and had 2 turnovers.

[dfos81]

COLLINS WAS THERE QB?

I will admit. I'm not to high on this team But last night I saw energy and emotion. They where flying around the ball and going full speed.

JC has command of the huddle and he knows the O.They where in and out the Huddle when calling the plays.

People, JC is going to make mistakes. You have to be patient.

It doesn't matter who the qb is if your forcing him to get rid of it w/ in a few seconds after the snap, which we did really well at forcing Collins to throw before he could set up.

Now I know V.Y. woulda made some plays on the outside w/ his athletiscm but to force any qb out of the pocket is a good sign for the D and unless the qb has an arm like Brett Favre they will usually pass to the same side they roll out to, so by forcing a qb to run out, it really limits his options to throw to.

Our run D was very good, which is a good sign for GW's scheme to work properly.

[Art]

You cant excuse the fumbles, the first fumble was a real bad play by Campbell, he didnt see the blitz which was real easy to see and his responsiblity. I have high hopes for him but I thought last night was a below average performance. Mis-fired on some easy throws, missed reads, threw the ball late at times and had 2 turnovers.

He had one turnover.

And you're right, he did a bad job on that play. He didn't miss on many easy throws. He missed on one easy through. His reads were very good. Unfortunately with the blocking we lost the opportunity to strike deep on a couple plays we had guys breaking open, but that's not on Campbell. I think he neither played well nor poorly. He played both well and poorly. Meaning, he played inconsistently and it is when he evens that consistency out which side of the QB rating scale he'll fall that will determine what he'll be.

[bobzmuda]

Haven't had a chance to watch the tape yet but from watching from the stands it was clear that Williams is in love with the versatility of Landry. Landry was constantly dropping into the box with Taylor playing a deep Centerfield position that we had been hearing about. Landry looked to have a great nose for the ball, highly explosive, and showed the ability to be an asset in coverage.

Even when Landry was out the skins were still running a lot of the same kind of formations even with players that don't have the same athleticism of Landry. This is just more proof to me that this defense was re-designed around Landry and that Landry will be starting from game 1.

Also something of note was that during warm-ups when the defense would run off the field to allow the backups get some reps some coach would throw at least 2 passes to Carlos working on his hands. I didn't see him drop one. Who knows.

[Birdlives]

Campbell was two dropped passes from having a pretty good night. Considering this was his first game I thought he did well. With some decent protection and even a little bit of a running game I think the inconsistencies even out towards the positive side.

[1Skinsnut]

Rocky McIntosh did some things quietly that will pay huge dividends for us. If you have the game recorded, watch and try to focus on McIntosh. Two things he did really stood out. At the point of attack he stonewalled the blocker and essentially made the defensive play for the team. Arrington used to do that, only with more power. When Arrington took on the point of attack, people flew from him as that is what Arrington did.

So, it is good to see Rocky standing up well at the point. Where he did not get the explosion in those instances that Arrington used to, the key reason is because he engaged low and with arm placement. Arrington was a torpedo, shoulder thrust knocking a guy into hell. Rocky was controlled and strong. What he did very well was shed blockers. On a couple of instances he was engaged by blocker and quickly shed him. Arrington would get swallowed up whenever engagement was made. It was an area that severely limited Arrington as a positional linebacker. He was a missile who had to be sent into an area to destroy. Rocky isn't that, but does seem to have the ability to both take on blockers at the point of attack, and more importantly, get engaged and shed while maintaining a football position.

We've heard a lot of good things about Campbell and Rocky this offseason. Campbell wasn't bad, but certainly didn't reveal all the talk yesterday. Rocky did. This thread is mostly designed for people who took the time to focus on a player and a player only to discuss what that player did well.

I'd be interested in a true focus on Monte and Wade too. Might do that next.

Great points. The other thing is that Rocky appears to be is someone who will play more of a team scheme and do far less freelancing than Arrington did. Rocky doesn't have Arrington's natural ability, but he may be a better team player who does exactly that Williams needs him to do to fit in with Fletcher and Washington.

[Art]

Haven't had a chance to watch the tape yet but from watching from the stands it was clear that Williams is in love with the versatility of Landry. Landry was constantly dropping into the box with Taylor playing a deep Centerfield position that we had been hearing about. Landry looked to have a great nose for the ball, highly explosive, and showed the ability to be an asset in coverage.

Even when Landry was out the skins were still running a lot of the same kind of formations even with players that don't have the same athleticism of Landry. This is just more proof to me that this defense was re-designed around Landry and that Landry will be starting from game 1.

Also something of note was that during warm-ups when the defense would run off the field to allow the backups get some reps some coach would throw at least 2 passes to Carlos working on his hands. I didn't see him drop one. Who knows.

Very true. We rarely used 8 in the box last year. We were constantly doing it with Landry. On some defensive formations he was closer to the line of scrimmage than the linebackers. Landry's role does appear to be one that makes it so Sean Taylor's best games will be those you never hear his name called.

Taylor remains the game's only safety who impacts a QB like Deion did, in that he takes things away that ordinary safeties do not. Teams challenge Taylor at free safety less than any other free safety gets challenged. Dawkins and Reed are better playmakers who make teams pay for those challenges more than Taylor, but, with Taylor in a tweener role last year, he struggled. He's clearly lost weight this year and you'll have games go by you never hear his name, like last night, which is a sign he played fantastic football because the role he's good at is making the field he's covering disappear for the offense.