Realistic "State of the Skins"

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by hurrykaine

I just saw it more closely on the highlight reel - Crayton took two steps after catching the ball (aka a football move) before Taylor leveled him. Fumble!!!!!!

Wish we could get an independent review of this.

There's no need for an independent review. The play is about as clear as it can be. He catches the ball and takes two steps and gets flattened. Catch-hit-fumble-skins recovery-running for td-whistle blows-skins screwed. You can call the freaking supreme court and it won't change that the skins we screwed on that one. I guess we oughta be getting used to it by now.

[LadyT]

Originally Posted by Ade Jimoh Fan Club

Let's take off the burgundy and gold glasses and look at both the good and bad of last night's game:

GOOD - Brunnel's two passes to Moss for TD's
BAD - All of his other passes

GOOD - Defensive playcalling (albeit more conservative than normal)
BAD - Offensive playcalling was more vanilla than Mr. Ice himself - the two long TD's were out of necessity instead of plan. The theme of the first 55 minutes was "Please, please don't f*ck it up Brunell!!" when it should have been "I can't wait for Brunell to f*ckin' light it up, baby!"

GOOD - Sean Taylor's hit on Crayton at the end of the game. Awesome!
BAD - Sean Taylor's coverage for most of the game. While I still think Taylor has the potential to be a beast in the NFL, I have to be honest about the fact that he is nowhere near the neighborhood of Roy Williams, Ed Reed or even Mike Brown in terms of dominating a game. Not close.

GOOD - James Thrash always seems to be there when you need him on 3rd down or in ST coverage - Mr. Reliable.
BAD - Either Taylor Jacobs is a really, really unlucky guy, or this guy is made of paper mache. It seems that his after-the-catch celebration is to get in the fetal postition and suck his thumb. How much longer can we wait for the training room's "Customer of the Year" to make a play for us? Answer - not much longer...

GOOD - TEAM defense
BAD - You are nutzo if you think the defense is better off w/o Lavar in the lineup. Where the hell was he? Didn't hear Carlos Rogers name called all game either (although I saw him in the game at least). These guys are gamechangers, supposedly. We tallied NO sacks and NO turnovers. Did you see Roy Williams last night - he was everywhere. We need some of that. Getting our playmakers in the game will help. Don't worry, G-Williams will still have them playing like a team.

GOOD - A VERY gratifying win AT Dallas ON Monday Night. In the same manner that they usually beat us.
BAD - Undoubtedly, the press will say we "got lucky" and beat a better Dallas team (although they were up 2-0 on turnovers and still lost). They'll say Brunell was shaky and the offense looked lost. And that's fine. Let them talk. Do you know what will shut up the doubters? More winning. That's it. So let's not spend the next two weeks crying about how unfair the press is after our "big win" - let's just keep winning and smiling.

Way to go Skins - Way to go ADE!

Excellent, excellent assessment. I couldn't agree more. As much as I enjoyed last night's victory and still want to savor it, our offense still has a LONG way to go. I was very troubled that, for at least 56 minutes of the game, it could do virtually nothing. We didn't even get close enough to attempt a field goal! And the play-calling looked eerily like last year, which is to say it was ineffective to the extreme.

Sure hope Gibbs opens things up. Weren't we promised that in the pre-season?

[JWsleep]

I think Brunnell actually had some very nice passes other than the 2 TDs. The scramble throw to Moss on the sidelines was a thing of beauty--they show it from the "sky cam" view--a perfect throw on the move. And he hit some nice third down pickups to Thrash, one to Cooley on the move, another to Moss. Remember--he got sacked FIVE times and hit a bunch more. Sometimes you don't have time to get it downfield.

As for Taylor, I disagree as well--Roy got smoked on two late plays with the D in prevent. Wha? He had some nice blitzes. Fine, mostly unblocked. One was a friggin horsecollar. He's stout against the run. But he's vulnerable deep, and this is not the first time he's shown it (though this may be the most obvious case). Taylor hits at least as hard, if not harder (see the play on the late third down). He's faster. He's got great ball skills. And he's just in his second season, still learning NFL D. The flea-flicker is going to happen. THe other long pass to Glenn was nice (Taylor had him on a deep out from the slot), but Bledsoe had all day back there. The skins played a sagging cover defense, designed to stop the run and stop the big play. But for the flea-flicker, it worked.

Two players deserve kudos that haven't gotten much yet. James Thrash had a very nice game, with some big third down and foruth down receptions. And Walt Harris was excellent all night, especially tackling in the flat. THat fourth down stop was a great play.