First Units Impressions
 

Things that I noticed off the bat:

Offense:

Alex Smith - Looked good except for a couple of misfires. He was hit way too much in this game.

Eric Fisher - Looks alright but he had a couple of glaringly bad moments, both against Hardy. Completely whiffed on a pass play and run play. He played better than I expected but not as well as you would hope.

Run plays - We were successful almost exclusively on runs to the left of our formation but anything going to the right was almost always stuffed right away.

Interior OL - It's about as bad as I thought it would be. Star had his way with Jeff Allen way too often. Fulton is a terrible blocker in the screen game.

TE Fasano - I think he is best described as slow but steady. I hope Kelce replaces him in the starting role sooner rather than later.

Bowe - Looks like he did in the later part of the season and into the playoffs. He'll be fine as long as he stays healthy.

DAT - Fast as hell with great vision and showed fantastic awareness and burst on his carry.

Knile Davis - For some reason, he looks slower to me this year. I thought he was Gray on a couple of plays. He had one bad play in pass pro but was ok otherwise.

Play calling - Way too predictable but that's the pre-season for you. Expect them to open it up a little more in week 3 for the dress-up and then shut it down for week 4 before the regular season.

Defense:

Houston - He looks sluggish out there and really ineffective. This is the guy that everyone wants to extend for $60+ mil a year? Could just be him being out of shape from his holdout but we'll see if he can turn it on for the season.

Hali - Same as always. Steady and high motor player who shows no quit. Looks much better than Houston.

DBs - Can we please switch to Seattle's cover scheme? We lack the dominant, or at least technically sound corners, that can run the man coverage scheme effectively. Cooper is our best CB and he's still a bit too raw to be trusted on an island. Smith just doesn't really have the foot speed to be effective in man coverage, especially with the new rules today.

Joe Mays - He's an upgrade over Jordan so far, at least as a blitzer and in the run game.

DL - Poe looks solid and was held on an awful lot of plays. We still gave up the short TD runs far too easily though.

What did you guys notice out of the first unit out there?

My impressions:

Our offensive line is extremely suspect unless I'm underestimating Carolina's defensive line

As much as I want to see Bray get a chance I like Alex Smith. Guy has game game 7 Stanley Cup playoff look in his eyes.

The secondary is not good. Bottom of the league with the exception of Berry.

DAT has Dante Hall potential. His speed and shiftyness is amazing.

Why didn't we draft a WR last draft?

Noticed the same about Fulton. The guy is slow as shit in the screen game. It's too bad Rishaw Johnson isn't out there and I'm pretty upset he pissed his season away.

Agree that Smith had a solid game even though he was knocked around. I'm not going to knock him for throwing lots of designed screens, which is what you'll see a lot of in the preseason.

I think right now the biggest problem with the defense is coaching. I would hope that Sutton will be held accountable if this doesn't shape up. Our secondary sucks and we know that, but it doesn't explain enough why our talented players are not playing well.

This team is what I thought they would be. Lots of young guys who will make mistakes. A few pieces away. And a DC who should be coaching to save his job... at least, I hope.

Fulton is atrocious in space.

How did Rishaw Johnson piss his season away? What did I miss?

Our OL would be fine if Jeff Allen didn't suck so much AIDSshit.

He's our worst starter by far.

He had 1 terrible play, but against that front 7, all things considered, our OL was fine.

You may be. They have a pretty good front 7.


I thought the first half was mix and match, but a little more good than bad. Still sloppy but better than last week. I'm actually more optimistic than I was heading into the game, because I expected the line to get steam-rolled.

Carolina has the best front 7 in the NFL.

4-game drug suspension. He was probably going to be the guy starting, not Fulton.

Oh, I posted about it in the chat earlier but I feel like Knile pokes around too often in traffic. I'd like to see him choose a lane and hit it hard and fast.

Of course, sometimes he's showing good patience, but more often than not I'd rather see him just lower his head and build up some steam.

That was Rokevious Watkins, not Rishaw Johnson.

Watkins has since been cut from the team.

Debatable.

Rams
49ers
Seahawks
Cardinals
Broncos
Texans

They are all up there with the Panthers. Panthers have several players who are dominant as hell though. Johnson, Hardy, and Lotulelei are all monsters and Kuechley is as good as they come at LB.

Agreed, he dances around a bit too much for a back who weighs 220+.

Shit, you're right. So then I have no idea why Fulton is out there. Either way, it should be Fulton and Rishaw. Get Jeff Allen the **** out of there.