About last night's game. I say reserve judgement on most of the issues we all saw because the majority of them can be worked out IMHO.
Like some of you said, we had several rookies taking No.1 snaps and they saw first hand just how athletically fast and hard hitting the NFL is at the starting level. Will our young 2ndary fold and let last night get in their head and quit competing like Cooper? Or will they take the Peters attitude ? The only thing I am sure of is Cooper is done IMHO. It's sad because he is athletically gifted but his psyche is shot to Mav's earlier point threads ago. Wait and see on our young 2ndary.
Milk makes a good point about Ehringer and Fulton and the differences. If there was anybody who got initiated the most last night about how athletically fast and hard hitting the NFL is at the starting level it was Ehringer. Will he get nastier with his psyche and weight training or will he fold ? His strength training will take awhile so hopefully by playoff time his strength has improved by at least 35-40% and his psyche is more "piss and vinegar". Again, wait and see.
Foles needs even more "wait and see" than anyone else IMHO. The guy has only been with us for a little of over 2 weeks with less reps than Alex to get a chemistry going with any of our WRs let alone what he has in our o-line and how to adjust to that ongoing work in progress. And there are more wrinkles to the offense since his Andy days. I assure you Foles will not be a typical backup QB in practice and will get more reps than your typical b/u QB IMHO.
IMHO 'holding on to the ball too long" and "missing high" at times are due more to getting used to his surroundings and what he is working with personnel wise(a la chemistry) than it is Foles hitting his ceiling. Again, wait and see.
One last thing I am definitely sure of is this, that Foles is faaaaaaar more comfortable standing in the pocket than Smith will ever be and why some of you said he held onto the ball too long. We are so used to Smith taking off immediately when his primary is covered that when we have a QB that actually likes to go through all of his progressions allowing other WRs to get open it seems foreign to us.
Smith iHMO had PTSD return to him last night after his first successful drive
because during that first successful drive he saw just how good LA's d-line was and how bad they made LDT and Ehringer look. And Smith for the rest of his time had that "Oh manure" mentality and it definitely showed in his play for his remaining series that he played.
With that being said, if our o-line does not progress to pristine performance for Alex he will have "happy feet" all year thus severely limiting our ball skill players from making plays relying on his legs racking up 65 to 85 yds rushing(how long before he gets hurt?). And this is not good with our defense being in severe "flux" right now because we will not be scoring near as much and will lose more games if our defense does not fully come together. Because Andy knows that Foles is more comfortable in the pocket and has a much deeper arm for Conley,Streater and Hill, he will have a decision to make. So my question at this point is will we have another similar Grbac vs Gannon situation on our hands by mid-season and how soon will there be a thread "at this point of the season, Smith or Foles"?.
Not trying to
here either. I am dead serious IF our o-line, and overall defense do not improve IMHO Foles will be the better QB in the long run.