First Units Impressions

[OldSchool]

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?

[TEX]

Originally Posted by SNR

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

He's our worst starter by far.

Yep. 2nd year in a row.

[Fritz88]

I need to see more of Ford.

Fisher needs work.

[Hoover]

LT - Fisher
LG - Allen
C - Kush
RG - Hudson
RT - Stepenson

I don't think we should rush Fulton. I'd slide Hudson over and see how it goes.

I really like what I see out of Kush.

[jonzie04]

Id be all for running a zone defense. we simply do not have the personnel required to run press man effectively. the new rules makes it even worse. I really think you need a guy like revis, or Patrick Peterson to line up with the #1 in order to run a good man d. And then you need some solid guys after that guy.

[O.city]

We have WR's getting open down field. Gonna have to keep being aggressive towards that.

[jonzie04]

I was also pretty disappointed with the pass rush. There were some plays where cam had the ball for a very long time, and the pass rush didn't get there. What makes it even worse. Is that Carolinas o line is pretty suspect.

[OldSchool]

I want to see Kelce with the first team next week. I don't care how much you're paying Fasano, he's not dynamic like Kelce is with his speed. To make matters worse, I don't like how he has been juggling passes lately.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Our O-line played horribly. Get that fixed and we might be able to do something on offense.

[Chief Roundup]

60 mil a year not.

[OldSchool]

Originally Posted by jonzie04

I was also pretty disappointed with the pass rush. There were some plays where cam had the ball for a very long time, and the pass rush didn't get there. What makes it even worse. Is that Carolinas o line is pretty suspect.

Yeah, Houston might as well have not been on the field. Seemed like the only time that we got any pressure at all was when we blitzed a DB. That's not a good sign, IMO.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by Hoover

LT - Fisher
LG - Allen
C - Kush
RG - Hudson
RT - Stepenson

I don't think we should rush Fulton. I'd slide Hudson over and see how it goes.

I really like what I see out of Kush.

I said the same thing in Chat during the game.

[petegz28]

Sutton needs to get his shit together because his scheme sucks asshole. We should have the talent to be able to keep 2 safeties back most of the time

[Easy 6]

Fisher got beat like a dog in a trailerpark.

[New World Order]

Fisher was ****ing awful. OP, what game were you watching?

[OldSchool]

Originally Posted by New World Order

Fisher was ****ing awful. OP, what game were you watching?

I saw him make a lot of solid blocks and look bad on a few. I said he looked better than I expected because I expected Hardy to just destroy him on every other play, that didn't happen and Fisher held his own more often then not.

Btw, he still seems to lack some power in his left punch. The bad pass blocking attempt that he made really reminded me of Baker's failed attempt on Clowney that resulted in a sack. Fisher looked slow with his reaction to the outside rush on that play and I have no idea why it took him so long to react and get his hands up.