How is your NFL team doing in preseason?

[Robert Sharp]

Yes, I know it's only preseason, but we all start making judgments by now.

For the Titans, the defense has been a pleasant surprise, especially the DL. That was a weakness last season, and so far it has looked like a strength. The secondary has also been improved, though preseason is pretty vanilla overall. Still, if you do a good job against Brady, that's a good thing.

On offense, there are concerns. Young looks rusty, though he only played one game so far, and it was in the rain against the Patriots. Hopefully, he'll improve quickly. He isn't running much, likely by design. At RB, there are still some questions, but I think all 3 options are viable, even the rookie Chris Henry. Henry has been great at blitz pickup overall...for a rookie. The OL isn't as dominant as I would like to see in the run game either, but they are doing well enough in pass protection.

Overall, I'm happy so far, but it's only preseason.

[Bill Dungsroman]

I was very pleased with Alex Smith's performance against Denver last Monday. He made at least 3 brilliant throws, putting the ball in the perfect spot on tightly-covered receivers on clutch downs. The halftime clowns showered him with praise and I'm OK with that ^__^

I'd say he has better targets this year (although I miss my boy Eric Johnson) and Gore's hand injury does not concern me. Gore's always hurt, it's his thing!

Most of the defensive stars did not play, which is good because the defense looked like shit. The tackling, or lack thereof, was my biggest concern. I felt like I was watching the pre-Jim Mora Jr. Niners defensive unit. But Nolan is a former DC, and the defense made a few great plays last season, and the unit has clearly been upgraded with Clements (dunno if he's worth that money, but still)and the rookie Willis (LBs are pretty safe draft picks, it seems), plus Manny Lawson (who played very well as a rookie last year) has some more seasoning.

I'm still far more hopeful this season than I have been in along time.

[Not One Of Us]

AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!

[delirium]

Well, I went to the Jets game vs the Vikings last night. Not good!! Pennington threw 2 interceptions for TDs in the first half and the first string defense couldn't shut down anything, including Minnesota's backup players. The place cleared out before the end of the 3rd quarter.

[Erik J.]

This year is my first full year of season tickets to the Ravens, and on that note, the game against Philly was impressive. I'll give more impressions after the Giants game tomorrow, but everything seemed to be clicking way too well for the pre-season. I predict a drastic decrease in smoothness tomorrow.

Erik J.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Well, I went to the Jets game vs the Vikings last night. Not good!! Pennington threw 2 interceptions for TDs in the first half and the first string defense couldn't shut down anything, including Minnesota's backup players. The place cleared out before the end of the 3rd quarter.
Yeah, that was pretty tough. The TV announcers were praising Mangini ("Man-genius! LULZ!" Jesus, Joe Buck) and Pennington all over at the beginning of the broadcast, then sort of cooled off on that after that embarrassing display (although Troy Aikman wasn't fazed).

Likewise, geez do they want us to believe in Tarvarus Jackson. "He's bla^H^H^Hphysically gifted!"

[Alan Dunkin]

Amusing still to see Drew Henson still not do well.

Oh yeah, is spiking the ball now considered to be excessive celebration? I didn't see the context of it, but the description was that the Jets receiver got called for it after making it to the Minnesota 1.

Cowboys not too bad so far; Romo has been decent, training camp has been nearly incident-less, and I feel good about the backup QBs (Brad Johnson was so-so, and Matt Moore as 3rd was great). Defense looked decent, aside from giving Marvin Harrison a mile and a half cushion in the first quarter. And the first team couldn't get into the end zone, which is troublesome so far (though Flozell Adams didn't suit up). Painfully optimistic, we'll see how they fare against Denver tonight.

--- Alan

[dwinn]

Q: How is your NFL team doing in preseason?

A: It doesn't matter, I live near Detroit.

[Talisker]

Q: How is your NFL team doing in preseason?

A: It doesn't matter, I live near Detroit.
QFT 45

[Robert Sharp]

Oh yeah, is spiking the ball now considered to be excessive celebration? I didn't see the context of it, but the description was that the Jets receiver got called for it after making it to the Minnesota 1.



--- Alan

Yes, they did. But the rule is very complicated, and I can't remember the details. You can spike it one way, but not another, and you can spin it toward yourself, but not toward someone else...or something like that.

[Supertanker]

Q: How is your NFL team doing in preseason?

A: It doesn't matter, I live near Detroit.

Or Los Angeles. The NFL's quest to have a couple generations without football fans is a success, so far.

[Robert Sharp]

Yeah, I hear the NFL is hurting for fans.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Yes, they did. But the rule is very complicated, and I can't remember the details. You can spike it one way, but not another, and you can spin it toward yourself, but not toward someone else...or something like that.
You can spike it out of bounds and spin it if it's close to the player and not too close to opposing players.

A couple of other interesting tweaks I heard about:

-Only one helmet allowed on the field with a mic in it. And that helmet shall have large green dot on the back of it so the officials know. This may seem like DURRRR because only the QB ever has a mic'd helmet on offense, but there's the rub. See, Atlanta ran some plays last season where Matt Schaub went in under center and Vick lined up as a receiver or RB and both had mic'd helmets.

-The FG/kickoff footballs are no longer brand new and shiny. Of course the league won't actually say this AFAIK, but the mountain of complaints from kickers plus the Tony Romo Ultramuff prompted the league to roll out kicking footballs with a dryer, more rugged exterior for suitable grip and friction.

[Pogue Mahone]

The FG/kickoff footballs are no longer brand new and shiny. Of course the league won't actually say this AFAIK, but the mountain of complaints from kickers plus the Tony Romo Ultramuff prompted the league to roll out kicking footballs with a dryer, more rugged exterior for suitable grip and friction.

There's more to it than that, I was half paying attention during last week's Seattle/San Diego game when they were explaining this - I believe they said that each team will be allowed time to inspect all game balls prior to the game and then after this, the balls will no longer be left in the sole custody of the home team's ball boys.

[bigdruid]

I hate to say it, but I haven't followed the NFL since my Rams moved from So. Cal to St. Louis. Which is a damn shame, since that's when they actually became good.

On the flip side, college season starts in a coupla weeks.

[Bill Dungsroman]

I hate to say it, but I haven't followed the NFL since my Rams moved from So. Cal to St. Louis. Which is a damn shame, since that's when they actually became good.

On the flip side, college season starts in a coupla weeks.
Why do people insist on doing this?

[dannimal]

-Only one helmet allowed on the field with a mic in it. And that helmet shall have large green dot on the back of it so the officials know. This may seem like DURRRR because only the QB ever has a mic'd helmet on offense, but there's the rub. See, Atlanta ran some plays last season where Matt Schaub went in under center and Vick lined up as a receiver or RB and both had mic'd helmets.

I guess they could just redact this one out now that it's no longer a concern.

[bigdruid]

Why do people insist on doing this?
What, giving up on the NFL, or prattling mindlessly about giving up on the NFL?

[Bill Dungsroman]

So I'm watching the Niners game (which is killing me EDIT: W00T!) and Ashley "I Didn't Get the News I'm a Bust" Lelie just spiked the effing ball after a first down on 3rd and something. So he gets flagged for it, and it's considered a Delay of Game which, weirdly enough, is the expected 5 yard penalty, but it is added to the end of the play and does not constitute a loss of down. It also does not make it 1st and 15, just 1st and ten 5 yards back. Which makes sense actually - the foul is committed after the play ends but before the next play begins, so the progression should be awarded without penalty on the subsequent down (because it did not happen after the ball was set for that down).


EDIT: also, if you dudes aren't reading KissingSuzyKolber (http://www.kissmesuzy.blogspot.com), you should, because it features awesome stuff like this:

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1203/bradyrq5.jpg

Even the Sexiest Man Ever can look like a doof. Check the site for some awesome Shops of that pic.

[Alan Dunkin]

Cowboys had another pretty decent game tonight, though despite getting 3 rushing TDs the rushing attack seems off to me for some reason. Maybe it was just the slow start (to the running game) that was bothering me. Didn't seem like Cutler had that great of a game, defense seemed to play pretty decently, Romo looked okay and even Brad Johnson had a sweet TD pass (to a Washington Huskies QB no less).

--- Alan

[CounterMeasure]

The Dallas/Denver game was the first game I caught so far. I had lost track of all the Dallas changes in personnel and so forth after last season, so there were a lot of new faces out there for me.

I don't know if it was just the way they have the camera coverage for this game, but to me it seemed like Dallas had about 5 "ready to go" players for every position. They had shots of the kickers, and there was 3 or 4 talking together, with Gramatica walking around in the background as well.

I got tired of the announcers hyping up Stanback. They'd say things like "look at how he runs!", even though the defensive coverage player was staying with him every step. The kid shows promise, yes, let him earn it on his own. And if his regular season is anything like his performance tonight, he will definitely get there on his own.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Jesus. Do not watch the GB/Hawks game if you're a Seattle fan. What a clinic.

[Uncle Larry]

Do you believe the Saints' offense looks even better this year? BTG is going to have seizures from all the Reggie highlights. Defensively we've improved on paper, though I've yet to really see it on the field. I think every member of our secondary (except Roman Harper) is just such a huge Reggie fan that they intentionally get burned just so he can return to the field that much faster.

They say the best offense is a good defense; if our offense can churn out the same 7+minute soulcrushing drives they did last year I'd say our offense IS our defense.

[Alan Dunkin]

I don't know if it was just the way they have the camera coverage for this game, but to me it seemed like Dallas had about 5 "ready to go" players for every position. They had shots of the kickers, and there was 3 or 4 talking together, with Gramatica walking around in the background as well.

Oh? Doesn't really seem like that to me, most of the players were present from last year, some of last year's rookies are getting a little bit more prominent playing time. I think the kicker position is way open though (with the new guy challenging Gramatica) and the QB pecking order seems already set. I'd say finally they have a good number of offensive linemen, and Thompson will act as a 3rd RB or kickoff/punt returner, sharing time with maybe someone else (hopefully not Terrence Newman, I think that was inviting disaster last year every time he touched the ball). There was one WR I didn't recognize aside from Stanback, can't remember his name.

I got tired of the announcers hyping up Stanback. They'd say things like "look at how he runs!", even though the defensive coverage player was staying with him every step. The kid shows promise, yes, let him earn it on his own. And if his regular season is anything like his performance tonight, he will definitely get there on his own.

Well the announcers were Dallas homers after all, but he does show promise. Hopefully they'll keep him.

--- Alan

[SolomonGrundy]

Well, the local channels HD coverage is infuriating- they even screwed the audio during game one for a sub carrier noise- that was fun.
Pats-Offense isn't clicking yet. Haven't seen the starting RB, Moss exc. Stallworth had one nice catch, same with Welker. Brady is Brady. O-Line looked a little weak in the second game- but they are trying a whole new scheme so I'll give them time. Backups look ok. Both backup QB's did fine.
Defense- the 1st unit Friday night looked awesome. Fast brutal and except for one 'you got to be shitting me' play by V. young made the Titans look like chumps. As usual though the D always clicks sooner than the O.

[Matt Bowyer]

As a Redskins fan, I'm mostly just glad my entire team isn't injured. LT Chris Samuels, QB Jason Campbell, and OLB Marcus Washington are all supposed to be fine within a couple of weeks. Still, yikes.