9-9-100

One preseason game down, 3 to go. We may have learned a bit about the Lions Friday, but it's still early and based on one preseason game, it's hard to say what we saw will be what we see the entire season. But we did see some things that looked improved from last year, and some things that looked very similar. Here is my impression of what I saw Friday.


QB - Joey looked good. Not great, but good. The 9 for 9 passing was great to see. There was once or twice I thought he left his first read a bit early, but it's hard to argue with the numbers. I'll take that kind of production any day of the week.
Garcia - well I hope that he just has to work some bugs out. He looked like a panicked rookie out there with happy feet. He threw off his back foot several times, he hurried a few throws, and he left the pocket very quickly - too quickly for my taste. I'm going to sound like a broken record by the time I'm done writing this, but it was only the first preseason game - let's see some more before we make a final judgement.
Orlovsky looked like... well, the rookie that he is. He's big, pretty mobile, has a strong arm, and his head was definitely swimming. He's a rook in his first preseason game so what did we expect?

From this point forward, I'll simply abbreviate It's The First PreSeason Game as ITFPSG. Saves a lot of typing the same thing over and over...

RB - KJ looked good. Maybe not quite last 8 games of last season good, but hey, ITFPSG. And 3 carries is never enough to really judge a back on anyway.
The Toose looked OK to me. He does some good things, but you can easily see why the Lions took KJ instead of leaving their ground attack to him. He'll be an OK backup. I don't think he's starter quality no matter how good he thinks he is.
I don't know if Bryson had more than 4 snaps in the game. I only remember one carry.
Howard Jackson is small. Maybe he can return kicks, if not, it's time for him to say "Hello, Arena League".
Sledge broke his leg and will be out 6-8 weeks. Plan on 8. Not good, but maybe it opens up the 3 WR sets. We'll have to see...

WR - Roy was in mid-season form. Great tip-toe sideline catch. 'nuff said.
Chuck looked good. He took a good hit with no effect. Caught a nice sideline grab. We'll be solid with him and Roy.
KJ2 caught everything near him.
BMW looked like a rookie - a few great plays, a few rookie mistakes. Give him some time, he'll be fine. He definitely looks like a TE after he catches the ball though - great strength.
Vines had the dropsies yesterday. With the way everyone else was catching the ball, that made it stand out even more. But again, ITFPSG, so give him another chance.
Kircus may have had 2 balls thrown in his vicinity, but neither was well thrown.
Hamilton looked OK, but he dropped one as well.
Savoy looked pretty good. The competition between those 4 for the final roster spot will be very interesting, and will almost surely come down to the final preseason game.

TE - Pollard caught 1 pass that I can recall. Didn't see too much of him out there.
Fitzsimmons looked good - just like every other time we've seen him. A few good catches.
Randall should make the squad. He looked good

OL - Here is where the disappointments start coming in.
Backus and DeMulling should take 100% of the blame for our first drive stalling. 1st and 10 - DeMulling whiffed and KJ gets dropped for -5. 2nd and 15, Backus does his best 'ole!' move and Harrington get sacked quickly. 3rd and 26, Backus does another 'ole!', his guy pulls Joey's shoulder around, then DeMulling's guy finishes Joey off. BAD job by those two.
Butler - looked decent playing against tough competition. I think the Kid may just work, but ITFPSG.
Raiola and Woody - Nothing wrong there. Plus we didn't see Woody's butt crack at all which makes this a very good game.

Sorry, but I'm getting bored with the detailed descriptions. Here is the quick version for the D - It stunk on one drive - the 98 yard drive by the Jets 1st team O - but did OK the rest of the game. That one drive though is enough to make anyone nervous as the D looked very similar to last year where they just couldn't get off the field on 3rd down. I hope for a much better performance in the next game. Of course the next game is against Cleveland, so that may not be saying much. As for the positionsl breakdowns...

DL - Did those guys play? I didn't see anyone on the DLine make any type of play the entire game. Very unimpressed. Even Baby didn't show up for this one. The two Rooks - Cody and Swancutt - looked like they had some effort, but neither got to the QB.

LB - Wow, these guys looked rusty. Boss was fast, but too fast for his own good. Shake off that rust Boss and don't overrun plays. Teddy looked OK, but mostly because he was flying around, not necessarily at anyone in particular. No one else stood out.

DB - Well... Bryant didn't impress me. McQ did. Wilson looked a lot better than I thought he would. That undrafted free arent kid from Penn State whose dad was Millen's roomie (the fact that I remember that story from the broadcast is really frightening) looked good. T Holt led the team in tackles. I don't think the Jets even tried to throw at Dre.

In general, this was a boring game after the first two series. We didn't stop the Jets on a 98 yard drive, and two of our drives stalled inside the 20. Now it's wait til the next game...