There's always some amount of rust to be shaken off in a first game, but not all of what made this game so ugly can be explained away as that. All during the off season I kept hearing about all the returning starters and added depth the defense was getting, and how much improved it is. Well, I didn't see any improvement at all in this game. Pass defense was just as weak as it was last year and the pass rush seemed to have dropped off some too, but you can't lose the guys we lost and not feel some effects from it. Clearly the personnel we have are just not suited to playing as much man to man as we do, we seemed to do better against the pass when in zone defenses last year and with those starters back it's no surprise they'll probably be that way this year too.
We also seem to be just as bad with our kick coverage as we were last year, giving up way too many big returns and giving them shorter fields to have to deal with.
Pass blocking was almost non-existent for much of the game, run blocking was fairly weak the first half ,but thankfully they stepped that part of it up in the second half so the running game was able to get us back into it. I know, new offensive linemen having to learn and a new offensive line coach to learn from, so yeah, going to be some growing pains there.
Growing pains at QB too. Austin looked pretty decent for the most part, but he did make some bad decisions and he isn't as mobile as Brandon was, but he did show some ability to escape the pressure when he needed to in the second half. Probably would have had a better showing if he had had better pass protection in front of him.
The running backs, mostly Williams, stepped it up a few notches in the second half, thankfully. Would have liked to have seen Devwah get more than two plays, going to be hard for him to develop enough without a meaningful amount of real game experience.
But, as they say, a win is a win. I hope they're right about the most improvement coming between the first two games,
We also seem to be just as bad with our kick coverage as we were last year, giving up way too many big returns and giving them shorter fields to have to deal with.
Pass blocking was almost non-existent for much of the game, run blocking was fairly weak the first half ,but thankfully they stepped that part of it up in the second half so the running game was able to get us back into it. I know, new offensive linemen having to learn and a new offensive line coach to learn from, so yeah, going to be some growing pains there.
Growing pains at QB too. Austin looked pretty decent for the most part, but he did make some bad decisions and he isn't as mobile as Brandon was, but he did show some ability to escape the pressure when he needed to in the second half. Probably would have had a better showing if he had had better pass protection in front of him.
The running backs, mostly Williams, stepped it up a few notches in the second half, thankfully. Would have liked to have seen Devwah get more than two plays, going to be hard for him to develop enough without a meaningful amount of real game experience.
But, as they say, a win is a win. I hope they're right about the most improvement coming between the first two games,