woahfraze

Not excusing Darnold's play--he's absolutely dreadful and shouldn't even be a backup in the league--but that was an unreal play by Collins. Typically a ball like that is just getting batted down, not intercepted.

There's no way these are connected. The staff couldn't possibly evaluate Henderson so poorly in the one week that he's been in the building to have buyer's remorse yet. This is about being in on every deal and pulling the trigger on a great (albeit older and currently injured) player when we learned he could be had for only a future 6th round pick. There's very little downside here. Either gilmore plays well and we consider paying him (would depend on his contract demands and how we feel about his age as well as the same for DJ Jackson, since we may not be able to retain both--although it'd be nice to do so) or he doesn't and we move on. If it's the latter, then we still have Horn and Henderson on their rookie deals and hopefully a resigned DJ Jackson.

As bad as the interior of our offensive line has been, you can't just assume that Christensen and Brown are better or more capable. They have potential and we all hope they can be. But for all we know, they are guys that shouldn't be in the league. The coaches--who yes, could be wrong in their evaluation--don't think they give us a better chance to win than the current group they are trotting out. And they both see how all the players in question perform in practice and know a hell of a lot more about football than all of us.

Part of the reason our run defense was so good in weeks 1 through 3 was due to excellent execution out of odd man fronts. Check out Brett Kollman's recent video on the subject. It can work. But Dallas has a much better offense than the three teams we've played thus far, so our true talent level isn't what we've shown thus far--the numbers weren't sustainable. But more importantly we didn't execute today across the board.

The clock doesn't stop when a player runs out of bounds until under 4 minutes at the end of each half. This is not a new rule....

I don't feel good about the game. Bad matchup for us. Their strength on defense, particularly the defensive line, is not a great recipe for our weak offensive line and a Darnold that we're still trying to build up from the "seeing ghosts" portion of his career. On offense, yes they downgraded at QB and lost a lot of WR talent, but they still have a great offensive line that may be able to neutralize our strength (defensive line), and Sean Payton knows how to call an offensive game to get his guys open. We have to hope Jameis reverts to bad decisions Jameis and that turnovers weigh heavily in how close the game is.

"We haven't seen that yet though here." I disagree. It may not have been a high percentage of throws, but he still took those shots and proved he could hit them. That in of itself is important. We shall see if Joe Brady gives him more leash as he continues to prove himself and/or improved defenses don't prevent that.

Aside from the deep bomb to Robby Anderson, Darnold also hit DJ Moore twice on intermediate to deepish throws along the sidelines with nice throws. He also had another nice intermediate one to Marshall Jr. that was dropped (or maybe had tight coverage that broke the play up, but Sam placed the ball in a place where only Marshall could catch it and the defender couldn't). He's much more willing and much more able to attack down field than Teddy. That will open up the offense for all of that CMC stuff underneath.

My post at halftime in the gameday thread last night (right as half was ending, prior to the really nice throw to Marshall down the middle and the back shoulder TD to Robby): Halftime thoughts on Darnold: Looked quite good throwing the ball to the outside on short, out-breaking routes. Mixed bag in the intermediate part of the field--had a really good multi-progression read throw on 3rd down to DJ Moore. But also missed Terrace Marshall Jr. and Robby badly over the middle. The latter should have been picked. We didn't attempt anything deep, although that's probably by design, as I'm not sure the O-line could've provided enough time for the WRs to get downfield. With the O-line, he may have less success moving forward in the short part of the field because teams will be able to tailor their game plan to that, sort of like they could against Teddy last year when they realized he just wasn't willing to throw down the field. All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic about Darnold. Certainly somethings he needs to work on, and all of this was against second stringers, but the O-line hasn't done him any favors. I'll reserve judgment until I've seen him in a couple real games. But I'm decidedly worried about the O-line, and think they may prevent proper analysis of whether Darnold is/can be good or not.

Lulz refs.

Really nice back shoulder throw there for the TD

Halftime thoughts on Darnold: Looked quite good throwing the ball to the outside on short, out-breaking routes. Mixed bag in the intermediate part of the field--had a really good multi-progression read throw on 3rd down to DJ Moore. But also missed Terrace Marshall Jr. and Robby badly over the middle. The latter should have been picked. We didn't attempt anything deep, although that's probably by design, as I'm not sure the O-line could've provided enough time for the WRs to get downfield. With the O-line, he may have less success moving forward in the short part of the field because teams will be able to tailor their game plan to that, sort of like they could against Teddy last year when they realized he just wasn't willing to throw down the field. All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic about Darnold. Certainly somethings he needs to work on, and all of this was against second stringers, but the O-line hasn't done him any favors. I'll reserve judgment until I've seen him in a couple real games. But I'm decidedly worried about the O-line, and think they may prevent proper analysis of whether Darnold is/can be good or not.

When his competition at safety is Juston Burris, he may be starting....

C'mon refs. That's a massive hold on Derrick Brown right there.

Where was this Donte Jackson in years 1 and 2. Nice tackling.

Nice playcall. Nice execution.

I don't think it's a bad play call if you're trying to see what your first team offensive line has in short yard situations during a game that doesn't have stakes. And the fact that they can't get any push against a 2nd string defense is very concerning. This is valuable information to have for the regular season. The coaches may be more inclined to pass the ball when they need to go for it on 3rd or 4th and short because of this, granted the 4th and short failure on the last drive shows that pass blocking may be an issue too...

12. Three sets of 4 chuggas with a slight pause between each set. This is objective fact; don't pretend like you don't know the exact cadence chugga-ing I'm talking about.

Don't know why I'm getting pooed when I agreed that shouldn't be interference...

Preds fan here (and Canes fan 2nd...used to live across the street from PNC). Letter of the law, that's interference because he's in the crease. But spirit of the law, Josi was in Saros' way too. Tough break.

Absolutely not. Like him as a player, but that's not good value at all. We already have a lot of money invested at the RB position and need more talent/depth at other positions much more than we need it a RB.

The value is certainly there. And JOK could slot into the MLB spot next to Shaq nicely. And he's got the positional flexibility that Rhule and company love; he can play a hybrid safety/nickel position similar to Chinn. So I could see it. But man, I really hate to ignore the offensive line. If they do, it better be for a safety-ish defender or a high upside WR to replace Samuel/hedge against losing Anderson or Moore to free agency next year.

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. I really like the way we are trending, but we still need more talent in the secondary, could stand to improve at one of the MLB spots, and could use more depth along the defensive line. We have a really solid foundation, and there's a lot of young potential, but we need a couple more pieces and for those young players to grow into their potential before we can consider them championship worthy. I think they definitely can be a top 15 unit this year, but it's not a given because all the young players might not continue to improve.

I really like Tyson Campbell. He had a good amount of success against similar competition as Horn. And our secondary could use more talent. But I'd prefer to allocate draft capital to other areas. We need a safety more than another CB. We need offensive line help. And so as much as I like Campbell, I can't imagine he's head and shoulders better on the draft board than the top players at other players still available.

Or it could mean the team isn't good at evaluating QBs. Rhule has built up a fair amount of trust capital with me over Year 1 with his personnel moves and coaching. But that does not extend to QB exactly because of Teddy.