Dorkington

Ok. I am wrong. My opinions are wrong. And I will stop posting. My apologies. You saw the game wrong, too.

I'm mostly excited about the changes made. At the very least the team will be entertaining to watch. I still don't expect us to finish with a winning record, though. Not this year at least.

What qualifies as a "pure starter"? I said "starters", to me that means anyone who would be playing in a regular season game on a regular basis. Luck being replaced? That's not a "starter" situation. CJ, Williams, Williams rotating out? That's a normal regular season situation, and to me, still qualifies as "starter time". But ok. I'm the troll. I'll remove my offending opinions on the matter. My deepest apologies to you and all those that I've hurt.

EJ, after he calmed down. Woods, for awareness during the two minute drill. Tuel, for all around QB play. Mario, for defensive leadership, getting guys into position. Alonso, for being all over the place. Easley, for getting open on just about every play. Goodwin, for speed and the ability to recognize the seam.

Please show me where I'm trolling? Is it because I used the word "lost" rather liberally? I thought putting it into quotes would have been a good indication that I wasn't making any strong statements about it.

Yup. I'm pretty ok with it. I'd rather see our guys be aggressive and take some chances, vs the vanilla "play it safe" defense of last year that got us killed.

Other than Luck, the players that rotated in for the above would all rotate in during a game regularly. So yes, the starters were in. Stop trolling.

I guess you missed "notable exceptions". Luck, CJ, the Williams duo were out after two series. All the rest of the starters were in, from what I saw. I don't know why people are so offended by the fact that our starters didn't play as well (not poorly, 'as well') against theirs... the Colts are a playoff team. It was a good test, and we played well overall, even with the "loss" of the first quarter (quotes are important here). --- Original post edited, so people can back away from the ledge.

I'd say it was closer to 3-10. Most of the starters were in at the end of the first quarter, with some notable exceptions. But like I said, it's not a huge deal. It's pre-season. Our starters didn't play as well against theirs, as our backups played against theirs. Our bench players had a much more impressive game overall.

Like the aggressiveness, but the Colts still moved the ball pretty easily against our first string guys.

My opinions: (offensive statement removed) Helped: Bench players. We "won" the rest of the game by a land slide. We have some decent depth at certain positions, it seems. Helped: Tuel. Not much to say, he kicked ass. Hurt: Kolb. Both EJ and Tuel playing well makes for an unexpected story coming soon. Hurt: Every RB not named CJ Spiller. But BUT... it might have been the play calling/blocking. They didn't really run any plays that gave our RBs any space. Helped: CJ Spiller and EJ Manuel. Both ripped off some large runs. If we run spread sets, both of these two will be dangerous on the ground and in space. Hurt: Brad Smith. I was a fan of keeping him, because he's all around useful. But I think we've plugged any holes he could fill with better players. Helped: Goodwin, Hogan, Easley. All three made plays yesterday. All three could find themselves on the team when the regular season starts. Goodwin is our new KR guy, by a mile. Hogan seems to have ultra reliable hands, a good possession guy. And everyone knows about Easley. Helped: Front Seven. It's amazing what a new DC will do for a team. It's pretty cool getting pressure from different looks. Hurt: Opposing team's QBs. All in all, I was pretty happy. EJ looked a bit nervous out there until a few series into the game. Also, like I said, we need a different tactic when running the ball. We don't have the line to just stuff it up the middle. I think Hackett should take a look at the way Chan ran our running game last year for some inspiration. Spread the field, give your RBs room to operate. CB is a mess. Gilmore is the only decent CB on this team as of right now. Hopefully Brooks or someone else, can step it up. But yesterday, Brooks was out of position quite a few times... though he did make a nice hit to cause a fumble.

Duh? Never stop until you hear the whistle. That's one of the most basic things to learn. I like Rogers on paper, but if he's not making plays, and he's not putting in effort, we can't keep him just because of what might be. We need our best 6 WRs, and currently, he's not one of them.

Glad I saw it with the Bills coverage team.

My expectations stay the same, but they were certainly entertaining to watch.

Yeah, my only "disappointment" today has been the run game. CJ got a couple runs with open space, but the other plays that were called seemed to be of the power running variety, which we just don't have the line for.

The other one was a throw away when everyone was covered.

Rogers needed to not give up on that play, also. Not going to look good when reviewing tape.

He needs to get the ball out sooner next time, but that's a play that happens to any QB, not too worried about that.

I'm really liking our young WRs, it's a nice feeling. And Tuel looks to be pretty solid too, much like EJ, I like how vocal he is about directing players to where they need to be. Both guys seem to "get it", which is awesome. I know it's only one preseason game, but I'm liking our draft this year.

I am really enjoying the defensive looks!

Well, we know who Tuel has chemistry with, hah.

Also, on the topic of EJ, I liked his leadership. He was very vocal at the line, and seemed to always be engaged on the sideline.

Definitely liked the last drive. Lots of short plays, but it worked. I'd like to see them attempt some longer passes going forward, but maybe the WRs were covered on those plays. Can tell EJ goes through progressions, so I'm not too worried about that. I liked the aggressiveness of the front seven on the defensive side. I liked Williams at Safety. Brooks needs some work on where he puts himself in relation to the WR, but there's more time for that. Goodwin is a speed demon, he should be exciting.

Jesus. Goodwin is fast.

Put him in a position to at least make contact with the WR to break up the completion of the catch. But let's say the ball was thrown so the WR didn't have to extend for it... Brooks still wouldn't have been able to make a play with where he was. He was out of position, and I promise you that coaches will be talking to him about it. I don't see how you can defend that play.