Brandon

As I stated in another thread, I thought it was an encouraging sign to see JP try to throw the ball to Reed instead of running it. It was the wrong decision on that particular play, but in the big picture, it shows that JP can keep his composure and his wits about him when flushed from the pocket and maintain his focus on his recievers down the field. A lot of young QBs don't have the presence of mind to do that. And as you say, it was thrown where either Reed was going to catch it, or no one would.

On that first deep pass to Evans, Ahmad Carroll was clearly interfering with Evans. He had him hooked around the waist with his left arm. Even the Packer-biased announcers were laughing about it.

I disagree. You can only give the ball to McGahee so many times. In a typical season, a team will run about 1100 offensive plays. I don't like to see a single RB get more than about 300 carries in a single season. Even if the coaches don't see it that way, he probably won't get more than 400 in any circumstance. That leaves another 700-800 plays where someone else has to take up the slack. The backups will get another couple hundred carries (and none of the backups are a proven, reliable running threat), but after that, its largely going to be up to the passing game. JP isn't going to have the luxury of tossing only 295 passes like Roethlisberger last year. He'll probably be called on to throw almost 500 times, so his performance is going to have a lot to do with this team's final record.

If you watch Teague on that play, immediately after snapping the ball, he turns to watch it roll on the ground. As I posted in the scrimmage thread, I took that as an admission of guilt. He knew the moment he snapped it that something wasn't right.

I think it depends upon what you were looking for. I wasn't expecting to see him have a perfect performance or to play like a veteran QB, and he didn't. I just wanted to see him look like he was comfortable on the field, make quick decisions throwing the ball, display good awareness of the rush and play within the design of the offense and within his own abilities. On those counts, I thought he did a good-to-very-good job and he looked better than I thought he would at this stage of the preseason. The more technical aspects, such as reading defenses, timing with recievers, knowing when to run or throw, and his accuracy and mechanics are things that he needs to work on (and he did OK, don't get me wrong), but they're only going to come with game experience. I was more interested in seeing if he appeared to have the intangibles that you look for in a QB, and I saw quite a few positive signs in that regard.

The good news is that its something that can be fixed, as long as he's willing to learn from his mistakes. I was most worried that we'd see that Todd Collins/Rob Johnson deer-in-the-headlights look. Thankfully, I didn't.

Its the first time Reed's name has been mentioned. Many on this board, including myself, have speculated that he could very well be part of any trade should it occur. As long as the Bills have the cap room to sign him and it doesn't seriously hamper their efforts to keep Nate Clements, for Reed (I don't think the guy even makes the roster) and a 3rd, the Bills should pull the trigger.

One guy I thought who had a great scrimmage was Chris Kelsay. Packers RT Mark Tauscher could not block him. I was very impressed with his play last night. I was mainly concentrating on Losman when the team was on offense and came away impressed with his play as well. Even on one of his worst plays of the night, which was the miss to Reed in the endzone, he still did something on the play I really liked. He got suprised by the rush of the edge, but stepped up and around Gandy, scrambled out of the pocket, and was still looking to throw instead of run. Now, he probably should've just ran it into the endzone, but that's not the point. He was forced to scramble, but still had the presence of mind to look for a WR downfield. Far too often, with a young QB, once they start scrambling, that's it, they're going to run come hell or high water even if there's three guys standing wide open in front of him downfield (and JP did do that on one earlier play). I saw a lot of little things like that in this scrimmage that make me pretty optimistic on his chances of becoming, at the least, a solid NFL starter.

For those who missed it, it'll be back on in about an hour.

He may make this roster in '05 as a utility player.

Average as compared to what? Did you expect Joe Montana? No one is saying JP was perfect. He absolutely was not, and I would expect better from a 10 year NFL starter. But JP is not a 10 year NFL starter. He did play much better than I expected for a 1st year starter with minimal game experience. Tonight was nothing but a positive, though there was plenty of room to improve.

97 or 93 (couldn't tell the number) needs to learn to play to the whistle. You DO NOT stand around in the other team's backfield with your hands in the air watching the QB run when you are fighting for a roster spot.

It'll be on NFL Network, though I think its on a tape delay. I have no idea what time it airs, but I'll be recording it.

He made a very good impression on this Bills fan. I'm under no illusions that he's going to be perfect this year. He won't be. He's going to make mistakes, and its going to be ugly from time to time. But I'm feeling really good about what I saw tonight. I think we may have stolen a really good one.

George Wilson for the TD. Always good to see the UofA guys finding the endzone.

Lionel Gates is killing these Packer reserve defenders.

Bad idea, I think. They've named JP the starter and you don't yank it out from under him at this point for no reason. Now, if he's hideous in the next four games and Holcomb plays well, its a different story, but as long as Losman's development appears to be on track, it should be his job. For the record, JP did a lot to make me believe that he can develop into, at the very least, a solid starting NFL QB. I was most impressed by his confidence and poise. If a QB has that, the rest can be taught.

Nice catch and run by Neufeld. In the regular season, I think the Bills replay that one and its a TD. Rashard Lee in for the TD.

Unfortunately, it WILL happen. Realistically, you've got to expect a first year starter to make some mistakes, and some of them will be pretty bad. But remember, even the best veteran Qbs sometimes make really dumb throws. The key is whether or not JP learns from his mistakes and corrects them. Its inevitable that they're going to happen.

Its going to happen occasionally. JP is going to make some bad passes this year and he's going to take some unnecessary sacks. Even the good young Qbs make bad plays, sometimes a lot of them. Manning tossed almost 30 INTs as a rookie. Its all part of the learning process.

It appeared to be Teague's fault. He turned around immediately after the snap to watch the ball rolling on the ground behind him. I kind of take that as an admission of guilt.

That one he missed downfield was amazing. I was mad, as the cameraman followed McGahee for a sure loss of 5, only to see Losman suddenly throw the ball out of the top corner of the screen. It fooled everyone. BTW, JP just made his first dumb throw that should have been picked and returned for TD.

That certainly wasn't the case. I was suprised at how confident he looked out there tonight. *Very* suprised, actually, and impressed. Its not a real game or anything, but tonight was nothing but a big plus for JP.

The offense looks good. Again, the run blocking needs improvement, but the passing game looked very good to excellent with Losman at the helm (I suspect we'll now see the backup QBs). Losman looked confident and made the right decisions throwing the ball, even if he misfired a couple of passes. He also got the ball out quickly and decisively. None of that patting the ball for 5 seconds before the inevitable sack. He played a lot better than I expected. The defense was its normal self, meaning it was very good on the first drive. Favre probably could've hit a long pass to Walker against McGee, but Terrence had pretty good coverage and Favre overthrew him. The one guy who really impressed me on the first D series was Kelsay. He didn't get to Favre, but their RT was having a lot of problems blocking him.

Yeah, I noticed it too. I was very impressed with his play on that first drive. Their RT could not block him.