A look at the Carolina game

[AKC]

I've only got VHS EP speed here to watch this, but isn't there an open receiver just a bit downfield from where Peppers vacated, that could have both taken an easy thrown pass over (Peppers) head, and negated the pass rush to boot if KH had only looked to his right?

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The inside receiver on Pepper's side takes an outlet route sitting in the flat with a DB off his shoulder; the downfield route taken by the outside wideout is also covered.

 

The sweet spot should be on the opposite side where they've got a DE dropping to cover the short zone and we've got two receivers above him.

[AKC]

Perhaps my favorite thing about his game was that he was much stronger than I expected him to be; not only did he hold ground in protection really well but he fired off the LOS with good power and several times created good surge in the interior of the Bills line.

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In reviewing the first half that's the single thing that kept coming to me- how much stronger he is than Trey Teague. He gets up out of his stance pretty quickly and only had two really awkward footwork issues, one of them mentioned by you.

 

 

 

Time for some bad news:

I had no intention of taking notes re: Villarial or even mentioning him but he was sooooo bad that it cannot pass without saying. It wasn’t the kind of typical veteran ¾ speed strollthrough you might expect from an old saw in the pre-season; it was way way worse. He couldn’t move, he showed little power, he was in everybody’s way and he realy hurt the offense. The staff finally took him out at the end of the 1stqrtr (he was the only starting OL to not play the entire half), and things improved instantly when Preston came in. I like Villarrial cuz he’s a tough smart pro’s pro as well as a fellow Pennsyltuckian, but I’m worried that the mileage of 150 pro football games has finally caught up with him and his body just won’t do what he wants it to anymore. Unless he shows marked improvement, he’s going to lose his job to Preston or worse.

 

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I have to say that on my first viewing of the game in real time I also thought Villarial looked flat, and the early runs over his back that went nowhere pay credence to this. I 'm feeling a little different through after watching the tape and noting his perfectly adequate play in pass pro- it gives me more confidence that he'll be back as an asset to the offense as we move towards the regular season. We were playing against one of the elite DLines in the league- with KJenkins back maybe THE elite DLine. Villarial fought well with his arms and kept his assignment out of the backfield on passing downs. I'll look for his legs to catch up with the rest of his game and for him to once again be a solid run blocker for us in 2006.

[MadBuffaloDisease]

That's hypocritical.

"....let's not overreact to one preseason game."

LOL! Good catch.

 

And I mentioned this in another thread, but McCargo had 2 tackles in the Carolina game versus ZERO tackles COMBINED for Ngata and Bunckley in their pre-season games.

[Lori]

Good stuff as always, Simonizer.

 

I hope you're wrong re: Villarrial, but I'm afraid you're not. I think the heart is still there, but that thirtysomething body might not be willing to cooperate much longer...

[nodnarb]

great post as usual, simon. and i have to agree about peerless...he has never been a complete player and he never seems to come up with that smart, selfless play. He either catches the ball or he doesn't. I think he was picked up as a familiar guy to provide speed depth. I've been hoping to hear that davis would beat him out, but apparently the coaches like peerless better, considering the depth chart. They know more than i do, so I have to defer to their judgment there.

[Pete]

Great post! Keep popping the vics, do whatever it takes to keep these posts coming. Man I cannot wait for opening day!

[AKC]

Good stuff as always, Simonizer.

 

I hope you're wrong re: Villarrial, but I'm afraid you're not. I think the heart is still there, but that thirtysomething body might not be willing to cooperate much longer...

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I'm going to cross the fingers for the next 4 weeks and hope I see some improvement in his lower body movement. It'll be impossible to continue supporting him if he's still stationary at that point.

[Lothar]

Wow Simon

 

Great post! With the onset of excellent analysis from you, AKC and Lori, the season must be just around the corner. I thought I'd throw in a couple general observations from my view of the game.

 

Offense:

I agree with many of your observations but I wasn't quite as sold on the OL's collective performance as you. I watched a Tivo'd replay last night to do a few 1-mississippi 2-mississippi counts to see how much time our QBs actually had. Pretty much on all 6 of the sacks, a Panther got a hand on our QB inside of 3 seconds. I also did the same watching a lot of practice videos the last few weeks. Most of the releases on 5 and 7 step drops for our QBs occur between 3-4 seconds in training camp. Obviously, as blitzes come in the real games, you'd like your QB to make that read and find the hot receiver - something I've seen Losman do better in practice than in the 1st preseason game. I blame much of this on JP's footwork which he himself said caused mechanical breakdowns in his throws. When he had time and could set himself, he usually threw well - with the exception of the bomb to Aiken.

 

I didn't see the holes you did in the running game - I still worry about our interior OL's ability to create creases for McGahee. In fact, as bad as the backups were in pass pro, I thought they did an ok job against the Carolina 2nd stringers in the running game.

 

Defense:

I was pleasantly surprised at the unit's performance after the first drive - mostly because of Kyle Anderson and Crowell's performances. I still worry we'll get gashed by a power running team. Carolina really isn't that without Stephen Davis - Cincy without Carson Palmer will give us a better feel for how our DL may hold up against a physical front. I'm not going to be shocked if this remains our achilles heel over the course of this year until we get a couple more bodies on that line. Also- and this was tough against a Carolina team that throws short outs as much as the Pats do -we really didn't get anything resembling a pass rush. In fact, just as Brady uses this short throw to slow down the rush and set up the deep stuff, we really will need to play a lot tighter (which according to McGee in his Bills Diary WILL happen against Cincy). We need that practice because we're going to see a style similar to Carolina come week one.

 

Special teams:

Not sure who did the ole' impression on the punt block but I'm assuming it wasn't one of our regulars. I think April's just trying to find who, among the special team candidates, would do well in blocking. I didn't see much positive since would-be tacklers bore down pretty easily on whoever was returning but given it was a first game, I'm not surprised. As someone who didn't think Aiken would survive this preseason, I've come to the realization that he may very well be our best special teams player and his contribution as a wideout when some size is required pretty much locks him in as a 4 or 5 on the depth chart. I'm assuming that Parrish and McGee will boost this unit's performance when real bullets fly.

[Lori]

Defense:

I was pleasantly surprised at the unit's performance after the first drive - mostly because of Kyle Anderson and Crowell's performances. I still worry we'll get gashed by a power running team. Carolina really isn't that without Stephen Davis - Cincy without Carson Palmer will give us a better feel for how our DL may hold up against a physical front. I'm not going to be shocked if this remains our achilles heel over the course of this year until we get a couple more bodies on that line. Also- and this was tough against a Carolina team that throws short outs as much as the Pats do -we really didn't get anything resembling a pass rush. In fact, just as Brady uses this short throw to slow down the rush and set up the deep stuff, we really will need to play a lot tighter (which according to McGee in his Bills Diary WILL happen against Cincy). We need that practice because we're going to see a style similar to Carolina come week one.

Agreed. Solid RB and a VERY good O-line in those fugly orange-and-black jerseys. Should be interesting.

 

Special teams:

As someone who didn't think Aiken would survive this preseason, I've come to the realization that he may very well be our best special teams player and his contribution as a wideout when some size is required pretty much locks him in as a 4 or 5 on the depth chart. I'm assuming that Parrish and McGee will boost this unit's performance when real bullets fly.

Aiken could well end up as ST captain. With the time he's missed and the talented rookie safeties on the roster, Coy has to be in deep trouble at this point.