I was fortunate to be able to attend Saturday's game and sit about 20 rows off the field close to the Lions' bench. TV doesn't always cut it when it comes to seeing things in real-time and up close.
Before going thru my notes...It was great to see Loco, hoist a few with his brothers and friends and tailgate on a beautiful warm, perfectly breezy day! Just a great day all around.
Game notes:
Before going thru my notes...It was great to see Loco, hoist a few with his brothers and friends and tailgate on a beautiful warm, perfectly breezy day! Just a great day all around.
Game notes:
- Its been mentioned before in passing but its evident up close: we have a problem with our TEs inability to block. My buddy who watches a ton of tape each year from games around the country at one point said 'why have a 3 TE set if two of the TEs won't or don't know how to block?' At one point we counted three whiffs in a row on the edge, thus blowing up run plays. The expression looks like Tarzan, plays like...you know the rest... applies here.
- Gaia is also having run blocking issues. But on the positive side, he can pass block very well. The kid often lined up across from him was a monster and may have a future yet Gaia moved his feet well and protected.
- Big Toe kicks the ball to the same spot on kickoffs. SDSU saw it on tape and set up a beauty of a center return. Once the kid got the crease, he was untouched.
- Our route trees are odd at times. I saw Coach SUV on here mention flood series. That may be what they are trying to do but up close it often looks like a bunch of unrelated patterns that are often poorly run. On the positive side the reads on Blacknall's catches were perfect and resulted in big plays.
- Barkley is ok health wise. We were 50 feet from him the entire second half. And yes, he's playing the game faster than anyone else out there. Big thighs and even a hitch in his stride like KiJana. The screen play wowed the crowd.
- Lynch, on the other hand, wasn't pumping his knees and then appeared to be injured.
- Allen popped a shoulder out, they tried to pop it back in on the sideline. Fun. Actually gruesome and I'm concerned about him long-term.
- Reeder, Bell, Cabinda. Big-time and at times just plain vicious. I haven't seen this type of attitude in a while.
- Apke has a tendency to look in and drift in on his reads. Watch that later this year.
- A lot of flashes, a lot of talent and then a lot of poor plays, e.g., Thompkins not following the low tip twice on two punts that didn't turn over. In fact, that punter never turned it over which means you have to get under the ball, not run to it.
- The game wasn't in doubt based on the ebb and flow but the big guy sealed it. The front four appear to be confident ball hawks at this point.
- Hack was like everyone else - great plays followed by shake your head. He had plenty of zip on the ball so the confidence is there.
