Rating Spoon's Debut

[FrodosFinger]

Had a great wrap up hit on Gibbs today saved possibly a touchdown and limited it to a short gain. We wore Detroit’s D out. Certainly a game of attrition today went in our favor. We basically deep dick’t the Lions 2 years in a row in their house. Detroit didn’t deserve the playoffs last year like many thought.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Made some plays, made some mistakes. His first ever NFL game. It's expected to be up and down. At least it should be. I'm stoked he's on our team and that we drafted him.

 

[Optimus25]

Heavy feet, really?

I’ll rewatch when I can but I think he thought the it was a run and was moving towards the ball, then realizes it’s a pass and attempts to get back.
It all looked really quick to me, and “heavy feet” isn’t something that comes to my mind.
I won’t defend getting fooled by the flea flicker but that’s what that play is designed for, and it works a lot of times.

I say the rookie will learn, and it won’t be a problem as he does.

Not heavy feet- i said heavy feet when the routes were directly at him. Look at the first route Reynolds beat him on, or the flea flicker. Both times he barely even was able to cut normal like he was on skates. I specifically mention this did not affect him in the crossers and lateral play, which is great, but his change of direction N/S might present a problem if we need him to be ‘lockdown’. It’s also very telling to me that even after woolen went down they didn’t even flinch in continuing to attack Spoons side. I’m hopeful this is more lack of reps than exploitable problem! This can be coached but it’s hard to coach that out of him without taking away his terrific run support tackling and ‘Big body’ mindset out there. Overall, after game 1, I’m going out on a limb and making an actual prediction with no fluff- He’s a solid B+corner. I don’t think he’ll ever be Sauce quality, but a solid corner is a very precious commodity these days so I’ll take it.

 

[m0ng0]

It was his first game, he had ups and downs... He looked much better by the 4th quarter, he is learning quickly

 

[Lagartixa]

But I was also happy to see a great performance from Tre Brown. I had pretty much "written him off"...But wow, was I wrong!

Yeah, you wrote him off, but he ain't write back, though.

 

[rjdriver]

He held out, had limited time with the team, then got hurt.

First game ever in the NFL, our star corner goes down, and he still contributes for a huge win. He's an aggressive ballhawk, there will be mistakes.

As a superfan of a team that has drafted guys like Malik, LJ, CJ, and Dee with pretty high picks, I thought his debut was pretty freaking great.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

80% good
20% bad

Which with the perspective of this really being Witherspoon's first real game with live bullets since college? He impacted the game, contested some really tough throws and was as advertised with his physical play, especially in the run game.

Solid B or B+ for me.

 

[nanomoz]

He made some plays. He still looks like a nickel to me (a potentially great one), which isn't a knock. It's just where his aggressive nature and instincts seem most likely to thrive. The more he's able to face the LOS/QB and attack shallow crossing routes and stuff, the better.

Side note: Coby Bryant should stay at safety, or be used as a big dime/robber to cover TEs and bigger WRs. He is clearly out of position against small, quick receivers inside of the numbers.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Some called him bust and/or wasted pick before he even hit the field

 

[onanygivensunday]

Had we not drafted Spoon, the Lions certainly would have.

Flip Spoon over to the Lions defense and the outcome of the game may well have been different.

Can't wait to watch Rig, Spoon and Adams on the field together.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Some called him bust and/or wasted pick before he even hit the field

I'm not sure we win yesterday without Witherspoon. Just those two contested 3rd and 4th down plays means 1st downs, and without Woolen in the game also would have meant another game of watching Jackson running 5 yards behind wide open receivers.

That's all you can ask out of a rookie draft pick, just play your ass off and impact the game in any way you can...........and he did. Period.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

He is crazy aggressive and has that fire. Looks like a hell of a tackler too. Can't wait to see how good he gets as the season progresses.
Great point on yesterday. Between him and Brown, very unlikely we lose w/out either of them.

 

[FrodosFinger]

Tre Brown might be our best cover guy but as far as tackling Spoon is without a doubt up there with Browner and Sherman in tackling

 

[Mad Dog]

To be fair, Diggs bit on the flea flicker too. That's what trick plays are designed to do. It's also why Bobo was running free on our flea flicker last week and Geno chickened out.

I saw a DB that was sticky in coverage, had a couple key PBU's on 4th down and supported the run game reasonably well.

You have to remember, no one sees when a DT messes up but since DB's are the last line of defense, their mistakes are magnified. That's why they need to have short memories.

 

[BASF]

To be fair, Diggs bit on the flea flicker too. That's what trick plays are designed to do. It's also why Bobo was running free on our flea flicker last week and Geno chickened out.

I saw a DB that was sticky in coverage, had a couple key PBU's on 4th down and supported the run game reasonably well.

You have to remember, no one sees when a DT messes up but since DB's are the last line of defense, their mistakes are magnified. That's why they need to have short memories.

Chickened out? Maybe he didn't see him?

 

[Mad Dog]

Chickened out? Maybe he didn't see him?

Have to assume the deep guy is the first read on a flea flicker. I've never seen one set up to hit the short route.

 

[knownone]

Witherspoon looked shaky early but found his feet as the game went on. He gave up 64 yards on five targets and was partially responsible for one or two TDs, depending on where you assign blame on the flea flicker. Not a bad first outing.

 

[Jville]

For a rookie who basically missed all of training camp and preseason games, other than a bite on a flea flicker, I thought he did well. His speed, instincts and athleticism definitely showed.

Played all 66 of 66 available defensive snaps first time out.

Outstanding!

 

[hedgehawk]

C. He made some good plays and made a few poor plays. I like his instincts. He got fooled, it happens. Seems to love football. Think he’ll only get better.

 

[Vesuve]

I thought it was very mixed rookie debut. He made a couple good tackles and a great pass breakup on a 4th down. At the same time he was beat bad a couple of times. I think it was a mixed bag. Totally to be expected from a guy in his first ever game, and he definetly showed spurts of talent. What do you all think? Does anyone with a more trained eye for secondary play care to chime in?

It's 1 game.

His first game.

Let's wait until he plays 8 more.