I was a '7 or better' predictor prior to yesterday's game and feel as safe in that prediction now as I did then, maybe moreso.
On offense, Geno was the Geno we have seen, which is to say better than a lot (most?) of the people here gave him credit for but somewhat maddening in some of the big moments.
Cross got beat towards the end but Smith also wasn't stepping up into some of the space he had because he simply wasn't sensing that his young LT was getting beat. He wasn't making that mistake in the first half so the big thing Pete and Co. need to do for our QB is make sure the moment doesn't get too big for him.
That said, he can keep in a rhythm (13 straight completions after he did 14 last year in a game) and the obvious connection he has with guys like Metcalf is heartening. We still have playmakers on offense, so I think once we can get KWIII mixed in and hopefully get Penny to start ripping like the end of last year, our offense is going to be pretty darn good even if late game heroics won't be part of our repertoire like it had been with our previous QB.
On defense--our guys are young. We got some benefits of that (the way these guys hustled to loose balls was ridiculous) but they also got undisciplined and dropped their assignments or let guys get behind them that shouldn't have been. I think we improve in that regard as the season goes on.
Finally, special teams. For all the talk about what happened at QB, I never understood why the fact that the only K we had on our roster was still Meyer was the bigger untold story from last year and remains so. However, Jason knocked in a near 50 yarder from dead on-center (which I feel like has been an issue, but I could be wrong) in addition to making both XP kicks.
I know that, traditionally, once a kicker gets in their head they don't get out of it but I'm hoping for him to be the exception to that rule. Otherwise, our special teams was a highlight this game and hope they remain so going forward.