Game 1 thoughts

[mistaowen]

Hard to gauge much with how vanilla the game plans are and a lot of bubble players but saw some good...

WR's - pretty excited about this group. DK has insane separation ability and likely has much better numbers last night with Russell throwing him passes. Having him and Lockett as deep options should be fun. Jazz looks like a guy who deserves a spot on the 53. Ursua has an ADB competitive fire and did everything for U Hawaii, hope he can take over the slot.

CB's - weren't challenged very much, Denver really only went with short/quick passes. I hope Tre and Shaq play most of the preseason to get lots of reps. Apparently Shaq shed a lot of weight and is completely healthy, here's to hoping he takes a big step forward in replacing Sherm finally. Amadi is my pick to take the starting nickel position by midseason.

Blair - I absolutely love this draft pick. We've missed having Kam's presence across the middle and he looks like he might be able to replace it. Great range, speed, and closing speed at the LOS. He did mess up on a coverage where he blitzed incorrectly but that's coachable. I think him and McDougald can make a solid safety pairing.

Penny - biggest issue last year was hesitation up the middle and by the end, they only called outside runs for him. He looked much more decisive last night even without much room. Hope with the starting OL coming together soon he can get some space and see that burst we saw in college.

Barton - got washed away early on a big run but otherwise had a good game. I can see why they are excited about this kid and every time they showed him on the sidelines, Wagner was right next to him talking.

Geno - bleh. Offense looked uncomfortable with him. Indecisive with a couple should have been INT's. Just zero rhythm in the first half. I think the backup job is there for Lynch to take because he actually looked like he wanted the part.

Special teams coverage was outstanding. Given how Pete likes the play conservatively and shrink the field, this is a unit who needed to improve and looks to have.

Thank god football is back.

 

[xray]

Lynch outplayed Smith by a mile..Jazz outplayed DK...Blair is as advertised ... Pass rush was better than expected.

 

[Ad Hawk]

I agree with much of what you wrote, sir.

This year, more than past years it seems, there are many players whom I'll be sad to see not make this team, either players who have been with us for a couple years so I'm already fond of, or new, young players (especially at WR) who will make it on another team elsewhere because they don't clear the waiver wire.

 

[Jerhawk]

Great write up. I agree with all your points.

I was pleasantly surprised by how consistent the D line penatrated into the Broncos backfield. They were disruptive all night.

Jacob Martin looks like he still has the same explosion after he bulked up. He was a force all night.

Rasheem Green disappeared. He was the biggest disappointment last night imo outside of Geno.

It'll be interesting to see what their plan is with Shead. Is he competing with Amadi and King for Nickel? Will he be a third down extra safety?

Jason Meyers made me nervous with each kick, and he got very little depth on kickoffs. What's up with that? Even Dickson had a couple poor punts with low hang time.

Jazz Ferguson looks like a stud. I like him more than Kasen Williams a couple years ago

 

[McGruff]

I need to watch again, because I saw Green make several splash plays.

 

[Jerhawk]

I need to watch again, because I saw Green make several splash plays.

I'll rewatch too. I'm probably wrong

 

[MissoulaHawkFan]

...
WR's - pretty excited about this group. DK has insane separation ability and likely has much better numbers last night with Russell throwing him passes. Having him and Lockett as deep options should be fun. Jazz looks like a guy who deserves a spot on the 53. Ursua has an ADB competitive fire and did everything for U Hawaii, hope he can take over the slot...

Absolutely agree with you on this. When I saw him make the 23 (ish?) yard catch on 3rd and long where he "sat" a touch in the soft spot in the zone, caught the ball, and did a slight hop backwards, I thought "man, he moves like ADB." I know there is only one Angry Doug, but seeing Ursua wear Doug's old number and move a bit like him - it was a bit eerie - in a good way. I hope he continues to play well and gets some time with RW throwing him the ball in the upcoming games.

 

[McGruff]

I need to watch again, because I saw Green make several splash plays.

I'll rewatch too. I'm probably wrong

You are not the first person to say it, though.

 

[McGruff]

Martin is very slow off the snap, but explosive once he starts.

He would've benefitted from some coaching by Bennett.

 

[uncle fester]

QB-wise, my uneducated eye saw the first half as a test of O Line parts, so Smith had less time to impress, whereas Lynch was going against (even with his limited starter experience) weaker opposition. I’d hope they swap the two round at some stage for that reason, to see how each reacts.

 

[Mad Dog]

Jason Meyers made me nervous with each kick, and he got very little depth on kickoffs. What's up with that? Even Dickson had a couple poor punts with low hang time.

Post game Pete said they were intentionally kicking short to force returns and see how the coverage units fared. Can't learn much from touchbacks and fair catches, I guess.

 

[Jerhawk]

Jason Meyers made me nervous with each kick, and he got very little depth on kickoffs. What's up with that? Even Dickson had a couple poor punts with low hang time.

Post game Pete said they were intentionally kicking short to force returns and see how the coverage units fared. Can't learn much from touchbacks and fair catches, I guess.

Ah that makes sense! Thank you.

Our guys looked really fast on special teams, so that
Is good

 

[Hawknballs]

What I liked about this game was that the players we had in the game late were clearly better than the guys on the other team. Our depth was simply better.

That's how we looked during our best seasons, but the last couple preseasons I haven't felt that. Hopefully it continues.

I'm super excited about our receivers.

 

[JGfromtheNW]

Jason Meyers made me nervous with each kick, and he got very little depth on kickoffs. What's up with that? Even Dickson had a couple poor punts with low hang time.

Post game Pete said they were intentionally kicking short to force returns and see how the coverage units fared. Can't learn much from touchbacks and fair catches, I guess.

Ah that makes sense! Thank you.

Our guys looked really fast on special teams, so that
Is good

Yup, Meyers was taking like 3 steps on the kickoffs rather than the traditional run-up.

Good write-up, OP.

Really liked what we saw out of the defense minus the couple big runs. They were nails in the redzone. The d-line was getting tons of penetration from different players. I'm excited to see how Tre and 'Quill play this year. I really want to see what a safety pairing of McDougald and Blair will look like too.

I can't believe we had a RB screen that was well executed and went for some yards.

I'm hoping Lynch gets a shot with the 1s/2s. I know Lynch was playing against lesser competition, but Geno was absolutely underwhelming, and Lynch looked like he was having fun and WANTED it.

 

[sutz]

Yup, Meyers was taking like 3 steps on the kickoffs rather than the traditional run-up.

Looked like their guy was doing that, too. I was wondering if there was some weird new rule on KOs or something.

:34853_tinfoil:

 

[chris98251]

I think they are still working out how to approach new rules in coverage and blocking as well as how to limit return to limit and set up returns.

They added a few new tweeks this year as well as teams never really figured out the ones implemented last year.

 

[DomeHawk]

Lynch outplayed Smith by a mile..Jazz outplayed DK...Blair is as advertised ... Pass rush was better than expected.

^^^^In a nutshell.

DK looked exactly like his profile read, not a good route runner, doesn't track the ball well, and drops passes. Jazz knows how to block out, that's what your big body is for.

Was happy for Lynch, his upside is WAY larger than Smith's.

Blair has stones.

Pass rush looked good but against who?

First half was flat, second half was probably the best first-preseason game half I have seen.

 

[hawxfreak]

I was pleasantly surprised that Von Miller didn't destroy us with a pass rush like the game last year
Some of the things that didn't happen were a nice surprise too

 

[John63]

I felt like Geno showed why he is not a backup even.

Lynch looked much better

Oline well with mostly backups they were okay

Penny played well

DK showed some great stuff and with a better QB would have looked great. He was easily open on several routes but the passes were thrown to far or so close to the sidelines no catch could have been made. I re watched a lot and listened to Huard and others yesterday and today, and they saw what I saw.

Jazz played great and had the better of the QBs throwing to him which helps.

Ursua has a real shot to take the ADB role as he just has a feel for things.


I am excited by the Wrs I am thinking could be a great WR crops, size and speed

Lockett
DK
Ferguson
Ursua
Brown
????


I think our LBs will be the strength on Defense and I dont mean just the starting 3 we could go 6 deep with legit players

Feeling better about the safeties for sure

CB not enough to really know.

ST was amazing

 

[andyh64000]

Martin is very slow off the snap, but explosive once he starts.

He would've benefitted from some coaching by Bennett.

To an extent...Bennett was often a little too quick off the snap .