Nothing below is really a surprise...more of an affirmation.
Soooo happy to see the ILB's respond and attack in such a fluid manner. Dodson impressed in pre-season but we had not seen Baker, so it was hard to know if he would follow-up on his success in Miami. Both showed an amazing improvement over our ILB performance from last year. Look, I love BWags and everything he did for our franchise. I fully expect to see him in the HOF, surrounded by the LOB and might even get a bit misty. But it was clear that he lost 1-2 steps in coverage last year, adding to the high potential, low realization defense.
Lockett continues to blow me away! We know what DK brings when his head is in a good place and JSN's abilities are absolutely real. But it was Lockett who provided 3 amazing catches, all requiring top end skills, at critical points that cemented the win. Cannot say enough about his value to this team. Who was saying we should trade him b/c he gets no YAC?
We have a legit LOB V2 developing before our eyes...but deeper! Spoon, Riq, Reed, Love, Jenkins, Wallace. All playing as a unit and in tandem with our ILB's...this is gonna be fun to watch.
I could go on, taking a left turn on the original thread question...so I'll spare everyone and make just this point: I'm surprised the guards didn't improve and that Fant sucked while he was in. I'm not at all surprised about Forsythe...he wasn't good in pre-season and I knew if we were forced to play him, it was gonna be bad. I really thought the guards would have played better b/c they had a decent pre-season...so that is my biggest surprise.