Week 1 QuicK Takes: What Stood Out
Carlton Davis playing man coverage on Michael Thomas
I mentioned the possibility of Carlton Davis following Michael Thomas in a Game 1 preview. Over the years, New Orleans utilized mismatches to get Thomas the ball so often. He played in the slot and to the left side of the field go against smaller or slower LBs or CB2s.
Carlton Davis usually played the right side of the field. Similar to how Richard Sherman was utilized.
Davis shadowed Thomas for much of the game and helped limit him to 3 catches and 17 yards.
Good move by Todd Bowles.
Great play by Davis.
The Defense, as a whole
Penalties aside, defense did their job for the vast majority of the game.
They held Brees to 18/30 and 160 yards passing.
New Orleans was held to 82 yards rushing. Their newly contracted superstar RB had 16 yards.
You can/should win with performances like that from your defense going against New Orleans.
Finally, a glimpse of what may of us have been talking about for years has been shown to a big audience.
Not that I give a damn about audience size, but the likes of Lavonte David and others will benefit from their good work against a solid opponent being recognized. At least, for this week.
The mental lapses
The BUCS had 9 penalties for 103 yards.
9 penalties ties(3) for the most by any team in Weeks
5 Defensive( 2 Defensive Pass Interferences, 2 Neutral Zone Infractions, 1 Face Mask)
4 Offensive(2 False Starts, 1 Holding, 1 Intentional Grounding)
All of the mental errors that led to penalties can be cleaned up.
Coach Todd Bowles got on Jordan Whitehead for his bad technique that caused him to commit one of the pass interference calls.
It’s all a work in progress. But the work has to be harder so the progress can come faster.
The threat of the big play and the deep ball
Despite the 2 turnovers and some bad throws, Brady did have some passes that at least quelled some of the rhetoric about his not being able to deliver the ball deep. He was able to get the ball to both Godwin and Evans deep.
Had it not been for pass interference, Evans would’ve likely brought in his pass to take it to the house for a TD.
The deep ball threat isn’t going anywhere.
Tight End Play Utilization
For too much of the game, Leftwich and/or Arians put one or two TEs on the offensive line to primarily block. This took Gronkowski out of the game as an offensive weapon almost completely. We saw the same thing happen with O.J. Howard last season.
While New Orleans did have the threat of Cameron Jordan, the BUCS shouldn’t have taken the offensive threat of both tight ends out of the game to block any of New Orleans’ pass rushers. Much of the allure of Brady hinged on the notion that he’d be able to get the ball out fast. Voluntarily taking out one or two of his targets to become blockers seemed counter-intuitive.
Oh, and f*%k Cam Jordan!
For all the talk that Jordan does, he’s never really been a game wrecker against the BUCS. He’s gotten sacks on both left and right side of the offensive line. 14 Total over 19 games But he’s spent most of his time on the right side where a declining Demar Dotson resided. Jordan was held to 4 tackles and 0 sacks on the day. Yet, allocating so many resources to address Jordan just didn’t work.
Also, this….
Down on Donovan (again)
Donovan Smith caught hell for his performance. And half of it is very much deserved.
It was one of his worst overall performances.
Yet and still, the other half is mostly overreaction.
As a left tackle, Smith’s gonna have up and down performances. It’s the nature of the business until a player becomes the proverbial “elite”. Smith’s 2nd half performance of the game wasn’t as bad as the 1st half….but still not good enough to make any of his biggest critics forget the 1st.
What exacerbates Smith’s bad 1st half was the fact that it was Tom Brady he was trying to block for and allowing to get hit. Personally, I can’t get with that type of analyzing. His performance shouldn’t be judged by who’s behind center. Same as the last QB that was deemed untouchable in Tampa. Anything that possibly contributed to him looking less than stellar was considered to be a hinderance and subject to immediate removal.
No bueno.
Smith can’t afford to have a bad 1st half of games. Or a bad 2nd half.
Point blank. PERIOD.
But neither is anyone else. Including the QB.
Everybody gets judged the same around here.
The Turnovers
Two INTs from our QB. One of them a Pick-6.
Not a typical day for Brady.
Regardless of the reasons given, he’s responsible for his decisions on both throws.
One of them was a questionable, really high ball towards Mike Evans, who was bracketed by a LB and a safety.
The other was thrown to the inside of an out route. It seems like the pass should’ve gone to the outside towards the sideline and away from the defender.
And then there was the kickoff fumble…..WHAT THE HELL?!