Preseason Game #1: Broncos

[racosun]

Tonight is the new-look and hopefully new-attitude Lions first game together, and once again expectations are high. Mike Martz will get to see how well the offense is soaking in the new system. So far, all the players sound excited, and don't mind all the hard work they've put in so far. This Lions camp isn't for sissies anymore. I'm eager to see how the rookie, Ernie Sims, will fare. He's wearing a special helmet to reduce the chance he'll give himself another concussion. If I were the opponent, I'd be wearing one of those in case I had to run through the middle, too. I think he could be special, especially in the new system.

I'll post some of the highlights here after the game.

[racosun]

What a difference a year can make! This looks nothing like last year's debacle. The offense was crisp and aggressive, even for a preseason game. Kevin Jones looks like he's Larry Johnson's twin, running people over whenever his burst of speed couldn't get him around them. The top two rookies looked good. Sims was everywhere, he's going to have a big season. Bullocks also looks darn good. They don't look like rookies, that's for sure. Both lines looked good, although the defense was bending alot. That was when mostly non-starters were in there, though. Nice stand to stop Denver from tying the game right at the end.

There's no real direction to this thread, I'm just ranting. Anybody is welcome to add to it. Jay Cutler looked like the real deal, and he could probably start and lead Denver to the playoffs this season if they weren't paying Jake the Snake so much money. I still agree that we didn't need to draft a QB, and passing on Cutler was a good move. I think we have three QB's who could start right now. Kitna had some nice touch on the ball, and looked like a real leader out there. You could tell the players had a ton of respect for him, unlike Jumpin' Joey. Dan Orlovsky looked fantastic, especially that TD to Arlen Harris. Very pretty play, and nice execution. If this was the light version of the Martz offense, this will be a special season. Roy Willams had a nice grab, as did Mike Williams. However, Mike followed it up with a drop, but to give him some credit he took a huge shot to dislodge the ball. If it were regular season, that would have been challenged and would have been ruled a fumble. He had the ball tucked and was already turned to run upfield when he was blindsided. Charles Rogers didn't play that much, he only had one catch for 7 yards, from what I remember. I haven't looked at the game stats yet.

There were a lot of good moments in this game. The blocking was awesome, the O-Line was tough, and Schlesinger was his usual bulldozer self. It's going to be a fun year.

[racosun]

Another good thing I saw in this game was the scrambling of the QB's. I think they all managed to take off for first downs when everybody was covered. That must be something the coaches are pounding into their heads. None of them are really known for their running skills, but then again none of them move like Dan Marino either. It was nice attitude, but one thing about the scrambling was that none of them really took any 'QB' slides. They were all diving head first and trying to run people over. They need to be more careful, especially in pre-season. But if they can continue to run for first downs on broken passing plays, it'll really open things up for the offense. Teams are going to have to start looking for that, and that means less double-teams for the wideouts. This could be a tremendous asset.