Official Game Thread - Preseason Game 2 - vs Baltimore Ravens

Every game matters
Every practice matters
Every film session matters

How you conduct yourself when "it doesn't matter" sets the tone for real time. Ron is not setting a good tone by allowing vets who are not injured to completely skip games.
 
I might be overanalyzing preseason games, but the resiliency of the group from top to very bottom stood out to me last night.

Howell took an awful sack early in the game trying to do too much and then responded with two straight TD drives later.

Rookies like Quan Martin and Emmanuel Forbes had terrible tackling attempts early in the game, only to respond with an INT and great 3rd and 1 run stop respectively.

Even a guy like Jake Fromm had to battle back from guys dropping two or three really well-placed balls to still fight and get us into field goal range.

These are the kinds of traits you hope carry over into the regular season...
 
Howell looked really good last night. A few mistakes, but none of them crippling. I like how he can stand in the pocket and scan the field then be decisive.

The other thing was seeing Slye make his kicks and the punter did a really good job. If something were to happen to Way, there is the guy they should call.

Lastly, the only thing I want from preseason is no injuries. I’m hoping the McLaurin injury is not serious, but toe injuries can linger. That is by far the biggest negative from last night.
 
On a positive and contrarian note, WR room is loaded. If he has to miss time I don’t see it hurting us all that much.
 
Oh, I do. His absence will cause Dotson to face double teams and there is no other receiver on the team that will come close to making opposing defenses account for them like Terry does. His absence will also be felt by Howell.
 
Dotson, Samuel (who we barely mention but who is easily a legit NFL #2), Brown, we have plenty of speed and talent. Not saying it won’t be a loss but as far as being the difference between wins and losses, I doubt it. My point is, if you have to lose a top player, that’s the position group along with DL where it doesn’t kill you.
 
If it does in fact affect him and linger into the regular season, I put this one squarely on the coaches' shoulders for not getting the first team offense out of there after the first TD drive Howell led us in. At that point, I had thought they put enough positive stuff on film as a unit. I know that sending them out there for a two minute drill has some value, but I am sure that is practiced countless times. This wasn't even Baltimore's defensive starters out there by that point in the game they were going against. It's frustrating for me personally. I suppose the defense could have done something about not letting Baltimore score within 20 seconds as well, to avoid leaving 1:34 on the clock to work with. Not sure to what extent this is being talked about among media, if people are just accepting it as part of the rigors of playing football, or if I am making a big deal about nothing...😆
 
How is it the coaches fault? I like to blame Rivera for things just like anyone else, but no way anyone knew he would get this. It was a freak play.
 
I guess the counter argument is, this could easily have happened during the scrimmage or even practice. I think he left the starters in too long. The live reps are great but the risk is always there.

I don’t think the starters were out there to get them reps, it was more to give Howell his supporting cast so he could work on his chemistry with them. If no Howell, no way a lot of those guys are on there that late in a preseason game.
 
Mike,

We constantly hear Ron talk about using an abundance of caution with our players leading up to the regular season. Just look at all of the defensive players we kept out of the lineup last night...

To leave guys like McLaurin in there with 1:34 left in the half, after they had already put in a positive body of work as a unit last night, to me was really risky and went against a lot of what has come out of Ron's mouth recently - was an extra 2 minute drill in the preseason vs. scrubs for Howell and McLaurin really going to make the difference in terms of how we potentially execute if faced with a similar situation let's say in December? 🤷 I could very well be way off base, but it is just how I see it. Let's just hope this is extremely minor in nature.
 
You’re not wrong Paul. The McLaurin injury illustrates why ‘playing everyone’ for extended time in a preseason game is risky and most teams approach that very conservatively.
 
We had said they were playing the entire half. So they did. Just because he got injured doesn't mean he's suddenly wrong for doing it.

Yes, extra reps do help. A rookie QB trying to get real game time and trying to see if he can lead a 2 minute drive does matter.
 
I think the argument is, if he was wrong for making that the plan in the first place? Getting more time in if it results in injuries to starters doesn’t help you.

Again, if we don’t have an inexperienced QB in a new offense, we don’t do this. Note how many defensive starters sat. They don’t need the reps in the same way the offense did.
 
I agree. But, we do have a rookie QB. He needs chemistry and pressure. Terry in 99.9999% of these situations is fine.

We're all mad because he's hurt, but I don't see any issue with it overall. Also, wouldn't it be EBs fault?
 
Chris said:
Click to expand...


Not that you ever want to overlook any opponent in the NFL, but if you really wanted to be certain, you could even tell Terry he is being put onto the shelf until Denver the following week. Surely, you would hope we have enough to beat the Cards even in his absence. Then again, this is Washington we are talking about, so who knows...
 
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