Good game last night.
Here's my potted overview of what I saw.
Came out strong in the running game, Kelley was a beast. I haven't checked the stats but he was pushing 7 yards per at one point I think. Thompson was obvious in it too and Perine started to look really good too when he settled down.
After dominating early we stumbled and let them back into the game. For me it started the moment we lost Kelley, and then spent a few minutes losing players left right and centre. .... I'd be interested to see what his break down by Qtr was. He looked like he was gaining 5 or 6 a pop in the 4th. Of course this might have something to do with the Defense wearing down too. Who knows! But I don't think it was a surprise to see us start to play much better again as soon as the running game got back on track.
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Our D looks MUCH better to my eye. There were some silly mistakes, a couple of long third downs converted that shouldn't have been, I like what I'm seeing though and am optimistic that they'll grow more cohesive as a unit as the year goes on. Interested to see if Cravens comes back what a difference he'll make.
The only thing I'd say about the D is that they need to get home more often somehow. Love the pressure we bring, just need to see it get to the QB a little bit more. Wanted more than just 2 sacks.
I hope Kelley is ok, he was really our driver early. Reed still worries me, when he went off I was like "Oh here we go again" but then he came back in and played. Here's hoping he's good for next week.
Our O-Line played significantly better this week against their front. I think they did as well as could be expected. Donalds name came up frequently but he wasn't a huge factor I didn't think. Kirk's protection was much better and the run blocking was really strong.
Kirk played better. Not great, but better. .......
Few drops again from the decievers, but at least Kirk was more on target this week. Last week he was glaringly high in his throws, this week they were much more on target. Crowder made a spectacular catch on one throw, but Pryor really needs to use some moisturiser on them stone hands of his. Oil of Ulay might help. Talked about this a little in chat. He was a 55% catcher last year, caught 55% in game 1 and this week was 2 of 4... 50%. Not the breakout game I was hoping for lol.
Still we got the win, tough game against a confident team with a coach who had some inside knowledge of how our team operates and especially how Kirk conducts himself. I still feel like we're a team finding an identity and we're still fragile, it felt to me like those injuries in the middle of the game knocked us off our equilibrium and put the Rams back into the game till we settled again. We need to establish a confidence to be able to shake that stuff off straight away and I'm hoping that with a confidence growing in Thompson and Perine and if Kirk can find some rhythm with Reed, Crowder and *gulp* Grant then we can keep rolling when adversity hits. .....
Happy we're tied in the division now.... but a tough couple of weeks coming up though.
I'll stop rambling now.
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