-string Hunter Cantwell fire the ball downfield. The insignificant pass was completed inside the 5-yard line, and the camera panned to a displeased Todd Haley, who looked like he had some serious sand in his vag when he yelled at John Harbaugh during the post-game handshake. It was glorious.
Jaguars 15, Falcons 13
The Falcons tend to struggle in road outdoor games - even in the preseason. The offense as a whole looked sluggish and lacked rhythm, as left tackle Sam Baker had major issues keeping Jeremy Mincey out of the backfield.
Matt Ryan went 7-of-15 for 116 yards and a touchdown. The yardage looks good, but 76 of the 116 came on one intermediate pass to Harry Douglas where the Atlanta slot receiver did all of the work. Ryan was pressured often and seemed to forget that Roddy White existed, save for one drive. Perhaps he was trying his best to get the other targets involved in a meaningless game. If not, this has to be somewhat discouraging.
Here were Ryan's targets:
Harry Douglas: 4
Tony Gonzalez: 1
Julio Jones: 1
Deji Karim: 1
Ovie Mughelli: 1
Jason Snelling: 2
Michael Turner: 1
Roddy White: 2 is finished. He saw one target and caught it for five yards. As he was running, it looked like he needed a cane. Avoid this guy in all leagues, save for perhaps touchdown-only formats.
Michael Turner rushed for 14 yards on just seven carries. He showed a nice burst on his first attempt (a 9-yard gain), but was bottled up well by Jacksonville's defense after that.
The Falcons nearly suffered a huge scare. Defensive linemen John Abraham and Peria Jerry both left the game with what seemed like serious injuries at the time. Fortunately, both were able to return to the game.
One of David Garrard's issues is inconsistency. That was evident in this game, as Garrard made some really outstanding throws, but was guilty of more negatives that outweighed the positives.
Garrard's lone interception was terrible. He overthrew Mike Thomas by a mile, allowing Brent Grimes to secure an easy interception. This was just a few plays after Garrard was nearly picked by Grimes on another deep pass.
Garrard had nearly another pick in the red zone in the second quarter when looking toward Marcedes Lewis. A couple of plays later, Garrard missed a wide-open Lewis for a possible first down or touchdown on third-and-short inside the 10-yard line.
Here were Garrard's targets:
Jason Hill: 2
Marcedes Lewis: 3 (1 end zone)
Cecil "Salute Your" Shorts: 2
Mike Thomas: 4 (1 end zone).
Nothing to note out of the Jacksonville rushing attack. Maurice Jones-Drew (knee) and Rashad Jennings (concussion) didn't play.
Blaine Gabbert went 11-of-23 for just 96 yards. There were some nice throws, but he didn't fare particularly well in this game. He underthrew Mike Thomas on his first drive and struggled with pocket awareness throughout. It seemed like he never felt the pressure when it was there, and he panicked under phantom pressure when no one was around him. On a positive note, his best pass was a nice, deep, 28-yard completion to someone named Dontrelle Inman on a seam route in the third quarter.
Conspiracy Theory Time! I tweeted this (
@walterfootball
) as it happened:
#Jaguars just went for 2 up 15-13. Spread on this game is Jax -3. Someone from Vegas phone that one in?
Luke McCown had an open receiver for a score during that conversion attempt but completely missed his target, allowing Atlanta to cover the spread. Hey, Vegas or mobsters: Next time, don't make it so obvious. I was in a food coma, yet I still recognized it.
Inept Announcer Alert! This time it's FOX's Tony Siragusa, who had this to say when Matt Ryan threw away a pass on third down to avoid a sack:
"That's a great play by Matt Ryan! There was nothing there, so avoid the turnover and punt the ball away."
Sounds reasonable, right? Well, it is, except for the fact that the Falcons were on the freaking Jacksonville 21-yard line. So, if they punted the ball and it went into the end zone, that would have been a net of a whopping one yard.
Atlanta eschewed Goose's advice, opting instead for a Matt Bryant 40-yard field goal. The attempt was good.
Patriots 31, Buccaneers 14
The Patriots are going to be sick this year. I know this was a preseason game, but I'm more confident in my 15-1 prediction for this team in my
2011 NFL Season Preview
. To complement their top-ranked offense, they now have an elite defense capable of putting immense pressure on the quarterback.
I'm not going to downgrade Josh Freeman in my
2011 Fantasy Football Rankings
despite the fact that he went just 5-of-10 for 33 yards. Freeman was under siege every single play. It was ridiculous; there were Patriot defenders in the backfield milliseconds after the snap. In fact, Freeman was pressured on nine of his 12 dropbacks. Newly acquired Andre Carter was a beast, manhandling James Lee with ease. Blitzing linebacker Jerod Mayo had two sacks - in the first quarter alone. It just seemed like the Buccaneers were completely unprepared for this game. Then again, New England is going to make many of its opponents look this way throughout the year.
For the record, here were Freeman's targets:
Dezmon Briscoe: 1
Earnest Graham: 3
Erik Lorig: 1
Sammie Stroughter: 1
Mike Williams: 2.
Here were Brady's targets:
Deion Branch: 1
BenJarvus Green-Ellis: 1
Rob Gronkowski: 1
Chad Ochocinco: 5 (1 end zone)
Aaron Hernandez: 3 (1 end zone)
Wes Welker: 7
Danny Woodhead: 2
Will Yeatman: 1.
As for the running backs:.
Ryan Mallett went 9-of-14 for 71 yards and an interception. The pick was pretty bad; he just carelessly floated it, and Elbert Mack took it back for a touchdown. However, Mallett bounced back well and led the team to a field goal. His best pass was a 19-yard completion to Matt Slater in which Mallett eluded pressure, stepped up in the pocket and fired a dart toward his receiver.
Inept Announcer Alert! The Patriots Television Network featured color analyst Randy Cross, who said this gem in the third quarter:
"New England is one of those cities where they expect great things from their teams."
New England is a city, eh? I'm looking at my U.S. map, and I can't find the city of New England anywhere. Damn it, Randy, where is it? WHERE IS IT!?!?!?!?
Steelers 24, Eagles 14
The alarm clock is ringing, the dream has come to an end and reality is setting in..
If you didn't see the game, QB Eagles No. 7's first interception came on a horrible underthrow to Riley Cooper. The second was irresponsibly thrown into triple coverage. The third was a desperate heave under pressure in the two-minute drill.
Here were Eagles QB No. 7's targets:
Jason Avant: 1
Brent Celek: 1
Riley Cooper: 3
Chad Hall: 2
DeSean Jackson: 3
LeSean McCoy: 1
The Eagles barely had the ball in the first half, and when they did, their quarterback was tossing picks, so there isn't much to say about any of the skill-possession players. DeSean Jackson saw three targets, one of which was an incomplete deep bomb on the first offensive play of the game. He caught the other two for nine yards..
Roethlisberger spread his passes around. Here were his targets:
Arnaz Battle: 1
Antonio Brown: 1 (1 end zone)
David Johnson: 1
Rashard Mendenhall: 2
Heath Miller: 1
Mewelde Moore: 1
Isaac Redman: 1
Mike Wallace: 1
Hines Ward: 1 (1 end zone)
Even though Roethlisberger excels at eluding defenders in the pocket, the offensive line continues to have major issues. In addition to blocking poorly, it suffered two injuries to the starting and second-string left tackles, Jonathan Scott and Marcus Gilbert.
Rashard Mendenhall surprisingly led the Steelers in targets with two in their preseason victory over Philadelphia. While he ran well - 28 yards on six carries - don't get too excited. One pass was on a screen, while the second came on a broken play. Mendenhall is not going to be featured much in the passing game, though he's still poised for a great 2011 campaign.
Jerricho Cotchery didn't receive any targets from Ben Roethlisberger, as he played exclusively with the second team. However, he looked really good, catching two balls for 49 yards and a touchdown. He's not much of a fantasy option, but he'll help Pittsburgh win actual games.