Once again, I was comletely unimpressed with the QB play vs the Miami Dolphins. Byron Leftwich, while obviously possessing a great arm as far as velocity is concerned, still shows a tendency to sail balls over receivers heads. He was 9/17 for 100 yards, and his preseason completion % is still under 50%. Luke McCown was equally unimpressive going 5/11 for 38 yards. He doesn’t seem to have the ability to feel pressure, and was sacked multiple times. I will in McCowns defense, that the offensive line did not do an adequate enough job of giving him any time to succeed. Josh Freeman was a paltry 6/16 for 50 yards and also ran for 18 yards on 3 carries. It hurts me to say this, because I had such high hopes for the QB competition between McCown and Leftwich but, Josh Freeman should be the starter for this team. I still am not personally sold on him being an NFL caliber QB, but the play of Leftwich and McCown does not justify sitting our future on the bench. Freeman still forces to many passes, and has a real tendency to lock onto one guy and not go through is progressions, but when the supposed “veteran” QB play is this uninspiring, what are we truly waiting for. Has there been any point during this preseason where you as a fan have felt that McCown or Sluggo could lead us to the playoffs, for me there hasn’t and I don’t think there has been for any of you guys either.
On a positive note….
Cadillac Williams looked great. He showed no signs of being tentative cutting either way on either of his surgically repaired knees. I’m still a believer in Caddy, and feel he still gives us the best threat at the RB position. A backfield that has Caddy as the feature back, Derrick Ward as the 3rd down and receiving back, and Ernest Graham as the short yardage back seems to me to give us the best chance at victory.
Maurice Stovall finally showed me a few things on Thursday. I have been waiting for him to come up with some grabs with hands on him, and he had a few of them on Thursday. One particular play, Stovall ran a skinny post, made a nice cut, and had a nice grab with a linebacker underneath, a safety overtop and a rookie Sean Smith draped on his back . He ended with 6 catches for 73 yards.
The starting defense is going to be much better than people expected. We are fast, hit hard, and have the youth and depth to not wear down at the end of the season, as we did last year. If my calculations are correct, with the majority starting defense on the field, they have given up a measly 10 points in just about 4 quarters of play. Geno Hayes and Quincy Black specifically looked real studly vs the Dolphins. DT Chris Bradwell is making a real strong push to make this final roster, as he was stellar vs the Dolphins. He has 5 tackles, 2 sacks and an INT thusfar in the preseason.