We can’t let a week go by without taking the opportunity to learn something. So let’s put on our Stuponitron helmets and figure out what happened in the first weekend of the NFL Preseason.
https://youtu.be/r6QaWmAGK1U?t=30s
The Patriots should be nervous
New England Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s stat line wasn’t terrible for a preseason game, but if for those of us that actually watched the game Saturday, there’s no way the Pats aren’t a little nervous as the actual season moves ever closer.
.@JimmyG_10's night is finished in Foxborough.
Stat line: 11/18 168 yds 0 TDs 0 INTs pic.twitter.com/UvCTc5s9py
— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) August 12, 2016
Garoppolo finished 11-for-18 for 168 yards, no touchdowns and no picks. But what he also didn’t do is wow anyone with his accuracy and ability to attack downfield.
It was his first game and maybe you can blame some jitters, but I never saw them go away. Garoppolo never looked comfortable and definitely didn’t look like a guy beginning his third NFL season under the same head coach and offensive coordinator.
The Patriots knew coming into training camp that Garoppolo would be starting the first four games and by every indication have been giving half, if not most, of the first-team snaps in practice. I didn’t see anything that remotely looked like first-team Saturday.
Blaine Gabbert still looks an awful lot like Blaine Gabbert
All offseason San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly has been talking up Blaine Gabbert. Every indication is that Gabbert is not only ahead of Colin Kaepernick in the 49ers’ quarterback competition, but brings pretty much the same athleticism to the table as Kaep.
Why didn’t any of that show up Sunday night?
https://twitter.com/JoshNorris/status/764962009641287680
Gabbert looked terrible the entire time he was in the game. He finished 4-for-10 for 63 yards and a touchdown, but 43 of that came on one play to Vance McDonald who broke a tackle and picked up most of the yardage with his legs. If you subtract that one play, Gabbert completed three passes for 20 yards. Total.
What really stood out were the basic incompletions. Little uncovered swing passes that Gabbert would fling too high, out of reach or just bury into the ground, sending the ball skipping at his running back’s feet.
And when Kelly tried to run his read-option plays, Gabbert couldn’t have looked slower. He looked like an ostrich high on nitrous oxide.
Don’t be fooled by the Tennessee Titans
Listen, we all liked seeing DeMarco Murry and Derrick Henry lined up in the Titans’ backfield like they were running the split-back veer. If head coach Mike Mularkey runs plays out of that formation more than 10 times in the entire 2016-17 season I’ll be shocked. I mean, he should. It’s an innovative package and you’ve got a crazy athletic quarterback you know can read the option. Why not try it some?
Peep those stats. 👀 pic.twitter.com/5ZPuN2lUsZ
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) August 14, 2016
But he won’t. Nobody has the balls for that. There’s a lot to like about this year’s Titans team, but they’re still a few years and probably new head coach away. For now enjoy the novelty of the Murray and Henry dual backfield. You won’t see it much when the live fire starts.
RGIII still can’t read a defense
I mean, you tell me what you see. Below is every throw Robert Griffin III made in his debut as starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns. Does his head move, even slightly, one time? If so, I don’t see it. But trust me, the Green Bay Packers defense noticed. That’s why after the first couple of plays, which looked good, RG3 began to look very bad.
Every throw from @RGIII's preseason debut with the Cleveland @Browns. #CLEvsGB 👇 https://t.co/AKH5G89qkB
— NFL (@NFL) August 13, 2016
You know Hue Jackson is trying to teach him how to make his pass reads. It’s come up, I guarantee it. But when the game is under live fire, Griffin just fires the ball to his first read or eats it. It’s what killed him in Washington.
Griffin finished 4-for-8 for 67 yards and just like Gabbert in SF, the majority of that yardage came from one play, his opening 49-yard completion to Terrell Pryor. Griffin is a smart guy. There’s no reason he can’t get this and at some point, you have to think he’s just refusing to even try.
