Man that game on Saturday was brutal. There's almost nothing positive to take away from it, but the one positive is a biggie: Derrick Morgan looked better than anyone could have expected. For a guy who has only completed one practice as a professional, Morgan showed amazing natural ability against live bullets. Even though he didn't get a sack, he put up camp in the Panther's backfield and left me salivating over a pass rushing line that could feature Morgan, Jason Jones, William Hayes/Jacob Ford and Jason Babin 2.0. That's the best news of the preseason so far.
There were two things that I REALLY hated to see in this game: too many turnovers, and the first unitO-line struggling like I've never seen before. I mean even Roos was getting beat early on. Apparently the Panthers where debuting some new packages and formations, and that unit is so beastly on a regular basis that it's hard to think Munchak won't get it fixed, but it was still rough to watch. It completely rattled Vince Young and the rest of the offense.
Tomorrow will bring the first round of roster cuts as teams across the league have to meet their mark of 75 players. That means only 5 players will be let loose. The big cut will come on Saturday, when the rosters must be set to 53. Stay tuned today for Jimmy's stab at predicting the 53-man roster.
Follow us through the jump for more notes, jokes and over-read water totes...
Nobody but the press is worrying about Chris Johnson's lack of big runs in the preseason. Good thing we're not a part of the press. CJ2K is going to be just fine when the opener comes around, so lets just stop sweating a few dull preseason carries when there's no real gameplan and no reason to risk letting him get enough carries to get in rhythm.
Defense. Defense. Defense. Defense. Defense. Defense. Defense. Defense.
In my opinion, there's no way Blount is left off this roster unless he's been a mess behind the scenes. We haven't heard any indications of that, so I'm not putting much weight in the fact that Gado keeps getting into the exhibition games before the big bruiser.
Adding to the good news about the defensive line, Tony Brown is expected to come off of the PUP list and play in the final preseason match-up this Thursday. Brown has been rehabbing a knee injury all off-season, so Thursday should be a good gauge of just how close he is to being 100%. If he's anywhere near it, this line is looking as deep and as good as we've had since the 13-3 team a few years back.
Peter King's back must be hurting from carrying all that water for the ultra-whiny Colts. I mean I'm certainly more concerned about the safety of the officials than how quickly a team can get a snap off outside of the final two minutes. But of course the Colts and their fans seem to think this is the end of the world. Come to think of it, I don't remember hearing Patriots fans crying when the NFL changed the rules in direct response to how their cornerbacks were defending... and that wasn't all in their heads.
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