T
taj_war
Guest
Remember the optimism the quarterbacks gave us in yesterday’s practice? Throw that out the window, for now. Tuesday we saw the offense revert to square one as all the signal callers struggled badly against a defense that had its best showing of training camp thus far. That’s not to say that there’s no hope for the quarterbacks going forward. It’s just that most of the positives from yesterday vanished in today’s disappointing showing. A lot needs to change over the next few practices from them to give us reason to have real faith in them.
JT Daniels: C
The “wow” throws we’ve gotten used to seeing from Daniels failed to show up today. The closest thing was a deep out to Tyler Petite -- outside of that the best thing we can gather from Daniels’ performance today was that he didn’t turn the ball over like Fink and Sears did. He had a rough outing, completing a few short routes but being denied by the secondary on what seemed like almost all of his balls. He had at least a third of his throws broken up and held the ball far too long on a couple of occasions, resulting in at least one sack. He didn’t put the proper placement on a lot of balls, giving defenders the opportunity to make plays in an uncharacteristic lack of accuracy. Hopefully it’s just one rough day and not any indication of things to come.
Matt Fink: C+
Fink came out today slinging the ball a lot more confidently than before, attempting a lot of throws down the field instead of taking his usual checkdown on every other play. For the most part he did a good job on these throws, hitting Tyler Vaughns and Michael Pittman on some pretty balls deep down the field, including a great back shoulder to Pittman against Biggie Marshall. In fact, he looked really good all through the first half of his team reps; that’s the good news. The bad news is that in the second half of practice the defensive backfield looked unbeatable, and Fink and the other quarterbacks struggled mightily against them. He had almost all of his red zone attempts broken up, and made the biggest mistake of the day, tossing the ball into the chest of Marshall lurking in the flat for a pick-six. The willingness Fink showed today to step up to take big time throws and actually make them was promising to see. However, if he doesn’t clean up some of the groan-inducing mistakes he made today, I don’t know if any of that will matter.
Jack Sears: D+
On Monday, Sears’ day was sabotaged by bad snaps. Today, however, Sears was the one hurting himself. He began the day by head-scratchingly ignoring a wide open Devon Williams on a fly route right in front of him, electing to take off with the ball instead, and his day didn’t get any better from there. He was only able to complete a few short routes, having most of his other throws denied vehemently by the defense. He had a bad interception, throwing much too late towards Velus Jones as he streaked down the seam on a ball that wound up traveling short into the hands of Greg Johnson. Performances like this are the last thing Sears can afford at this point; his rough spring means he needs to show out now to have a serious shot at making a run for the starting job. If he doesn’t turn things around quick, that hole he’s dug himself into is only gonna keep getting deeper.
JT Daniels: C
The “wow” throws we’ve gotten used to seeing from Daniels failed to show up today. The closest thing was a deep out to Tyler Petite -- outside of that the best thing we can gather from Daniels’ performance today was that he didn’t turn the ball over like Fink and Sears did. He had a rough outing, completing a few short routes but being denied by the secondary on what seemed like almost all of his balls. He had at least a third of his throws broken up and held the ball far too long on a couple of occasions, resulting in at least one sack. He didn’t put the proper placement on a lot of balls, giving defenders the opportunity to make plays in an uncharacteristic lack of accuracy. Hopefully it’s just one rough day and not any indication of things to come.
Matt Fink: C+
Fink came out today slinging the ball a lot more confidently than before, attempting a lot of throws down the field instead of taking his usual checkdown on every other play. For the most part he did a good job on these throws, hitting Tyler Vaughns and Michael Pittman on some pretty balls deep down the field, including a great back shoulder to Pittman against Biggie Marshall. In fact, he looked really good all through the first half of his team reps; that’s the good news. The bad news is that in the second half of practice the defensive backfield looked unbeatable, and Fink and the other quarterbacks struggled mightily against them. He had almost all of his red zone attempts broken up, and made the biggest mistake of the day, tossing the ball into the chest of Marshall lurking in the flat for a pick-six. The willingness Fink showed today to step up to take big time throws and actually make them was promising to see. However, if he doesn’t clean up some of the groan-inducing mistakes he made today, I don’t know if any of that will matter.
Jack Sears: D+
On Monday, Sears’ day was sabotaged by bad snaps. Today, however, Sears was the one hurting himself. He began the day by head-scratchingly ignoring a wide open Devon Williams on a fly route right in front of him, electing to take off with the ball instead, and his day didn’t get any better from there. He was only able to complete a few short routes, having most of his other throws denied vehemently by the defense. He had a bad interception, throwing much too late towards Velus Jones as he streaked down the seam on a ball that wound up traveling short into the hands of Greg Johnson. Performances like this are the last thing Sears can afford at this point; his rough spring means he needs to show out now to have a serious shot at making a run for the starting job. If he doesn’t turn things around quick, that hole he’s dug himself into is only gonna keep getting deeper.