The good news is that the starters played well, with a couple exceptions. On the Packers's second offensive drive, WR Randall Cobb had the ball stripped and I expect he'll see more ball drills in his near future. Later in the second half, Aaron Rodgers failed to convert a 4th down play, on their side of the field, that the Packers would have never attempted during the regular season. Both plays gave the Browns great field position and led to two scores.
On defense, the Packers forced a fumble on the Browns' first drive. Though the defense held the Browns to only 39 yards on their next two drives combined, the Browns had great field position and kicked two field goals. Rookies Casey Hayward and Nick Perry had some struggles in pass coverage that set up the Browns's first touchdown, but overall the first team defense did a good job tackling and putting pressure on rookie QB Brandon Weeden.
So how bad was Graham Harrell? Pretty bad. Not Brian Brohm bad, but he'll have to show something over the remaining preseason games. Right now, I'm not a believer in him, but I don't think they'll make a trade or free agent signing at this point for the 2012 season.
And I'm starting to become a Jarrett Boykin fan. He made some nice grabs (5 for 63 yards).
3 comments:
I didn't see most of the game, so I'm sure Harrell was much worse than I saw, but he looked pretty good in the one drive I saw that ended with a FG. He had two nice passes to Boykin, but it was off play action- same play. He had someone in the end zone if he could have just hit him. Other than that I gather it was real bad.
I chuckled at the "Not Brian Brohm bad" ... let's just hope Harrell doesn't slide past Brohm and become "Ingle Martin bad" :)
As uninspiring as this preseason has been, I think we are going to be a force this year. We have lots of guys out and its not like our starters have been to blame (Save for the RB position and the brief Herb Taylor start at LT which help stopped a good looking drive in the San Diego game). Our rookie class is looking very nice and so I see improvements in virtually every position.
So I'm not fretting/panicking. Still feel as cool and confident as the Mike's Hard Lemonade sitting next to me.
For now.
It's easy to repeat the mantra: don't panic, it's just the preseason. But it's really true. If the Packers are forced to turn to Graham Harrell, Starter, it's going to be a big problem no matter how well he plays in August. They need depth to survive a rash of injuries like they had in 2010, but some players are irreplaceable. Rodgers is definitely one of them.
The only thing that's really bugged me this preseason are the fumbles while the first team offense was on the field, one by Cobb and another by Starks, and that's in only about 6 or 7 drives. However, that's an awful small sample size and Cobb's going to fumble occassionally. Hopefully he got it out of his system in the preseason.
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