Rookie Day

[dalbuc]

Sort of good and bad.

Gradkowksi was quite sharp. He looked like he had control of the offense today. He made one bad decision, the deep ball into double coverage. Frankly it looked like he had more of the offense in play than Simms did. I was concerned about arm strength after he struggle vs the second unit players in pre-season while ripping up 3rd and 4th stringers. The arm looked plenty live both on the deep balls and several outside the has throws. He doesn't have 15 yard out arm but he's got more than enough to survive in this league. He was a lot closer to the reason we won than the reason we lost and that is a great sign.

Trueblood OTOH looked outmatched. He didn't give much, if anything, on the run blocking. He gave up a lot of pressure on the right side and that is an area we've got to get better in becuase we're not gonna see a ton of cumps at dE the rest of the year.

Joseph was sort of a non-entity and looked to be mostly a goaline blocker and I didn't notice him getting much movement down there.

[gharen]

I thought Trueblood played well for his first start. Grant is a good DE, but didn't get a lot of pressure on Grads except for a few obvious passing situations. I've seen a lot worse from some veteran OT's before. I'd give him an overall grade of a B-.

[naplesbuc]

I was expecting a disaster from Trueblood against Grant.  He did ok.

[bradentonian]

Grads was great.  Made some rookie mistakes, but that's to be expected.  I really liked his quick decision making, although there were a few times that I thought he should have waited a few more secs to let the play develop.  Also, I attribute a lot of his success to Gruden finally addtressing the playbook/playcalling i.e. leaning on Caddy, no mmore 3-step drop passes to the sidelines, etc.  Too bad he didn't address this until 1/4 way thru the season.

[mjs020294]

Trueblood did OK for his first start.  The forced fumble was mainly his fault because he let the DE go right around him and hit Grads on the otherisde of the field. 

I think Grads's extra mobility helped the O-line quite a bit.  He showed great awareness most of the time and seemed to cope with the speed of the game well.  Both TD passes were crisp and the deep ball to Galloway was on the money.  His numbers are very good, especially when you consider there was four dropped passes and 3 good gains were brought back by flags.

[rpc1978]

offensively, we played well enough to win.  we ran the ball effectively and Bruce played better then I expected.  he was the silver lining today.  the defense continues their descent and our ST actually kicking to reggie bush in that situation spoiled what was a good kick coverage game from our special teams. 

[oregonbucfan]

Im impressed with Trueblood and Grads... for there first start. Grad was simply awesome I love his enthusiam

[Franchise 5]

gruden says trueblood played well.. I think it was beunning that didnt.


and where was davin?

[nitey]

I also thought that on the whole the offensive line played well. Caddy got over 100 yards and Grad stated relatively clean most of the game. True did get manhandled a bit by Grant, but overall I thought he played as well as could be expected. I suspect that he'll be playing well by season's end.

This was both an entertaining game but also a tough one to watch as the Buc's could have won this game a couple of times at the end and both times it was due to a mistake by Galloway. First he dropped that ball when he could have split the safeties for a big gain, and then on the throw that Hillard got and took down to the 2, he gets called for a illegal pick. But Galloway was mostly a bright spot for the offense, so I hate to come down on him.

Of course the defense and special teams also had their hands in this loss. For them, this game turned on 3 plays that they didn't make and it ruined an otherwise good outing.

However, falling to 0-4 really realistically ends our season though. I still want the Bucs to try to be competitive this season, but it's time to make some defensive changes or at least work next season's players into the lineup. I think these are the players I want to see get some play time the rest of the season:

On offense:

Mahan in for Wade at Center as soon as Joseph is able to play. We already can see that Wade's play is slipping, we need to see if we need to draft or pursue another center in FA for next year.

Work Stovall in place of Hillard.

Work Graham more in the backfield in place of Alstott or Pittman.

On defense:

Bench booger and play Wyms or put Spires there and move White to Spires end position.

Wilborn to get some reps in place of Brooks.

Rudd to be playing full time by mid season.

Zemaitis to get some major snaps in place of either Barber or Kelly

Perhaps Pierson/Adams in for Phillips to see if either one of them has starting material.

If this is going to be a re-building year, we might as well use it and build for a stronger club for next season.

[bradentonian]

Zemaitis to get some major snaps in place of either Barber or Kelly

Perhaps Pierson/Adams in for Phillips to see if either one of them has starting material.

Kelly was huge in this game, and showed how important he is to our D.  I'd like to see Zemaitis on the field, too, but how about trying him at Safety?  Or playing him at nickel and sliding Bolden to Safety?  I imagine they are both better in coverage than Pearson

[HereComesDaBoom]

I would like to add moving Hilliard to the #2 position will only help us. It seems Clayton can not find the soft spot in a zone defense or get open when covered man 2 man.

The D-line needs some new blood. The rookie coaches aren't cutting it either.

bOOm

[caradoc]

Yeah Ike over Clay at this point in time.  But not Zemaitis, he is a long way from being game ready.  Throw winborn some snaps and save some Brooks for next year.  We're seeing more Ruud which hurts a bit now, but will pay off.  Smack Ronde in the head a few times but he's our guy for a couple more years, lets hope the DB coaching gets better -- it feels like the guys are just blowing the new coaches off, line and backs both.
More Stovall, he'll get better, Want to see Jolley over Becht soon too.  Let's lose Mahan too.

[alldaway]

I do not think Joseph started.  With that said Alstott did not look like his old self on many short yardage situations.  It did not help that Clayton was lined up as a blocker.  This is where Fonoti is missed.

Trueblood actually suprised me as he played better than anyone expected.  He rode Grant to the outside but he was able to hit Grads.  Still Grads held onto the ball a little bit too long on that play.

Gradkowski was very impressive.  On the short passes he was able to change his trajectory so the defenders could not deflected his passes.  On deeper balls he had good ball placement with the exception of a few passes.  On the last drive he was able to dart it with enough mustard to the side lines.  Gradkowski also showcased his mobility and the ability to audible at the line.  He was also able to lead the team on four scoring drives.

As far as Clayton he looked pretty quick on that reverse and looks to have his old burst back that he had as a rookie.

[cheveliar]

I wasn't impressed with Trueblood, but I didn't hate him.  Can see where he's an upgrade over k-dub, but he was no worst overall...I thought he'd supply more nasty as some indicated and I certainly didn't see that...

[alldaway]

Hopefully Mahan does not start next week and we are able to see Joseph start alongside Trueblood.