Winners and Losers from Preseason Game 2

I think its all about the coaches not wanting to show anything play calling Vanilla on offense. As for the defense, I loved the aggressiveness of the blitzes by Parys & Cox and Cowboy had a nice hit behind the line. However they need to on offense feature AJ more, lets see what he can or cannot do. of course he wont produce if he's given less passes then some dude named chad hall.

Time to put Okoye on offense. He might as well learn a position we need help at.

BJ was impressive - IMO he makes the team

Looney was disappointing - - he's on the bubble.

Dawson was fine - deep KO's and hitting the long FG gave me confidence

Our KO and punt coverage really needs some work

Cox, Harrleson, Lemonier, Wilhoit really stepped up

WINNNERS:

BJ Daniels: Loved seeing him not going with his feet until after he had already checked his second reads. Very impressed by his arm too. All very encouraging. The chances of him playing this well consistently at this point are incredibly slim and I think people who think he'll beat out McCoy for the backup QB job are absolutely fooling themselves, but there's a chance he might play his way into that role as soon as next season or the season after.

Dawson: Long kickoffs with arc and two 55 yard field goals. Really, what's to complain about?

Cox: Love his physicality at CB (great pass defense, very good run support), and what he adds to the return game (he was a shoestring tackle away from taking a kick out of the very back of the endzone at least to the 40 yard line, and still made it to the 25 or so) . I thought we were undervaluing him after last preseason, and that's being reconfirmed by his play. I think he's a lock to make the team at this point, and despite his troubles, I'm now officially a fan.

Stupar: All over the field last night, filling gaps and making plays. Really a great performance. Really all of the backup ILBs played well and any of them could belong here, but Stupar impressed me the most (with Moody a close second).

Backup OLBs: The first time I've been impressed by Cam Johnson or Lemonier. Haralson had a huge game too. I feel really good about our backup linebacker situation both inside and outside for the first time in a long time.

MarQuies Gray: The catch was nice, but loved his tenacity and blocking down field. He has a chance to bump Celek, but more likely is playing his way onto the practice squad. By this time next year I think he has a strong chance to be our 3rd TE.

Ian Williams: Once again with great push and penetration, which are the things he wasn't supposed to be able to do when drafted. He'll stick as the starter IMO, and I think our only regret will be not signing him for longer this offseason.

LOSERS:

Tolzein: McCoy at least did something with his feet. Tolzein is playing himself off the team.

Goodwin: Very rusty, and was getting beaten regularly.

Looney: Ughh. So disappointed in him so far. I think Kilgore has a spot and Snyder will get Looney's spot, not because Snyder is better, but just because he's a known commodity and can fill in (albeit poorly) at all five line spots.

Snyder: He was never good, but whatever he had, it seems he has lost it. Second week in a row he has really disappointed.

Patrick Omameh: He really stands out from the pack when it comes to how poor our backup OL situation is. Just awful for the second week in a row. Watching him get put onto his heels and just powered through was pretty disgusting. Would be shocked if he's not in the first round of cuts.

LaMichael James: The line wasn't doing him any favors, but he didn't provide any spark, got close to missing his first punt return, didn't do anything on kick returns, and missed on blitz pickup in the first quarter. Really a poor showing for him.

Okoye: We went from thinking we'd have to keep him on the 53, to talking about him being on the PS, to now realizing he's just not worth anything at this point. He was the last person off the ball on all (was it just two?) of his snaps. Tellingly, it was a preseason game and they pulled him when we went up in the end of the 4th. Basically, the coaching staff thinks he's enough of a liability on the field to pull him out against the bottom of the Chief's bench to give us a better chance at holding a preseason win. That's all you need to know.

AJ Jenkins: Really just got abused by Smith and got no separation. And he's still falling down all over the place (his first non-reception being the obvious example). Right now we're seeing a discordance between coaches who want him to succeed and backup quarterbacks who want to perform well and secure their spots. Basically, our coaching staff is leaving him in the game to give him the opportunity to do something, but our QBs who are fighting for their jobs don't even want to look his way.

Kick and Punt Coverage Units: We've invested heavily, and they're still under performing. Hopefully this was just flukey. Shepler was responsible for the blocked FG that left us up by two rather than a FG. He'll be in the first round of cuts now that Dixon is playing decently (if inconsistently) at backup FB/RB and special team's ace.

Winners;
-Harelson, Lemonaide - super excited about the OLB rotation this year, sure Aldons number may go down but starters will be fresher deep into season.
-Cox, Asomungha, Reid - secondary is filling out nicely. Did we actually sign E. Wright?
-Wilhoite, Moody - Backup ILB? Check.
-Dawson - Not money just yet but at least Cache Creek.
-Dobbs, Dorsey - I like Dobbs, always seems to make a play, just needs to be consistent. Entire backup D-line. Basically D as a whole.
-B.J. Motherf***ing Daniels- Well...that was awesomely unexpected. Looks like he might be more than just a Russell "Sleepy" Wilson scout team qb.

Losers;
-Kaep - shoulda hit a open receiver for TD.
-back up right tackle - a blocking pad laid on the ground would be more effective
-J. Hampton - Maybe a product of poor O-Line play but 1.7 ypc just isnt good.
-McColzein - Wow...cant get spinning tecmo bowl qb out of my mind every time I think of them. We're F'ed if Kaep goes down.
-Special Teams - They were special alright.

Can't Tell;
Wide outs - No gonna judge Jenkins & Co, just hard to tell with out quality passes getting thrown to them, same with TE's.

Originally posted by theninermaniac:
Time to put Okoye on offense. He might as well learn a position we need help at.

It may be even harder to learn how to defend against pass rushers than it is to pass rush.

My full comprehensive players-to-watch analysis:

(player helped himself towards the 53); only for bubble players (not lock-players)

Offense:
QB: Scott Tolzien, Colt McCoy, BJ Daniels - Tolzien, fumbled snap inside the 5. McCoy good scrambles. Roughing the passer on Tolzien. Chiefs in backfield ALL day long (affected RB's as well). T = horrible 4th down throw. McCoy INT. Three passes by two QB's and both short, inside. low. Were they working on inside shoulder passes? Wrong route run? Bad passes in general? Great 3rd down completion to Hall by T. T looked good on 2 minute drill until lots of pressure/hits. Collective, 28 yards passing in the first half. Enough said! Daniels obviously had a nice game!
RB: Jewel Hampton, D.J. Harper, Anthony Dixon - Hampton nice reception/gain; not much room even behind the 1st string OL all game. Did about all he could from my perspective (swimming upstream all game). Gained good yards when there was any semblance of a hole; epic 10 yarder, low, full spin moves, etc. Shifty Gore-like. May be a better pure runner over James; playing coming off injury. Harper = meh.
FB: Jason Scheplar, Anthony Dixon - according to the commentators, Jason got a sack! LOL (it was Stupar). Dixon played more FB today. No missed blocks this time. Not many chances for Jason but physical in the open field blocking.
X: Ricardo Lockette, Chuck Jacobs, Chad Hall - Hall, nice effort to get the P.I. Jacobs has nice speed and runs nice routes (couple nice catches plus the winning TD).
Y (SLOT): Chad Hall - Pass badly thrown behind him (Tolzien) . Another nice 19 yarder from the slot (McCoy).
Z: Kassim Osgood, Lavelle Hawkins, Austin Collie, Chad Hall - Hall overthrown but open for a TD from CK. Catches everything. Excellent long 21 yard reception on 3rd down in traffic. Not much but Collie still catches balls thrown his way. Hawkins (same notes).
Jenkins - lined up again at all 3 spots; all intermediate to deep routes. You know the results.
TE: Garrett Celek, MarQueis Gray - Celek had a chance on 3rd down (INC) then runs short of the marker by two yards the next route (makes catch); leads to loss of yardage and punt. Gray played a true H-back today and looked really good.
LOT: Kenny Wiggins, Carter Bykowski - meh
ROT: Patrick Omameh - Patrick badly bull rushed for 2-minute drive/hit on Tolzien. Played better 2nd half.
LG: Al Netter, Wayne Tribune - Netter blows. Period.
C: Joe Looney - played better than some were saying on here; bad holding penalty though.

Defense:
RDE: Demarcus Dobbs, Tony Jerod-Eddie - Dobbs did nice work to free others (like Aldon last pre season) but stupid PF call (dude isn't very smart). TJE = roughing the passer
LDE: Will Tukuafu - no notes
NT: Glenn Dorsey, Lamar Divens, Mike Purcell - Nice upfield push inside on 4th down but RB spun off him for the 1st down. Good game Mike (even a knocked down pass). Divens did well pushing up field and even rushed a couple throws; disruptive with the QB and forcing RB's to take an extra step around him; helped forced a big 5 yard TFL in the RZ on 4th down. Watch the 11:25 mark of 4Q. He actually throws #75 10 yards in the backfield and Skuta cleans up the tackle!
WILL: Parys Haralson, Cameron Johnson - One sack each and Johnson had the big 4Q/th Down sack at end of game. Cam, nice outside, inside pressure on QB (off Dobbs) and lead to punt; nice consistent pressures.
SAM: Corey Lemonier, Dan Skuta - Pressure from both all game; half sack.
MIKE: Michael Wilhoite, Nick Moody - MW with good inside pass rush pressure = INC; got caught on a big screen pass though for 17. Moody excellent game as well; great inside pass rush as well. We have keepers with these two! Amazing pass breakup by MW.
TED: Nathan Stupar - Sack. Nice stop/TFL. Lots of tackles. Nicely timed sack and knock down pass at the LOS.
LCB: Marcus Cooper - Cooper again, looked disciplined (mature) and physical. PS: Nnamdi looked very good with the starters.
SLOT: Perrish Cox, Daryl Morris - Cox nice tackles and timed sack; I don't think Morris played in the field.
NICKLE: Tramaine Brock, Perrish Cox - Cox had a nice disguised blitz here off the OLB edge. Good tackle in the RZ by Brock.
FS: C.J. Spillman, Trenton Robinson, Michael Thomas, Darcel McBath - Spillman, nice deep coverage on TD look. Robinson OK game.
SS: Craig Dahl - Dahl started and looked fine; late on 3rd down conversion in coverage; excellent speed/read on sideline tackle.

Special Teams:
Coverage: Morris, Osgood, Lockette, Dahl, Skuta, Dixon, Brock, Robinson, Moody, Spillman, Johnson, Cox, Wilhoite, et al - Horrendous. Looks like crashers continue to get there but the 2nd wave guys were all blocked out (couple holdings too). Skuta/Wilhoite made a few tackles. Typical 1st guys down (Morris, Lockette, Osgood, etc.) but continue to missed that 1st chance tackle often. Nice blocked punt by an unblocked Haralson.
PK: Phil Dawson - Perfect, including kickoffs into the EZ (far corner for easier coverage too).
P/H: Colton Schmidt - Is Andy OK? Schmidt, nice punt.
LS: Kevin McDermott - Only saw Jennings and looked fine.
PR: LaMichael James, Chad Hall, Perrish Cox - James diving catch (no wind) and fair catch inside the 10 (arg); called it off the next time (good). Meh-performance overall for all.

Coaching - 9 points through the end of 4Q? Staring front 7 was mauling their OL and pushing them back 7 yards constantly (good pressure too). Time to talk about a change with the ST coach? Pass blocking poor even with first stringers. Lots of 3rd and longs. Again. Still can't get an off-Tackle run (usually loss of yards); 1st unit getting pushed backwards. 10 penalties. Poor game plans for positions we need answers too esp. WR. Did we learn anything new from last week? Nice blitzes Fangio (7 sacks)! Finally, a CB/FS and MLB blitz! PS: James ran much better inside the G's today (minus the butt tackle).

Losers Tolzien, Looney & Jenkins

Winners Everybody else

Originally posted by RishikeshA:
Haralson will see plenty of PT this season. Cox appears to be a star in the making, he has swag. Jenkins is getting closer to the edge.

Yea agree Cox has been great!

Originally posted by theninermaniac:
Time to put Okoye on offense. He might as well learn a position we need help at.

it's wildly obvious he's an offensive tackle.

remember baalke exuding football love for aj jenkins and joe looney when they were drafted. think about it.

Full game notes added ^^^

Originally posted by xcfan:

Originally posted by theninermaniac:
Time to put Okoye on offense. He might as well learn a position we need help at.

it's wildly obvious he's an offensive tackle.

I think we're trying him on defense first because that way he could work his way into the rotation and actually play.

He could develop into an OT, but Staley and Davis are locked up long-term. Okoye would never see the field, thereby wasting his amazing athleticism. We can look elsewhere for a backup OT.

Originally posted by ninerjok:
The edge of making it or getting cut?

I've got to think getting cut. He'll cost 700,000 this year and a mill next. Does Baalke and Coach want someone that does not produce on the roster? Two years, nothing, cut your losses.

Good notes, thanks NCommand. Schleper helped his cause with a sack. Nah, these pre-season commentators don't know much about the other team and are suppose to talk about their team the entire time. They probably look down at a roster and see 45 and say the name not knowing there are 2 45's on the team. I rewatched some plays to break down Gray vs Celek but that is all. I still have to re-watch it. I might have to keep an eye on the DL backups. If Dial and Carradine go to the PUP that leaves 6 guys (justin,ray,ian,glenn,demarcus,will) and makes you wonder if they will keep only 6 for the first 6 weeks or if a guy like Purcell, Divens, Jerod-Eddie, etc have a chance to be the 7th guy.