2019 Preseason thread

[Old Lion]

Lions vs. Texans: 5 winners, 3 losers from Saturday night’s game

Detroit Lions vs. Houston Texans stock report

The things I noticed so far:
We are much deeper at RB then I thought. Anderson looked slimmed down too. We are not as deep at WR as I thought. Fulgham is up and down (Darius has looked better to me so far) and the rest have not been very impressive (although I like Tom Kennedy). We are stacked at Safety. Will Harris will be the real deal and Andrew Adams can make big plays (The whiff on the TD pass not withstanding). Not bad for backups. We are not as bad at LB as I thought. The light went on for Jalen Reeves Maybin. Tavai looks more then serviceable.

 

[Old Lion]

4 things I learned from the Lions preseason loss to the Texans

Beyond the participation, the scheming remains decidedly vanilla compared to what we’ve watched in Allen Park in practices. Without getting into specifics, the variety of formations on offense and the intricacies of the pass rush and coverage that we watched in training camp are far more advanced and prevalent than what we’ve seen against the Patriots and Texans.

It can be frustrating for fans to see such lifeless, unimaginative play from players that fans — and even the broadcast crew — need to reference a roster to identify. Matt Patricia doesn’t care. That’s not important to his preseason plan for his team.

I noticed it too. The Pats game made us look so inept because they blitzed every other play while we were running vanilla.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

This D,L even when the starters eventually play, will struggle mightily against mobile QB when the regular season comes around, imo.

Murray, Mahomes, Rodgers, Trubisky, Prescot.

Tavai, JRM and Davis will all have to have their heads on a swivel and hopefully make few, if any, mistakes.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

The things I noticed so far:
We are much deeper at RB then I thought. Anderson looked slimmed down too. We are not as deep at WR as I thought. Fulgham is up and down (Darius has looked better to me so far) and the rest have not been very impressive (although I like Tom Kennedy). We are stacked at Safety. Will Harris will be the real deal and Andrew Adams can make big plays (The whiff on the TD pass not withstanding). Not bad for backups. We are not as bad at LB as I thought. The light went on for Jalen Reeves Maybin. Tavai looks more then serviceable.

JRM pass coverage seems to have improved but reading and reacting to run fits he still makes mental errors. It's only year 2 in this scheme so maybe the light is finally turning on. Tavai is pretty much the opposite but he immediately corrects himself on miscues he made the previous play when the next play comes up. Outside of Davis, JRM and Tavai the rest of the LB corps is highly suspect.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

The things I noticed so far:
We are much deeper at RB then I thought.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

The things I noticed so far:
We are not as deep at WR as I thought. Fulgham is up and down (Darius has looked better to me so far) and the rest have not been very impressive (although I like Tom Kennedy).

I'm not sure how you thought previously that anyone beyond the top 3 you had confidence in for depth. Fuhlgam has good hands and looks comfortable in 7, 8, 9 routes but not so much on routes inside 20 yards as a whole where he's consistent. Lacy and Jones are both better suited for routes outside the numbers and beyond 20 yards. They don't seem to offer much in line of separation on in breaking routes or anything short (slants, digs, quick hitches). jmho on what little I've seen to date between those two.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Studs and Duds from preseason Week 2 Lions vs Texans

STUD – LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin
No player had a better defensive showing that Reeves-Maybin. He finished the night with five tackles, a tackle for loss, and one pass defended. The linebacker made his presence known in the run game during the first half, easily getting passed the interior defensive line for some stops at or near the line of scrimmage. On two consecutive plays, he was able to stuff the runner at the line of scrimmage and then go on to break up a pass from Joe Webb. Things are looking good for the backup linebacker.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Studs and Duds from preseason Week 2 Lions vs Texans

STUD – The backup wide receivers
Travis Fulgham, Andy Jones, Brandon Powell, Deontez Alexander, Jonathan Duhart, Tom Kennedy, and Chris Lacy all made their marks in the passing game. These young pass-catchers are all in the fight for the fourth and fifth wide receiver positions, and the competition will be a close one right until the end of the preseason.

@Old Lion

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

^^^^

I'll disagree with the comments above from Gerber.

All of these WR's need to learn to get separation, run hard and crisp routes right up to the stem and be able to break off at the top quickly, need better hands and concentration, need to become more physical in getting off the DB's. There have been to many lapses in all the above stated to consider confidence in any one of them; Jones, Lacy, Fulgham, Powell, Alexander, Duhart, Kennedy.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Will Harris will be the real deal and Andrew Adams can make big plays (The whiff on the TD pass not withstanding).

The jury is still out for me regarding Harris and will be throughout the year. He's lost while in coverage and it's much worse the farther he's away from the LOS.

AA has had his ups and downs as well and although there's small sample sizes there's some miscommunication with other DB's responsibilities from what I've seen that appear to not be his fault at times. He's still made some really bad judgement calls when considering where he might/should've been in coverage. The zone concepts seems to be confusing for him at times when deciphering what other DB's responsibilities are.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Rookie Standouts: Will Harris shines in preseason Game 2

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Will Harris will be the real deal

You're a New England area homer so, of course, this is your proper answer.

 

[LionsWhyMe]

LOL. You weren't alive at the time this occurred.

Correct, I'm one of the many that say "before I die."

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Rookie Standouts: Will Harris shines in preseason Game 2

Undrafted rookie Tom Kennedy had a very up-and-down night. He impressed early on with two back-to-back receptions in the first half, but he did show some ball security issues later on when he let a punt go right through his hands.

@Old Lion …. ugh.

BB_72; in all fairness the entire corps of Punt Returners and Kickoff Returners have sucked this year.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Stafford better be hurt. Because there's no excuse for holding your QB out of preseason when you're installing & learning a brand new offense. You're throwing the first half of your season away be doing this. Your QB needs live reps. There WILL be growing pains, and to not get some of them out of the way now is asinine.

Matt Patricia explains why Lions QB Matthew Stafford sits vs. Texans

Stafford has not played in either of the Lions’ two preseason games, and had six days largely off from throwing surrounding last week’s exhibition-opening loss to the New England Patriots.

“I think we had a lot of snaps out on the practice that we felt were really good for us offensively and felt we had the work that we needed to get in,” Patricia said. “And sometimes in the practice stuff, the scheme and some of the stuff that we’re doing is a little more elaborate than what we’re going to do in the game. So just thought it was a good opportunity to get the other guys equal kind of hopefully snaps and evaluate both of the players tonight.”

BB_72; This appears to be a b.s. answer coming from Patricia. Stafford has been wildly inconsistent throughout the entire training camp including scrimmages. His timing has been highly erratic.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Detroit Lions stock watch: David Fales up, pass rushers down

Stock up

Jalen Reeves-Maybin – Reeves-Maybin was one of the few standouts in the Lions’ preseason-opening loss to the New England Patriots, and he had another good game Saturday. In about a quarter of action, the third-year linebacker had five tackles, one for loss, and a pass breakup. The pass deflection was a thing of a beauty as he dropped off the slot receiver he was covering to knock down a pass to a wide-open tight end.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Detroit Lions stock watch: David Fales up, pass rushers down

Stock down

Joe Dahl – Dahl wasn’t bad. He didn’t whiff on any blocks or give up any sacks. But playing left guard with the first-team offensive line, Dahl was called for two penalties, a false start and a hold. The Lions have two more weeks to decide if Dahl or Kenny Wiggins will be their Week 1 starter, and Dahl can’t afford many more sloppy days like Saturday.

The Lions’ interior defensive line – The Lions got little pass rush Saturday outside of Okwara’s lone sack and a few decent rushes by Mitchell Loewen and Jonathan Wynn, and part of the issue was a lack of push from the interior line. Granted, A’Shawn Robinson was the only regular who saw the field, but none of P.J. Johnson, Kevin Strong and Fred Jones

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

'You've never arrived': Constant desire to improve powers Lions' Jahlani Tavai

Looking beyond Tavai’s intrinsic motivation, we on the outside looking in are free to evaluate his performance and acknowledge the sharpening of his skills on the field. In his second preseason game, he played with notably better leverage and consistently found himself around the ball, resulting in four tackles on his 21 defensive snaps.


But Tavai knows marks on the stat sheet only tell a snapshot of the story. Where were the tackles made on the field? How many yards did the opponent gain? For Tavai, if the answer is greater than zero, he didn’t do his job well enough.

“I get irritated when they rush for three yards,” Tavai said. “That irritates me. I want them to be held to zero yards, or negative yards, every play. Whatever we can do to reach that point, that’s where I need to improve.”

This is the ultra-competitive, yet relatively unknown prospect the Lions drafted in the second round this year, stunning fans and pundits alike. He is not just a player who fits the team’s physical prototype for a linebacker in this defensive scheme; he’s one who loathes making mistakes and hates losing, even if it’s a meaningless preseason game.

 

[Rollingthndr]

It just started recording the game at 1:00 AM tonight. Seen the first series... Texans score on the opening drive and the Lions gave up field position. I believe I'll be heading to bed, it isn't wroth losing sleep to watch this crap. I'm just wondering if you didn't see Rod Marinelli under that hoody.

Defense made a few plays later in the first half. A lot had to do with how terrible Webb was though.
Secondary should be a strength this year. The #2 guy made a few plays and Slay was solid as always.
The pass rush was scary weak and the Hawaii dude looked like the second coming of Alama-Francis.
I didn't see J. Davis at all (not sure if he played).
I didn't watch the second half.

 

[LionsWhyMe]

Edited.