Late to the game, but here are my thoughts after a couple of days:
- AR looked better than I thought he would. Obviously still has a long way to go and needs to learn to not play hero ball w/ the run game, but he looked not overwhelmed at all and way more comfortable than I thought he would.
- I read in Atkins' "10 Thoughts" article that Downs was wide open a couple of times during the O's dry stretch and AR overlooked him. Not a surprise this happened w/ a rookie. I'm sure this will stand out on film and that AR will learn from this.
- OL's pass blocking was ok, but their run blocking was turrible. I saw a couple of you guys' commented some of that is due to the change in blocking schemes. Hope that's the case.
- The D played great for the most part with the DL looking about as good as they had in a long time. Just too much time on the field and put into too many bad spots by the O.
- Even though Steichen probably needs to dial it down, the 4th down decisions aren't as bad as you guys are saying. At least until at the end of the game. My thoughts:
- The first one was 4th and less than a yard. I think the bigger mistake was not asking for a measurement and review b/c we got screwed on the spot on the previous play. Also, I think Steichen may have learned his lesson that our OL is nowhere near as good as Philly's.
- The next 2 times were both from Jax 42, so out of FG range and really prime 4th down territory from a field position standpoint. With how well our D was playing in the 2nd half I really think we should have punted on the 3rd 4th down attempt.
- The final 2 were weird. We're down 10, only have 2 TOs, and it's under 2 mins. So we needed 2 scores and an onside kick recovery to tie/win. Probably makes more sense to kick the FG there (especially the 2nd time). Also, Steichen should have used his TOs to preserve some clock and get the O on the same page rather than have us rushing things.
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