Said going into the second game what I wanted to see was improvement over the first game. That was gonna be a tall order against one of the best defenses in the league.
Did I see it?
Well, lets take a look.
Starting first with our own defense: They went into the game down a starter (Horn) lost another in the first half (Thompson )and had a third look gimpy near game's end (Burns). Despite all that though, they held up well for a lot of the game. Certainly don't wanna see any more injuries, but I like what Evero is doing scheme-wise.
Mind you, the offense didn't make it easy.
The Saints defense is as advertised, and having a quarterback in only his second start going against them is a recipe for disaster.
But while it wasn't exactly a thing of beauty, it wasn't a disaster either.
Last week's biggest issue for Young was turnovers. This game he only lost one, and even that one I wouldn't put too much on him. The defensive lineman who smacked it out made a great play. That'll happen, but it's not the result of a bad decision so much as a missed block.
On that topic, yhe offensive line certainly had a bigger challenge than last week. And like the defense, they were down a starter. There were going to be struggles. In this case, enough that starter Cade Mays ended up taking a seat for Calvin Throckmorton. We're still at least a couple of weeks away from Austin Corbett being available again, so those struggles might still continue for a little bit.
In the passing game, I'm gonna guess the staff told Young to be more cautious about throwing to receivers with little separation.
Unfortunately, that seemed like all we had.
Two games in, what's painfully obvious is that our receiving corps isn't giving Young a lot to work with just yet. That left the Saints free to concentrate heavily on the run, and it worked. As a group, our pass catchers are generally smart with good hands, but there's not a lot of playmaking ability there.
Now, you can still work with that against some defenses, but not one as good as the Saints. The staff may need to tweak some of their scheming, mixing up route combinations or other things to try and compensate, but even with that it's likely to be a limitation for most if not all of this season.
So what about Bryce?
Well, besides overall protecting the ball better, he made some good audible calls and even ran a very efficient two minute drill. That's a maked improvement over last week when he looked uncomfortable doing anything up tempo. Yes, it was against prevent, but you still have to execute. He did, even when the Saints realized they'd screwed up and tried to tighten up at the goal line. The TD pass to Theilen was a really nice piece of improv. Happy to see it
So bottom line for me? Again, watching a rookie quarterback in only his second pro start playing against one of the best defenses in the league would normally fall under the genre of horror. In this case though, it was more of a thriller.
Is that improvement?
Yeah, I think it is
To anyone still looking for magic this season, you're probably gonna be disappointed. But if you put it in perspective and keep in mind where we are (basically mile two of a hundred mile journey) it's progress.
Slow progress maybe, but progress nonetheless.
And I'll take that...
