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Hey all, last night I wrapped up the offense, so today let's tackle the defense. First off, some overall observations:
- The defensive line looks fantastic, though I am worried thats largely in comparison to the not-so-great looking offensive line.
- The only main cog I didn't see blitz yesterday was Deon Grant. The defense is so very different from last year. Bradley is not afraid to send any one player; he trusts the scheme and trusts the players to hold their assignments. On one play, Hill came up showing blitz, ran between the tackles to pick up the RB and opened the way for Tatupu coming right on his heels, forcing a quick throw to Morrah (who dropped it with LoJack in coverage). It looked like a running play.
- The secondary remains a bit suspect. That is to be expected without the best member (Trufant) out there, but its still noteworthy.
- Every member of our defense moves around a bit, there is just a ton of motion. We haven't seen that in years past. A few times the tackles swapped spots right before the snap, and at least twice Kerney moved inside basically as a LB in the 3-3 defense. Mebane was an end! Just a lot of looks we've never seen these guys doing.
On to the detailed breakdown... Click Read More to continue.
Defensive Line
Brandon Mebane has one of the quickest first steps I've ever seen. He is so disruptive it's almost unbelievable to watch him get penetration. There was one snap where he was literally past the center and guard before the ball got to the QB (in a shotgun formation). He has slimmed down and looks natural in the three-tech. We should all be thanking our lucky stars that California didn't know how to use Mebane, because this guy could've been a first or early second rounder if they had.
Colin Cole does his job very well: he absorbs men at the line and makes Brandon Mebane look like a Pro-Bowler.
Red Bryant is the biggest human being alive. Maybe not, but he honestly looks a bit like Andre the Giant and a couple of times he was almost singlehandedly responsible for destroying an offensive play. He doesn't just take two blockers, he eats them up and spits them out where he wants them to go.
Patrick Kerney appears healthy and seemed to be moving around a lot, sliding inside at least twice and dropping into fairly effective coverage a couple of times.
Lawrence Jackson looked pretty good too, getting some solid penetration twice. He looks good, but not yet "very good." I am reserving judgment until we see him in a game time situation. He had one sack where it looked like he just came in untouched, while two others blitzed and probably would've gotten to the Q if LoJack hadn't gotten there first.
Darryl Tapp continues to look fantastic. He has definitely bulked up in the offseason, and it would appear that the additional upper body strength is helping him to break away from the tackles a bit easier. On one play, Tapp had a nice sack but it was made possible by Red Bryant just absolutely absorbing two blockers and basically nullifying the tackle by pushing the G and C to his right.
Baraka Atkins looks the part, but continues to do little to set himself a part. You can tell that the team wants him to succeed, and at times last year he played quite well, but there just wasn't really much noteworthy last night or in the first practice.
Nick Reed, however, has been setting himself apart (as Mike Sando noted this morning). Reed blew past the tackle two or three times with one "sack" and another broken running play. He has got a motor that doesn't stop, and appears to have very good feet. While he is small (6'0", 245 lbs), Reed proved in the Pac-10 that he can find a way to get to the QB setting school records in sacks and tackles-for-loss, and placing 4th all time in Pac-10 sack numbers (29.5).
Linebackers
Lofa Tatupu is blitzing more and looking great doing it. He definitely appears to be back to his old form and that pretty much says it all.
Leroy Hill was not doing as much blitzing as I would expect, but that's okay. He looked good too. Not much to say about the LB position without Curry, is there? They're solid. We get it.
David Hawthorne didn't seem quite as disruptive as he has been in the past, but he still looks good enough to make this team. One thing for him to be concerned about is Nick Reed, as both Hawthorne and Reed would make the 53-man roster on special teams. Edge goes to Hawthorne right now, but Reed could be the pre-season sensation who might not clear waivers. Doubtful, though.
Secondary
Brian Russell looked pretty good at safety and I think he will end up winning the starting spot (no shock). The only thing noteworthy though was that Russell was the only person to miss on the punt block drills, and he looked mighty silly doing it.
Deon Grant Without Trufant practicing, Grant easily looks like the strongest member of the secondary. He looked good.
Jordan Babineaux looked pretty good for most of the night, including one solid blitz where he almost got to the QB. It's hard to say in this scenario whether he would, because in real game situations of course he wouldn't be letting up prior to hitting, rather he would accelerate. There was one play though where TJ Duckett had broken free and Babs came up to make the tackle. Duckett just stiff armed him down to the ground -- absolute dominance.
Courtney Greene didn't really catch my eye.
Josh Wilson was solid in coverage and better in blitzing, including one play where he came in almost undetected. It was actually very unsuccessful thanks to an incredible block by Griffith, but Wilson's speed and quick feet serve him well in the blitz game.
Ken Lucas might not be the savior we want him to be. He got abused by Housh (as discussed yesterday) and at one point had a good shot at an interception; Butler beat him downfield (Butler beats greyhounds downfield), but the ball was underthrown and looked like Lucas would have it. Butler came back for it and practically leaped over Lucas to make an amazing catch. I think I forgot to write about the yesterday, but there ya go.
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But then what if Jones gets hurt again? I hope, reallly hope that our o-line looks bad because our d-line is so good, and not the other way around.