FanPost

Early Impressions of Sunday's Game

These are just crib notes. Observations I'm not hearin' or seein' here, yet.



Manningheim got the outside leverage on Flowers up in press at the line outta the slot, with Leggett on the far left. Leggett takes the outside leverage on the outside WR and Manningham loops toward the sideline. Flowers was too small and too slow to hang. Blame the safety if you want. Flowers was too small and too slow to hang. And Manningham isn't all that big. Flowers would've had a better chance as a FS on that one, making a play on the ball, rather than tryin' ta hang in single coverage.

A lotta talk here about the ArrowSpread while I was gone in Abalama. They haven't figured it all out, yet, but that offense is about a whisker away from being a solid, balanced unit that doesn't have to be fancy to be unpredictable. They've had early success slammin' LJ into the right side of the D (behind Waters, Niswanger, Albert), but they don't seem to know where to go from there. Maybe less arbitrary play mixing and just runnin' the same thing twice in a row right at 'em, instead of tryin' ta mix it up with the draw to LJ.

Maybe not line up in the wildcat, but run some other stuff out of a formation where the direct snap is possible, like the shotgun. Then let LJ either slam it or flea-flicker back to Cassel. There I go mixin' it up. Heh.

Seriously, I think they're within a whisker of executing something that is MUCH harder to defend than last year's Arrowspread, for the simple fact that Cassel is so much more accurate and, despite all (my) talk to the contrary, the right side of that O-Line IS evolving. First Ndukwe. Now O'Callaghan appears to be another step (maybe small) forward, and Ndukwe's free to move to RG, which is the NEXT development I'm hoping to see.

Defense is getting pressure, from the bits of the 1st quarter I've seen. Eli's having to get the ball out quickly and they were within a gnat's ass of getting a LB INT on the bobbled ball early.

I see a lot of things that are within "luck of the bounce" thtat are within this team's reach. Still have SERIOUS issues in the secondary. I think there're enough athletes (Leggett and Washington) on the roster to play aggressive against the extra-wides sets that I've been harpin' on since I joined AP (one of the reasons I was sanguine about Pollard's departure).

Offense and defense, they're pointed toward something very very good with the players they currently have. A little more team in their game, and they could do it.

Definitely have a shot against Washington and Dallas, imo. Came out the other side of this brutal 4-game stretch a little closer to being the kind of team I want to see.

They're due.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.