The whole league was watching McV's team in Week 1 after he simply skipped the PS. They saw a team that operated fast and confidently. Rust? Maybe a bit. But not much and nowhere near enough to put us in trouble.
I was watching the after talk and saw an on-field interview with Gurley. This was later, after he had showered and donned some sort of weird shorts outfit.
Anyway, the interviewer was asking about the up-tempo offense. Gurley referred to the way McV ran practice. Extensive, up-tempo sequences of plays run. Emulating game intensity.
Gurley spoke casually, but his account really stuck with me. By all accounts, McV's practices are disciplined and highly organized. That offense DRILLS, and what we saw Monday night was that it translated damn well to the game.
I was reminded of stuff I'd read about how the elite invasion forces like the Airborne were prepared for D-Day. If you read
Band of Brothers, guys like Winters were so highly trained that when they entered combat for the 1st time, they functioned really well. This is obviously not true of all troops. But the elite units have training that carries them past inexperience and into combat. It can be done.
My sense is that McV understands how to do elite-level training and prepare an offense to hit the ground in its 1st game running. You know, people speak of the offense starting slowly. But it was by no means a shambles. Plays ran well and we gained some yards. A couple key passes narrowly missed. But that offense was in a general sense ready to play, it got few opportunities, and, in my view, the plays it was running set up the plays that worked a little later. It very steadily built up momentum and soon was running with long steps.
For example: set aside for a moment the passes that just missed. Look at the OL, most of whom did not play at all in the PS. Now, anyone who has played in the OL knows that the key to its performance lies in integrating and synching. Of course, we did not play an elite DL, but our OL functioned like a really well synched, coordinated unit. It looked good throughout. It was, in short, READY. Without PS experience.
I just think McV has made a statement to the league. You can prep an offense in practice. Of course the scrimmage helped, but scrimmages can always be arranged. Playing solidly to really well Mon. night, we put a big hole in the sides of the U.S.S. NFL Pre-Season's claim to relevance.
