Here’s Merlin...
Some random thoughts I noticed in tonight's excellent game...
1. OL stepped it up after getting their asses kicked early. Even Boom (who still is not great in run blocking) had a pancake late where he almost got in a scrum about it post-play. It was nice though he drove his dude way out and flopped on him. Proud of how they hung in there and turned things around.
2. Blindside edge needs to be Hollins and Oko. I love Ebukam's hustle but his contain is not good he just doesn't have the instincts for it. And that's even with the excellent contain sack he had in the game. The TD run to his side late was the kind of contain you'd get from dudes on this board, i.e. completely nonexistent. Hollins is way more athletic than he looks and I love his ranginess the guy is a mini-Floyd. And him and Oko as the primary rotation would set us up best I think. This has been mentioned round these parts before but why not start working Ebukam on the interior and let him get comfortable doing that, which should help us with overall depth too.
3. Hill is gonna be Hill. The guy is kind of amazing, he looks like effing Deion some plays and on others like a guy who lacks instincts. But as a third CB he's better than most by a good shot. Glad to see him bounce back with that big TD return congrats and that was a huge play for us. He also had some nice breaks on the ball to go with his bonehead coverages.
4. We saw the future of our offensive backfield and it's not Todd Gurley in his prime but Akers/Hendy can be a really nasty matchup for defenses that are going to make them sweat. Sure felt good to see them make the Cards pay for some of their alignments.
5. How in the heck was Gay on the streets? His kick is explosive. Nice straight ball. I'm trying real hard not to get into puns here too. Oh and fire Bonamego and replace him with a cab driver please, we'll probably see some improvement.
6. Goff is going to get a great chance to get some revenge on Belicheat on Thursday. I think all the work they've done on blitzes and hots are good for him in prep for this too btw. Excited to see him get out there and do what you have to do vs Belichick which is be patient, take what is there, and take advantage of the rare mistakes when they happen. Because I think Belichick will take away the run game and the short passes to the outside. Thursday night will be a QB game IMO, it's a really big game for our young signal caller.
Overall we're 8-4 and in the division driver's seat. In a rebuild season that saw us replace Gurley and Cooks and change our DC. How nice is that eh?
