AZ54

Bazuin sucked last night. San Fran often lined up the LT and a TE over him and then the TE just blocked down. Sometimes the LT doubled him and others he would pull back to the outside. Not once did I see Bazuin follow the LT and get upfield.

It appears Rashied Davis has put himself into the lead here to start at one of the slots. Who starts alongside him? I think at this point it will be Hester splitting time with Lloyd. Davis will move to the slot when we go with 3 WR sets. We know Bennett will be on the roster so after tonight IMO that leaves Booker fighting Bradley for the 5th spot. What do you value? Booker's experience in route running and blocking ability or Bradley's athleticism for big plays (not that he made many)? Anybody else notice Bradley on special teams tonight? Neither has impressed me and I'm 50-50 between them.

Nothing good to say about our D at all, from first string all the way down to the cutdown players. Oline was solid on pass protection but rarely opened a hole to run through. I'm surprised to say this but Orton was the bright spot today.

Apparently nobody. Yet for some reason everyone cares about our Oline stats during preseason. And Kyle Orton's stats, and Rex's stats, DManning, McGowan, and many other players who have been criticized. Why is Booker getting a free pass for doing so little while others get criticized for every little mistake or plays they are not making?

Boldin has 3 more seasons on his contract. So yes the Cards might lose him down the road but it's quite a way out there. He's bitchin' after he got his rookie contract torn up after just two seasons. The Cards treated him very fairly and I can't respect him for this at all.

You think Booker fully knows all of our WR positons? Fine. I understand what he's done in his career but even he admitted to still learning the offense just a little over a week ago. This is a huge vote of confidence from a guy who watched all of training camp: http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/cs...,3834775.column "Booker, while looking every bit of 32, has proved himself a reliable receiver and should get the benefit of the doubt. Can a team so thin on the offensive line keep six receivers?" So far his 1 reception in the preseason "that doesn't count" hasn't impressed me that much. Neither has his one drop. It's preseason but I think that two QBs who are fighting for a starting job would look for the WR they have the most confidence in. They don't appear to going Booker's way. I still maintain that Booker makes the final roster because that's the Lovie Smith way and he may well be our best option. Fair enough, however, at this point he doesn't appear to be a starting WR for us. On top of that, if he weren't performing well enough I suspect JA would have cut him by now to allow him time to find another team. None of that changes the fact that I'd like to see more from Booker. I still want to see Hass get some time with the first team offense this game. It's time to settle the question of can he play against a first string D. Since Booker apparently knows all he needs to know to play for us, and since he doesn't care to step up and compete in the preseason, he can take a seat for a few plays. The only way Hass makes the team is if we keep 6 WR.

I don't understand all the bashing of Bazuin who has played a total of about 4 quarters in the NFL. Here's some preseason stats for comparison: tackles/solo sacks Mark AndersonCHI DE 0 0 0 0.0 Dan Bazuin CHI DE 5 5 0 0.0 (missed sack when he overran QB in endzone) Alex Brown CHI DE 2 2 0 1.0 Adewale OgunleyeCHI DE 2 2 0 1.0 Israel Idonije CHI DE 2 2 0 1.0 I keep hearing Bazuin has done nothing yet he has more tackles than Mark Anderson and both are backup DEs. For sure Bazuin is getting more time late in the games than either of the top 3 but Anderson is getting time against backups too. Isn't he supposed to shine then? Sure he had one nice outside/inside move and got pressure on the QB against KC yet Bazuin has done the same. I guess people want to cut Bazuin so we can keep the great Israel Idonije at DE who did this last year: G TCKLS SOLO AST SACKS INT YDS AVG LG TD 16 20 14 6 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 Idonije is going to get a look at DE tomorrow; with his added 30lbs but I suspect he won't be as fast or agile turning the corner as he was last year, and he wasn't good at it last year. We need 4 DEs on our roster because we must have 3 who can rotate within a game. I'll be the one wild card and say that Idonije is getting time at DE because he can be active for game days and still fill in there in case of injury during a game. I don't think it's the coaches intention to use him as the primary DE backup as they did last year. I think Bazuin has been far from awful, as many suggest, and I expect he'll show more progress this game as he did against Seattle. JA won't be too quick to give up on a 2nd Rd pick after 6-8 quarters of football. I want to add that in the last game Idonije showed more at DT with his new physique than I've seen from him in 4 years at either DE or DT. I want to see him repeat that again tomorrow but remember San Fran will be playing backup OG/OT as their starters. DT may be the right spot for him and the combo of Harris, Dusty, Adams, Harrison, and Idonije is looking pretty good to me right now. I'll stick with DE of Brown, Anderson, Bazuin, Ogun Harrison and Bazuin will be inactive on game days until there's an injury.

I'm not freaking out over Tait either. I didn't like how he played but he's transitioning from LT to RT (again). He'll get his footwork down and be quite a bit better than Miller was last year.

I agree with that, leave Davis right where he is at TE.

You're worried about losing JT O'Sullivan?

I already stated my thoughts on Booker a week ago. From some quick searching I don't see where he got a signing bonus. He's done very little to make an impression so far and that's been stated in several articles. I believe out of respect for him it's been kept quiet. One of the reasons I said the battle could be between Booker/Bradley/Hass is because we might need Bookers cap space to sign Oline help. If there just isn't that big of a gap between him and Bradley or Hass then a GM would have to look at the big picture. I don't expect Booker is getting cut simply because of his veteran status (that's the way Lovie is) but based on what he's done so far if it were me making the decision I wouldn't rule it out. I listed Booker as the 5th WR and he's not contributing on special teams. Hass knows all WR positions Booker does not, Hass has been playing on special teams. Hass also did a good job on run blocking against Seattle. As far as I'm concerned Booker had his chances with 1's and 2's the first two games. It's time we get Hass out there for a few plays with the first team to see what he can do. I expect Lloyd, Davis, Hester to start against San Fran but I'd like to see a few plays in the second quarter with Hass out there. If Hass can't cut it against a first string defense then he's an easy cut but I'd much rather see him get an opportunity before we write him off.

This thread is too long for such a simple question but I'm jumping in. I do feel our Oline struggles against stunts and it's been this way for at least a couple years. However, they really struggle against 3-4 defenses. Kyle Orton said it best though that the whole pass protection thing against blitzes (stunts whatever) is a unit evaluation not just Oline. Over last year at the top of the list Fred Miller, Metcalf, Ced, AP, and Rex all had breakdowns resulting in a sack or bad play. Not everyone made the boneheaded play everytime but as fans the cumulative effect shows clearly. Defenses know this and they don't bank on any single guy making the mistake but rather that one will be made and our QB and WR weren't good enough to overcome it. I am not a fan of Hiestand and made that clear last year. I've never figured out his love affair with Metcalf who IMO has never looked good in a game. Nobody seems to develop with this guy. He hated Beekman all preseason and yet he hasn't been anwhere near as bad as Metcalf was last year. He said Beekman was too small to play the position yet Garza is the exact same size? And worst of all, Hiestand said the Oline was playing well last year and fans didn't know what they were talking about. The right QB would help overcome some of this. Some hot reads for WRs would help too. Do we ever do that? So would having a WR who can beat a tackle and take it the distance.

It was a lousy draft so who was going to trade up to get one those guys?

I've seen one reception from Booker and that doesn't thrill me and neither does Joe Horn.

I didn't see nearly as many bliztes when Kyle was in the game but we also have to consider that one of his series was a 2-min drill and Seattle might have been content to play a bit more prevent D. Hester is ridiculously fast...I feel Kyle underthrew the pass to him and he had to slow up a bit. Regardless, he was close to completing the pass. Given all the starters practice reps and game time will give him better timing with Hester. Now it's time to name the starting WR so they can get on the same page as Orton.

I hope he does because he hasn't done much to impress me yet. Starting WR will be Davis, Hester, Lloyd backed up by Bennett and Booker. If we go with 6 Hass joins the mix.

I don't have the time to review the game right now (work schedule) but even my son was laughing at his blocking on the first offensive series. He had no idea who it was but he quickly pointed out that he wiffed on two blocks. This was while watching the game on my computer. Saw the same thing via DVR the next day. As the game went on Forte became better at blocking but he was still getting moved around and/or pushed backwards. If you want to say that gives a QB time to throw that's fine but I prefer to see him stop a guy cold once in awhile. As I've alluded to in other posts, I think a large part of this is his inexperience in knowing who to block as a consequence he doesn't arrive at the point of contact with his base set. The progress made during the game gives me hope he'll learn and improve but I won't sit here and say he was great nor even good at picking up the blitz in that game. I think for his size Forte isn't that big of a RB (listed at 6-2 210lbs during the game but 216lb on the roster) and I expect he'll add some muscle and strength in the next offseason with Rusty. For comparison Thomas Jones is listed at 5-10 215lbs. Kevin Jones is dropping weight to get down to 220lbs and he's 6'-0". I think Forte will be at a solid 220-225lb next year and it won't affect his agiility. There were many individual breakdowns in pass protection against Seattle above all the Oline and RB must stop the free man coming up the middle so Orton can step up. I don't see either of our OT stopping speed rushers cold, they'll likely always try to push them behind the pocket. Seattle threw a lot at us but I'm hearing that San Fran will do the same Thursday night. Hopefully we'll get to see some improvement.

Olsen has never made a great catch? http://video.aol.com/video-detail/cant-mis...atch/1664916259 http://www.nfl.com/videos;jsessionid=6E8AB...9000d5d8030e9ac

Barton may develop for us. He looked good out there. He definitely needs a year to work on his strength. Beekman as well but I'd also like to see better run blocking from him too. We'll need to replace Garza and for sure we'll need Kreutz replacement in a couple years. I assume Williams will be back next year. I hope Tait improves but maybe this is the end of the line for him. Anyone else catch the line in the article on William's injury about how he was told not to do squats during his Freshman year? Seems clear to me the connection between that and his lack of strength in run blocking. If his back truly is healthy now he may come back stronger next year.

Orton...did nothing that thrilled me but probably wins job by default. Forte...runs well, even makes great moves at times. He knows how to get skinny in the hole to squeeze through for a few yards and has the balance and vision to find holes on the backside of the play. Needs to learn who to block and when he does block he needs to not get run over. Lloyd ...did good things as a WR but matador-style run blocking sucks Bennett...gotta stop dropping 3rd down passes. Harrison...kids gonna be good if he stays out of trouble. Idonije...totally proved me wrong. He's been nothing but average at DE/DT for years why did it take this staff so long to tell him to bulk up to play DT? Graham did well but nothing that really stands out. Steltz played poorly, late in pass coverage, very late in run support and doesn't hit well. His speed is second rate. K. Davis is going to be a big part of our offense for years to come. Grossman...I don't think he played as poorly as sh*t. Overall he was decent and it would have been nice if he had the same time to throw that Orton had. He didn't do enough to win the QB job IMO. Bazuin...why is he absolutely useless? He made a nice inside move and got pressure on the QB in the endzone and the end result of the play was a TD by Graham. He had other plays where he got pressure on the QB and had at least one tackle for a loss on a running play shedding the OT block to get inside. He is not a great outside speed rusher but he has enough speed to get around the end if he learns how to use his strength to turn the corner. In the goal line stands late in the game he was the only player on the backup Dline who didn't get pushed backwards and actually had a nice push upfield. From game 1 to game 2 he showed improvement and seemed more comfortable in the scheme than last week flowing better to the ball. OTOH Ervin Baldwin got pushed around all day even though he got one uncontested sack. Bazuin makes the team as our 4th DE. Bradley...he's breathing because he stays away from contact. Seems to stay away from the football too. Give me Hass, a football player, over Bradley. DManning...I didn't see him do much at all neither good nor bad. He was out there and in on tackles and had a couple decent special teams plays. LG...the guy you want to replace got beat once that I could see and that was on a stunt and he still recovered well enough to slow the guy down. Why do you want to replace him? I'll say right now that he is going to be our starter and Metcalf goes back to the bench. It's also interesting how Beekman has the same physical stats 6'2" 310 lbs as Garza yet the coaches don't complain about Garza's stature. Beekman played better than Garza too. LT...never saw St Clair get beat by his man and that's watching plays in slo-mo. I will say that his man got around the edge deep a few times but St Clair remained in contact with him. Normally the QB steps up and nobody thinks anything of this, happens to our DEs all the time. Instead Grossman backpedaled due to pressure up front. Why do you want to replace him? RT...Tait got beat several times early but looked better heading into the second quarter. One one play Tait was completely turned around by the DE and was blocking with his back. Not sure what that technique is called. RT part 2...I didn't see Barton get beat and again when his man made an outside rush he stayed in contact pushing him behind the pocket. He doesn't have great push on run blocks but he holds his ground. He's a good prospect for us. RG...Garza did not look good, got moved back off the LOS several times and got beat on several pass rush moves. The right side of our line was not good yesterday. Other Oline...Oakley he's ok. Reed can't block anyone, looks alot like Metcalf does when he reaches out and touches nothing but air. Balogh...bad at LT. Gets pushed all over the field, can't pass protect either.

After watching the game via DVR the left side of our Oline was far BETTER than the right side. St Clair and Beekman both held up well on their individual blocks, as did Kreutz. The right side, in particular Tait early in the game, was poor. Garza didn't look good either. Seattle often brought extra guys and did a great job mixing up where they were coming from. Our line didn't handle the stunts well and when they did the RB (Forte) failed to make the block needed to give the QB time to get rid of the ball. As bad as it looked during the game (I was pretty upset myself) after rewatching it I don't think it's a total disaster and many things can be corrected. In fact, if Forte picks up a couple of blocks in the middle as is his responsibility Grossman would have the time needed to complete a pass. It was often that pressure up the middle that forced Grossman to stay deep in the pocket as pressure came around from the outside. Forte did look better as the game went along and I hope as he gets experience he'll get better. Here's my biggest gripe. When do our WRs break off their route when a blitz is on? On several of these plays Grossman had to wait for WR to run routes as deep as 15 yards. Remember the one where he lofted the ball for Davis way down field? I didn't see anyone run a short route on that play. When there's a blitz, especially 6 guys rushing the passer, the entire offense should adjust not just the Oline. Now on to Rex, on a couple of these plays he had guys underneath and didn't make the quick throw. On another play or two he didn't step into the throw even though pressure was coming up the middle the guy was blocked and he room to step into the throw. Same old Rex. I'll agree that Rex had to win the starting job and he didn't IMO. He wasn't as bad as he's been in the past but he didn't stand head and shoulders above Orton. Orton didn't stand out either but the tie goes to the QB with less experience and the arrow pointing up (I hope).

After watching the game via DVR among those three Bradley is going to go and the reason why may not be his route running (although I suspect it isn't great) his run blocking absolutely sucks. He makes no effort and seems to play this game while trying not to get hurt. He doesn't do much on special teams either (did block a punt when unblocked but who can't). For the record Lloyd's run blocking sucks too but he has been more productive in the receiving game.

We ran a lot of two TE sets yesterday. I'm going to give you all one more steal in this draft...Kirk Barton. Ok I can't call him a steal yet because I have no idea if he can develop into a starter in the league. However, he looked good playing against the backups yesterday and he has more mobility than I thought. He holds up well at the point of attack too but didn't really drive his guy off the ball. A year with Rusty can help that. I don't think I saw a play where his man beat him. I'll keep an eye on him the next couple games.

Forte's blocking improved as the game went on but he's not very stout and gets moved around a lot. Mostly it appears he uncertain of who to block. Seattle was bringing guys from all directions with stunts all over the place so that's not really a shock. This is only his second game in the NFL if anything it's good Forte got to see this now. Aside from that his ability to make something out of nothing is very good to see.

The nOline played as if they wanted Grossman to get hurt back there.