Skins beat J Hole

Skins pull out a win yesterday. Didn’t care so much for the win as much as I liked that we fought hard against a team that needed that win for their own playoff hopes. Here are my general thoughts:

1. Defense was big. More than half of the defense was backups. Three fourths of the secondary was backups. Two thirds of our D line was backups. We were missing arguably our best players in Landry and Orakpo but still the defense played well recording 4 sacks, 2 INTs, and forcing Garrard to fumble twice. Really liked the play of Rob Jackson and the NT Bryant. Kevin Barnes was also solid. It was good to see some of the young guys get a chance and step up. I also liked that we attacked Garrard more. We blitzed and blitzed effectively. We were able to get pressure and a lot of credit goes to the DBs for covering guys without additional help because of sending more guys at the QB. The big concern with the group is that they need to do it on a consistent basis.

2. Rexy was okay. Wasn’t good but wasn’t terrible. Pretty uneventful for him and didn’t really do anything that made you comfortable that he is the solution at QB. Still, I was fine with him. He didn’t blow it. I also didn’t like the play calling. We did not commit at all to the run in the first half. Not sure if that was the game plan against J Hole or if it was to get Rexy more reps and opportunities to help evaluate him. Either way, didn’t like the play calling.

3. Gano. Gano? GaYES!!! The guy made a couple of long FGs and then put the game away in OT. So good job by him and at least saved his job for this week.

4. Cooley. What was up with him? Dropped at least 4 passes. The most silly was the short pass in the end zone where he was wide open and the ball was right in his hands. He is a good player and he just had an off day. His TD drop didn’t hurt us as we ended up scoring on the next play. Still, it was tough to see such a good player struggle the way he did. I don’t expect that to happen often.

Not a whole lot else. Again, felt like the story of the game was our defense and how well this group of backups played. We finish up with the Giants next week and the game will have meaning as it is a divisional game. We got embarrassed by them a few weeks ago in NY so we will want to play better. We will be at home and most importantly, the G-men need the win for a possible playoff berth. They have been embarrassed the last two weeks so no doubt they will be fired up for the game. Hopefully we can play spoilers to them and finish on a high note.

HAIL SKINS!!!