Focused on Walker’s 2nd half play and he is no Lang [yet]; but was unbelievable for an UDFA/street FA that probably didn’t get one rep w/ starters this year and got called in to game cold w/o warning. I bet Indy wants him back now. He gave up no pressures and showed great quickness to thwart Donald’s pass rush, though Donald and Brockers did push him back a few times on run plays. Did not see him make any plays on the 2nd level; but he’d definitely got the feet to be effective there. He gave ground a few times on bullrushes; but anchored before any pressure. He also showed good awareness. It looked like he picked up all the correct blitzers; it looked like he picked up the right guy on stunts. On 2nd play of 3rd drive of 2nd half drive Walker help Linsley stop Brockers then showed good agility peeling back to help Bulaga.
At clubhouse live Walker said he never played Tackle before. He was told by Staff if he could play Tackle it'd enhance his opportunity for the 53. He stayed in GB in the off-season to work on his body and footwork. Juxtaposing this info against hi splay at tackle and we could be very happily surprised by this guy next year.
OG Reynolds cheap-shotted Raji. I cant see Fisher ordering a “hit,” wonder if Williams said something to Reynolds. Dirty bastards.
Luis, agree Rollins' 1st INT might have been “lucky.” But how many times do we see guys drop these wide open INTs. The second one was pure brilliant zone coverage. Rollins dropped into his zone and bumped and directed Bailey to the middle zone all the while keeping his eyes on Foles. Austin was open to Rollins left in front of Hayward. As Rollins watched Foles looking at Austin, Rollins slid over to his left and when Foles began to throw Rollins broke on the ball. The ball hit his outstretched hands and kinda started to squirt out; but with total poise he didn’t think of running first; he maintained 100% focus on grabbing the ball and twisting as he went down so as to land on his back w/ ball on his chest. 2nd year in football for this guy, he is going to be a gem.
PFF listed Palmer as one of the worst ILBs and credited him for running wrong way on Gurley’s long run, which I believe is WRONG! He didn’t run the wrong way, Palmer’s key was the FB and mirrored him perfectly and was assignment sure. It was Daniels crashing inside and Elliot rushing upfield that created the truck sized whole. Then a hold by Bailey of Hayward, who should have been more physical getting off it and a missed tackle by Hyde in open field.
Saw Thomas took a bad angle and hit Cunningham who broke tackle on the 3rd and 18 just before 60 yard FG miss. But the guy was a stud in coverage. When was the last time we saw a 3rd and 10 and WR catches the ball at 12 yards in the middle of the field w/ only heads and arms of Packers on the edge of the TV? Thomas is a baby Urlacher in deep middle coverage. And he has missed 2 tackles this year when he’s 10-12 yards deep and comes flying up after the ball is dumped to a back near LOS.
On “wasted” challenges: agreed there are circumstances that could warrant a bad challenge, especially if you have 2 in 4th Q. And challenges have become less valuable now that all scoring and turnover plays are automatic and all plays are reviewed in last 2 min. But, these Refs were HORRIBLE, EG, there was no excuse for missing the Janis touchback. And surely this is how this crew rolls unless they had a bad day; if you know the crew is bad ya cant afford to waste one in the 2Q.