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Hi Folks,

We're heading into the heat of preseason this week as tons of camp
battles are decided and players start to emerge.

Slow news today so I'm going to switch gears a little tonight.
I've got a prototype feature of something I've been kicking around
for a while.

It's a quick summary look at each game with an eye towards Fantasy
Football. Box scores are fine and the detailed play by plays are
great, but there is no substitute for actually watching a game.

Let me know what you think about this and let me know how valuable
something like this would be during the regular season.


Check it out and lemme know what you think with an email to
bryant@f...

IMPORTANT - Also let me know if you're interested in being a
Footballguys.com contributor helping with these reports. See note
at the bottom of this message if you are.

Joe

--------------
Joe Bryant
Owner � www.Footballguys.com


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Here's a sample of a few games from yesterday:


New England vs Philadelphia

New England

*** Belichick let Brady and the rest of the offensive starters play
the whole first half.

*** WR -- Deion Branch looked good again, although he did fumble on
a hit by Levon Kirkland. He was the target of the first two plays
of the game, including an end around for 18 yards. Returned punts
and kicks well, which was one of the main reasons he was drafted in
the late 2nd. Had 3 receptions for 34 yards on 5 targets.

*** WR -- David Patten started opposite Branch. Had 4 receptions
for 32 yards on 7 targets (one picked). The INT was simply a great
play by Dawkins, who came in on the ball in zone coverage.

*** WR -- Troy Brown did not start, but he is fine. He came in to
play at the end of the first half and had two catches for 32 yards
as Brady led a solid two minute drive, culminating in a pick in the
end zone.

*** WR -- Hayes did not start, but got a lot of looks in the second
half. Brady's second INT in the first half was intended for him in
the back corner of the end zone; the ball was under thrown. He
ended up with 4 receptions for 27 yards on 6 targets.

*** RB -- Antowain Smith ran well (9 rushes for 34 yards) but was
not involved in the passing game. Expect Belichick to continue to
bring in Marc Edwards, Kevin Faulk, and Redmond throughout the year.

*** DEF -- The Patriots D was able to get a lot of pressure on
McNabb and was able to sack him once.

Philadelphia:

*** The Eagles starters were still a little sloppy, getting
penalized 8 times in the first half.

*** QB -- *** McNabb played well but threw only three passes to his
starting wide receivers - a 12 yarder to Pinkston, a 6 yarder to
Thrash, and an incomplete pass to Mitchell.

*** RB -- Duce had three receptions on six targets, bobbling three
decently thrown passes.

*** RB -- Dorsey only had three carries and no receptions on two
targets.

*** DEF -- The Eagles defense, particularly the secondary, looked
great as expected. Dawkins and 1st round CB Lito Sheppard both
intercepted Brady in the fist half. They blitzed a lot, but were
unable to get a sack even against an injury depleted Pats O line.


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Carolina vs Dallas:

Carolina

*** QB -- Chris Weinke had a strong performance using a ball control
offensive scheme. He made good reads and got the ball off quickly
to the open receivers. A defensive pass interference penalty cost
Weinke about 40 yards on a bomb to Muhammad.

*** RB -- Lamar Smith started the game and made excellent reads and
busted through the holes created by the offensive line for two solid
gains but was pulled on 3rd and Long situations for DeShaun Foster.
He lacked the ability to break tackles and beat the defense to the
outside on tosses and sweeps.

*** RB -- DeShaun Foster ran very well by breaking tackles and
picking his holes to run through. One run he was tripped up for a 4
yard gain when he could have had a 12+ yard run if he regained
balance. He lined up as a WR and caught a quick hitch for a 3 yard
gain and also motioned out of this formation to back behind Weinke
for several trap plays for nice gains. Foster showed better speed
through the holes and bouncing outside than Smith. On a 3rd and 1
he was pulled for Lamar Smith which could also mean in the red zone
he would also be pulled.

*** WR -- Muhsin Muhammad had a very light game but the Panthers
were setting him up with their play calling. In the first series,
they ran a few dive plays and a hitch to Steve Smith then play-
actioned to Muhammad going deep which ended up in defensive pass
interference. On the second series, they ran a few trap plays and a
quick dump to Brad Hoover then play-actioned to Muhammad for a 5
yard gain.

*** WR -- Steve Smith started opposite of Muhammad and looked like a
solid number two WR by getting good separation from the defensive
backs and not dropping passes thrown in his direction. They threw
several quick passes to him for small gains and threw 2 deep passes
to him with one being a 31 yard TD.

*** TE -- Wesley Walls was hardly even glanced at and seemed to be
merely occupying a defender or two. He also was losing dump off
passes to the FB Brad Hoover and looked to be playing a lesser role
in the offense.


Dallas:

*** The offensive line that started contained several 2nd and 3rd
stringers which could not keep up with the Panthers defensive line
and allowed Carolina to stuff the run and place a lot of pressure on
the QBs during pass plays.

*** QB -- Quincy Carter made solid quick decisions and got the ball
off cleanly to the WRs when given time to set up. He had a few
passes that were dropped but the lack of production of the offense
he lead was from the inability of the RBs to get gains as they were
constantly getting stuffed.

*** QB -- Chad Hutchinson threw solid passes that hit the WRs in the
numbers except when going deep in which he overthrew several WRs and
under threw a TE. He also threw a couple passes to WRs running
different routes, was moving outside toward the defensive linemen
instead of stepping up into the pocket, and he ran out of bounds for
a long sack. At this moment, Hutchinson appears to be no where near
starting this season over Quincy Carter because of these rookie
mistakes.

*** WR -- Joey Galloway made a few good catches and found the soft
spots in the defense but did not overly impress.

*** WR -- Antonio Bryant started in the place of injured WR Raghib
Ismail and played quite well. He made several catches with
defenders on top of him and also broke away from defenders on short
crossing routes for 1st downs. He had one dropped pass but also got
a defensive pass interference on a slant. Could turn out to have a
decent season if Ismail or Galloway goes down during this season.

*** Dallas played a lot of two TE formations but rarely threw the
ball in their direction. During their only red zone appearance TE
James Whalen caught a pass to get them to the 11 yard line and was
under thrown on a deep pass pattern later in the game.

*** PK -- Tim Seder is getting solid competition from Billy Cundiff
and could possibly lose his job as Cundiff made a 52 and a 32 yard
FG but Seder kicked equally well making a 49 and a 25 yard FG.

*** DEF -- Dallas' defense missed a lot of tackles and allowed big
holes that allowed way to many running yards but played solid in the
secondary allowing only a 31 yard TD and long pass interference
which allowed a FG opportunity.


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Indianapolis vs Cincinnati


Indianapolis

*** The game was played without the Bengals' and Colts' top two
running backs

*** QB -- Peyton Manning played three series. The first series, he
looked good as he completed his first five passes, and drove the
Colts into field goal range. However, the Colt threat ended with a
poorly-thrown interception. His second drive resulted in one first
down (ending at above midfield), and his third drive was three and
out.

*** WR -- Marvin Harrison had a couple of nice receptions (one of
them kept Manning's first drive alive). But he was guilty of a
stupid unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a pass reception deep
in Colts territory. The penalty resulted in the Colts punting from
the 10 yard line when they could have punting from the 20 yard line

*** RB -- Starting halfback Jim Finn did not look good. The
majority of his 37 yards was in a single series with Huard as
quarterback.


Cincinnati

*** QB -- Bengals starting QB Gus Frerotte played three series.
Frerotte looked impressive in the first drive, leading the Bengals
down to the Colts 30 yard line...then he threw a poorly-thrown
interception that was returned for a touchdown. The other two
drives ended in Bengal territory.

*** QB -- Jon Kitna played one full series, and looked good as he
completed seven passes to five different receivers. The result was
the Bengals lone score of the first half, a field goal.

*** QB -- Akili Smith played the entire second half, and again
looked very good against a second and third team defense.
Officially, he was 9 for 16, but several of the incompletions were
either dropped balls, balls that should have been caught, or in one
instance he was throwing the ball away.

*** RB -- In their battle for the Bengals #3 RB, Rudi Johnson and
Curtis Keaton alternated possessions throughout the game. Keaton
was the more effective rusher (most of Johnson's rushing yards
happened late in the fourth quarter against the Colts' backups). but
Johnson was effective as a pass receiver. Both capitalized on their
red zone opportunities. Keaton had a 10 yard TD rush which was
called back for a penalty, and he later scored from the one yard
line. Johnson, similarly scored from the one yard line late in the
fourth quarter.

*** Keaton was effective as a kick-off returner...he had a nice 30
yard return called back for a penalty.

*** PK -- In their battle for the place kicker position, both Travis
Dorsch and Neil Rackers were successful in their attempts. Dorsch
kicked two field goals (29 and 33 yards) and an extra point, while
Rackers had one FG (for 43 yards). If it boils down to
kickoffs...Rackers kicks the ball farther, yet Dorsch kicks the ball
higher. When Rackers kicks off, the Colts start around the 30 yard
line, when Dorsch kicks off, the Colts start at the 20.


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Green Bay vs Arizona


Green Bay

*** QB -- Favre was throwing heat tonight and looking at Walker a
lot. Brett was throwing so hard that he even got a chuckle about
how the velocity.

*** RB -- Green has only one weakness and that is fumbling. He
started the night off with a 10 yard run followed by a fumble trying
to get extra yardage. He still ran with authority and is clearly in
for a big year. Remember that fumbles had a good bit to do with
Green's departure from Seattle early in his career.

*** WR -- Donald Driver and Charles Lee started the game and each
had their moments to shine. Each know the offense very well, but
both will be fighting for time on the field. Javon Walker was
getting a lot of looks tonight and is showing that he has the
ability to be something special.

*** TE -- Bubba dropped his only pass thrown to him tonight. If he
had been a yard further down the field he probably would have caught
it.

*** K -- Longwell looked good tonight as he hit a 47 yard field
goal, but more importantly he was booming his kickoffs.

*** D -- The Packers D will dominate any team that is unable to or
unwilling to run the ball. They are probably the deepest team in
the league with guys who can get after the QB.

*** EXTRA: Mark Tauscher did start tonight which is a big boost for
the offensive line.


Arizona

*** QB -- Jake Plummer looked lost tonight and locked in on David
Boston for help. If he is going to turn into a "franchise" QB this
year he certainly didn't show it tonight.

*** RB -- Thomas Jones got a TD on a shortened field scoring
opportunity for the Cards. The O-line looked brutal and TJ's fumble
sent an outmatched Cardinal team further into its shell.

*** WR -- David Boston weighed in at 240lbs this week. He is big,
he is bad, and despite the fact that Darren Sharper was laying out
hits for most of the night when Sharper and Tyrone Williams both
went in to "Malachi" crunch Boston both got sent packing as David
was too big to take down.

*** TE -- Freddie Jones will be used a lot because there doesn't
appear to be many other players ready to be the next option behind
Boston.

*** D -- This might be a long year for the Cardinal defense. The
Packers toyed with them the whole night.

*** EXTRA: Leonard Davis did not play tonight due to a neck injury.


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Let us know if you found these bullet style summaries of value.

Thanks to contributing writers Fred Hebert, Jeffrey Stout, Kathleen
Moore and Dan Henry for their input.


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That'll do it for tonight, Folks. See you tomorrow.

Joe

--------------
Joe Bryant
Owner � www.Footballguys.com


NOTE: If you'd like to possibly be a contributor to this Game Notes
feature, here's what you need to do. Find a game you can watch as
soon as possible (tonight's Monday Night game would be great) and
create a report based on the following questions for each team:

1. Players that looked great and why.
2. Players that looked bad and why.
3. Plays that "should have" happened but were called back from
penalty or bad play. (ie - Peyton Manning had a 50 yard sure TD that
Harrison dropped. Or Edgerrin James had a 10 yard rush TD that was
called back for holding)
4. Who's getting the Red Zone looks / touches?
5. Any trends developing (ie - QB locking onto one WR, or RB being
used as a receiver more)

It's a summary, so be concise with your words. Also try to keep
opinion at a minimum and just let me know what it was you saw.

Put together a report and emial to me at bryant@f... and
I'll evaluate and let you know if we should discuss further.

Joe

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