Ultimate disclaimer here, nothing I’m about to say really means anything at this point. The first preseason game mostly features back-ups, and guys fighting for roster spots with starters only taking a few snaps to help ease them back into things. Still, I’m excited to see stat lines and there were some interesting things that happened.
First things first. Julio Jones had over 100 yards receiving (with a TD) on 6 reception. I didn’t get to watch the game so I don’t know if that’s anywhere near as impressive as it sounds, but it sounds pretty damn impressive. Especially considering this was against the Ravens defense. Just to give you some perspective though, the Ravens new back-up QB Curtis Painter was 7/14 throwing for 76 yards with 3 TDs.
Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning combined to go 11/24 for 96 yards, no TDs and 2 INTs (Manning and Rodgers accounted for the picks.) Again, this means nothing, less than nothing in the case of these guys, I just find it interesting and worthy of note.
RG3 went 4/6 for 70 yards and a TD and avoided getting sacked. I know doesn’t sound like it should be an accomplishment, but there were some articles floating around NFL.com earlier about Griffin saying he was totally okay with not getting sacked in the preseason and Mario Williams saying he told the rookie QB he’d be coming for him, so figured I’d toss that in. One more thing: 3 of Griffin’s 4 completions were to Pierre Garcon. That could be a pairing to watch, see if the rookie continues to play favorites in preseason.
Ryan Matthews is already injured. The good news is he’s only expected to miss 4-6 weeks which at best puts him right on the brink of returning for the opener, and at worst puts him out for the first few weeks of the season. The article I’m hoping I correctly linked to is calling it a “bad luck” injury, but if that’s the case maybe we need to consider the fact that Matthews is under some sort of voodoo curse. In all seriousness though, I wish the guy a speedy recovery, he’s a heck of a player.
38.895112 -77.036366
