Before I go into detail, it was very apparent on my second watch that the defense was consistently playing at about 80%. They were going slow in pass rush, playing off in coverage, and slowing down before a tackle. They were playing to prevent injuries. It was a lot more extreme than you usually see in a spring game and I’m assuming it was by design to play a bit slower.

The best thing to start with is standout players. Who jumped out on tape?

1) Manasseh Garner. Garner, not Gardner. Garner is a physical specimen. He’s big, strong, fast, and is tough to bring down in the open field. Those are all important but if he can’t hold onto the ball it’s all for moot. No worries. Garner is a hands catcher and has the hand strength to make tough catches. He was the best offensive player out there at the spring game and it wasn’t even close. He has made Drew Carswell, who has a very similar skill set, and afterthought. As long as Garner, Holtz, and Orndoff stay healthy, Carswell will rarely see the field on offense.

2) Kevin Weatherspoon. The thing that jumped out to me is what Weatherspoon did after the catch. I used the phrase “wiggle” three separate times in my notes. When he gets the ball, he has the wiggle to get a few extra yards and some great acceleration. Weatherspoon is a perfect slot WR: he gets open quickly and can make a quick little move for 2-3 extra yards. He’ll compete with Ronald Jones for playing time.

3) LB corps, notably Mike Caprara, Ejuan Price, and Todd Thomas. Caprara did not look out of place at all and while you can see he’s a little slow in diagnosing pass coverage, he throws his head down in run support and was a tackling machine, finishing with 12 tackles, 9 of them solo. Price made a spectacular tackle in the open field on Desmond Brown in the red zone. If Price misses the tackle, Brown walks in. Those are the type of plays you have to make to win. Todd Thomas is just a monster. He has NFL size and speed and while he didn’t make any wow plays, just watching him out there and what he can do is impressive. If he stays healthy and works on the little things, he’ll play on Sundays.

Here are some other things I liked:

-The OL had the most success running the ball when the OG pulled. On Bennett’s 48 yard touchdown, he followed a pulling Matt Rotheram from RG and with a good cutback was off to the races. Later, Desmond Brown had a ~15 yard run following Ryan Schlieper. This is an important play because it means you don’t need a FB to lead block on inside runs to be successful. With the immense talent we have a TE, it really opens up the offense to run 2 TE sets that will keep the defense honest. If defenses put a LB on Garner, hello match up nightmare.

-While the defense wasn’t playing a full speed, they did an excellent job flowing to the ball on outside runs. They kept their arms extended when blocked so they could make a play when the RB got close. The successful runs were inside runs, an area where playing slow makes a big difference when you’re up against a RB (Bennett)  who can run 100m in 10.9 seconds.

-Speaking of Bennett, he does a great job avoiding negative plays. He doesn’t dance around a lot but shows patience waiting for the hole to open. With a lot of inexperience on offense outside of Devin Street, a RB who can prevent 2nd and 12 is a big deal. He also did a great job on a check down route on 3rd and 20. 12 yards on 3rd and 20 is the difference between a chip shot FG and a “ugh, here we go…”

Here’s what I didn’t like:

-Drew Carswell’s drop in the end zone. Garner is stealing your playing time and you drop a touchdown on 4th down? Not acceptable Drew.

-Malcolm Crockett’s fumble. He had two hands on it yet it was stripped way too easily. Desmond Brown took a lot of 2nd team reps after that and I don’t think that was a coincidence. A RB who fumbles is a RB who stays on the bench. Desmond Brown looked good in the spring game, but there’s a big hole for James Conner to get a fair share of carries this fall.

-There was a clear drop in energy after halftime. It was pretty cold out but the game got much less interesting in the 2nd half and I found myself checking the time a little. I wasn’t eager for the game to end but the play quality had me wishing for a little warmth. I should have plenty of notes on backups making plays but few noteworthy things occurred. I covered Chad Voytik’s deep pass to Weatherspoon in my QBs column and other than there wasn’t much. I’d expect a few eager backups to try and make a play, but I didn’t see it.

Overall, the spring game eased my concerns about the talent at the skill positions on offense. We know Devin Street is a talented WR, but outside of him and JP Holtz we had a lot of questions. In addition to Garner and Weatherspoon, Chris Wuestner showed he can be trusted as a backup WR and Scott Orndoff is ready for D1 football at least as a pass catcher. It was really tough to discern anything on defense given their deliberate soft play to avoid injuries. We really won’t know anything about the defense until Labor Day.

I posted some thoughts on Emmanuel Sanders and why the Steelers were wrong to re-sign him on ScoutsNotebook as well as some info on why the Patriots went after Sanders, Chiefs LT Branden Albert’s status on the trade block, and a pet peeve about mock drafts. As always, shoot me a follow on twitter and let me know how bad that previous run on sentence was.