August 20th Preseason Notes

Redskins, Lions
- Golden Tate continues to receive targets from Matthew Stafford, as he did last week. Jeremy Ross also caught a few passes from Stafford and, later, a touchdown from the surprisingly competent Dan Orlovsky. This Lions receiving corps is quite capable, even without Calvin Johnson.

- The first-team Redskins defense cannot tackle at all. As a permanently addled Joe Theismann pointed out, three plays on the Lions' first drive, including a Tate catch, were kept alive by missed tackles. Their defensive positioning is correct — they swarm to the ball — but the technique needs work.

- Not surprising that Robert Griffin III got himself inexplicably injured again. Given the excellent performances of Colt McCoy and Kirk Cousins, both in this game and last season, I don't think Washington needs to be particularly concerned.

- Dan Orlovsky has already improbably unseated Lions developmental quarterback Kellen Moore for the #2 spot, at least according to the order in which they played in this game, and it's easy to see why. While Orlovsky completed 13 of 17 passes and threw for a pair of touchdowns, Moore missed on four of his seven throws against third-teamers, including one at pretty much point-blank range. Everyone was rooting for him following his highly successful college career at Boise State, everyone's favorite Cinderella story, but it doesn't appear that he has much of a future.

Bills, Browns
- Tyrod Taylor was able to run the first-team offense effectively. Jon Gruden was quick to discredit him for taking a sack rather than throwing the ball away, but as he was being swarmed by three Cleveland defenders and the offensive line had completely collapsed, I don't hold it against him. Rex Ryan should name him the Week 3 starter, and probably the regular season starter as well. Manuel was similarly impressive and especially good on the final go-ahead drive, which ended in a passing touchdown to the back corner of the end zone from 14 yards out followed by a two-point conversion on a rollout.

- Deonte Thompson, who ran a 4.21 40-yard dash coming out of college, is excellent at getting open, as he showed last week as the recipient of EJ Manuel's beautiful touchdown pass. This week he got a great deal of first-team action and repeatedly found open space. However, he usually failed to come up with Taylor's accurate passes. When his possession skills improve, he'll be an excellent deep threat for a team in need of dynamic receivers.

- The Bills' awful running back situation is pretty funny, to be honest. With the top five injured, we saw the sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-string running backs against Cleveland. All three were acquired within the last two weeks; two were acquired in the last two days. Combined, they rushed for the same amount of yards as Tyrod Taylor.