Saturday, August 15, 2009

Fun, but still a poor substitute for the real thing

I went to the preseason Jets-Rams game at the Meadowlands last night. Along with the Mark Sanchez coming in for one quick series that started on his own 7 with a 48-yard pass and ended a few plays later with a touchdown, the highlight was watching for numbers 55 and 47 on defense.

Jamaal Westerman (55) and Brandon Renkart (47) both got a lot of time at linebacker in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters and both looked good. Renkart, in his second preseason with the Jets, was in almost constantly in the second half and looked especially strong (and left with a team-leading 5 tackles on the night), but when Westerman and Renkart shared a tackle on a relatively routine play at the line of scrimmage, there was noticeable cheer that went up from scattered groups around the thin preseason crowd. One guy at the end of my row pointed at me and asked, "Rutgers?" I nodded, and we both ended up agreeing that we can't wait for the real season to start (in only 23 days!).

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