UCLA Bruins Shining In NFL Pre-Season

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Our good friends Alterraun Verner, Kahlil Bell, Brian Price, Terrence Austin, and Marcedes Lewis have been representing UCLA well this pre-season and I expect them to do so in the Regular Season as well.

Alterraun Verner, as most of us expected, has continued his play-making ways in Tennessee and is looking really solid and has a great shot at being the #2 corner for the Titans come Week 1 IMO. Just recently he got his first NFL pick against Cheatey Petey's Seahawks:

He had another good game against the Carolina Panthers last night.

Rookie cornerback Alterraun Verner started in place of Cortland Finnegan, and made his presence felt once again. Verner compiled four tackles on the night, including a forced fumble on Carolina wide receiver Wallace Wright late in the first half with the Panthers inside the Titans 20-yard line.

Kahlil Bell has also looked solid for the Chicago Bears and will probably be the #3 runningback behind Matt Forte and Chester Taylor. Not too shabby for a guy who went undrafted. Bell had 5 carries for 17 yards and 2 receptions for for 12 yards against the Arizona Cardinals.

The greatest DT in our history has taken his Talents to South Florida as we know and has been wrecking practice there too. He teams up with Gerald McCoy as Tampa looks to re-build their defense which was the worst in the NFL last season in rush defence. They looked like a fearful DT tandem against Jacksonville last night and held their offense in check. (Albeit in the absence of MJD who has been shut down for the pre-season to rest)

They went into Saturday's game looking to get more pressure from their defensive front, too, and they got it as pass rushers Stylez G. White, Gerald McCoy and Brian Price led a unit that finished with seven QB hits.

White, McCoy and Price helped the Bucs do that throughout the first half as Jacksonville settled for a pair of field goals. The real defensive star of the night, however, might have been strongside linebacker Quincy Black.

Terrence Austin had a solid game too a couple of nights ago with 3 receptions for 34 yards.

It will not surprise me at all if he has the same type of chemistry with Donovan McNabb that his fellow LB POLY alumn. DeSean Jackson had.

Marcedes Lewis is a budding star in Jacksonville and is receiving high praise from Head Coach Jack Del Rio and becoming a leader on the team.

"He is a complete tight end," Del Rio said. "He is as good a blocking tight end as there is out there."

"His maturity level is outstanding," Del Rio said. "He's doing all the things he should be doing, and now he's expecting that of others as well.

"Everything that we're demanding, he's not only embraced, but he's kind of carrying the torch. It's great to see him developing into the player he is right now."

But, we can also blame Marcedes for MJD leaving us a year early.

"My last two years in college I ran the ball behind Marcedes and that was it," Jones-Drew said. "I always ran it to the strong side, never to the weak side. No one really knew that until we got to the NFL because I think out of the 970 yards I had in my third year, 800 of them were coming behind Marcedes and it was ironic that teams didn't catch on that."