Colt Brennan in the Hall of Fame Game (w/UPDATES)

According to NBC, Colt Brennan was 9 of 10 for 123 yards and 2 TDs with a 157-something QB rating. Woot woot! Updates to follow...

UPDATE 1: First impressions from the Redskins blogs --

Redskins Insider (Washington Post):

Colt Brennan may be unorthodox, but this isn't a bad start at all. He's a project, but seems to be eating this up.

Redskins 360 (Washington Times):

Sixth-round quarterback Colt Brennan, the former Hawaii star, looked better in his first game than he does in drills, lofting pretty passes to Billy McMullen and then to Maurice Mann for the touchdown.

Riggo's Rag:

And while we’re on great QB perforances, how about Colt Brennan? 9 for 10 and two TD’s. He was very accurate, especially on two deep throws, and my only complaints were that he had happy feet in the pocket and his decisions were a tad slow. I feel like in a year or two we’ve got a real find here.

The Redskins Report:

I have a guilty admission: I’m a Colt Brennan doubter. That said, he impressed me (in both a VERY good way, and in a slightly negative way) tonight. Say what you will, he made the plays. He was nearly money in the bank. VERY impressive performance… but what is up with that arm motion? That’s got me worried; I’ve never seen a good QB with a NORMAL sidearm motion… some have do it when they’re on the run, but that’s not the “normal” motion. You have to believe it will be something that Zorn will work on a year from now.

UPDATE 2: This NFL.com story has stats, synopsis, play-by-play, video highlights, etc. Some quotes from the recap:

"Taking my first snap, I went to the line, took a deep breath and thought to myself, 'Just have fun out here tonight,"' Brennan said. "And I had a lot of fun."

And Brennan, the former Hawaii quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist, was nearly flawless. He was 9-of-10 for 123 yards with two touchdowns and a near perfect quarterback rating of 157.5.

"More than his throws, what I was pleased with is how he was looking to the right guy when he was backpedaling," said Zorn, a former NFL quarterback. "He knew the plays, knew the routes. He should feel very good about his performance."

Via the Warrior Beat, here's a direct link to Colt's video highlights, from NFL.com.

UPDATE 3: Check out this ExtremeSkins.com thread which includes links to game photos and this audio interview (WMA) with Colt.

UPDATE 4: Chawan Cut has compiled tonight's newscasts. Every channel has highlights from the game, along with some footage of the UH players moving into the studios for the start of training camp. KGMB also has a short interview with Davone Bess.



UPDATE 5: Here's a recap of the game from the Washington Times, along with quotes from coach Jim Zorn and Colt:

"I was really impressed with Colt," Zorn said. "He really felt like had a grasp of what we were trying to do offensively. He kind of stepped it up the last three days."

Brennan has been inconsistent in practice, but he had a 157.5 rating Sunday.

"I have a tendency to be so much more amped up for a game," he said.

The Washington Post recap has more great quotes:

"Oh, he just did a wonderful job," Zorn said of Brennan, "with poise and pass accuracy. We're really excited for him."

"I was able to have some fun and throw the ball around," Brennan said. "I'm really proud of that second drive."

UPDATE 6: Here's the final update of the night. What a great way to start a pro career, even if it is preseason. The most important thing -- the head coach was happy with his performance!

From ESPN.com's AFC South blog:

Zorn was also pleased that rookie quarterback Colt Brennan, who put in extra study time the last three days, handled his time in the huddle so well -- nine-for-10 for 123 yards and two touchdowns.

"He kind of stepped it up for himself in the last few days," Zorn said. "He had some really slick throws, a few of them were really dangerous throws. But he was looking and going to the right guy when we were dropping back. He even took a couple of checkdowns and scrambled and threw a touchdown pass."

Said Brennan: "He has a thing where we are responsible for knowing the formations, he doesn't call it, we have to know it -- and it being my first game, that's a lot of formations to remember and a lot of different situations. What it did was really made me grind out the study hours, kind of lock in the offense and it helped me be a lot more confident with what we were doing."

And Dan Daly of the Washington Times was impressed:

Jason Campbell was a perfect 5-for-5, Todd Collins missed only one of six throws and rookie Colt Brennan was a revelation, laying the ball up beautifully to Billy McMullen for a 34-yard gain, hitting rookie Marcus Mann in stride for a 20-yard score and threading a pass to Jason Goode for 26 more yards.

Feel free to get excited, Redskins Nation. It looks like the kid can play. Yes, defenses are much more basic in the preseason, but we're talking about a sixth-round pick here - a sixth-round pick who already seems to know what he's doing.

UPDATE 7: Morning update (8/4/08) -- Stephen Tsai has some quotes from Colt.

On the aftermath of that last TD pass:
“I’ve had kind of a tight hamstring this last week. We’ve gone 14 days straight of practice. I kind of landed on my butt on that last play. It (hurt) my hamstring and butt a little bit. It wasn’t anything serious. but it was one of those things that was ‘ow.’”