Live Observations from 7/31 Night Camp Practice

[Legend of Luck]

Hey guys!

 

Just got back home from tonight's practice. I am totally worn out! Those metal bleachers made me incredibly sore.

 

So I wanted to give you guys a full breakdown of everything I noticed while at practice. These things may be out of order, but I'm typing them as they come to mind.

 

1. Reggie looks AWESOME: He looks like he is back to his old form. From all I could tell, he had no hesitancy or physical limitations. He had some great catches in traffic, didnt drop a single ball, and with T.Y. out of the lineup, Andrew looked for Reggie early and often. Speaking of T.Y....

 

2. So many people were NOT practicing: No T.Y. (Which was incredibly disappointing. He's my wife's favorite and we drove almost 2 hours to get to camp tonight...) No Bradshaw, No Vontae or Landry. But what made it worse, was as practice went on, the list grew! Moncrief had his legged iced and wrapped and didnt play most of the 2nd half of practice. Reggie was on a pitch count so he finished early. Hakeem got banged up and missed some time. Trent saw fewer snaps than I expected. 

 

3. Dwayne Allen had a TERRIBLE day: I am a big Dwayne Allen fan. I think he will help our offense a ton, but he was just off his game today as a receiver. 3 dropped passes. 2 passes intended for him were almost picked because he just didnt seem to be in position, and he slipped on 2 different plays leading to incompletions. He also didnt seem to be very energetic. He seemed pretty lethargic today. He did have one nice grab at the end of 11 on 11's, but I believe that was the only reception he had in 11 on 11's or 7 on 7's despite being targeted 7 or 8 times. Very disappointed in him today.

 

4. Moncrief impressed me: Before he got his leg taped, he made a couple really nice grabs in traffic and had lots of "snap" on his routes, however there was a time or two where he and Luck just weren't on the same page.

 

5. Griff Whalen started above Da Rick Rogers: With T.Y. out and Moncrief missing time today, anytime they lined up in 3 wide sets, Whalen was almost always the 3rd receiver. There were plays where different people got that spot (Rogers, Fleener, Washington, Trent Richardson), but Whalen was the guy. He had a few nice grabs too. Not a single drop from him. He's a keeper, I LOVE that guy.

 

6. Drill rotation seemed very off to me: They switched between positional drills and 11-11's /7-7's quite frequently, but the frustrating thing was that I felt the first team offense/defense just didnt play a lot. That may be due to the practice being so early in training camp, but it was disappointing. I was hoping to see a scrimmage and/or 2 minute drill to end practice like we got last year, but we didnt get it. Which leads me to the next point...

 

7. It was very hard to evaluate the defense and the O-line today: Defense first. Sadly, a lot of plays that went the "defenses way" were due to slips, miscommunications on offense, and penalties. This made it really hard to really anything about the D, especially the linebackers, since they werent really tackling. As for the O-line, sadly their drills were on the other side of the field behind the goal post, so it was difficult to tell what was happening. I did see Hugh Thorton get some big love from the linemen and the Defense during positional drills though. And they werent doing enough reps to see much of anything during 11 on 11's. But, Luck only had one instance (only on a safety blitz) where he may have been sacked in-game ( the ref did not call it a sack, it was a completion to Fleener for 20)

 

8. Trent was good: I use the word good for a reason. As far as running goes, he looked VERY good. He had a couple nice runs that would have gone for 10 or more, and some solid 6-8 yard runs. Only about 2 that went for 3  or less (they were up the middle, so was it Trent or the line?)  but he had another instance of dropping a dumpoff from the backfield. It was a soft, short 5 yard pass on an out-route and he dropped it, so he needs to make sure that doesnt pop up in a game.

 

9. Tipton looked great: You can tell he is trying to make the team. He ran hard, had some big gains, had a ton of receptions. I really like him.

 

10. Adam's still got it: He hit a kick with the ball on the 50. I didnt see Pat kick any field goals today.

 

11. Pat is a great emergency qb: Nuff said. Saw him hit some nice passes in drills today.

 

12. Fleener is still going to be a big receiving threat: I noticed a bunch of 2 tight end sets with Reggie and Nicks, along with Allen and Fleener. Fleener will be featured. He had 4 or 5 receptions if I remember correctly, for a total of probably 150 yards and 1 touchdown. (one was a 65 yard bomb from Luck for a TD)

 

My overall take on the "entertainment" experience today was quite disappointing, due to guys like TY being out, a rough day from Allen, and Moncrief, Reggie and Hakeem all sitting out to end practice. Not to mention they didnt really get any "scrimmage" time in this time, which was what I was really looking forward to. Also the "BBQ Bash" should be renamed "nonsense Bash." Basically, all they did was put a pulled pork sandwich on the menu of the food stands... 

 

If you have specific questions, please post them here and I'll do my best to answer them for you. Hope you guys enjoyed my coverage and play by play updates!

 

 

[snkdy]

Appreciate the write-up.

[2HOT2HANDLE]

Thanks for the post - sorry you didn't have the greatest time.  Glad to hear Trent looked better and Reggie is back.  Best part was that nobody got seriously hurt! 

 

Also, as unimaginable of a situation it would take to see Pat actually playing QB.... I kind of want to see it ::knocks on wood::

[Smonroe]

Thanks! I read that Jackson blew up Tipton. Was it a missed block, or is Jackson looking good?

[Legend of Luck]

Thanks! I read that Jackson blew up Tipton. Was it a missed block, or is Jackson looking good?

It was a tackle after Tipton gained about 5 yards.

[Smonroe]

It was a tackle after Tipton gained about 5 yards.

Thanks. Going to be good battles for spots. Louis vs Mewhort, Tipton vs Boom, the fifth CB, the fourth S.

I actually enjoy second halves of preseason game. Scores are meaningless, but that's when the bottom roster spots are won.

[Smonroe]

Meant to ask - has there been an Adongo sighting? Besides him doing punt return practice, where is he off the bench?

[Legend of Luck]

Meant to ask - has there been an Adongo sighting? Besides him doing punt return practice, where is he off the bench?

The only time he really stood out was on a play with the 2nd team defense, he "tackled" Tipton, then tried to rip the ball from his arms.

[lollygagger8]

I love the fact that McAfee is throwing passes. 

 

 

 

PLEASE give us some fake punts!!!! 

[twfish]

Speaking of people throwing footballs who really shouldnt have any og you noticed Hakeem Nicks? Guy has a freaking cannon for a arm lol