Hit both today as I'll be out of town and will miss tomorrow's as well as the 10am scrimmage on Saturday - I'll be back out to watch Monday which is a 2-a-day.
Morning practice:
- No pads, very technical. Plays would stop and start, coaches were drilling players on where to go stuff like that. They ran just a few full series.
- McKinney had two opportunities with 1:24 to score a TD starting on his own 25. The first time was real bad, 4 and out. The second time he got the offense to inside the defense 25 with 30 seconds still on the clock. However the wheels kind of fell off there. It started to get rushed, he had two bad over-throws and a touch-sack. When needing to do a ball spike he got under center and it took 5 seconds to get the cadence out and the ball snapped and spiked, wasn't very quick. He wound up having to throw a prayer into the endzone and it was knocked down.
- Brzczeck had 1 series. Holmes was moved up to get a look at 1st string and Wags was sent to the 2s for a test run. Wags wrecked the D-line, probably had 3 or 4 touch sacks. It got to the point that I think Gragg asked him not to touch Adam so they could see the play continue, lol. Adam did throw a TD, Wags slapped his back before the throw but Adam stepped up in the pocket afterwards and found Kevin Berland who cut up the middle and beat Rominger in a foot race to the endzone.
In the evening:
- Trent McKinney ran the offense pretty well but... once again - stalled in the red zone. This time though it ended in near disaster as Nate Harris hopped a quick pass but dropped a ball that would've been a pick-6. In another series though Trent did lead the offense (with the ball starting at mid-field) into the red zone and on 3rd and goal threw a jump ball to Gerald Kemp who beat Sean Murray for a TD. Trent also ran in two TDs in goal-to-go situations (ball would start on the defense 2 yard line).
- Speaking of Nate Harris in addition to multiple nice coverage plays in 1 on 1 drills Nate had a few good breakup in coverage. At the end of the long 1st string drive that almost ended in a Harris pick-6 they sent out the 1st string fieldgoal team on the next play. It's a 25 yard fieldgoal attempt and Nate Harris blows right past the edge blocker and blocks the kick. In the goal-to-go situation Adam tried to run one in but was caught by Maus, on the next play he pitched the ball out at just the right time to Nelo Butler who scored.
- Bad night for Brzczeck but not really his fault, the 2nd string OL is essentially the 3rd string OL due to injuries right now and Adam had Tyrone Holmes, Caleb Kidder, Jesse Ginn, a blitzing Nick Holt and a blitzing Brian Maus in his face all night long.
- The defensive scheme is expanding, HermeyBadger blitzed a few times, had a sack. Tripp could be found in deep pass coverage a few times as well.
- The hit of the night came when the offense had to get the ball out of the shadow of the endzone. On 2nd down on their own 5 or so Dan Moore gets the ball and tries to go around the edge. Jordan Tripp (who he popped hard the other day and carried into the endzone for a TD) smashes into him and stands him up for a loss of a yard.
- A few of the younger WRs were making plays in 1 on 1 drills. Burke had a real nice catch on a deep fade and Stallone had a good double move that faked out his DB coverage.
- McKinney is getting real dialed in with Gratton and Hardy, multiple connections with each (in the morning too).
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As we head into the weekend and since I won't see this team again until next week, here's the list of current concerns.
1. Kicking game... a blocked kick tonight was not the type of improvement I wanted to see. Also there' no other drills for fieldgoals, the importance on working with the fieldgoal unit in live situations is incredibly limited.
2. Backup OL - It's a mess on the edge, especially at tackle.
3. Injuries. We've got a lot of dudes out and hurting right now that are expected to be contributors to this team, Poole, Coyle, Carver, Walcott, Coogan, Dennard, Hines, Kalekini, Todd, & Kose. I have no clue if any are real serious or just being cautious... it's forcing some younger guys to step up and they're just not ready yet.
4. QBs in the deep game. A "deep" pass right now is probably 15 yards. There's some shots going downfield but they're not on target, Adam and Trent were off tonight, Shay and Brady aren't really even getting looks/attempts much anymore.
5. ST stuff. Punt protection is improving but guys are still getting through, there was a blocked fieldgoal tonight, there were lots of misses the other night. The snaps are getting better, when it Brauer (short) and Tripp (long) it's steady, but when it's Takai (short) and Hagfors or Brauer (long) it's really shaky.
6. Lack of "testing" on the corners and split-out WRs. The playbook should start to open up as fall camp winds down and I expect more dynamic passing down field as players start to get the playbook and system down. Right now there's just a handful of passes going to split-out WRs that isn't a screen pass. Our corners look good in coverage... but they're not getting tested much. They're
Morning practice:
- No pads, very technical. Plays would stop and start, coaches were drilling players on where to go stuff like that. They ran just a few full series.
- McKinney had two opportunities with 1:24 to score a TD starting on his own 25. The first time was real bad, 4 and out. The second time he got the offense to inside the defense 25 with 30 seconds still on the clock. However the wheels kind of fell off there. It started to get rushed, he had two bad over-throws and a touch-sack. When needing to do a ball spike he got under center and it took 5 seconds to get the cadence out and the ball snapped and spiked, wasn't very quick. He wound up having to throw a prayer into the endzone and it was knocked down.
- Brzczeck had 1 series. Holmes was moved up to get a look at 1st string and Wags was sent to the 2s for a test run. Wags wrecked the D-line, probably had 3 or 4 touch sacks. It got to the point that I think Gragg asked him not to touch Adam so they could see the play continue, lol. Adam did throw a TD, Wags slapped his back before the throw but Adam stepped up in the pocket afterwards and found Kevin Berland who cut up the middle and beat Rominger in a foot race to the endzone.
In the evening:
- Trent McKinney ran the offense pretty well but... once again - stalled in the red zone. This time though it ended in near disaster as Nate Harris hopped a quick pass but dropped a ball that would've been a pick-6. In another series though Trent did lead the offense (with the ball starting at mid-field) into the red zone and on 3rd and goal threw a jump ball to Gerald Kemp who beat Sean Murray for a TD. Trent also ran in two TDs in goal-to-go situations (ball would start on the defense 2 yard line).
- Speaking of Nate Harris in addition to multiple nice coverage plays in 1 on 1 drills Nate had a few good breakup in coverage. At the end of the long 1st string drive that almost ended in a Harris pick-6 they sent out the 1st string fieldgoal team on the next play. It's a 25 yard fieldgoal attempt and Nate Harris blows right past the edge blocker and blocks the kick. In the goal-to-go situation Adam tried to run one in but was caught by Maus, on the next play he pitched the ball out at just the right time to Nelo Butler who scored.
- Bad night for Brzczeck but not really his fault, the 2nd string OL is essentially the 3rd string OL due to injuries right now and Adam had Tyrone Holmes, Caleb Kidder, Jesse Ginn, a blitzing Nick Holt and a blitzing Brian Maus in his face all night long.
- The defensive scheme is expanding, HermeyBadger blitzed a few times, had a sack. Tripp could be found in deep pass coverage a few times as well.
- The hit of the night came when the offense had to get the ball out of the shadow of the endzone. On 2nd down on their own 5 or so Dan Moore gets the ball and tries to go around the edge. Jordan Tripp (who he popped hard the other day and carried into the endzone for a TD) smashes into him and stands him up for a loss of a yard.
- A few of the younger WRs were making plays in 1 on 1 drills. Burke had a real nice catch on a deep fade and Stallone had a good double move that faked out his DB coverage.
- McKinney is getting real dialed in with Gratton and Hardy, multiple connections with each (in the morning too).
-------------------
As we head into the weekend and since I won't see this team again until next week, here's the list of current concerns.
1. Kicking game... a blocked kick tonight was not the type of improvement I wanted to see. Also there' no other drills for fieldgoals, the importance on working with the fieldgoal unit in live situations is incredibly limited.
2. Backup OL - It's a mess on the edge, especially at tackle.
3. Injuries. We've got a lot of dudes out and hurting right now that are expected to be contributors to this team, Poole, Coyle, Carver, Walcott, Coogan, Dennard, Hines, Kalekini, Todd, & Kose. I have no clue if any are real serious or just being cautious... it's forcing some younger guys to step up and they're just not ready yet.
4. QBs in the deep game. A "deep" pass right now is probably 15 yards. There's some shots going downfield but they're not on target, Adam and Trent were off tonight, Shay and Brady aren't really even getting looks/attempts much anymore.
5. ST stuff. Punt protection is improving but guys are still getting through, there was a blocked fieldgoal tonight, there were lots of misses the other night. The snaps are getting better, when it Brauer (short) and Tripp (long) it's steady, but when it's Takai (short) and Hagfors or Brauer (long) it's really shaky.
6. Lack of "testing" on the corners and split-out WRs. The playbook should start to open up as fall camp winds down and I expect more dynamic passing down field as players start to get the playbook and system down. Right now there's just a handful of passes going to split-out WRs that isn't a screen pass. Our corners look good in coverage... but they're not getting tested much. They're
