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Day 3 Morning (9 am – 10:50 am)
With apology to a coworker of mine, whose farewell lunch I was suppose to attend in the Bay area this afternoon, I decided to stay for one extra day of practice before heading home and do one more report for you guys/gals. So here’s another installment, and the final report from me for this year’s training camp. (P.S. the coworker’s a 9ers fan. Enough said).
They practiced mostly on the far field today, so forgive me if I have made mistakes here and there. It was so hard to see with all the players and coaches constantly walking across the line of sight. Anyway….
9:00 am – 9:45 am
I’ll pretty much skip over the first 45 minutes of the practice as they were nearly identical to the stuff that I had previously reported: offense & defense alignments, trying out different run formations, warm up, individual drills, etc. You get the idea. A few things that I noted:
- I got a feeling that Bledsoe has been getting better (with this offense and its players) and will continue to get better as training camp goes forward. I saw him threw a nice ball to Witten over the reaching hands of Singleton during one of the drills with relative ease. He got a nice touch in addition to those laser beams. I guess the only questions remain are 1) Can they protect him, and 2) can he stay healthy? IIRC, he hasn’t thrown a single interception in the last 5 practices – that’s impressive.
9:50 am – TEs vs. LBs
Another interesting 1-1 battle this morning. I didn’t catch them all, but here’s what I saw:
1) Curtis vs. (Burnett). Burnett gave Curtis a ferocious bull rush and he pushed Curtis all the way back to the face of the “QB”
2) (Pierce) vs. Ware. Pierce did a nice job staying in front of Ware and Ware didn’t have anywhere to go. Pierce is quietly having a very good camp. He can catch and he can block, and he’s got nice size.
3) (Witten) vs. Ogbogu. Witten did a good job to use his body and his hands to keep Ogbogu in check.
4) Curtis vs. (K. Thornton). Thornton did a counter move to get inside of Curtis and seemed to have a straight path to the “QB”.
5) Witten vs. Burnett. Burnett was quite amazing. He made three quick moves to try to get by Witten. He got really close to the “QB”, but the coach blew the whistle. Tie?
6) Curtis vs. (Ware). Ware did a demonstration of what Zimmer mentioned yesterday, he came off the edge, lower his shoulder, maintained his speed and got around Curtis. I am not sure if Curtis even got a shove on him.
7) (Pierce) vs. Singleton. Singleton tried to speed rush from the outside and stopped by Pierce in his path.
8) Gomez? (#89) vs. (Ogbogu). Ogbogu did a bull rush and pushed Gomez a few steps back in the direction of the “QB”
9) (Witten) vs. K. Thornton. Thornton got off to a bad rush, taking too large of any angle to try to get around Witten. He never got close to the QB.
10) Curtis vs. Burnett. Forgot who won this one, because all I could think of was “Man, Burnett rushed with both power and speed!”
Note: Reggie Love did a couple of blitzes also, but I usually took advantage of his coming on to scan the fields for other actions. I think he did good in one of the two opportunities that he got (I heard the coach yelling “That’s it, Reggie!” on one of his plays)
Some thoughts:
1) I know he does good in run blocks, but I never really knew Witten’s such a good pass blocker also. No wonder Parcells loves him.
2) Burnett’s not really known for his pass rushing skills in Tennessee, but looking at him during the drills, I think he certainly got the tools to succeed in blitzes. Between him and Ware, Ware seems to have a little more speed and is more fluid. Burnett, on the other hand, got good speed and power at the point of attack. He’s someone to watch out for in blitzes.
3) While the TEs vs. LBs was taking place, on the other side of the field there was another interesting battle going on between RBs and DBs. This drill was to test corner blitzes and blitzes pick up. I kept trying to look over my shoulders to see how Thompson was doing in blitz pickup, but I kept missing him. We all know that to play for Parcells as a RB, you need to not only be able to run the ball, avoid mistakes, but also being able to block. Reshard could do only two of the three and now he’s in Buffalo, this was why I was trying to check out Thompson on the blitz pickup. Too bad I missed them.
10:00 am – 11-11 running drill
1) Julius ran up middle (2 yd)
2) Julius started outside but cut back inside behind the LG for a nice gain (5 yd)
3) A-train ran behind the LG and up the seam (5-6 yd)
4) Bickerstaff ran right and outside (7 yd). Roy was in on the stop and took him down.
5) A-train tried to run outside to his left but tackled by Reeves (2 yd)
6) MBIII (?) did a couple of dances in the middle but got nowhere to go (1-2 yd)
7) MBIII ran right to the sideline and tackled by Beriault (2 yd)
8) Missed this play
9) Thompson ran right up the hash mark (2-3 yd)
10) Thompson ran left, stopped at LOS (0 yd)
11) Thompson ran left behind the guard, danced a little and got an extra few yards (3-4 yd)
12) Thompson ran outside (2 yd)
10:05 am – Special team
They worked on kickoff protection today. Returning kicks were A-train, Copper, Thompson and Reeves. They later kicked some FGs.
10:15 am – 11-11
1) Bledsoe completed to Keyshawn on the left side line after a playaction (6 yd). Henry was defending
2) Julius ran behind LG, got through the hole but met Nguyen head-on (3-4 yd)
3) Bledsoe was hurried (D was blitzing) and threw low to Witten on the right sideline
4) Julius ran outside to his left behind a nice wedge (20 yd). He wasn’t even touched for the first 10 yards. Some fans nearby commented how fast he got through the hole.
5) Bledsoe was blitzed again and had to throw this one away. On the rush I saw James and K. Thornton coming from the same side, but only one RB picking up the two.
6) MBIII made a nice move to the outside, eluded one defender at the line of scrimmage, and picked up (5 yd, maybe more)
7) Henson deep throw to Zuriel (?). The receiver had to stop and turned back for the catch (30 yd)
8) Henson to Merritt on the left side line (10 yd). Beriault came on a blitz from Bledsoe’s strong side, but was picked up by MBIII
9) A-train ran outside to his left, but was tripped/stopped by Brooks (0 yd)
10) Romo threw right to a wide open Merritt (8 yd). Someone must have messed up his coverage responsibility.
11) MBIII ran up middle (2 yd)
10:20 am – 7-7
1) Bledsoe to Glen down the right side line on a post (15 yd)
2) Bledsoe dumped off to Morgan on a short route across the middle (5 yd). No one was opened deep after his initial scan.
3) Bledsoe dumped off to Polite (2 yd). No one was opened deep after his initial scan.
4) Bledsoe threw right down the sideline for Crowder (15 yd).
(Quick comment. Bledsoe was playing this set perfect, as I recall. All the throws were crisp and he didn’t seem to be trying very hard to make anything happen, just taking what the defense gave him)
5) Henson deep pass on a double pumped, but no one was near the vicinity of where the ball landed.
6) Henson made a nice throw to the sideline to Morgan (15 yd)
7) Henson threaded the ball into a double covered Witten running across the middle of the field (8 yd)
8) Henson threw a very nice ball over the defender’s head and dropped it into Curtis, but Curtis dropped it. It would had been a nice gain (about 10 -15 yd?)
9) Romo threw to his left to Pierce who was running down the left side and turning to the sideline as he caught the ball (15 yd)
10) Romo short pass to MBIII to the flat (3 yd)
11) Romo passed to his left to #89 (Gomez?), who started from the right side and ran across the field (8 yd). There were a lot of screaming from excited players and coaches after the play ended, but I have no clue what happened.
12) Romo threw to the flat on his right side to Kincade (2 yd)
A fight broke off and I saw Flozell there pulling Peterman away. Later I learned the defender was Carson. No biggie, practice continued.
13) Bledsoe threw to the right sideline to Barnes, but dropped by Barnes (Comment, it seems like Barnes can’t catch the ball to save his life. This is like the 4th drop of his in short passing situation that I remember in the last 3 days)
10:35 am – Special scenario
Really couldn’t tell what was going on. This was offense only (the defense stood on the side and watched). They would line up inside the red zone, the QB would drop back, four receivers (or 5) would run down to the endzone, the QB would scramble for a bit and eventually passed the ball to one of the receivers standing in the end zone. The first, second and the third team each did it once.
10:40 am – Red zone “4 and out”
First team (Started just outside the red zone on 22 yd line)
First down: Bledsoe completed to Barnes to his left (5 yd)
Second down: Julius ran left and hard (5 yd)
First down: A-train ran up the middle (4 yd)
Second down: From the 8 yard line, they ran a draw and Julius ran up the middle and scored (Looked to me he was short, but Parcells said touchdown, who’s to argue?)
Second team (Started just inside the red zone on 18 yd line)
First down: Drew overthrew the receiver right on the goal line. It was too far out. On this play, I saw Ware tried to use speed to get around Flozell but Flozell did a good job routing him to the outside. Ware never got close to Henson
Second down: A-train tried to run outside but cut back inside for a nice gain (6 yd).
Third down: A-train? ran up the middle (2 yd)
Fourth down: Henson threw a perfect strike into the endzone for Witten (8 yd). Touchdown! Beriault was defending Witten on this play.
Third team (Started just outside the red zone on 22 yd line) )
First down: Romo attempted to MBIII, but the pass was broken off by Fowler
Second down: Romo passed to Gomez to his left (20 yd), while pressured by Reggie Love. They called it a touchdown
First down: RB (Don’t know who) short run up the middle (2 yd)
Second down: Romo short pass to MBIII, who was tackled by Fowler. Fowler did a nice drop of ripping the ball out. Nate Jones recovered the fumble.
10:40 am – Red zone “3 and out”
(All of them started at the 8 yd line, I believe)
First team
First down: Julius ran a draw (3 yd)
Second down: Julius ran right (2 yd)
Third down: Bledsoe TD threw to Keyshawn, who was standing right inside the goal line (along the sideline). Bledsoe’s arm was hit as he threw, but there was still enough on the ball to get to Keyshawn
Second team
First down: Henson incompleted pass to his left. Not sure who he was throwing to. I couldn’t see
Second down: RB(?) ran up the middle (5 yd)
Third down: Henson threw high to Copper in the endzone. The ball was high.
Third team
First down: Romo passed to Merritt on the left side. Touchdown. (8 yd). It was a nice play action play.
First down: RB ran up the middle (3-4 yd)
Second down: Romo overthrew Zuriel in the end zone, who seemed to be double covered (Comment: but it was probably still a good decision if the scenario called for this being the last play of the game)
Practice ended 10:50 am.
Stayed after practice to autograph: Roy, Beriault, Lance Frazier, Coleman, Pierce, Bruce Thornton, Woody, etc. Beriault and Lance Frazier seem very nice guys. I got Roy’s autograph today. Sweeeeet.
OK. That’s it folks. I’ll send the pictures I took this morning to RunJuliusRun for uploading. I will head back to the Bay area tonight right after the 5 pm practice ends, and will need to get back to work tomorrow morning. Hope you all have been enjoying these notes. Hopefully I’ll get to do it again next year.
With apology to a coworker of mine, whose farewell lunch I was suppose to attend in the Bay area this afternoon, I decided to stay for one extra day of practice before heading home and do one more report for you guys/gals. So here’s another installment, and the final report from me for this year’s training camp. (P.S. the coworker’s a 9ers fan. Enough said).
They practiced mostly on the far field today, so forgive me if I have made mistakes here and there. It was so hard to see with all the players and coaches constantly walking across the line of sight. Anyway….
9:00 am – 9:45 am
I’ll pretty much skip over the first 45 minutes of the practice as they were nearly identical to the stuff that I had previously reported: offense & defense alignments, trying out different run formations, warm up, individual drills, etc. You get the idea. A few things that I noted:
- I got a feeling that Bledsoe has been getting better (with this offense and its players) and will continue to get better as training camp goes forward. I saw him threw a nice ball to Witten over the reaching hands of Singleton during one of the drills with relative ease. He got a nice touch in addition to those laser beams. I guess the only questions remain are 1) Can they protect him, and 2) can he stay healthy? IIRC, he hasn’t thrown a single interception in the last 5 practices – that’s impressive.
9:50 am – TEs vs. LBs
Another interesting 1-1 battle this morning. I didn’t catch them all, but here’s what I saw:
1) Curtis vs. (Burnett). Burnett gave Curtis a ferocious bull rush and he pushed Curtis all the way back to the face of the “QB”
2) (Pierce) vs. Ware. Pierce did a nice job staying in front of Ware and Ware didn’t have anywhere to go. Pierce is quietly having a very good camp. He can catch and he can block, and he’s got nice size.
3) (Witten) vs. Ogbogu. Witten did a good job to use his body and his hands to keep Ogbogu in check.
4) Curtis vs. (K. Thornton). Thornton did a counter move to get inside of Curtis and seemed to have a straight path to the “QB”.
5) Witten vs. Burnett. Burnett was quite amazing. He made three quick moves to try to get by Witten. He got really close to the “QB”, but the coach blew the whistle. Tie?
6) Curtis vs. (Ware). Ware did a demonstration of what Zimmer mentioned yesterday, he came off the edge, lower his shoulder, maintained his speed and got around Curtis. I am not sure if Curtis even got a shove on him.
7) (Pierce) vs. Singleton. Singleton tried to speed rush from the outside and stopped by Pierce in his path.
8) Gomez? (#89) vs. (Ogbogu). Ogbogu did a bull rush and pushed Gomez a few steps back in the direction of the “QB”
9) (Witten) vs. K. Thornton. Thornton got off to a bad rush, taking too large of any angle to try to get around Witten. He never got close to the QB.
10) Curtis vs. Burnett. Forgot who won this one, because all I could think of was “Man, Burnett rushed with both power and speed!”
Note: Reggie Love did a couple of blitzes also, but I usually took advantage of his coming on to scan the fields for other actions. I think he did good in one of the two opportunities that he got (I heard the coach yelling “That’s it, Reggie!” on one of his plays)
Some thoughts:
1) I know he does good in run blocks, but I never really knew Witten’s such a good pass blocker also. No wonder Parcells loves him.
2) Burnett’s not really known for his pass rushing skills in Tennessee, but looking at him during the drills, I think he certainly got the tools to succeed in blitzes. Between him and Ware, Ware seems to have a little more speed and is more fluid. Burnett, on the other hand, got good speed and power at the point of attack. He’s someone to watch out for in blitzes.
3) While the TEs vs. LBs was taking place, on the other side of the field there was another interesting battle going on between RBs and DBs. This drill was to test corner blitzes and blitzes pick up. I kept trying to look over my shoulders to see how Thompson was doing in blitz pickup, but I kept missing him. We all know that to play for Parcells as a RB, you need to not only be able to run the ball, avoid mistakes, but also being able to block. Reshard could do only two of the three and now he’s in Buffalo, this was why I was trying to check out Thompson on the blitz pickup. Too bad I missed them.
10:00 am – 11-11 running drill
1) Julius ran up middle (2 yd)
2) Julius started outside but cut back inside behind the LG for a nice gain (5 yd)
3) A-train ran behind the LG and up the seam (5-6 yd)
4) Bickerstaff ran right and outside (7 yd). Roy was in on the stop and took him down.
5) A-train tried to run outside to his left but tackled by Reeves (2 yd)
6) MBIII (?) did a couple of dances in the middle but got nowhere to go (1-2 yd)
7) MBIII ran right to the sideline and tackled by Beriault (2 yd)
8) Missed this play
9) Thompson ran right up the hash mark (2-3 yd)
10) Thompson ran left, stopped at LOS (0 yd)
11) Thompson ran left behind the guard, danced a little and got an extra few yards (3-4 yd)
12) Thompson ran outside (2 yd)
10:05 am – Special team
They worked on kickoff protection today. Returning kicks were A-train, Copper, Thompson and Reeves. They later kicked some FGs.
10:15 am – 11-11
1) Bledsoe completed to Keyshawn on the left side line after a playaction (6 yd). Henry was defending
2) Julius ran behind LG, got through the hole but met Nguyen head-on (3-4 yd)
3) Bledsoe was hurried (D was blitzing) and threw low to Witten on the right sideline
4) Julius ran outside to his left behind a nice wedge (20 yd). He wasn’t even touched for the first 10 yards. Some fans nearby commented how fast he got through the hole.
5) Bledsoe was blitzed again and had to throw this one away. On the rush I saw James and K. Thornton coming from the same side, but only one RB picking up the two.
6) MBIII made a nice move to the outside, eluded one defender at the line of scrimmage, and picked up (5 yd, maybe more)
7) Henson deep throw to Zuriel (?). The receiver had to stop and turned back for the catch (30 yd)
8) Henson to Merritt on the left side line (10 yd). Beriault came on a blitz from Bledsoe’s strong side, but was picked up by MBIII
9) A-train ran outside to his left, but was tripped/stopped by Brooks (0 yd)
10) Romo threw right to a wide open Merritt (8 yd). Someone must have messed up his coverage responsibility.
11) MBIII ran up middle (2 yd)
10:20 am – 7-7
1) Bledsoe to Glen down the right side line on a post (15 yd)
2) Bledsoe dumped off to Morgan on a short route across the middle (5 yd). No one was opened deep after his initial scan.
3) Bledsoe dumped off to Polite (2 yd). No one was opened deep after his initial scan.
4) Bledsoe threw right down the sideline for Crowder (15 yd).
(Quick comment. Bledsoe was playing this set perfect, as I recall. All the throws were crisp and he didn’t seem to be trying very hard to make anything happen, just taking what the defense gave him)
5) Henson deep pass on a double pumped, but no one was near the vicinity of where the ball landed.
6) Henson made a nice throw to the sideline to Morgan (15 yd)
7) Henson threaded the ball into a double covered Witten running across the middle of the field (8 yd)
8) Henson threw a very nice ball over the defender’s head and dropped it into Curtis, but Curtis dropped it. It would had been a nice gain (about 10 -15 yd?)
9) Romo threw to his left to Pierce who was running down the left side and turning to the sideline as he caught the ball (15 yd)
10) Romo short pass to MBIII to the flat (3 yd)
11) Romo passed to his left to #89 (Gomez?), who started from the right side and ran across the field (8 yd). There were a lot of screaming from excited players and coaches after the play ended, but I have no clue what happened.
12) Romo threw to the flat on his right side to Kincade (2 yd)
A fight broke off and I saw Flozell there pulling Peterman away. Later I learned the defender was Carson. No biggie, practice continued.
13) Bledsoe threw to the right sideline to Barnes, but dropped by Barnes (Comment, it seems like Barnes can’t catch the ball to save his life. This is like the 4th drop of his in short passing situation that I remember in the last 3 days)
10:35 am – Special scenario
Really couldn’t tell what was going on. This was offense only (the defense stood on the side and watched). They would line up inside the red zone, the QB would drop back, four receivers (or 5) would run down to the endzone, the QB would scramble for a bit and eventually passed the ball to one of the receivers standing in the end zone. The first, second and the third team each did it once.
10:40 am – Red zone “4 and out”
First team (Started just outside the red zone on 22 yd line)
First down: Bledsoe completed to Barnes to his left (5 yd)
Second down: Julius ran left and hard (5 yd)
First down: A-train ran up the middle (4 yd)
Second down: From the 8 yard line, they ran a draw and Julius ran up the middle and scored (Looked to me he was short, but Parcells said touchdown, who’s to argue?)
Second team (Started just inside the red zone on 18 yd line)
First down: Drew overthrew the receiver right on the goal line. It was too far out. On this play, I saw Ware tried to use speed to get around Flozell but Flozell did a good job routing him to the outside. Ware never got close to Henson
Second down: A-train tried to run outside but cut back inside for a nice gain (6 yd).
Third down: A-train? ran up the middle (2 yd)
Fourth down: Henson threw a perfect strike into the endzone for Witten (8 yd). Touchdown! Beriault was defending Witten on this play.
Third team (Started just outside the red zone on 22 yd line) )
First down: Romo attempted to MBIII, but the pass was broken off by Fowler
Second down: Romo passed to Gomez to his left (20 yd), while pressured by Reggie Love. They called it a touchdown
First down: RB (Don’t know who) short run up the middle (2 yd)
Second down: Romo short pass to MBIII, who was tackled by Fowler. Fowler did a nice drop of ripping the ball out. Nate Jones recovered the fumble.
10:40 am – Red zone “3 and out”
(All of them started at the 8 yd line, I believe)
First team
First down: Julius ran a draw (3 yd)
Second down: Julius ran right (2 yd)
Third down: Bledsoe TD threw to Keyshawn, who was standing right inside the goal line (along the sideline). Bledsoe’s arm was hit as he threw, but there was still enough on the ball to get to Keyshawn
Second team
First down: Henson incompleted pass to his left. Not sure who he was throwing to. I couldn’t see
Second down: RB(?) ran up the middle (5 yd)
Third down: Henson threw high to Copper in the endzone. The ball was high.
Third team
First down: Romo passed to Merritt on the left side. Touchdown. (8 yd). It was a nice play action play.
First down: RB ran up the middle (3-4 yd)
Second down: Romo overthrew Zuriel in the end zone, who seemed to be double covered (Comment: but it was probably still a good decision if the scenario called for this being the last play of the game)
Practice ended 10:50 am.
Stayed after practice to autograph: Roy, Beriault, Lance Frazier, Coleman, Pierce, Bruce Thornton, Woody, etc. Beriault and Lance Frazier seem very nice guys. I got Roy’s autograph today. Sweeeeet.
OK. That’s it folks. I’ll send the pictures I took this morning to RunJuliusRun for uploading. I will head back to the Bay area tonight right after the 5 pm practice ends, and will need to get back to work tomorrow morning. Hope you all have been enjoying these notes. Hopefully I’ll get to do it again next year.
:shake: 
:gent: :toast: :bravo: :toast2: 
