On Wednesday the team practiced in shorts and shells. How fitting given the lack of intensity and focus was a shell of what the team brought to M&T Bank Stadium against the Eagles on Monday.
Practice was cut 20 minutes short by a slightly agitated Brian Billick. The workout was lethargic for the most part and the team looked like they were burned out, bored or both as it relates to summer camp.
There is no more live hitting taking place and for all intents and purposes, camp is pretty much over. Most of the full team scrimmaging revolves around scripted plays and the 2:00 offense.
Early on in practice Mike Johnson along with Offensive Coordinator Rick Neuheisel put the receivers and quarterbacks through the paces of defensive reads. The idea was to get the quarterback and receiver on the same page and adjust in synch to defensive positioning and re-positioning. Neuheisel had Mike Johnson provide press coverage to the inside or the outside and forced the throw/catch tandem to read the press and adjust the route properly. Both Johnson and Neuheisel seemed pleased with the results. They singled out a perfectly executed adjustment by Mark Clayton and Steve McNair emphasizing to both Derrick Mason and Demetrius Williams that Clayton’s redirect is what they are looking for on that play.
The balance of the practice was very uneventful before it was cut short. On a crossing route from the left slot, McNair delivered a perfect strike to the tightly covered Mason (Martin) but Mason bobbled it momentarily and drifted out of bounds before he could control the toss. On nearly an identical route, Kyle Boller rifled a perfect spiral into the arms of Devard Darling. Later on during the practice, Boller overshot Darling who had beaten his man but the rollover support from safety Bobby Blackshire paid dividends as Blackshire showed nice hands while snaring the errant Boller throw.
Sam Koch has been on fire in camp with his directional punting pinning the return man to the sideline to Koch’s right 45-50 yards downfield from the line of scrimmage.
After a short special teams session, Billick ran the team throw full team light contact scrimmaging. The team looked sloppy. Boller looked to dump off to Quinn Sypniewski out in the right flat but the second year TE ran a vertical route as the pass fell to the ground untouched. Billick was noticeably upset. This wasn’t the first time that Sypniewski failed to execute during camp. The team huddled and ran the same play to the opposite side, this time Boller connected with his tight end for a short gain.
Moments later, Mike Anderson fumbled from the 6 much to the chagrin of a disgusted Billick. Three plays later, Billick sounded the horn and abruptly ended the practice around 5:10 PM. It was scheduled to go to 5:30.
Other observations…Ed Reed wore No. 5 during practice…P.J. Daniels was held out to rest his sore hamstring…Daniel Wilcox wore his jersey but was for the most part a bystander in sneakers…Kelly Gregg ran through individual drills in his shell and seemed to move around without any noticeable discomfort…J.O. put the toe to the test here and there in individual drills, wearing shorts and a t-shirt…Steve Edwards missed practice due to a knee injury…Dan Cody and Mike Smith were nowhere to be found…Antwan Barnes reinjured his sore right ankle although it doesn’t appear to be serious…After practice most of the team, perhaps sensing the ire of Billick, ran through some intense voluntary unit drills. The offensive linemen were put to the test with some hand punching drills against their mates that seemed to agitate Jason Brown a bit when Brian Rimpf was a bit too aggressive with his swim moves and chops on Brown’s arms…many of the veterans including several of the Pro Bowlers, ran sprints and shuttles…The look on Bart Scott’s face as he walked off the field said it all – it was a not so good afternoon at McDaniel College.
