With both teams practicing in shells and going half-speed, Thursday's is usually the least eventful practice at the Senior Bowl. Today's was so uneventful, NFL Network actually started re-running parts of Wednesday's practices at one point. A short recap of the last practices before the game:
* Terrible quarterbacking was probably Thursday's lead item. I have seen nothing from Jake Locker to impress me and don't even see him as a first-round pick. He's been overthrowing receivers all week, and I mean not-even-close overthrows. Kendric Burney picked him off in the red zone drill. Locker's also blowing snaps and botching handoffs to the point that the coaches are sending him off to the side with a center to take extra reps. Ricky Stanzi was picked off twice, once by Burney and once by Casey Matthews. These kind of mistakes ought to be unforgivable in this kind of drill. Stanzi did throw a TD to Kendall Hunter, and Locker did have a pretty downfield pass dropped by Dane Sanzenbacher, but especially on the North side, there's been just a lot of bad quarterbacking this week. Colin Kaepernick is clearly the best North QB, making a sweet play Thursday to hit Lance Kendricks with a pass after getting flushed by Cameron Jordan.
* The star player Thursday was probably North Carolina CB Burney, who has stepped up his game as the week has progressed. He had two interceptions in the red zone and just missed another in 11-on-11 after making an excellent read.
* Arizona DE Brooks Reed has really come on strong at the end. In 1-on-1, he killed Derek Sherrod with a spin move and forced James Carpenter to commit a certain hands-to-the-face penalty. Reed also tore it up in 11-on-11.
* Sherrod and Carpenter both had a ton of trouble with speed Thursday. Carpenter's really starting to get overextended and reaching too much. Sherrod got whipped for a sack in 11-on-11 but plowed a huge hole for a TD run in the red zone.
* Let's hear it for some of the guys I've been riding all week. Allen Bailey smoked Sherrod for that 11-on-11 sack and had a nice run stuff in the red zone. Curtis Brown defended an end zone fade to Leonard Hankerson perfectly in the right corner, then after a commercial break, broke up another on the left side, a pass he probably should have intercepted. Courtney Smith actually hung on to a couple of passes, making a nice grab on the second. Stephen Schilling had his best day of practice, looking good blocking at the goal line.
* Of course, other players have looked strong all week. I like DT Jarvis Jenkins the more I see of him. He and Phil Taylor moved very fluidly for their size in a punch/spin move drill and they're a mean team clogging the run. Danny Watkins has been consistent at guard but Rodney Hudson's the guard there I like the best. He's been solid in 11-on-11 and he impressively flattened Jenkins in a 1-on-1 rep. Gabe Carimi and John Moffitt bounced back after off days Wednesday, and Indiana lineman James Brewer also had a strong practice. They made like snowplows to blow open a couple of draw plays, and Carimi and Brewer got Stanzi forever to throw on the TD pass to Hunter. Titus Young made a terrific goal line catch while blanketed and beat Jalil Brown on an end zone fade, kind of an odd route for a shorter receiver. He did blow a wide open catch in the back of the end zone and reportedly has had a bit of a case of the drops this week. I still think he's a very solid second-rounder, though.
* Other players... well, there's always the Combine. OL Lee Ziemba continues to be overmatched. USC center Kristofer O'Dowd has looked slow-footed and has been getting beaten in drills all week.
* "Poppers": Auburn DB Zac Etheridge broke up a goal line pass. LB Chris White would have blown up a screen pass had drills been full-contact; he's had a good week. Washington LB Mason Foster did a nice job to blow up a designed rollout pass to the TE. Sione Fua blew up an attempted end-around. Ross Homan blew up an attempted option run for Kaepernick.
Von Miller missed practice due to illness but was expected to play in the game Saturday. As for that game, we've had to start preparations for a major winter storm around here, so I think I'll save that for the possibility of getting snowed in Tuesday or Wednesday. Once again, amateur here, what can I say.
No comments:
Post a Comment