Monday's practice notes

[vrabinec]

Notes from Monday’s practice:

Leftwich and Spaeth are the first ones down. Maybe Lefty knows he’s in a dogfight for the starter’s spot for those four precious first games, so he’s showing a little hustle. London, Johnson and Miller are right behind him.

Spaeth takes some balls from the jugs machine, squared up. The ball skips four yards short, and so does the second one. They have to make some kind of adjustment to it that nobody can seem to figure out and it eats away the tight ends’ catching session.

The quarterbacks are taking their leisurely warm ups. # out of the first 6 passes Lefty throws are wobbly, the others are spirals. 3 out of Batch’s first 4 passes flutter. Ben throws 5 and 1 flutters. Lefty throws a couple of nose divers. Dixon’s first five throws are tight spirals, then the next one is in the dirt.

Urbik is practicing his shotgun snap. The first one is high and to the right. The second one’s a duck, low and to the left. Third one’s right there, decent pace, good location.

Dixon’s next seven warm up throws are either on the numbers on in the facemask.

Lefty’s warming like a long time vet warms up. His stuff is wabbling, he’s not worried about footwork, he’s just worried about getting the arm stretched. On the other hand, Dixon warms up like he’s Goose Gossage in the bullpen. He’s getting more and more pace on it, he’s bouncing around like a seven year old, while Lefty looks like a seven year-old’s dad. Lefty’s looking at him and you can almost see the “wait’ll your knees are thirty years-old kid” smirk.

Lefty’s thowing a lot of sinkers with the nose down when he throws the short stuff. It’s only when he lofts it up a bit that he gets the thing turning over and in a clean spiral.

Dixon tries one rolling to the right and kind of throwing back across his body. Not too good of a throw. Looks like an interception waiting to happen.

Walk throughs:

Hartwig, Kemo, Maxie, Essex and Adams the line. I don’t see Pouncey out there, they must be holding him out of practice.

Lefty under center, Hines splits right, Wallace left, Miller tight on the left. Lefty hits Miller on a short buttonhook.

Wallace and Ward split right, Randel El to the left. Lefty hits Randel El going straight down the middle.

4 wides, Grisham and London left and Brown and Sanders split right. Ben under center. Lofts it to Sanders who pulls it in at his thighs.
Brown splits right Grisham left, Ben drops back and hits Grisham on a short crossing pattern over from the back slot.

Ben hits Brown out of the left slot in the flat.

Brown and Grisham split right, Sanders split left. Redman in the backfield. Ben takes the snap and hits Brown on a deep crossing pattern. The ball slapped audibly on his hands as he caught it.

On the far field it looks like the defense is practicing every different combination of four of the front seven coming on slants in both directions.

Brown right, Sanders and London left. London comes in motion. Dixon rolls out to the left and runs with it on the designed run. They’re gonna have to make the opponent respect the roll left and throw before that one can really be effective.

Dixon hits London on a deep out to the right, but the throw was behind him and he had to spin back to get it and it turned him completely around.

Wallace is screwing around a bit.

Dixon drops back to pass and hits Williams on a short out.

On the far field the defense is walking through bringing three in a nice tight formation, foot to foot when they line up.

Dixon hits London on an out pattern to the right, Ben’s screwing around, he could have had an interception but let the ball get through. Doesn’t look like a guy who looks too freakin’ worried to me. I heard he was nervous about the fans’ response, but I seriously doubt it. This guy deals with all the pressures that come with being an NFL QB, and he doesn’t look bothered by anything. Outside the lines, I may want a saint, but I wouldn’t want a QB who let a little scandal weigh on him inside the lines.

Ward split right, and Lefty hits Vincent in the left flat.

Lefty hits Wallace coming down the left sideline. Wallace is showboating a bit. I hope he’s not getting Ochocinco syndrome.

Looks like LeBeau is designing a few plays that feature Harrison. I’ve never seen a couple of them, then they run I’ve seen where they use Smith and Casey to kind of act as lead blockers to spring Harrison on a slight delay. Attack mode.

Dixon hits Redman out of the backfield and the ball slaps his hands a bit.

Now LeBeau is running some stuff designed to feature Timmons in a similar way to Harrison. Never gonna know which one’s coming.
Dixon hits Brown, and Brown makes a smooth catch on a ball over his head.

Brown, London to the right. Dixon drops back and throws it to London on an out pattern, but London had to come back for it.

Reed lines up for a 38 yard field goal. Hills is LT, Urbik is LG, Legursky is RT, Jones is RG, Warren the snapper. Mchugh has the back side. On defense, it looks like were sending Ike and Burnett off the edges. Dorian Brooks takes some snaps and they look pretty good. It would be nice to have him on the roster as a backup long snapper, but I don’t know if his guard skills are worth keeping.

Butler and McFadden are the backup edge rushers.

Ziggy, Hoke and Smith are the inside on the kick blocking team, with Moore trying to come over the top.

They run through a fake, another ridiculous fake, this one with Hills split out left as a receiver and Jeff Reed gets a pitchout to the other side. Funny.

The next fake has Legursky split out right as a receiver. Sepulveda is the fake QB on the fake, and he throws a weak pass right to Harrison who intercepts it.

Time for stretching. Randel El shows a little enthusiasm and tries to fire up the team a bit.

Bright looks like he actually has fairly nimble feet for someone his size, just judging by how he’s skipping and scissor sliding.

Summers, Johnson, and Taylor are really stiff. Taylor’s legs are huge. Robert Newhouse has nothing on those thighs. Every time the leg lands, it sounds like a log thumping on the ground.

Wallace is shucking and jiving.

The defensive backs do a kind of skit, were they line up in two rows like they’re getting their team picture taken, and McFadden rolls back and front in front of them, then gets in line and they all say something (I think it’s “Boo”) not sure what the hell it means, but it’s pretty funny.

Ike and Tomlin are yapping through the warm-ups.

In drills, Ben goes first. Hands it off to Moore to the right. Haven’t seen Mendy. I assume they’re resting him since he’ll be getting the thing 350 times this year.

Dixon under center, Williams fakes coming in motion from the left. Hand off to Redman.

Miller comes in from the left and Moore gets it on the end around and gives it on the reverse to Wallace.

Dixon hits Sanders down the right sideline.

Redman gets one up the middle.

Down in the near corner, the tight ends and tackles practice double teaming the end with the tight end peeling off to cut off the inside flow behind the end once the end has been turned inside.

Hills and Spaeth work it, and Spaeth comes off in decent position

Foster doesn’t get a good push when he tries, stopped moving his feet. Madden would be riding his back over that.

Miller and Adams run it and they look good doing it.

There’s some throwing going on across the field and Logan makes a nice over the shoulder catch.

The defender gives a little harder resistance, and Spaeth doesn’t get good position, moving his feet slowly as he tries to drive the end in but never manages to get him in, so the backer slides across cleanly.

Johnson and Scott run the thing, and Johnson misses his guy too because he’s slow coming off the first block.

On the far field, the defense is firing out of the chutes and then immediately cutting left or right. Harris looks a little stiff coming out of the chute. Worthington looks a little better.

Ward has one skip off his hands on a high throw.

Foster runs the double team again, and he looks better doing it. Kyle Jolly runs it well, but McHugh is a little weak on turning the end in.

Bright does a nice job of peeling off and getting the man coming across. He got good quick position.

Johnson runs it again, perfectly this time.

Across the field, the defensive linemen are sliding parallel to the three-man blocking sled, slamming each one as they go by.

Worthington’s slide is slow and his punch on the sled is weak.
McLendon looks even slower than Worthington.

Harris isn’t quite as slow, but not that much better.

Paxson looks quicker, but he doesn’t dent to sled dummies like Harris, doesn’t get quite the same extension in his arms. His is more of a slap.

Ziggy’s about like Harris, except maybe he hits the sled a little harder.

Jonathan Scott tries the double team, and he’s leaning on his man instead of hitting and diving.

QB’s are practicing the quick hit to the sideline. Ben hits Hines.

Lefty hits Grisham, not as quickly.

Dixon hits Battle quickly.

Lefty throws behind Sanders, but Sanders spins around and catches it.

Ben throws behind Williams, but Williams holds on.

Worthington hits the sled again, and again he’s weak hitting the sled dummies. This simulates giving blockers a pop as you slide down the line. The way Worthington’s hitting the sled, he’ll be five yards down field by the time he gets to the ball because every nudge from a guy he passes will push him back a bit. He needs to hit the sled harder.

They have Worthington try, and then try for a third time. Same result. The coaches talk to him for a while.

Ziggy and Eason look good down the line. Casey looks good down the line, he caves in the sled dummy the most, but Aaron Smith is the best combination of quickness and power when he’s popping the sled. He still has it.

Hoke and Kiesel hit it quickly and efficiently.

Ben throws behind Battle.

Dixon hits Grisham in the numbers.

Batch throws a little high to Williams, but he pulls it in.

Lefty’s too high for Sanders.

Ben hits Brown in the numbers.
Dixon’s a little low to Logan, not an easy thing to do. The ball nosedived.

Lefty hits London, and London makes a nice sideline catch.

Running backs take turns on the blocking sled. Taylor takes it for a ride. None of the other backs hit it nearly as hard.

Batch throws a semi-duck to Randel El, and he bobbles it.

Dixon throws a little behind Grisham.

Dixon leads Battle perfectly.

Batch hits Williams on a down, out and up.

Dixon a little behind Logan on a down out and up.

Brown drops his from Batch.

London makes the catch on his.

Hines runs a nice deep out and come back.

Randel El makes a nice catch on a high ball.

Lefty hits Sanders in the numbers.

Batch throws one behind Williams and Williams can’t make the catch.

Ben leads Brown perfectly.

The linemen practice the use of their hands by lining up facing each other and trying to get good hand position.

Essex is slow in getting his hands in place on Legursky.

Scott has slow hands as well.

Brooks looks weak trying to get hand position on Jolly.

Starks uses his hands well to get them inside on Hills.

Hartwig uses his hands wrong on Jones.

Urbik uses his hands wrong, has them too far outside, a holding waiting to happen.

Kemo shows the quickest hands of all in locking up Jones.

Legursky having trouble getting hand positioning on Essex.

Adams doesn’t really use his hands, he just kinda leans on people.

Jolly has problems trying to get inside position on Brooks.

Hills uses his hands pretty well on Starks.

Jones gets position on Hartwig, pretty quickly.

Foster looks slow trying to get his hands in position.

Across the field, linebackers are practicing coverage.

Timmons has good coverage and bats the ball down.

The running backs are practicing pass blocking.

Summers shows really good form, sets up well.

Taylor gets a little turned. He’s awesome coming straight forward, but it’s a little harder for him to go side to side.

Ben throws behind Randel El.

Lefty hits Wallace in stride.

Batch hits Battle in stride.

5 yard out patterns.

Ben hits Brown in the numbers.

Lefty hits Sanders in stride.

Batch hits Williams in stride.

Lefty hits Logan in the tiny numbers.

Ben hits Ward on an out-in-out. Where the hell he plans to get the time to wait for Ward to run a triple move, I’ll never know.

Batch throws behind Randel El, and Randel makes a nice catch. (It may be that Batch wasn’t behind, but that Randel El didn’t sell the in enough before cutting out the second time.) Nope. Batch starts cussing a bit. His fault.

Lefty hits Grisham, but Grisham had to wait a little too long for the ball. He had to sit on the patter for a half step.

Batch hits Williams nicely.

Dixon hits Wallace in stride.

Ben throws the ball way too early. Brown hadn’t even started coming back outside and the ball was by him.

Dixon hits Logan in the numbers.

Lefty throws a duck, a little high for Logan.

Ben to Hines, perfect.

Someone throws it behind Wallace.

Lefty hits Sanders in stride on a deep out and up.

Ben drops back, and is a little behind Brown. Bown had to wait for it a bit.

Lefty lobs one over Logan’s shoulder. Logan does a nice jog getting to it, but bobbles it just a bit.

The defensive backs are practicing backpedaling, swiveling back and forth.

Will Allen looks fairly limber.

Lewis looks a little slow making his pivots back and forth.

Williams makes a nice sideline catch to keep his feet in.

Ben hits Battle in the numbers.

Grisham with a very nice catch on a ball way behind him by Lefty.

Dixon hits Sanders in stride.

Lefty with a perfect pass to Logan, and Logan drops it.

Dixon leads London perfectly.

Polamalu isn’t going full speed on the backpedal drills.

Practicing a quick throw to the right, Lefty’s ball wobbles.

Tight ends are practicing blocking the LB’s.

Gibson beats Johnson with a rip move.

[vrabinec]

Worilds gets around McHugh quite easily. He fakes a move to his right then slithers around the other side by getting his right shoulder really low and ripping under McHugh’s right arms. Worilds looks like a contortionist as he does it, he’s 2 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier than Harrison, but it looks like he gets his shoulders just as low when he’s coming around the end, and he doesn’t lose any speed up field as he does it. That’s gonna be tough to stop.

Partial team scrimmage. The line and running backs are on the near field while the receivers and corners are on the far field.

First play on the near field has the usual offensive line with Miller tight to the right and Moore in the backfield. It’s a handoff up the middle. Essex moved Farrior out of the hole, but Timmons came over from the back side and filled it nicely.

I formation with Summers as the lead blocker and Moore back. Play gets stuffed by Smith and he gets a little backside help from Timmons and Harrison who’d been looping over on a run blitz. Moore fumbled at the end of the play.

Coaches have seen enough of Smith, he comes out and Ziggy comes in. Miller comes in motion, to the right. Adams blocks down on Ziggy and seals him off inside, Miller kicks out the outside contain and Redman cuts it up through the hole quickly. Would have been a decent gain.

On the far field, London lines up to the right against McFadden. McFadden jams him at the line so hard, London falls down and McFadden just hovers over him then jams him again for good measure as he tries to get up. London never gets to run his route. I know McFadden’s good at jamming guys at the line, but London has to put up a better fight that that.

Williams comes out on Ike. Williams gives a nice head fake outside then runs a deep skinny post and has a step on Ike. Lefty throws the ball behind him, but Williams had Ike beat.

Sanders comes out on Gay. Sanders starts in on a deep slant then cuts it outside with a nice fake, leaves Gay two steps behind but Ben underthrows it.

On the near field, Vincent and Dixon in the back field. Hand off to Vincent. Foot gets sealed off inside, and Worilds gets ridden outside around the play. Vincent cuts it up but the inside of the line pursues well and would have held it to a short gain.

Pittman does a nice job of jamming Logan at the line, but Logan eventually skitters around him and gets some separation with his speed. He’s open and drops the ball.

Handoff to Summers and Bailey slices in and chops him down at the knees in the backfield before he can get going.

Battle lines up against Harris, and he completely spins him around on a down, in and out. The ball was underthrown, but he had Harris cleanly beat.

I formation with Moore dotting the I, Spaeth whiffs on Bailey, but Moore beats Bailey outside and cuts around him.

Grisham lines up against Butler. He tries a couple quick moves, but Butler is all over him, good reflexes and change of direction. Blanket coverage.

Handoff to Moore around the right side. Hills buried RaShon Harris inside. Decent hole.

Brown lines up against Ike and gets two steps on him down the sideline. I don’t want to be an alarmist. Maybe I’m reading too much into it and I’m paranoid because of the Farrior decline last year, but it looks to me like Ike has lost a quarter step. If you’re the NFL’S fastest man like Darrel Green, you can lose a little because you’re still super fast. If you’re a corner with great instincts and hands like a Ty Law, you can lose a step and still be effective. Ike’s just not that kind of a player. I’m a big Ike supporter, but that’s only as long as he has his speed. If a guy like Ike loses a step, his worth is diminished exponentially. Going into the season with McFadden as your best corner is not a good place to be, regardless of how good the pass rush may be. Hope I’m wrong. Hope he just ate something that doesn’t agree with him.

Redman goes in motion, handoff to Summers. Oooo, he gets dropped by Worthington, who must’ve forgotten there’s no hitting the backs in these things.

Brown is working on Harris. Brown runs a ten yard come back and Harris can’t come up out of his backpedal fast enough. Brown catches it with room enough to make a move after the catch.

Essex moves Ziggy out of the way on a run play.

Logan comes out on Lewis and Lewis has great inside position on him and is stride for stride. Logan slips trying to make his last cut, but he was covered anyway.

Sanders comes out on McFadden. He tries a double move, and stop out and go, but McFadden doesn’t bite and he’s all over it and would have had an interception except Sanders manages to knock it out.

They break into two groups to try some kickoff blocking.

They run Lewis as a gunner and Battle drops back to try to block him. Lewis gets around him.

They try Pittman as a gunner, but Sylvester blocks him cleanly.

They run Grisham as the gunner, and Timmons stuffs him. Interesting that they use linebackers and defensive backs to block the gunners. I guess they are more used to zeroing in on someone in open space like that. It’s just like making an open field tackle without the tackle part.

They send IsaiahWilliams as the gunner at Mundy. Williams tries a couple moves, but Mundy doesn’t fall for it and has perfect position.

They send Thornton down against Renauld Williams. Williams looks terrible, trying to find the spot to stop and getting his bearings when he turns around to find Thornton.

They try Gibson as a blocker, but he gets back slow. Doubt he’ll be on the return team.

They send Gay as the gunner at Will Allen, and Allen looks smooth getting back and making the block.

They send Sylvester at Fox, and Fox looks good getting back and blocking him.

Bailey does a good job on the block.

Harris makes a nice block.

Thronton looks stiff getting back and he gets beat. He didn’t turn around and find the gunner fast enough.

Gibson looks the same way, stiff and awkward. Looks like he’s more concerned with stopping on the exact spot where the coaches told him to stop than he is about making the block.

Timmons shows them how it’s done.

They send Fox at Sylvester, and Sylvester does a nice job of finding him and blocking him. Sylvester has the look of someone who can be a good special teams player, if nothing else.

They run a double team with Lewis and Thorton, and Lewis does a nice job of getting back and turning the gunner inside to where Thornton can pick him up.

Scrimage. This one’s a full scrimmage, not split.

Wallace and Randel El come out split right. Ward on the left. Miller’s tight to the left. Burnett comes on a blitz, and would have slaughtered Lefty. Wallace beats McFadden on a deep come back pattern and Lefty hits him in the numbers. That was a breakdown on the right side of the o-line. Essex or Hartwig should have picked up the backside delay.

Timmons tiptoes up to the line. Farrior coming on the back side and Timmons coming up the middle. The play’s a completion on a quick receiver screen to Ward on the left, but the defense was in there so quick, I think Timmons would have blown it up. The line has to hold them up longer than that on a screen.

Ward and Wallace split right, Randel El left with Moore in the T-formation split with Miller. Polamalu comes up to the line and shows a blitz. He’s coming. Wallace runs an in pattern and Lefty throws it high and behind him. McFadden is right there. He would have cut him in half. Lefty can’t leave our guys hung out to dry like that.

London and Brown split right. Ben’s under center and has Miller in the backfield as the lead blocker, with Wallace coming in motion from the left. Fox gets picked up on the inside blitz. London runs a crossing pattern and McFadden has perfect inside position, but Ben throws a perfect pass, high enough that McFadden can’t get it but London reaches up that 6’4” frame and catches it at the top of the arc over McFadden. London spins and turns it up field, and Burnett chops it out of his hands. That’s a catch and fumble.

Lewis and Gibson come in, Gibosn as LOLB. Eason’s in the middle now. Ziggy’s in as the RDE. Bailey teases up to the line. Ben has Johnson and Moore in a T-formation, with Moore to the right. Ben drops back to pass. No pressure. Vincent gets behind Foote coming out of the backfield. Ben throws a perfect touch pass over Foote, but it skips off Vincent’s hands.

Allen, Burnett, Mundy, and Harris come in as the DB’s. Brown and Grisham split right. Ben has Moore in the backfield. Good pressure from Bailey on an inside blitz. Burnett has good coverage on Grisham on the crossing pattern. Ben forces it in and throws it where only Grisham could get it, low and away, but Grisham can’t hold on. Would have been a good catch.

Dixon comes in to QB. Gibson’s up on the line at the left. Aaron Smith comes back in. Brown splits out right. London comes in motion from the left. Dixon on a designed run to the left. Fox sniffs it out and Worlids holds his ground on the right and they turn Dixon back inside right to Ziggy.

Urbik is in as the center. Logan splits right. Dixon in the sotgun. Drops back to pass. Isaiah Williams beats Butler on a 10 yard out.

Logan split right. Dixon drops back to pass and has to check down to Moore coming out of the backfield, but Renaud Williams had good tight coverage. Dixon forced it in.

Lefty in at QB. Ziggy’s in the middle. Pittman’s in as the left corner and Ward lines up across from him. Wallace split right. Burnett comes on the blitz and has a clear shot at Lefty again. Play would have been dead. Lefty hits Redman out in the left flat. Redman made a nice catch, but the play would never have gotten off.

Woodley and Hoke come in. McFadden comes in as the left corner, and Burnett is the nickel. Gay is the right corner. Randel El comes out to the left across from Gay. Gay has good tight coverage on him. Lefty forces it in there on a short out pattern to the left and he threads it in there. Randel El makes the catch, then stumbles and falls before he can turn it up field.

Wallace and Hines split right with Miller tight to the right. Lefty under center. Empty backfield. Lefty drops back to pass. Scott does a nice job blocking Woodley. Randel El beats Burnett on the left with an inside move, but Troy jumps the route and nearly has the interception.

Grisham and Brown come out split to the right. Spaeth and Sanders split left. Ben’s the QB with an empty backfield. Urbik is at RG now. Smith is in as the NT. Harrison blows around Spaeth like he’s standing still, dead QB. Ben takes off to the right with Smith and Kiesel giving chase, then throws it away.

[supa_fly_steeler]

nice.

[stairway27]

Great stuff! I feel like I was there.

[vrabinec]

They line up for kickoff drills, complete teams now.



Ziggy, Johnson and Spaeth are back as the deep lead blockers and Bailey up field from them. Reed kicks it off, Logan takes it 6 yards deep. Johnson destroys his man and Moore does a great job of blocking Butler. Nobody wanted to come up the middle toward Ziggy, but Logan cut it outside.



Burnett back to take the next kick, with Redman as his lead blocker. Reed kicks off and Burnett takes it at the goal line. The inside is clogged and Burnett makes a nice outside move, but Brown was there. He had him way back around the 10.



Logan back to take the next one. Butler's one of the gunners, and it looks like he came across the line too soon, off sides. Logan catches it and fakes Pittman out of his jock with a nice head fake inside and cut outside. Makes Pittman look like he's wearing concrete boots. Lewis is there to make the play around the 25.



Sanders drops back to take a kick. Reed kicks it off. Sanders takes it 6 yards deep and runs it out. Sanders fakes Grisham out nicely and takes it right up the gut with a nice bit of running, making quick cuts at the hole. McClendon finally gets him up around the 35.

Linemen line up to go one on one in pass ush drills. Kielsel beats Starks with a perseverance rush.



Receivers are running 10 yard outs. Lefty hits Wallace on the right and Wallace drops it. It was a little low, down around the shins, but catchable.



Kemo stuffs Paxson. Swallowed him up.



Legursky does a decent job blocking Hoke. Hoke tried a rip move and Legursky did a nice job of keeping his elbows in and stopping Hoke's charge.



Lefty drops back to pass. Miller runs a short out to the right on Woodley. Lefty throws too high, but Woodley was right there anyway and would have had it stopped.



Ziggy eats Adams alive with a powerful swim move. Adams didn't know what hit him.



Ra'Shon Harris tries to get around Starks, but Starks just rides him outside around the play.



Kemo locks Kiesel up nicely. Kiesel keeps the motor running and eventually yanks Kemo forward and gets by him, but it took a long time.



McClendon pushes Legursky into the backfield, way into the backfield. Easily.



Harrison has perfect coverage on Spaeth. Wallace beats Lewis on an in pattern. Had a couple yards of separation.



Essex stuffs Eason. Does a nice job of getting his hands inside on Eason's pads.



Lefty throws in behind Miller on the out. Mundy was there to make the play. Miller had to spin around to try to get it.



Worthington pops Hills then cleanly beats him on the outside speed rush. Hills still has trouble sliding out fast enough.



Ben hits Spaeth on the quick turn around and Fox and Mundy are right there.



Hills is still getting instructions from Kugler on the far field. They try it again, and he looks much better on Worthington this time.



Jones does a nice job standing up Ra'Shon Harris. Got under his pads.



Sanders betas Tuff Harris on a deep comeback to the left.



Ra'Son Harris jumps off sides. They try again, and Harris pushes Jones deep into the pocket. Looks like Jones gave up too many yards too fast. They're gonna run that again. Harris does it again. He's just overpowering Jones. The guys knees are buckling when Harris hits him.



Paxson shoots right around Hartwig. Someone says Hartwig is hurt. He looks terrible right now. They run it again, and he does a little better, but Paxson still gets too much penetration.



Ben drops back, but Tuff Harris has good position on Sanders on the crossing route. Ben forces it in there, but Harris knocks it down with the right hand reach-around.



McClendon gives Urbik a ride into the backfield. Urbik looks a little better than last year, but not enough. He and Hills are on very thin ice right now IMO.



Scott does a nice job stuffing Worthington.



Bailey has good coverage on Vincent on an out pattern, but Vincent makes the catch anyway.



Worthington beats Scott with a nice short chop across the arms and slap to the side. He faked like he was going out, then chopped and ripped inside.



Ra'Shon Harris pushes Hills into the backfield, then throws him aside and goes inside of him.



Timmons has tight coverage on Bright. Ben forces it in and puts in a spot where only Bright can get it, hits him in the hands. Bright drops it.



Jones does a nice job locking Paxson up.



Ziggy beats Hartwig.



Redman makes a nice catch on a low ball on his shoelaces. He had to come back for it in the right flat.



Worhtington shoves Brooks into the backfield way too easy. They try again, and he does it again. Brooks isn't getting much of a seal in the pass block.



Ziggy beats Jolly with a swim move before Jolly can make a move. I don't want to go overboard, and I want to see Ziggy play against someone else's line, but we can't block him one on one when he's coming up field. Let me put it this way, if we play a team with a line as bad as ours, they'll have to double team Ziggy because he has the shortest route to the QB. If we can face teams to double Ziggy on passing downs, then the opponent better hope their LT is exceptional or they'll have two double teams, one on Ziggy and one on Harrison. Once you force a team into tow double teams, then you not only get sacks, you get violent sacks. Lets say at some point, LeBeau devises a third and long defense that sends Ziggy, Harrison, Woodley, Timmons and Worilds at the Qb. I don't know what you call it, I'll just call in Wicked for now. You isolate Ziggy on the weakest guy between the guards and center to force the double there, and you get the TE and LT doubling on Harrison. You have to use a big body on Woodley. The o-line has to have really wide splits because they have to respect Woodley and Harrison off the edges, that means there's no guarantee that the double will be effective on Ziggy because he'll have a nice gap to shoot, and you'll have either Timmons or Worlids isoed on a back with a lot of room.



Dixon sends London in motion. He drops back, he's looking, looking, then pick the wrong guy, tries to check down to Vincent but Fox was all over him.



Dixon sends Grisham in motion, then drops back. He throws it toward Williams but Gay had very tight coverage on the deep out. Gay cuts under it and has it in his hands momentarily. Should have had an interception.



Sanders is on Butler, split out to the left. Redman goes in motion then comes up to the line. Batch is the QB. He hits Vincent coming out of the backfield. Butler had good coverage on the come back route on Sanders, then Sanders turned around and did a nice job leading the block on Butler as Vincent came up behind him with the ball.



The coach didn't like something about how Redman ran the route and he gives him some instructions. It felt like he didn't run the route right, like he was out there too quickly. It may have been a screen with Sanders as one of the lead blockers.



Sanders pushes Butler deep and fakes him with a head fake in them cuts out and comes back for the ball, but Batch underthrows the play (or Sanders ran it too deep)



Butler and Sanders line up across from one another again. Vincent goes in motion. Sanders gets good separation. Vincent makes a nice catch coming out of the backfield, but Butler peels off Sanders nicely and comes up to strip Vincent of the ball. Ra'Shon Harris picks it up and brings it back



Summers is in the backfield. Batch drops back, he pumps left, but 31 has great coverage on Brown (I don't have a number 31 in my program, he has made a couple nice plays, whoever he is) Thronton had good coverage on Moore swinging out of the backfield.



London splits out to the right on Pittman. McHugh goes in motion to the right. Batch with a play action fake, then drops back and hits McHugh in the hands at the forehead. McHugh drops the ball. Renauld Williams had good coverage in the zone and would have taken his head off.



Scrimage:



First team offense comes out, and Mundy comes out with the first team defense (I think Troy's done for the day). Wallace comes out to the right, tight. Batch sees something he doesn't like over there and starts yelling instructions. Miller comes in motion to the left. Handoff to Redman to the left. Nice hole at Kiesel's spot. Kemo's on the ground, rolling around in pain. Hope it's nothing serious. He gets up and seems to be oaky.



Wallace comes out to the right. Ward goes in motion. Hartwig stuffs Hoke in the midlle. Farrior almost has an interception, cutting in front of Ward on the slant. Those quick slants may not be all that effective because Lefty has such a long windup. He was late with the throw.



Wallace comes out with McFadden on him. Ward is split right with Ike on him. (again, I don't want to read too much into practice, but why would McFadden be on the speed man and Ike on the possession receiver). Will Allen coming on the blitz gets into the backfield, but Jones does a nice job of coming from the other side and pushing him wide. Wallace pushes McFadden deep then cuts inside and makes the catch.



Lewis and Burnett are the corners. Brown splits right, Grisham with Spaeth on the left. Spaeth goes in motion to the right. Harrison's coming in a hurry, quick pitch to Brown (or Summers, I just saw a 4) and Lewis is right there to give him a nice little shot on the sideline. Lewis showed good quickness in the zone to come and fill on that. I'll be curious to see how Lewis tackles. He still looks a little gangly to me.



McClendon is shooting the gap between Legursky and Urbik. Ben bobbles the snap, and Harrison is right there. He would have hammered him. Ben throws a nice touch pass to Sanders, but the play would never have gotten off.



Ziggy gets double teamed. Hoke loops around and is clean coming in. Butler has great coverage on London. Ben forces it in where only London can get it, but he drops it. Would have been a good catch. Looks like Butler doesn't respect London's speed, he played way up and tight on his, so that even a short little slant like this he as tight coverage on.



Johnson goes in motion to the left. Dixon drops back, and hands it to Redman, but Fox is right there. That was a blown line assignment. Fox was unaccounted for.



McHugh comes in motion to the right. Summers does a nice job of picking up Bailey on the delay. Brown drops a ball on a bad throw by Batch. Threw it behind him on a short out to the left sideline.



Logan splits out to the right with Burnett on him. Dixon sends him in motion. Dixon rolls out to the right with Adams leading. Vincent wipes out Burnett and Dixon gets some nice yardage.



Miller spilts out to the right. Lefty under center. Fakes the handoff, and flares it out to Summers in the left flat, but Clark came up and had him for a short gain.



Randel El split right, Miller in the right slot, Grisham in the left slot. Randle El must be in the wrong spot. Lefty gets him adjusted to the right spot. Smith is in Lefty's face and he throws it over him. McFadden has good position on Wallace but the pass sails.



Wallace and Randel El to the right, Miller coming in motion from the left. Essex stuffs Eason. Wallace takes the wide receiver screen. Would have been a nice gain. Lewis would have had him from the back side, but twenty yards down the field.



Sanders splits right. Redman in the backfield with Summers in front of him. Johnson goes in motion to the right. Dixon drops back topass. Worthington had a clean shot at him. Another breakdown along the line. Dixon checks down to Redman. Paxson and Worhtington were right there.



After practice, the backs are in the corner, taking turns hitting the sled with the ball in their hand. Looks like the coach didn't like how much the ball was popping loose

[steeltheone]

Not sure why you would need to rest Mendenhall..He is a kid with barely any pro mileage...He is still learning and improving.

[pete74]

great read. thanx

[Hirsch]

I feel like I just left practice. GREAT JOB ! Man this is such a great sight. Most of you have forgotten more about football than I will ever know. Can't wait til game time

[INOX]

Nice recap.:tt02:

[LVSteelersfan]

Great read. Doesn't sound like my fellow alumni Summers is doing too good. I had hopes for him but it sounds like practice squad at best. And it sounds like the return of the empty backfield sets again. Arians is going to drive me crazy. It never works and it doesn't sound like it worked well here either. Lefty will get hammered if he has to do that in a real game. PUT A BLOCKER BACK THERE ARIANS.

Thanks for the update. It is hard to find any information about what is going on.