SoonerBeau
8/14/2006, 02:29 PM
I have posted this already on both Scout and Rivals, but for the benefit of those that frequent this board, I am posting it here as well.
I just returned from Norman, and as promised, here are my observations. By way of warning, this is my first time doing this and I am hardly a football expert; rather, I am merely a long-time fan. I have not yet read any other practice reports regarding yesterday's scrimmage, so these are only my thoughts and observations. I am quite sure others will have picked up on different things or may differ in opinion. Moreover, I took extensive notes on what happened on each play (e.g., PT pass for 7 yards to M. Johnson left sideline; JH 15 yard pass to JJF, nice run after the catch), most of which I have reproduced here. Keep in mind that I was eye-balling the yardage and probably made a few errors. Moreover, it was impossible to keep track of everything going on while keeping such extensive notes on the main happenings of each play. I am sure others spent more time concentrating on the battle at the line of scrimmage or the play of particular defensive backs or linebackers.
The practice started out with the offense and defense running 7 on 7 passing drills (no linemen). PT and JH took turns at QB with Bradford and McEachern each getting only a few snaps. PT started out rough, throwing INTs on his second and third pass attempts. The first was interecepted by Wolfe, and the second by R. Smith. They both made nice plays on the ball on relatively short passes. Lendy Holmes also had an INT on a PT deep pass into double coverage. It was a very nice one handed interception. Lendy later had another INT of a deep pass overthrown by PT.
During 7 on 7 drills, both PT and JH completed most of their short to intermediate passes, at least as long as the receivers were open. They struggled with the deeper passes. Probably the best offensive play of the 7 on 7 drills was a deep pass down the right sideline from JH to A. Tennell. JH pump-faked to freeze the defender and then lofted a deep pass about 40 yards. It was one of the few deep passes by either QB that was on target. Toward the end of 7 on 7 drills, PT hit some pretty nice short to intermediate slant passes. Both PT and JH tried to hit Gresham down the field but missed on a few passes. On one, Gresham got behind the coverage about 20-25 yards down the middle of the field, and PT threw a pretty nice pass. Unfortunatey, it went a couple of yards in front of Gresham, though it was my impression that Gresham may have not known the ball was coming his way and slowed up a bit, otherwise he might have been able to make the catch.
Overall, JH had the better performance during 7 on 7 drills, but both he and PT need to work on their deep passes. They clearly both appreciate the talent of Gresham, because they were really trying to get the ball to him down the field. Although Gresham lined up in a down stance at times, most of the time in the 7 on 7 drills he appeared to be split out like a receiver. Bradford got a few snaps and completed some dump off passes, but I don't recall him ever really trying to throw the ball down the field.
After the 7 on 7 drills ended, the team had about a 90 play scrimmage (excluding the special teams plays). PT and JH continued to rotate in and out each possession. Most of the early drives started at mid-field. In the early part of the scrimmage, JH continued to look a little better than PT though neither had much success sustaining drives, but toward the middle to end of the scrimmage, PT really picked up his play and looked better than JH. I was really glad to see PT start to settle in and have some success. Believe it or not, I managed to keep a play-by-play summary for each play during the scrimmage. Here is a summary (please give me a break with regard to any mistakes I may have made; preparing this took some time and effort).
1st drive: PT at QB; completed a short pass to MJ then a roughly 10 yard pass to JJF for a first down. After a short AD run, PT threw incomplete to J.I. into coverage (about 6 yds) and then incomplete on a bad sideline pass about 10-15 yds.
2nd drive: JH at QB; completed short pass, about 5 yds, to the right; C. Brown ran about 4 yds; C. Brown ran less than 1 yard; on 4th down, Birdine made a nice play dropping the back for a loss.
3rd drive: PT at QB; PT pass intercepted by A. Dotson (pass was intended for Gresham but underthrown; pass was about 10 yards on the right sideline)
4th drive: JH at QB; JH completed about a 7 yard pass to C. Brown; on the next play the back ran for a short loss; JH short pass, 5-10 yards to the left, completed for a first down; JH completed 13-14 yd pass to E. Huggins for 1st down; G. McCoy was all over the QB on the next play and JH got rid of the ball by throwing it deep to an area with no receivers, and the pass was intercepted by L. Holmes
5th drive: PT at QB; Patrick 1 yd run; PT 5 yd run to the right on a designed QB run play; PT overthrows Q. Chaney on an intermediate sideline pass
6th drive: JH at QB; snap exchange botched between Beeler and JH; short pass completed to Zaslaw; C. Brown rush for short loss
7th drive: PT at QB; PT overthrows C. Chaney on deep pass; PT 15 yard pass to J. Gresham dropped; Cooper botched snap to PT
8th drive: JH at QB; Madu 3 yd run up middle; JH 16 yd scramble for 1st down; JH throws INT picked off by L. Holmes (yet again; what a day Lendy had) on an overthrown deep pass
9th drive: PT at QB; PT completes 16 yd pass to A. Tennell for 1st down; nice almost 10 yd draw by Gute; PT incomplete to A. Tennell (double coverage; thrown behind receiver); PT incomplete to Strong about 10-15 yds on sideline (probably could have been caught)
10th drive: JH at QB; JH rollout pass incomplete (thrown out of bounds and in front of the receiver); C. Brown 5 yd run up the middle; JH completes 14 yd pass to Q. Chaney on sideline for 1st down; JH slightly overthrows Q. Chaney on deep pass; JH throws incomplete pass broken up with a nice play by M. Walker; JH deep sideline plass to E. Huggins dropped
11th drive: PT at QB; PT completes 4 yd pass to A. Tennell; 5 yd run by A. Patrick; A. Dotson nice rush on QB, and pass is hurried and thrown incomplete
12th drive: JH at QB; JH 5 yd pass to Gresham; JH incomplete on overthrown pass (I may have missed a play because my next note is on a play with PT at QB)
13th drive: PT at QB; PT 7 yd pass completed to A. Tennell on the sideline; PT 15 yd pass completed to A. Tennell; Gute short run, 1-2 yds, before being touched down (he was wearing a blue jersey); PT rollout pass to JJF for 13 yards; Madu 9 yd run up the middle to the 1 yard line; Madu 1 yd TD run (THIS IS THE FIRST TD DRIVE OF THE SCRIMMAGE; PT LOOKED MUCH BETTER STARTING AROUND HERE, MID-WAY THROUGH THE SCRIMMAGE)
14th drive: JH at QB; JH scramble for no yards (good coverage); JH 7 yd sideline pass completed; JH overthrew Q. Chaney on 7-10 yd slant
15th drive: PT at QB; PT throws complete to Patrick for 5 yards; strong 3 yd run by Patrick; strong run inside by Patrick for the first down despite solid defensive play; PT sacked by N. Harris (actually, Harris got into backfield and then just stopped a few yds from PT; PT then scrambled for several yards, but the coaches apparently decided to count it as a sack since it would have been a sack in a game); PT run on QB draw for 3 yds; PT pass to the left sideline is tipped by L. Baker and then caught by Strong for 15 yds and 1st down; PT completes 15 yd pass to Madu (most yards came on nice run after the catch); PT completes 4 yd pass to JJF; Madu tough 2 yd run up the middle to the 1 yd line; Madu run for no gain from 1 yd line; Madu run stuffed by the defense on a great goalline stand (SO THIS DRIVE WENT ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE 1 YD LINE BEFORE DEFENSE STUFFED THE RUN FROM THE 1)
16th drive: JH at QB; JH swing pass to C. Brown who makes a nice run up the sideine after the catch for 20 yard gain; JH 17 yd pass completed to Q. Chaney in the middle of the field; JH completes nice swing pass to C. Brown, hitting him in stride, as the gain goes down to the 2 yd line after 11 yd pick-up; 2 yd TD run by C. Brown (THIS IS THE SECOND TD DRIVE AND FIRST LED BY JH AT QB)
17th drive: PT at QB; PT 9 yd sideline pass to J.I. dropped/bobbled; PT 9 yd pass completed to M. Johnson; PT 4 yd pass to JJF thrown low and dropped; on 4th down, the defense gets a big stop on a run up the middle dropped for a loss
18th drive: JH at QB; Madu nice 10 yd run up the middle breaking some tackles; deep pass from JH to B. Caleb incomplete but there was pass interference; Madu run up middle for no gain; JH swing pass to Madu dropped; JH overthrows E. Huggins on 10-15 yd sideline pass
The team next went to red zone drills with the offense getting the ball around the 15 to 20 yd line.
1st Red Zone: PT at QB; good run by Patrick for several yards; PT 10 yd TD pass
2nd Red Zone: JH at QB; JH sacked by C. Moore; JH nearly sacked while facing right/middle, quickly turns to his left and throws dangerous pass across the field that is completed to C. Brown for about 15 yds down sideline; C. Brown 2 yd run; C. Brown 2 yd run up the middle; JH overthrows Q. Chaney in endzone; JH scrambles for a few yards before being touched at the 1 yd line, but I think the coaches gave him the TD as he clearly would have scored in a real game
3rd Red Zone: PT at QB; 6 yd run by Madu; good coverage and solid scramble by PT for 3 yds; Madu 2 yd gain for 1st down; PT pass completed to M. Clapp for about 5 yds down to within the 1 yd line; PT 1 yd TD pass to M. Clapp
4th Red Zone: JH at QB; JH misses the back on a swing pass, throwing the ball backwards (live ball, loss of a few yards); JH incomplete pass to Gresham in coverage in the back of the endzone; SCRIMMAGE ENDED BEFORE THIS POSSESSION WAS FINISHED
Other observations: R. Smith and A. Patrick were the 1st string KO returners with M. Johnson and J. Nelson making up the 2nd string. R. Smith was the 1st team punt returner with D. Franks running second team. Hartley hit all of his FGs except for one from 46-47 yds that hit an upright and bounced off (UPDATE: Soonersports shows that he missed another, so I may have missed that one). He hit one from 55 yards and another from 50 yards. I was not paying really close attention to the punters, but it appeared that Hartley was a bit inconsistent. The best punter may have been a guy that was not on the roster (no. 13 - UPDATED: someone in another report said no. 13 was Mike Knall). He hit a couple of very good punts. Perhaps someone else knows who he is. I am not sure how the other punters did.
Players that had good scrimmages include L. Holmes who had about a half dozen interceptions; A. Tennell, who had alot of pass thrown his way and played quite a bit with the 1st team; R. Smith, who had an early pick in 7 on 7 drills; Wolfe, who had an early pick in 7 on 7 drills; Dotson, who had an INT and a sack (he looked bigger than I thought he was); C. Brown, who looked good running and catching the ball; M. Madu, who also looked pretty good running the ball but did have one drop; Q. Chaney, who the QBs threw to quite a bit and had a couple of catches; J. Gresham, who the QBs also threw to quite a bit (he really looks the part of a big/hybrid receiver); and J. Halzle who showed much more promise than I had expected (in a year he could be a pretty good QB). The defensive front played very well with several big short yardage stops, but the offensive line only allowed a few sacks in about 90 offensive plays which is encouraging. McCoy had the one great QB rush, but I did not pay much attention to what he did the rest of the time. D. Murray may have had some minor injury or other issue that kept him out, because I did not see him play or run sprints at the end of the scrimmage despite being suited up. As for PT, he looked really rusty early but improved greatly by the end. I was very, very encouraged by how he ended the day. Hopefully he will continue to improve. He and Halzle really need to work on their deep passes, as more were thrown badly and intercepted than the receivers had a chance of catching. The defensive backs, and L. Holmes in particular, obviously had a good day.
I just returned from Norman, and as promised, here are my observations. By way of warning, this is my first time doing this and I am hardly a football expert; rather, I am merely a long-time fan. I have not yet read any other practice reports regarding yesterday's scrimmage, so these are only my thoughts and observations. I am quite sure others will have picked up on different things or may differ in opinion. Moreover, I took extensive notes on what happened on each play (e.g., PT pass for 7 yards to M. Johnson left sideline; JH 15 yard pass to JJF, nice run after the catch), most of which I have reproduced here. Keep in mind that I was eye-balling the yardage and probably made a few errors. Moreover, it was impossible to keep track of everything going on while keeping such extensive notes on the main happenings of each play. I am sure others spent more time concentrating on the battle at the line of scrimmage or the play of particular defensive backs or linebackers.
The practice started out with the offense and defense running 7 on 7 passing drills (no linemen). PT and JH took turns at QB with Bradford and McEachern each getting only a few snaps. PT started out rough, throwing INTs on his second and third pass attempts. The first was interecepted by Wolfe, and the second by R. Smith. They both made nice plays on the ball on relatively short passes. Lendy Holmes also had an INT on a PT deep pass into double coverage. It was a very nice one handed interception. Lendy later had another INT of a deep pass overthrown by PT.
During 7 on 7 drills, both PT and JH completed most of their short to intermediate passes, at least as long as the receivers were open. They struggled with the deeper passes. Probably the best offensive play of the 7 on 7 drills was a deep pass down the right sideline from JH to A. Tennell. JH pump-faked to freeze the defender and then lofted a deep pass about 40 yards. It was one of the few deep passes by either QB that was on target. Toward the end of 7 on 7 drills, PT hit some pretty nice short to intermediate slant passes. Both PT and JH tried to hit Gresham down the field but missed on a few passes. On one, Gresham got behind the coverage about 20-25 yards down the middle of the field, and PT threw a pretty nice pass. Unfortunatey, it went a couple of yards in front of Gresham, though it was my impression that Gresham may have not known the ball was coming his way and slowed up a bit, otherwise he might have been able to make the catch.
Overall, JH had the better performance during 7 on 7 drills, but both he and PT need to work on their deep passes. They clearly both appreciate the talent of Gresham, because they were really trying to get the ball to him down the field. Although Gresham lined up in a down stance at times, most of the time in the 7 on 7 drills he appeared to be split out like a receiver. Bradford got a few snaps and completed some dump off passes, but I don't recall him ever really trying to throw the ball down the field.
After the 7 on 7 drills ended, the team had about a 90 play scrimmage (excluding the special teams plays). PT and JH continued to rotate in and out each possession. Most of the early drives started at mid-field. In the early part of the scrimmage, JH continued to look a little better than PT though neither had much success sustaining drives, but toward the middle to end of the scrimmage, PT really picked up his play and looked better than JH. I was really glad to see PT start to settle in and have some success. Believe it or not, I managed to keep a play-by-play summary for each play during the scrimmage. Here is a summary (please give me a break with regard to any mistakes I may have made; preparing this took some time and effort).
1st drive: PT at QB; completed a short pass to MJ then a roughly 10 yard pass to JJF for a first down. After a short AD run, PT threw incomplete to J.I. into coverage (about 6 yds) and then incomplete on a bad sideline pass about 10-15 yds.
2nd drive: JH at QB; completed short pass, about 5 yds, to the right; C. Brown ran about 4 yds; C. Brown ran less than 1 yard; on 4th down, Birdine made a nice play dropping the back for a loss.
3rd drive: PT at QB; PT pass intercepted by A. Dotson (pass was intended for Gresham but underthrown; pass was about 10 yards on the right sideline)
4th drive: JH at QB; JH completed about a 7 yard pass to C. Brown; on the next play the back ran for a short loss; JH short pass, 5-10 yards to the left, completed for a first down; JH completed 13-14 yd pass to E. Huggins for 1st down; G. McCoy was all over the QB on the next play and JH got rid of the ball by throwing it deep to an area with no receivers, and the pass was intercepted by L. Holmes
5th drive: PT at QB; Patrick 1 yd run; PT 5 yd run to the right on a designed QB run play; PT overthrows Q. Chaney on an intermediate sideline pass
6th drive: JH at QB; snap exchange botched between Beeler and JH; short pass completed to Zaslaw; C. Brown rush for short loss
7th drive: PT at QB; PT overthrows C. Chaney on deep pass; PT 15 yard pass to J. Gresham dropped; Cooper botched snap to PT
8th drive: JH at QB; Madu 3 yd run up middle; JH 16 yd scramble for 1st down; JH throws INT picked off by L. Holmes (yet again; what a day Lendy had) on an overthrown deep pass
9th drive: PT at QB; PT completes 16 yd pass to A. Tennell for 1st down; nice almost 10 yd draw by Gute; PT incomplete to A. Tennell (double coverage; thrown behind receiver); PT incomplete to Strong about 10-15 yds on sideline (probably could have been caught)
10th drive: JH at QB; JH rollout pass incomplete (thrown out of bounds and in front of the receiver); C. Brown 5 yd run up the middle; JH completes 14 yd pass to Q. Chaney on sideline for 1st down; JH slightly overthrows Q. Chaney on deep pass; JH throws incomplete pass broken up with a nice play by M. Walker; JH deep sideline plass to E. Huggins dropped
11th drive: PT at QB; PT completes 4 yd pass to A. Tennell; 5 yd run by A. Patrick; A. Dotson nice rush on QB, and pass is hurried and thrown incomplete
12th drive: JH at QB; JH 5 yd pass to Gresham; JH incomplete on overthrown pass (I may have missed a play because my next note is on a play with PT at QB)
13th drive: PT at QB; PT 7 yd pass completed to A. Tennell on the sideline; PT 15 yd pass completed to A. Tennell; Gute short run, 1-2 yds, before being touched down (he was wearing a blue jersey); PT rollout pass to JJF for 13 yards; Madu 9 yd run up the middle to the 1 yard line; Madu 1 yd TD run (THIS IS THE FIRST TD DRIVE OF THE SCRIMMAGE; PT LOOKED MUCH BETTER STARTING AROUND HERE, MID-WAY THROUGH THE SCRIMMAGE)
14th drive: JH at QB; JH scramble for no yards (good coverage); JH 7 yd sideline pass completed; JH overthrew Q. Chaney on 7-10 yd slant
15th drive: PT at QB; PT throws complete to Patrick for 5 yards; strong 3 yd run by Patrick; strong run inside by Patrick for the first down despite solid defensive play; PT sacked by N. Harris (actually, Harris got into backfield and then just stopped a few yds from PT; PT then scrambled for several yards, but the coaches apparently decided to count it as a sack since it would have been a sack in a game); PT run on QB draw for 3 yds; PT pass to the left sideline is tipped by L. Baker and then caught by Strong for 15 yds and 1st down; PT completes 15 yd pass to Madu (most yards came on nice run after the catch); PT completes 4 yd pass to JJF; Madu tough 2 yd run up the middle to the 1 yd line; Madu run for no gain from 1 yd line; Madu run stuffed by the defense on a great goalline stand (SO THIS DRIVE WENT ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE 1 YD LINE BEFORE DEFENSE STUFFED THE RUN FROM THE 1)
16th drive: JH at QB; JH swing pass to C. Brown who makes a nice run up the sideine after the catch for 20 yard gain; JH 17 yd pass completed to Q. Chaney in the middle of the field; JH completes nice swing pass to C. Brown, hitting him in stride, as the gain goes down to the 2 yd line after 11 yd pick-up; 2 yd TD run by C. Brown (THIS IS THE SECOND TD DRIVE AND FIRST LED BY JH AT QB)
17th drive: PT at QB; PT 9 yd sideline pass to J.I. dropped/bobbled; PT 9 yd pass completed to M. Johnson; PT 4 yd pass to JJF thrown low and dropped; on 4th down, the defense gets a big stop on a run up the middle dropped for a loss
18th drive: JH at QB; Madu nice 10 yd run up the middle breaking some tackles; deep pass from JH to B. Caleb incomplete but there was pass interference; Madu run up middle for no gain; JH swing pass to Madu dropped; JH overthrows E. Huggins on 10-15 yd sideline pass
The team next went to red zone drills with the offense getting the ball around the 15 to 20 yd line.
1st Red Zone: PT at QB; good run by Patrick for several yards; PT 10 yd TD pass
2nd Red Zone: JH at QB; JH sacked by C. Moore; JH nearly sacked while facing right/middle, quickly turns to his left and throws dangerous pass across the field that is completed to C. Brown for about 15 yds down sideline; C. Brown 2 yd run; C. Brown 2 yd run up the middle; JH overthrows Q. Chaney in endzone; JH scrambles for a few yards before being touched at the 1 yd line, but I think the coaches gave him the TD as he clearly would have scored in a real game
3rd Red Zone: PT at QB; 6 yd run by Madu; good coverage and solid scramble by PT for 3 yds; Madu 2 yd gain for 1st down; PT pass completed to M. Clapp for about 5 yds down to within the 1 yd line; PT 1 yd TD pass to M. Clapp
4th Red Zone: JH at QB; JH misses the back on a swing pass, throwing the ball backwards (live ball, loss of a few yards); JH incomplete pass to Gresham in coverage in the back of the endzone; SCRIMMAGE ENDED BEFORE THIS POSSESSION WAS FINISHED
Other observations: R. Smith and A. Patrick were the 1st string KO returners with M. Johnson and J. Nelson making up the 2nd string. R. Smith was the 1st team punt returner with D. Franks running second team. Hartley hit all of his FGs except for one from 46-47 yds that hit an upright and bounced off (UPDATE: Soonersports shows that he missed another, so I may have missed that one). He hit one from 55 yards and another from 50 yards. I was not paying really close attention to the punters, but it appeared that Hartley was a bit inconsistent. The best punter may have been a guy that was not on the roster (no. 13 - UPDATED: someone in another report said no. 13 was Mike Knall). He hit a couple of very good punts. Perhaps someone else knows who he is. I am not sure how the other punters did.
Players that had good scrimmages include L. Holmes who had about a half dozen interceptions; A. Tennell, who had alot of pass thrown his way and played quite a bit with the 1st team; R. Smith, who had an early pick in 7 on 7 drills; Wolfe, who had an early pick in 7 on 7 drills; Dotson, who had an INT and a sack (he looked bigger than I thought he was); C. Brown, who looked good running and catching the ball; M. Madu, who also looked pretty good running the ball but did have one drop; Q. Chaney, who the QBs threw to quite a bit and had a couple of catches; J. Gresham, who the QBs also threw to quite a bit (he really looks the part of a big/hybrid receiver); and J. Halzle who showed much more promise than I had expected (in a year he could be a pretty good QB). The defensive front played very well with several big short yardage stops, but the offensive line only allowed a few sacks in about 90 offensive plays which is encouraging. McCoy had the one great QB rush, but I did not pay much attention to what he did the rest of the time. D. Murray may have had some minor injury or other issue that kept him out, because I did not see him play or run sprints at the end of the scrimmage despite being suited up. As for PT, he looked really rusty early but improved greatly by the end. I was very, very encouraged by how he ended the day. Hopefully he will continue to improve. He and Halzle really need to work on their deep passes, as more were thrown badly and intercepted than the receivers had a chance of catching. The defensive backs, and L. Holmes in particular, obviously had a good day.