They gave us a little shorter window than they have been over the last few practices and they didn't run any live scrimmage but they did have a couple of interesting drills, one of which I hadn't really seen this spring.
They began the day with the normal stretching and warm-up before breaking off with special teams being the main focus of the first period of the practice. Today special teams coach Jeff Banks, who will speak to the media after practice today, had the special teams unit working on punt coverage. They worked on getting proper alignment quickly when getting out onto the field and then getting set quickly before the snap. They then worked on getting off the line and getting upfield on the actual punt.
For the second period of the practice the offense took one field and the defense took the other. The quarterbacks worked for a bit with the centers on snaps before joining the receivers to throw routes. The offensive line worked on footwork again as they have been in just about every practice I have seen this spring. That seems to be an emphasis with Christensen.
The defense had the new drill where they line up like normal with 4 down linemen, 3 linebackers, 2 corners and 2 safeties. Each player has a defender standing directly in front of them and on the simulated snap they would engage the defender and then shed them (get off the block) and every defensive player would take the proper angle on a running back coming out of the backfield and up one of the sidelines. They do not know which way the back is going to go each snap and have to work at seeing that while engaged with the defender and then getting to the appropriate sideline to meet the running back. The corner on the run side of the ball basically holds up his blocker until he can shed him and meet the running back. He has the easy part, while the corner on the opposite side of the field has it a little tougher by coming all the way across the field after getting rid of his blocker.
In the final period we saw the defense ran a three station circuit where the DBs practiced taking the proper angle and getting the helmet placement and wrap-up correctly. The LBs looked to be working on wrapping up and stripping the ball some and the D-Line first worked on the drill where they roll big medicine balls at them and they practice using their hands to push "would be" blockers down off their legs and getting upfield.
Fairly uneventful but I guess something none the less. I did notice Armani Watts was back out there in full pads again, he had been dinged up a bit and didn't practice Tuesday.
I also heard that part of the reason for all of the walk-ons that were out there for the 11-on-11 last Tuesday is that Tuesday is a day when a lot of the players have classes still so they basically just had bodies out there to fill spots. So, don't look too much into how the first and second string personnel were from Tuesday, especially on defense.
They began the day with the normal stretching and warm-up before breaking off with special teams being the main focus of the first period of the practice. Today special teams coach Jeff Banks, who will speak to the media after practice today, had the special teams unit working on punt coverage. They worked on getting proper alignment quickly when getting out onto the field and then getting set quickly before the snap. They then worked on getting off the line and getting upfield on the actual punt.
For the second period of the practice the offense took one field and the defense took the other. The quarterbacks worked for a bit with the centers on snaps before joining the receivers to throw routes. The offensive line worked on footwork again as they have been in just about every practice I have seen this spring. That seems to be an emphasis with Christensen.
The defense had the new drill where they line up like normal with 4 down linemen, 3 linebackers, 2 corners and 2 safeties. Each player has a defender standing directly in front of them and on the simulated snap they would engage the defender and then shed them (get off the block) and every defensive player would take the proper angle on a running back coming out of the backfield and up one of the sidelines. They do not know which way the back is going to go each snap and have to work at seeing that while engaged with the defender and then getting to the appropriate sideline to meet the running back. The corner on the run side of the ball basically holds up his blocker until he can shed him and meet the running back. He has the easy part, while the corner on the opposite side of the field has it a little tougher by coming all the way across the field after getting rid of his blocker.
In the final period we saw the defense ran a three station circuit where the DBs practiced taking the proper angle and getting the helmet placement and wrap-up correctly. The LBs looked to be working on wrapping up and stripping the ball some and the D-Line first worked on the drill where they roll big medicine balls at them and they practice using their hands to push "would be" blockers down off their legs and getting upfield.
Fairly uneventful but I guess something none the less. I did notice Armani Watts was back out there in full pads again, he had been dinged up a bit and didn't practice Tuesday.
I also heard that part of the reason for all of the walk-ons that were out there for the 11-on-11 last Tuesday is that Tuesday is a day when a lot of the players have classes still so they basically just had bodies out there to fill spots. So, don't look too much into how the first and second string personnel were from Tuesday, especially on defense.
