Bucs G Ali Marpet stays hydrated Sunday morning.

While you were nursing your hangover this morning, the Bucs were sweating too. On the practice fields. Let’s get busy with the report.

Today’s highlights featured tight end O.J. Howard, receiver Chris Godwin, left tackle Donovan Smith and how Bucco Bruce Arians’ influence can be heard with a long-time assistant, and park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring Bucs quarterback Tom Brady looking mortal. On one play.

* In an offensive tackles drill, rookie Tristan Wirfs played the role of a pass rusher and he came off the edge on veteran left tackle Donovan Smith. Wirfs, you know, the rookie left tackle who Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht traded up to get? Well, Smith stopped Wirfs dead in his tracks. Stonewalled him! And Wirfs is strong as an ox. After the play, Wirfs tapped Smith on the helmet as if to say, nice job Donovan.

* Practice isn’t even 45 minutes old and Brady already has a towel soaked with ice water or has an ice pack wrapped in a towel on the back of his neck. It wasn’t bad out there early on but by 10 a.m. it started cooking.

* Wide receivers coach Kevin Garver reminds Joe of former Bucs wide receiver coach and current University of Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck. Farver is really into practices and is involved and excited and very much believes in positive reinforcement. He’s always clapping and hollering encouragement to his receivers. You’d be high on life too if you had to coach the Bucs receivers.

* Joe noticed whenever a position group is finished with a set of dummies or equipment like blocking sleds, a staffer shows up with what looks like a paint gun (like this). Instead of paint, the gun is full of disinfectant and the staffer sprays down the equipment after each use.

* Shady McCoy gets loose, running around left end for a first down.

* Dare Ogunbowale on a crossing pattern from the right side pulls in a Brady pass over the middle.

* RoJo with a short gain up the gut.

* Scotty Miller grabs a Brady pass along the left sideline for a big gain. On the play, either Alex Cappa blocked a guy into Tristan Wirfs or Wirfs was bull-rushed by two defenders. Either way, Wirfs kept them away from Brady.

* On this date in Bucs history, Brady looked mortal. In a rare occurrence, a Brady pass over the middle fell to the ground untouched. Joe wasn’t even sure who the receiver was because he didn’t see any outstretched hands or arms or notice anyone diving for the ball. Brady was back to himself on the next play when he hit Cam Brate in the numbers along the right sideline for a huge gain.

* Blaine Gabbert (a favorite of Ira’s), throws a pass to no one in particular and it hits the ground. How rare is that?

* Brady hits Godwin in stride on a short pass and Godwin flips it into overdrive and gets nice yards and good YAC.

*Howard has his best day of practice this summer on Sunday from what Joe has seen. He made an awesome catch with a linebacker all over him when he sort of half-dove for the ball as that was his only chance, all the while shielding the linebacker from the ball.

* Ke’Shawn Vaughn takes a handoff from Gabbert and rolls around right end, taking it up the right sideline for a monster gain.

* Godwin goes low over the middle to catch a low pass by Brady. If this was a game, Brady would have been buried as the pocket totally collapsed on him.

* You can tell the Arians influence on one of the Bucs offensive line coaches (Joe doesn’t want to out the guy as his wife and/or mom may drop the hammer on him for talking naughty). The guy sure can string together a series of “MFers” in one sentence like Arians.

* In seven-on-seven drills, Mike Evans skies to catch maybe a 15-yard pass and turns on the jets and scores from roughly 70 yards out.

* Brady again finds Brate along the sidelines, this time the left sideline. Touchdown.

* Bucs pass defense is getting chewed up this morning.

* With both Brate and foot-rubbing Rob Gronkowski on the field, Brady and the offense had the defense fully fooled. At one point, Joe heard several defenders yelling, “Brate… Brate… Brate!” Instead, Brady threw to Gronk on a crossing pattern from the left and Brady hit Gronk in the hands but he dropped it.

* Justin Watson joins in the fun on a play similar to Evans’ long touchdown when Watson took a short pass over the middle and motored past the Bucs defense for a score.

* To start 11-on-11 drills, RoJo blasts through up the gut to the right of center Ryan Jensen.

* On the next play RoJo tried the same thing, only to the left of Jensen. He got stuffed and shoved backward for a loss.

* Wide receiver John Hurst, a rookie free agent receiver from West Georgia, took a pass and got past two defenders including corner Ryan Smith and scored. As Hurst got past Smith, Joe could hear Smith say as Hurst was racing to the goal line, “Thatta way, white lightning!”

* Evans catches a curl route on a short pass to the left side. Almost looked like a Peter Warrick bubble screen.

* Howard was wide open on the left sideline and scored on the pass from Brady. Joe heard an offensive teammate holler, “Nice job 80!”

* The last half of practice, Brady is just playing a video game against the Bucs defense.

* Battling Sean Murphy-Bunting in the back of the end zone, Godwin made maybe the sweetest catch of the summer on a back-shoulder fade from Brady just when it looked like SMB had position on Godwin. And watch old man Brady race down the field to celebrate with Godwin. Not a game, but an August practice! And this was at the end of practice so Brady had to be sucking air and worn out and hotter than a bowl of soup. Don’t think these guys aren’t having fun?

* Watson again catches a short pass over the middle and turns it into a score.

* On the last play of practice, Brady throws towards Howard who had to turn his body in the end zone to have a shot and he still hauled in the ball for a score.

.@CGtwelve_ had a DAY. Watch til the end 🤗 pic.twitter.com/FTnZqhWZlS

— Carmen Vitali (@CarmieV) August 23, 2020