Sunday Practice Notes & Observations
August 10th, 2014
Hard work continued at One Buc Palace this afternoon, as fans and media watched your beloved Bucs run through a physical training camp practice from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Joe’s got all kinds of notes, nuggets and need-to-knows:
*Pro Bowl cornerback Alterraun Verner returns for his first practice in two weeks. He’s limited today but in full pads.
*CB Mike Jenkins (leg) is still wearing a floppy hat and sneakers.
*Nice hands across the board from Bucs receivers during a corner-of-the-end-zone drill. No drops. Some wobbly throws by assistant coaches included.
*Vincent Jackson looks particularly sharp in drills early.
*DROP! Skye Dawson. Wind issues.
*Eric Page is the first punt returner of the day. He makes a fair catch under tough wind conditions. Bobby Rainey gets second call to returner duty. Dawson is third.
*During practice downing a ball inside the 5 yard line, Leonard Johnson and Pointer are screamed at by a coach to “get there” after they fail to secure a downable punt. Jeff Demps gets an angry earful for slapping at a ball he could have caught to down inside the 5.
*Kickoff drill has Mike James as first returner up.
*Undrafted rookie Euclid Cummings gets a stern lesson from special teams coordinator Kevin O’Dea on return blocking and balance.
*Jace Daniels lines up as first-team right guard. Oneil Cousins at left guard.
*McCoy blows up Cousins on second snap.
*Physical start to 11-on-11 session.
*45-yard bomb over the top to Louis Murphy from Josh McCown — in stride. Joe didn’t see who was covering. Joe was too busy watching the excellent pass blocking.
*Akeem Spence has to pull up on likely sack with second team. QBs don’t get hit in practice. LB Dane Fletcher had similar scenario. Glennon needs to get ball out faster.
*Second-team guards are Patrick Omameh on the left and rookie Kadeem Edwards on right.
*No room up the gut for Doug Martin.
*INTERCEPTION! Keith Tandy after Dawson tips a Mike Glennon pass he should have caught.
*Nice over-the-middle connection between QB Alex Tanney and Page in third-team work.
*Short drop, quick sideline connection from McCown to V-Jax.
*Out of sync. Glennon and Seferian-Jenkins. Hard to assign blame.
*Page with very quick feet to shake Gorrer after a catch in second-team duty.
*James bursts through middle biting the football but Major Wright raced in and punched ball loose.
*Demar Dotson handles Adrian Clayborn in consecutive 1-on-1 work.
*Michael Johnson rips easily inside Anthony Collins in 1-on-1. Lovie Smith offered a look of approval from a few feet away.
*Martin catches short pass and had Mason Foster not let up, he would have splashed Martin.
*Heavy cloud cover cools off practice with one hour remaining in the session.
*Tempo is a much bigger part of today’s work on offense.
*Clayborn beats Kadeem Edwards way too easily in 1-on-1 drill. Offensive line coach George Warhop steps in for a chat.
*McCown very animated today with Jeff Tedford and Mike Glennon, clearly discussing nuances of plays, or perhaps directions to a chiropractor.
*Nice catch, slide and get-up-to-run by Page. Extra hustle from him today.
*Leaping grab by Mike Evans from McCown about 15 yards up the seam. McCown claps. Evans seems most comfortable in the middle of the field.
*Cousins with a solid job on McCoy in 1-on-1 session.
*McCown threads tiny needle to Tommy Streeter. That generates another McCown clap.
*Spence drives back Cousins in 1-on-1 session. Cousins not happy.
*Bad pass Glennon to Evans.
*Great hands out of the backfield by James.
*Lavonte David easily snags a one-had interception of McCown. Not sure what McCown was thinking there.
*Banks with a breakup of Streeter but sure looked like interference.
*Scramblin’ Glennon avoids pocket breakdown and runs up middle.
*Charles Sims with a nice run off left sideline, patient to read blockers and then burst through hole.
*Danny Lansanah nearly took Sims’ head off. Roger Goodell would frown.
*Skies open at practice with 25 minutes remaining.
*Robert Herron touchdown over the middle from Glennon in the rain. Followed by Tommy Streeter touchdown.
*INTERCEPTION! Leonard Johnson steals a pass away from Jeff Demps for a pick-6 of Glennon.
Stick with Joe through the evening for so much more from todays’ practice.
August 10th, 2014 at 4:33 pm
I wonder if Demar Dotson will be making the shift to his better suited side of LT sooner rather than later. He has elite athleticism, a great frame, and he’s a little underpowered, he’s the prototype LT. Perhaps we fix the tackle spots with a Collins for Dotson switch.
August 10th, 2014 at 4:50 pm
Sounds like the offense was a bit sloppy again.
August 10th, 2014 at 5:08 pm
The question is, why can our O line, play with our D line, but couldn’t protect against the Jags D line. Was it a really bad night, or are the Jags better?
August 10th, 2014 at 5:11 pm
yawn…practice players against practice players of 4-12….vomit…L&L….
August 10th, 2014 at 5:24 pm
Bucbob1;
Posted on another thread, but to me it looked like a snap count issue where the Jags knew it and were off the ball before the O lineman even got out of their stance. The only other thing would be communication between the center & QB where the snap was slightly delayed for whatever reason. Even the worst lineman can get out of their stance when the ball is hiked unless of course the other team knows it as well and in that case they are already half way past on their way to the QB.
August 10th, 2014 at 5:42 pm
@Bucnjim
Thanks for your insight. Now that you mention it, the Jags were getting off the ball pretty quick, and to the point where they should have been flagged for offsides. If the snap count was the problem, Deitrich-Smith and McCown should have compensated with an adjustment.
Perhaps the vanilla offense package, they were running, was way too predictable.
August 10th, 2014 at 5:49 pm
Wasn’t just when McCown was in. Happened a lot when Glennon was in too.
August 10th, 2014 at 6:43 pm
BucBob1 Says
“The question is, why can our O line, play with our D line, but couldn’t protect against the Jags D line. Was it a really bad night, or are the Jags better?”
Easy answer. It’s practice against our defense. Not a real game, so its easier.
August 10th, 2014 at 6:54 pm
I predict 2-3 cast off pickups for the O-Line in a couple weeks. But hey, maybe they can pull it together. Stranger things have happened.
August 10th, 2014 at 7:01 pm
BucBob1 Says:
August 10th, 2014 at 5:08 pm
The question is, why can our O line, play with our D line, but couldn’t protect against the Jags D line. Was it a really bad night, or are the Jags better?
—–you are going off such a small sample size in these practice notes. Overall, the D-line owns our Offensive line. Another thing is these offensive linemen are getting use to the typical moves our of dline.
Bucnjim Says:
August 10th, 2014 at 5:24 pm
Bucbob1;
Posted on another thread, but to me it looked like a snap count issue where the Jags knew it and were off the ball before the O lineman even got out of their stance
—- To me, that was mostly on glennon. His hands were giving the snap count away. Doesn’t take long at all to watch Glennon and find out his snap count tells. Same thing last year with him I knew when it was time to snap. I don’t think the issue was as prominent for McCown.
August 10th, 2014 at 7:19 pm
*McCown very animated today with Jeff Tedford and Mike Glennon, clearly discussing nuances of plays, or perhaps directions to a chiropractor.
…………………………..
LOL, Classic yet scary
August 10th, 2014 at 7:19 pm
Interesting to me that whenever only Joe is watching Josh looks better,.. but when we all get to watch Mike looks better! 🙂
August 10th, 2014 at 7:19 pm
I don’t know, I’m not really buying these explanations here. If the D line owns our O line,in practice, then why does McCown still have time to make plays? What I witnessed on Friday nite was a tragedy! McCown was visibly shaken, and had zero time, to get into any rhythm at all.!
August 10th, 2014 at 7:27 pm
To me it looks like when the Bucs have called a running play in a game situation that the play selection is clearly evident before the snap.
August 10th, 2014 at 7:32 pm
@BuccaneerBonzai
So what you are telling me, in your easy answer, is that our D line, is making it easier for our O line in practice? When you factor in, that we have guys trying to make the squad, who are giving it their all, that doesn’t make any sense to me.
August 10th, 2014 at 7:35 pm
By the way, thanks for the post Jags extravaganza practice notes. Back to the drawing board.
August 10th, 2014 at 8:59 pm
BucBob, I would say it’s possibly because of familiarity & also that they’re probably doing actual schemed blocking instead of just freelancing it for evaluation purposes, like Lovie said they were…
August 10th, 2014 at 9:12 pm
rasta man 4-12…. im guessing 2-14 in a “non-rebuilding” year
August 10th, 2014 at 10:23 pm
Hearing GMC “blow up” Cousins is no surprise there…hearing Cousins actually handle GMC during a rep makes me worry for GMC’s health.
August 11th, 2014 at 1:18 am
I knew Daniels could handle the starting Guard position! Collins should be tried at RT. I know Dotson can handle LT far better than Collins and has a lot more Pro starting experience than Collins too! Cousins just needs to walk the plank!
August 11th, 2014 at 8:59 am
IdahoBucsfan Says:
August 10th, 2014 at 7:19 pm
Interesting to me that whenever only Joe is watching Josh looks better,.. but when we all get to watch Mike looks better! 🙂
——-McCown looks heads and tails better in practice than Glennon. At most McCown is good for one or two plays that make you scratch your head. Joe is not alone in this assessment.
BucBob1 Says:
August 10th, 2014 at 7:19 pm
I don’t know, I’m not really buying these explanations here. If the D line owns our O line,in practice, then why does McCown still have time to make plays? What I witnessed on Friday nite was a tragedy! McCown was visibly shaken, and had zero time, to get into any rhythm at all.!
——— in practice the defense lets up as they get into the backfield and can’t make contact with the QB and are limited in their physicality with the RB’s
BucBob1 Says:
August 10th, 2014 at 7:32 pm
@BuccaneerBonzai
So what you are telling me, in your easy answer, is that our D line, is making it easier for our O line in practice? When you factor in, that we have guys trying to make the squad, who are giving it their all, that doesn’t make any sense to me.
——-The D-line doesn’t let up in practice until they win the battle with the OL. Once they wont the battle and get to the qb, they let up. Many times Joe has noted that if it had been game action, the qb would have been sacked (Decapitated, splashed, etc) The reason the OL looks to hold its own against these guys at times is because they are getting use to them. I do think the line is improving (should have seen it at first training camp practice) but they still have a ways to go.
August 11th, 2014 at 10:14 am
Deputy Buc Said:
Doesn’t take long at all to watch Glennon and find out his snap count tells. Same thing last year with him I knew when it was time to snap.
yeahrightsure