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Practice is over, but the writers of Patriots dot com have you covered?
What did I miss yesterday?
Now here to review today's practice? The writers of Patriots dot com.
That's right, Paul Perlo, Mike do so with you. At the conclusion of day seven and the second time, Mike that we've seen the team in full pads, I thought this practice was maybe not quite as physical and intense with all the running that the first one with pads was, But the energy I thought over the last half of this workout was probably about as high as I've seen it. A lot of jaw jacking going on between the offense and defense, a lot of competitiveness. There was actually some tackling.
I I'm not sure it was supposed to be by design, but I thought the last hour or so today was was pretty fun stuff to watch.
It was. I enjoyed it.
We had one on ones, you know, offensive defensive line going against each other. We had defensive backs and linebackers covering wide receivers, running backs, tight end, so a lot to see and I got to be honest, it's the first day I've felt encouraged about the offense. I thought they're starting to strength some plays together. Certainly the last I guess, the second and last sequence before they actually went on the goal line in red zone Eleven's was
a nice sequence they had. The first play was you know, contested catch to Parker over Gonzales.
I know some debate was he pushing off what they called it or not? You know, it's a bread and butter play for them at this point. I'm not really that would they have called it or not?
Yeah, absolutely in question. I've seen many times that does not get called.
Yeah, and we know that they got that in the bag. But still they completed it.
Tough play for Christian Gonzalez, you know, Juju Smith Schuster then in the back of the end zone probably you know, just one of the best red zone plays that we've seen so far.
So a nice touchdown for them. They were all really excited.
Juju talked about it after practice that you know, the defense have been getting them, they finally got them. So just to you know, I know a lot of people were kind of hyping things up on offense yesterday. I didn't really feel that way, but today I feel like, you know, there's some progress in their starting to strength in places.
Yeah, I would agree with you. I thought that that string was was probably the highlight, and then even after that in terms of enthusiasm, more defense, pushing back on the On the final goal line plays, they could not really run it in. They got in I think on the last of four attempts that looked like Pierre Strong sort of squirted his way through low. But even that
was a struggle. And these plays were from the one so they the defense did a good job of bowing up there when they needed to, so some good stuff. Like to me, what really stood out to me was the energy in the enthusiasm that was generated that started. I thought with the one on ones. During one on ones, the ball really, I mean, you should complete virtually every pass, and that was the case. The wide receivers, with the entire field to work with and no pass rush to
prevent them from getting open. Uh, did a great job of getting open and they were happy about it. And I don't think that the defensive backs were happy with the results, you know, with the the the ensuing celebrations that were going on, so that I think sort of started it and then that left the I thought the intensity at that level the rest of the way, which
is really nice to see. I thought there was some good Jews today, just real quick again, no time Montgomery, you know that's five in a row now, terres Hall for the third time. Still not seeing any cold strange you know in any of these reps. And a lot of guys heading down to the lower fields for some rehab work, you know, Trent Brown still not really doing anything, Judeon really still doing a lot of that stuff. Taekwon Thornton today spent a good amount of time on the
lower field. So some of the Remondra didn't get any carries again with the pads on, so some some good news bad news there. I would say that with the intensity in the in the overall energy level I thought was great in the last half, but I'd like to see some of these guys maybe get get healed up and get back in the mix.
Yeah.
There was one one one in particular, one on one where I think DeVante Parker put like six moves on a guy and it was about seven seconds into.
The revent and then they completed it. They were like all right, but Pop Douglas.
They had the nineteen ninety four Dallas Cowboys offensive line. That play would have gone off without a hitch. But other than that, I'm not sure.
YEA nice downfield catch by Pop Douglas though, you know, so they had some places trade got a point out tree.
Nixon too had nice play with Zappie too downfield.
Nice nice throw by Yeah, and I thought, you know, for the first time really even going back to the spring, Jack Jones was doing a lot of chasing today, but a lot of biting. We've seen that a little bit, the over aggressiveness. I thought Nixon easily got past them on that deep ball that you're talking about, Mike, and there was another one in the end zone that he kind of got left behind. A lot of Marcus Jones today too in the in the secondary with Christian Gonzales,
which I thought was interesting. Some different looks and we're getting some mixing and matching as Evan Lazart comes in. So before we just talk about it anymore, this minutia, do you agree with Mike and I would kind of. We were enthused about the enthusiasm at the practice today.
Yeah, Look, I wanted to come in here because yesterday I ride on the offense for two straight hours on Unfiltered.
And you wanted to come make sure.
I'm not I don't have too big of an ego to think that they listened to me rag on them and that's what fueled their best practice of training camp so far. But maybe I'll take credit for it anyways. But the biggest thing is is that yesterday I try to give it to people straight, and yesterday I felt like a little bit overblown. How great there are a good offensive.
Day this I couldn't believe the reactions that we got after we were done with our radio right.
And now today the reason why I didn't want to go there yesterday is because I was like, let's wait and see if they can actually put together a really good day on offense. And today I thought that they put together a really good day on offense. And it wasn't just as I'm not tired to take away from him, because he was good, Mac and the and the starters
were good all three rounds. We were kind of lighting up the defense at one point, and that is I think what you really haven't seen from this team in I want to say, almost years at this point is a day in trading camp where you can say a clear decisive victory for the offense over the defense, if
you're into that sort of thing. And I thought what really stood out to me out of all of it with Mac is you started to see a lot of the plays that Bill O'Brien, a lot of his core concepts in the passing game, just hitting exactly how he draws him up when he puts him on the whiteboard, throws to kasiki to juju. Those are the types of plays over the middle of the field that that's the
Bill O'Brien offense. That's that's when the ball is out on time, how they create separation with different alignments and you know, stack with stack alignments, bunches, things like that. Those are the types of things that he really bases his entire shotgun passing offense off of. And I thought today they were clicking, they were hitting it on time, they were getting open. There was guys that were legitimately getting open.
I thought they were causing some confusion today, which may be as important as anything because we know that you know, they don't have that stud that's just gonna go out and win every one on one matchup. I thought that touchdown to Juju. Clearly there was a lot of pre snap confusion in the secondary. Mills and Jonathan Jones were going back and forth, they were moving. Jones was late sort of adjusting to what Mills was telling him to do.
Something to keep an eye on. By the way, we've talked a lot about this sort of on an abstract level, what happens without Devin mccordy back there. You know, they're telling us there's a lot of different guys that can do that. So just something to keep an eye on. I'm not going to pretend to tell you who was wrong and why on that plate, but I just saw a lot of talking pre snap and then a guy break open for a nice touchdown, beautiful toe tap in
the back of the end zone. One of the best players of the entire camp.
Out of everything that I think Bill O'Brien does that i've seen now that we've got to actually watch a Bill O'Brien offense in practice. His stress that he puts on coverage rules, like in those types of situations with the way that receivers release off the line of scrimmage, you're covering a slot receiver, so you most of the time expect him to break inside and then all of a sudden he's breaking outside, but then he's breaking back inside.
And these types of things really confuse switches at the line of scrimmage or you know, different types of ways that defenses guard stacks, you know, two receiver sides, bunch formations, things like that, and it makes it so easy for the quarterback to see the receiver winning early in the down because he knows, Okay, this guy's got body positioning on the defender, He's going to break one way and the defender is going to be you know, out leveraged, and I'm just going to be able to make this
throw quickly. And those types of plays, Juju said at the end of at his press conference, I asked him about the touchdown and he was like kind of over the moon about it, Like he was like, oh, he finally We've been working on that, and we've been working on it on the side field during special teams periods.
We've been talking about how can we get the defense on this, and Mac made the check and we finally pulled one over on the defense, and I think that they were they were pretty elated about that.
Yeah, and I think the group overall, and that was my big takeaway today was I think that they felt they felt good about themselves, and it probably was the first time they could say that after a full week of practices, we're going to be back at it here. There's no no rest for the weary right now. It's still every day. So we're gonna have practice again tomorrow, same time. Nine five tip. As they say for turning camp practices, we don't call it a kickoff because there's
no actual kickoff. So any any last uh.
Strange not no close strange today, you know, just worth bringing up that.
But otherwise, I think they were good.
And you know, Tyric Pitts, their new addition to wide receiver, was out there, made a catch.
I see kind a nice crosser from Tracey mcswili.
Yeah, so right in the mix there, and uh and otherwise, I just I'm gonna we never talk about it, but.
I'm gonna give Brandon Schoolers shout out. I just I think it deserves to be highlighted.
They've had two one side kicks they've tried to swing on him this this practice, you know, preseason schedule. He's picked up both of them. It's just watching him in practice. He's like a good player, you know.
I know that must regret asking. Yeah, I'm sorry, but I do.
Think I want to highlight Brandon Schooler there for a second.
Did you guys do any line D line one on one?
Well, I didn't, You know, I wanted to talk to you about that because that's not where you guys were that definitively, so you could maybe talk about that. Uh, we'll talk about it off there. I mean, I don't want to drag the podcast too far, but I will say end of practice, the goal line stuff, there was some mixing and matching in the offensive line. Bill Murray
was out at times, they had Cody Russy. I think Mafi Tonio Maffi was in where he has been, but they sort of mixing and matching left guard, right guard. Some changes really for the first time because it's been Mariy, you know, I wonder if maybe he's nursing whatever was bothering him at the end of that practice the other day, or if it's time if these rookies, you know, Russy's a second year guy, Mafy, maybe these guys took a week and now they're ready to sort of sort of assert themselves.
Yeah, those goal line run periods. That with this offensive line, with how many guys are injured, that is a huge mismatch. The Patriots defensive starting defensive line against all these backups and rookies and things like that. The missing three starter, that's a mismatch. But you mentioned the one on ones just quickly. Kean White had by far the best one
on one pass rush rep during that period. Go outside inside, move on Connor McDermott, and I don't think McDermott got a hand on him, I mean just went right around him. That was That was one of the better reps of the period. And to the point about Bill Murray, he got beat both times that he went in one on one. So I do think that it's time Mafi is he's just a cinder block, like he's just a stout identity raft.
That was the one that really stood out to us. Out of those three guys, he he most looked the part. So we'll watch that. I think it's time to start really taking notice of who's playing in those spots with those young guys and seeing if they're ready to move in. So we'll be back tomorrow and we'll give you all the latest at Patriots training camp.