As usual, Thursday’s practice was in shorts and shoulder pads only. It was primarily a practice for fine tuning the gameplan. The scout team wore the orange jerseys to simulate Tennessee.
The offensive line had a solid day overall. One of the biggest focuses this week, as you’d expect, has been on pre-snap communication and picking up the blitzes. I think you’ll see improvement from the offensive line this week, but don’t expect miracles. The problems there having can’t be fixed overnight.
Chris Smelley again had the best day of the quarterbacks. His confidence has risen as the week has gone on, and he was clearly the most consistent of the three quarterbacks. He has been working on not tipping his hand with eyes and making life more difficult for the secondary.
The wide receivers have been more consistent this week, as well. One of the better weeks of the season, according to one source. The question is whether it will carry over to the game? Chris Culliver’s number of reps has increased, and he’s starting to look more and more comfortable with the offense and the receiver position. This may be the week he gets his chance, but, again, only time will tell.
Cliff Matthews is coming into his own at linebacker and looks even more confident now that he’s had the cast on his hand removed. It will be very interesting to see how he fares now that he’s at full speed. He should play a key role Saturday night both in stopping the run and in trying to disrupt Erik Ainge.
Cody Wells is becoming one of the leaders of the special teams, and they need to him to come up big on the coverage teams in this game.
The offensive line had a solid day overall. One of the biggest focuses this week, as you’d expect, has been on pre-snap communication and picking up the blitzes. I think you’ll see improvement from the offensive line this week, but don’t expect miracles. The problems there having can’t be fixed overnight.
Chris Smelley again had the best day of the quarterbacks. His confidence has risen as the week has gone on, and he was clearly the most consistent of the three quarterbacks. He has been working on not tipping his hand with eyes and making life more difficult for the secondary.
The wide receivers have been more consistent this week, as well. One of the better weeks of the season, according to one source. The question is whether it will carry over to the game? Chris Culliver’s number of reps has increased, and he’s starting to look more and more comfortable with the offense and the receiver position. This may be the week he gets his chance, but, again, only time will tell.
Cliff Matthews is coming into his own at linebacker and looks even more confident now that he’s had the cast on his hand removed. It will be very interesting to see how he fares now that he’s at full speed. He should play a key role Saturday night both in stopping the run and in trying to disrupt Erik Ainge.
Cody Wells is becoming one of the leaders of the special teams, and they need to him to come up big on the coverage teams in this game.
