T-post Tom
03-10-2005, 06:57 PM
I have a bad feeling about at least one of next season's starting safeties. Someone please tell me that King Carl isn't floating a trial balloon here...
Eric Crouch's NFL Europe Diary
March 10, 2005
NFL Europe
Eric Crouch is learning every day as he makes the change to a new position. (waynepaulo.com)
Hamburg Sea Devils former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Eric Crouch will write a weekly diary through the NFL Europe season to give fans an insight into his move from quarterback to safety, and life on the Sea Devils team. The Kansas City Chiefs allocated player’s second column comes from Tampa Bay, where he feels he is adjusting to the rigors of training camp.
Well after a full week of training, I feel like I’ve settled into a groove right now in practice and meetings and scrimmages. This is the period that you have to tough it out; it’s the middle of camp and it’s the hardest part because your body is starting to wear down a little bit, but Coach Bicknell is great about letting us get our legs back and giving us some rest. He’ll take care of us, so I’m not worried about that. I have, however, had a little bit of a groin injury that has slowed me down a bit. I really haven’t missed that much time though. I’ve been practicing, and I’m just getting through things. The reason I’ve been continuing to work is because I really don’t want to miss practice. I think all of those repetitions that I get, even if I’m at 75% speed right now, are still important. It’s essential for me to be in there to feel the game and to learn where I need to be during each play. Even though sometimes I may not make a play right now that I know I can make if I’m full speed, it’s still good for me to just be in there and work through the pain. But I think the injury is something that will definitely be better by the next scrimmage on Saturday.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to play in the first scrimmage Tuesday, but I’m really looking forward to the one in a few days. I’ve been working with the trainers as far as stretching and icing and trying to get the strength back, so I’m sure I’ll be ready to go by then, which will be great because when we get into the thick of camp, it’s tough to go against the same person every day - the same receivers, the same quarterbacks, the same offense. You start to get complacent after a while, and it’s just hard to get motivated, so when they bring these scrimmages in, it’s a new opportunity. It’s like a real football game. We don’t really know who we’re going to be facing a lot of times, and this is an opportunity to see fresh faces that we’re going to be seeing throughout the season, so we learn about our competition.
Despite the injury, camp is going well overall. I’m learning a lot, and I’m starting to feel comfortable with the position I’m playing as far as the techniques are concerned, but I still have a lot to work on. You can always improve your technique. I feel like I’m just starting to get comfortable in my backpedal, but after you backpedal, there are so many things that follow, like coming out of your break and getting to where you need to be quickly. I’ll be working on techniques like that throughout the entire season. Besides winning the World Bowl, that’s why I’m over here.
As far as our secondary goes, all in all I think we have a lot of talent. Guys like Zach Norton, Shawn Mayer, Marcell Allmond, Allan Amundson and others are playing very well. Patrick Lundqvist, who’s from Sweden, has gotten much better from the first day he stepped on the field here. I think that’s the direction everyone is headed – forward. We’re gelling as a unit; we’re talking to each other on the field and making sure we’re moving the calls throughout the secondary so everyone is on the same page. Of course we have some slip-ups at practice, but we come out the next practice and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. One thing I didn’t realize was that on this side of the ball, film study is a huge part of the game also. Coach Trapp and Coach Daniel are stringent on us as far as making sure we study the receivers of the opposing team so we know everything they do, such as whether or not they run a speed cut or look to the ground before they break on a post? Do they give a head fake before they run a dig route? Do they chop their feet before they run a take-off route? All those things are important to know because when it comes to game time, if you’ve studied and your opponent hasn’t, that will show.
Outside of football I’ve been just enjoying my time here in Tampa. My wife and two children are coming down next week and spending about five days here, so that will be great. My son, Carsen, is turning one on the 18th, so I’m happy I get to celebrate his birthday. It’s almost been two weeks that I haven’t seen them, so of course I’m excited. I’ve been used to going two or three weeks without seeing them while I was in other camps, but I do miss them, especially because I was home for a while and I got to see them every day. I kind of got into the habit of that, so that makes it a little tougher. And I don’t know if they’re going to get an opportunity to come to Europe or not because our daughter, Lexi, is in school and my wife just took a new job, so to come over there, we don’t know how that will play out. But this will be good because they’ll come down and be here until we leave the following week. It will be good for me to see them because it’s one less thing that I’ll have to think about, knowing that my family is here even while I’m practicing.
That’s all for now. I’ll let you know how we look in our upcoming two scrimmages (Saturday and Wednesday) when I talk with you next week.
Until next time,
Eric Crouch
Eric Crouch's NFL Europe Diary
March 10, 2005
NFL Europe
Eric Crouch is learning every day as he makes the change to a new position. (waynepaulo.com)
Hamburg Sea Devils former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Eric Crouch will write a weekly diary through the NFL Europe season to give fans an insight into his move from quarterback to safety, and life on the Sea Devils team. The Kansas City Chiefs allocated player’s second column comes from Tampa Bay, where he feels he is adjusting to the rigors of training camp.
Well after a full week of training, I feel like I’ve settled into a groove right now in practice and meetings and scrimmages. This is the period that you have to tough it out; it’s the middle of camp and it’s the hardest part because your body is starting to wear down a little bit, but Coach Bicknell is great about letting us get our legs back and giving us some rest. He’ll take care of us, so I’m not worried about that. I have, however, had a little bit of a groin injury that has slowed me down a bit. I really haven’t missed that much time though. I’ve been practicing, and I’m just getting through things. The reason I’ve been continuing to work is because I really don’t want to miss practice. I think all of those repetitions that I get, even if I’m at 75% speed right now, are still important. It’s essential for me to be in there to feel the game and to learn where I need to be during each play. Even though sometimes I may not make a play right now that I know I can make if I’m full speed, it’s still good for me to just be in there and work through the pain. But I think the injury is something that will definitely be better by the next scrimmage on Saturday.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to play in the first scrimmage Tuesday, but I’m really looking forward to the one in a few days. I’ve been working with the trainers as far as stretching and icing and trying to get the strength back, so I’m sure I’ll be ready to go by then, which will be great because when we get into the thick of camp, it’s tough to go against the same person every day - the same receivers, the same quarterbacks, the same offense. You start to get complacent after a while, and it’s just hard to get motivated, so when they bring these scrimmages in, it’s a new opportunity. It’s like a real football game. We don’t really know who we’re going to be facing a lot of times, and this is an opportunity to see fresh faces that we’re going to be seeing throughout the season, so we learn about our competition.
Despite the injury, camp is going well overall. I’m learning a lot, and I’m starting to feel comfortable with the position I’m playing as far as the techniques are concerned, but I still have a lot to work on. You can always improve your technique. I feel like I’m just starting to get comfortable in my backpedal, but after you backpedal, there are so many things that follow, like coming out of your break and getting to where you need to be quickly. I’ll be working on techniques like that throughout the entire season. Besides winning the World Bowl, that’s why I’m over here.
As far as our secondary goes, all in all I think we have a lot of talent. Guys like Zach Norton, Shawn Mayer, Marcell Allmond, Allan Amundson and others are playing very well. Patrick Lundqvist, who’s from Sweden, has gotten much better from the first day he stepped on the field here. I think that’s the direction everyone is headed – forward. We’re gelling as a unit; we’re talking to each other on the field and making sure we’re moving the calls throughout the secondary so everyone is on the same page. Of course we have some slip-ups at practice, but we come out the next practice and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. One thing I didn’t realize was that on this side of the ball, film study is a huge part of the game also. Coach Trapp and Coach Daniel are stringent on us as far as making sure we study the receivers of the opposing team so we know everything they do, such as whether or not they run a speed cut or look to the ground before they break on a post? Do they give a head fake before they run a dig route? Do they chop their feet before they run a take-off route? All those things are important to know because when it comes to game time, if you’ve studied and your opponent hasn’t, that will show.
Outside of football I’ve been just enjoying my time here in Tampa. My wife and two children are coming down next week and spending about five days here, so that will be great. My son, Carsen, is turning one on the 18th, so I’m happy I get to celebrate his birthday. It’s almost been two weeks that I haven’t seen them, so of course I’m excited. I’ve been used to going two or three weeks without seeing them while I was in other camps, but I do miss them, especially because I was home for a while and I got to see them every day. I kind of got into the habit of that, so that makes it a little tougher. And I don’t know if they’re going to get an opportunity to come to Europe or not because our daughter, Lexi, is in school and my wife just took a new job, so to come over there, we don’t know how that will play out. But this will be good because they’ll come down and be here until we leave the following week. It will be good for me to see them because it’s one less thing that I’ll have to think about, knowing that my family is here even while I’m practicing.
That’s all for now. I’ll let you know how we look in our upcoming two scrimmages (Saturday and Wednesday) when I talk with you next week.
Until next time,
Eric Crouch