Monday Practice Report

[FRCDFED]

Pre-Season Practice Report – 8/22
August 22, 2011 - Bob Gretz | Comments (9)

From the Truman Sports Complex


It was another hot steamy day for a football practice on Monday afternoon at the Chiefs facility and head coach Todd Haley had his team working long and hard in another session of trying to make up ground from the owners’ lockout.

And it was another afternoon where the defense controlled the show. In the team’s competitive period at the end of practice, the No. 1 offense got to run 10 plays against the No. 1 defense. The Matt Cassel-led offense managed just one first down and overall was only five of 10, with one pass knocked down at the line of scrimmage. The final incompletion came on a fourth down with the game clock running out when he rifled a short pass to TE Tony Moeaki and it went right through his hands.

That’s the way it’s been now for the better part of 10 days on the practice field, as the Chiefs defense is performing at a pace ahead of their offensive mates. It must be remembered that the Chiefs offense isn’t doing much in the way of adjusting their scheme. The plays are pretty plain Jane, but Haley has been pushing his offensive players and coaches to pick up the pace of getting plays called and getting the snap off.

Actually, the best offensive play of the afternoon came from QB Tyler Palko. He got flushed from the pocket and started scrambling away from pass rush pressure. Eventually, he stopped and jumped up and threw the ball to his right, where it floated over the head of LB Demorrio Williams and over the head of TE Cody Slate, who got his hands up and made the catch and ran into the end zone. It would have to go down as one of those “Oh no Palko don’t throw that … hey Tyler great play.”

Other observations from the day at Arrowhead where the Chiefs were in full pads:

– Out of practice on Monday were WR Jonathan Baldwin (wrist/thumb), TE Jake O’Connell (ankle), OT Ryan O’Callaghan (unknown), C/G Darryl Harris (knee), NT Anthony Toribio (knee), LB Eric Bakhtiari (head) and LB Gabe Miller (hamstring). O’Connell, Bakhtiari and Miller were not on the field at all; the others were in the rehab area.

– OT Jared Gaither was with the offensive line for the whole practice, but he did not participate in any of the teamwork plays.

– The No. 2 defense lined up like this: Dion Gales and Wallace Gilberry at DEs, Amon Gordon at NT, Justin Houston and Pierre Walters at OLB, with Demorrio Williams and Brandon Siler at ILB. CBs rotating in and out of the unit were Travis Daniels and Quinten Lawrence and Javier Arenas and Jalil Brown. Jon McGraw was at FS with Sabby Piscitelli and Donald Washington splitting time at SS.

– Palko threw a pretty pass to a wide open Terrance Copper going into the end zone, but the wide receiver dropped the ball. Copper beat coverage from CB Quinten Lawrence on the play.

– WR Steve Breaston was a bit more active in catching the ball in practice on Monday. Breaston is still rehabbing some off-season work he had done on his right knee and the Chiefs haven’t been pushing the practice pace with him.

– CB Travis Daniels had tight man-to-man coverage on a deep pass to WR Dwayne Bowe from Cassel. He tipped the ball in the air, and then was able to make the interception. It was one of the better defensive plays of the pre-season to date.

– The offensive and defensive lines worked combinations on pass protection and pressure and there were some good battles, especially those involving OLB Tamba Hali. There was violence in the two-snap set between Hali and DE Wallace Gilberry against LG Ryan Lilja and LT Branden Albert. The defenders ran a nice stunt where Gilberry was lined up inside and went after Albert, while Hali came inside and badly beat Lilja … a bit later, Lilja got some revenge as he teamed with Rodney Hudson and Jon Asamoah against Hali and DE Allen Bailey and kept those two under control … the defensive duo of OLB Cameron Sheffield and Bailey worked together quite well in beating RT Barry Richardson and RG Butch Lewis … Gilberry and OLB Justin Houston were paired together for several snaps, but they were continuously jumping offside … later however, they ran through Albert and Hudson like it was a jail break.

– The No. 1 kickoff team lined up like this: Jon McGraw, Quinten Lawrence, Pierre Walters, Terrance Copper, Reshard Langford, Jackie Battle, Demorrio Williams, Andy Studebaker, Cory Greenwood and Eric Berry lining up with K Ryan Succop.

– The No. 2 kickoff squad had Ricky Price, Sabby Piscitelli, Amara Kamara, Justin Houston, Verran Tucker, Jeremy Horne, Justin Cole, Brandon Siler, Donald Washington, Javier Arenas and Succop.

– The No. 1 FG-PAT protection unit on Monday were lined up like this, left to right, in front of Succop and holder Dustin Colquitt: Leonard Pope, Jon Asamoah, Mike Ingersoll, Butch Lewis, snapper Thomas Gafford, Rodney Hudson, Branden Albert, Lucas Patterson and Andy Studebaker.

– Chiefs will practice on Tuesday morning, in a change of pattern for them in this pre-season.

[warrior]

Good read

[Dave Lane]

I don't know whether to be happy or sad our DL is killing our OL.

[FRCDFED]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

I don't know whether to be happy or sad our DL is killing our OL.

Sounds like our defense is hungry to prove something. Especially Houston and Gilberry. I definately hope our defense is extremely physical when we take the training wheels off after the pre-season. We all know Haley will not tip his hand in the pre-season no matter what.

[Rain Man]

I must've missed the move of Lawrence to cornerback.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

I don't know whether to be happy or sad our DL is killing our OL.

The hard thing about intrateam practices is that it's either a standoff and you don't know if they're both good or bad, or one side wins and you don't know if it's because they're good or the other unit is bad.

[Misplaced_Chiefs_Fan]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I must've missed the move of Lawrence to cornerback.

You haven't missed anything.

He stinks worse that a gym bag full of last season's dirty jocks as a CB.

Baltimore targetted him all night long. He was completely lost out there. NO awareness, just chase the WR and hope you can tackle him after he makes the catch seems to be his strategy.

[Fish]

Why does the media think it's so important to declare daily winners and losers between the offense and defense? The Chiefs don't structure their practices that way, and haven't since Herm. Are they so desperate for a dramatic story that they have to create this competition between the offense and defense just so they can judge them?

[tomahawk kid]

Brokeaki dropping passes?

Say it ain't so.

[Mr. Laz]

The plays are pretty plain Jane, but Haley has been pushing his offensive players and coaches to pick up the pace of getting plays called and getting the snap off.

so we aren't running full during practice either?

so are we going to wait until the 1st week of the regular season before we start practicing the full playbook?

That should lead to the fast start we need.

[philfree]

Originally Posted by Laz

so we aren't running full during practice either?

so are we going to wait until the 1st week of the regular season before we start practicing the full playbook?

That should lead to the fast start we need.

I read in a different article that we were running a bunch of different looks in practice.

[boogblaster]

I hope our play-book has increased ....

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by philfree

I read in a different article that we were running a bunch of different looks in practice.

I saw that too. There's no reason to get your panties in a bunch folks.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by philfree

I read in a different article that we were running a bunch of different looks in practice.

i hope your article is the correct one.

[Chiefnj2]

Originally Posted by Laz

i hope your article is the correct one.

Peter King wrote that he observed lots of motion and formations. It doesn't mean any passes were completed over 10 yards, but the O was giving lots of different looks.