Gretz's Morning Practice Report...
http://www.bobgretz.com/chiefs-footb...html#more-9888
August 10, 2009 - Bob Gretz |
From River Falls, Wisconsin
It was a mentally grinding practice for the Chiefs on Monday morning. Todd Haley put them through two hours plus of work and most of it dealt with special teams and situations.
The morning proved frustrating for the head coach.
“I want a mentally and physically tough team that is smart,” Haley said. “Specifically, situationally smart. The game these days is all situations. You are either coming out, you are in the red zone, you are in short yardage, you are in goal line, it’s end of the half, end of the game. The game is made up of a lot of situations and in order to be a smart team you have to know what’s going on. You have to understand the situations and you almost have to do it without coaches.
“Today was a lot less coaching to see what they know. There were a handful of them (players) who it was clear to me had not studied and stayed up on the situations. So yeah, I was upset about that.”
Haley’s verbal hammer fell on not only players but special teams coach Steve Hoffman. The head coach was especially upset when the team had what they call a “May Day” situation on a field goal. That’s where the game clock is running and the FG team has only seconds to line up and get off a kick. Haley explained the situation to the whole team,
But when it came time to kick, long snapper Tanner Purdum did not run on the field.
“I’d say that’s a problem,” Haley said afterwards. We won’t repeat what he said on the field because this is a family website.
Earlier, the Chiefs offense was in a situation where the clock was winding down and they needed a TD to win. They set up a hook and ladder type play, where a receiver catches the ball and then hands off to another receiver. Only the first time the offense ran the play, rookie RB Javarris Williams tried to hand off but WR Mark Bradley didn’t run the play and wasn’t there to take the handoff.
It was that kind of morning in the northwoods. Here’s more of what went down:
– Not working in the session were eight players: S DaJuan Morgan, LBs Zach Thomas, Demorrio Williams and Monty Beisel, RBs Jamaal Charles and Kolby Smith and Gs Wade Smith and Tavares Washington.
– In position drills the wide receivers were beaten up; staff members held pads and when the receiver was about to catch the ball, he was hit with these pads, sometimes two back-to-back, or high and low. It was a struggle for most of the WRs to hold onto the ball. Rookie Quinten Lawrence had the most problems, as several times he had alligator arms and didn’t fully reach for the pass because he knew he was about to get hit. Veterans Bobby Engram and Mark Bradley had troubles as well. Dwayne Bowe and Amani Toomer were the receivers who dropped the fewest passes while being smashed.
– Two ends of the veterans spectrum: OLB Mike Vrabel was talking and communicating all through a snap in a blitz period. Even as the ball was snapped, he was directing traffic. RG Mike Goff jumped early in the blitz period and had to take a penalty run.
– Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey and QB Matt Cassel had a long one-on-one conversation at the end of practice, and then they gathered up Lawrence and went back on the field and worked on several passing plays. Bradley eventually joined the group as well.
– Rookie DL Tyson Jackson and Alex Magee put in extra time after practice working against a one-man sled with D-Line coach Tim Krumrie.