Training Camp Yappin': "A little more of an active thud."

try to send us some live updates.

First it was another great attendance by the fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if it set the record of most fans at a practice. With that out of the way I’ll do this in order that it happened/I remember it.

I arrived in the stands at 7 or so and there were McAfee and Masthay out there practicing punts. Both of them looked about the same. Standing at the goalline McAfee consitantly punted the ball to the opposing 35-40 with plenty of hangtime. I do not think that we will be missing Smith in that regards all too much.

There were three other players out there, one was Mike Hart in full pads doing warm ups by himself. I admire his hardwork and dedication, he really wants a spot. Pierre Garcon was also out there catching the punts. I kept thinking to myself that he had soft hands, please don’t take that the wrong way, lol. And the other person was Peyton Manning. He was going down the fence line signing autograpghs. He did that for about 30 minutes getting everyone in the stands.

The first drill that I focused on was the punt drills. Here we may have a problem. With the first team punting, McAfee, he was blocked once, and ran into twice. When he was able to get them off without a player all over him they were nice punts, but we could have a blocking issue. What I found interesting the guy that blocked it and caused issues was Austin Collie. Even when Masthay came out to punt there were still issues with getting the punts off.

After the punt drills I focused on the D-Line a bit. We have some chunky players this year, and it was hilarious watching them go in a single file line practicing swim moves. Imagine 7-8 big guys flairing around as if they are swating away a bee. I wish I had a camera with me, it was hilarious.

Even though the Tribune Star’s handout said that Chris Crane was in training camp once again the only QBs there were Manning, Sorgi, and Painter. On that topic Painter is NOT going to surplant Sorgi any time soon in clip board holding responsibilites. Painter was all over the place tonight. And Sorgi couldn’t run the two minute drill to save his life. Here’s hoping that Manning doesn’t go down any time soon!

On the battle for the 3rd WR I really do not know which way they are going to go. They had Taj Smith and Austin Collie get significant time with the first team. On one drill Collie dropped a ball or didn’t run the excat route and Manning came out and kinda showed him how he wanted Collie to run the route, it was entertaining to watch Manning run like a WR.

Taj Smith is really skinny, like Kenyan marathon runner skinny, Roy Hall looks like a LBer, lol.

They had both Sorgi and McAfee holding for extra points.

I didn’t get to see the RBs too much. Addai, Brown, and Hart all had long runs and good hits. They ran the stretch play succuessfully a number of times, but the defense also stopped them for a loss on a couple occassions.

Overall though, the story of the night has to go to the Defense. I really like what they are doing with these little wrinkles. Three down line men with Brock moving around a bit and then Session and/or Silva blitzing numerous times. They also swapped Freeny and Mathis a couple times. If it was a full game Manning would of been sacked about 3 times. They really put the pressure on him caused him to make a dumb throw or two.

For the offensive line side, Ugoh did better blocking against Freeney this year than last. Other than that everyone else looked about the same.

Sorry about not having too much information on DTs, I didn’t have a roster with me and so it was hard for me to follow them. But it was hilarious watching them practice their swim moves.

I believe that the story of this training camp is the Defense improving. With the new wrinkles that Coyer is adding I believe the D with be a force to be reckoned with.

Oh one last thing, I stopped by the closest McDonalds on the way home for dinner and there was a strech limo parked in three handicapped parking spaces outside (jerks right? I think so at least). And when I went in guess who were in there? About six Colts cheerleaders and their two body guards ordering food. I wouldn’t think those cheerleaders would even touch fast food, lol.