Just completed the drive back to Indy with MasterRWayne. 5 hours out in the hot August sun makes one very, very tired. I'm drinking iced coffee to stay awake, and it seemed to take an hour to peel off my sweaty socks. A beautiful image, I know.
Anyway, MRW and I attended the second practice for today, and like the first we saw many encouraging and not so encouraging things. We also spent some time talking to some folks who work for the Colts as well as some informed fans. So, without further ado, the notes:
- Right off the bat, before most other players hit the field, Samuel Giguere was catching passes from the ball machine. I received "insider" info that Christenson likes Giguere, and that is one of the reasons he's riding him hard. The Colts see something in "Guns" and I think that something is his work ethic. The dude practices determined.
- Kenton Keith did no work with the catching machine. None. He did have a nice long run in one of scrimmages.
- Roy Hall did not practice in the afternoon. Gary Brackett did not practice all day. He has a hip injury and might be out a week. Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne also did not practice, but not for injury reasons.
- Practice started with punt returns, and the Colts used Pierre Garcon was the primary returner. In short, he was awful. He muffed two punts that were routine and mis-fielded punts a few times. This kid needs a lot of work if he's to be a returner.
- During drills, Josh Thomas made some nice plays to penetrate into the backfield and disrupt runs.
- Rookie Chad Simpson took a bad angle on one run and lost yardage. However, later in another scrimmage, he took a swing pass from Jared Lorenzen and made a move that shook Victor Worsley out of his shoes. The team and crowded reacted when he did this.
- After two practices, MRW and I were not impressed with Jim Sorgi. He holds onto the ball waaaaaaaaaay to long. On one scrimmage play, he would have been sacked by Raheem Brock 10 times. Also, Sorgi ALWAYS looks left before throwing. Always. Just like you unzip your pants each time to take a piss, Sorgi ALWAYS looks left before throwing. It's friggin' annoying.
- Quinn Gray continued to impress. He made a nice TD throw to Devin Aromashodu in one scrimmage. It was a thread-the-needle throw with lots of zip. Dungy reacted after the throw and liked what he saw.
- Colts used more motion than I'm used to seeing on the goal line; motioning the receivers more. Colts also ran out of the shotgun on the goal line.
- Right now, Worsley is the starting MLB. With Brackett out for the HoF game, the Colts do not know who will wear the new defensive helmet with the radio receiver.
- In the 2 minute drills, Gray rifled a pass that was tipped, but Pierre Garcon reacted well and adjusted, catching the ball. Gray also threw a great lob pass off play action to Tamme. Tamme caught it in the corner of the endzone for a TD.
- Lorenzen looks like he's shot putting his throws. He looked terrible today. Keiwan Ratliff almost picked him in the endzone. Lorenzen stares down his receivers and then ejects the ball (more so than "throws" it). He's got a strong arm, as does Gray. But Lorenzen made several horrible throws today.
MRW and I will offer more opinions on camp tomorrow. Right now, need to recover from the heat. The general feeling around camp is the team is very good, but with Peyton missing the mood is different. I'll explain this tomorrow.