The first of two full team practices happened this morning at 9:30am. It was sunny and 74 degrees in Anderson as the players took the practice field in shorts and helmets (no pads). Still it certainly didn't feel cool to Brett Mock of Coltzilla. He was there, literally with a front row seat, to Tweet the happenings:
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Anthony Gonzalez sat out another practice. I believe this is the third in a row in addition to having all of yesterday off from practice. Once again, no sleeve on his leg.
- Practice was more of a walk through.
- Offense worked on the two-minute drill.
More after the jump...
- Ryan Diem returned to the RT spot. Thank Christ.
- Dwight Freeney was resting on a golf cart.
- More "wildcat" practicing today, using Mike Hart as the cat. Direct snaps to Hart. Not sure if this is being done to practice defense against the formation or if the offense actually plans to use this in the game.
- You know it's a pretty laid back practice when Tim Hiller gets a lot of reps at QB.
- The team did more game preparation today.
- Tom Brandstater got several reps today as well. We should expect to see a lot of him and Hiller on Sunday.
- When it was over, Javarris James Tweeted: Practice 1 n the books.
- Practice at 3:30pm today might have more game-planning involved.
ZayJack was also at practice and made this very excellent FanPost listing his observations. Here's a segment:
9:45 - Full team drills from the offense's 20. Sam Giguere taking 1st team snaps. That's when I noticed that Anthony Gonzalez was on the sidelines(where he would stay for the entire practice). Interesting note, Ramon Humber was on the sideline when the drill started until Gary Brackett yelled at him to get on the field. Johnson and Muir were on the D-line to start. Funny moment was when Reggie caught a pass underneath and Jamey Richard didn't follow through with his downfield blocking assignment. Reggie looked at him with a look on his face like, "WTF!!!". This drill ended with some end-of-game pitches.
9:50 - Full team drill from the defensive 20. Tip drill and spike drill. Collie and Reggie with nice catches in traffic. Jamey Richard snaps low to Manning out of the shotgun.
10:00 - 1st team defense on the field. QB Tim Hiller fumbles snap from C Adrian Martinez. Garcon, Giguere and Taj Smith throw in a triangle off to the side. On two consecutive plays, Bob Sanders blitzes from the outside absolutely uncovered. If there was tackling someone might have died.
10:05 - Manning takes Reggie, Collie, Garcon and Clark off to the side for passing tree drills. That's when it happens. On a deep out to Reggie, Manning throws and the ball actually falls for an incompletion! The only time the ball hit the field all day when 18 was throwing it. During the same drill, Clark gets pissed for someone reason. Visibly angry at what it appears was Collie.
10:15 - Manning takes Brown and Addai off to the side for draw drills with both of them in the backfield at the same time. Might see that some this year. Over where the 2nd teamers are practicing, Guice has makes some nice catches. One that is thrown behind him and he makes a nice adjustment in the air to grab it.