August 2, 2012 New York Giants Training Camp Report

August 2, 2012 New York Giants Training Camp Report

by BigBlueInteractive.com Contributor JohnF

“2 Headed Shark ” Camp Report

YES! From The Asylum; when you see a flick that comes from “The Asylum”, you know it’s…something!!

Anyway, if you want to roar out loud laughing, check out this IMDB thread, Things I Learned from 2-Headed Shark Attack. It could save your life (or stomach) some day!

Oh yeah, Camp Report! Sorry, I’m still laughing from the IMDB thread. Much warmer, humid, and lots of Sun today. No threat of rain. Fire up the Accord, turn up the AC, and lets go (first to DD, to get a large French Vanilla…no, I don’t drink Peter King lattes!), then off to UA.

The University at Albany, which right now looks like Petersburg, VA circa 1865 or so. Lots of mounds of dirt, lots of construction, which I avoid as I wander over to the lower fields.

Now, for first time readers, I number the fields this way…the original Field 1 is where you would first enter the lower fields, but that’s where the new UA field is being built. Next to it are Fields 2, then 3; across from Fields 2 is field 4, and opposite field 3 is Field 5. Four and Five are near Washington Avenue.

The main field today is Field 3, so I settle under the shade on the hill between Fields 2 and 3. The players start to wander in. Of note was Tom Coughlin walking with Marcellus Bennett, of all people. I wonder if they were discussing Black Unicorns…

The players gather on Field 3, where KO coverage starts things off. The usual returners (Randle, Wilson, Jernigan) do their stuff. On the right sideline, the QB’s are working on shotgun snaps and center exchanges with Bass, Boothe and White.

Horn sounds, and now it’s Sprints, arm swings, jogging backwards, skipping, hoping, more kicks, and now stretching.

Hey, there are NFL officials here! They are wearing numbers 72, 92, 14,17 and 38 (who wears the white hat).

Pat is on the sideline as well, wearing the same gray Giants windbreaker with blue shorts (later, he puts on a white Giants cap…the Sun was hot!

Tynes wanders to Field 3, where he starts working on FG’s. Weatherford and DeOssie follow him later, and do their usual stuff (Weatherford working on punt ball drops, and Steve on long snaps).

Horn.

Either Einstein is working the practice clock, or they are really speeding drills up. I’ll try and give you a flavor, but it was impossible to see what everyone was doing, or to clock all the plays. Here goes…

Field 3: QB’s Bear and Cruz doing pitch and catch.
Field 4: O Line works on guard pulling drills.
Field 5: D Line…high stepping across pylons, then tackle dummy QB pop up.

Field 3: The WR’s and DB’s line up in two lines. They both are running to circular orange saucers on the field, then turn back. I have no idea what this drill is supposed to do, but I’ll bet BBI’s coaches know.

Other End Field 3: RB’s & LB’s are working on blocking drills with foam arm shields.

Field 4: D Line with a drill where they take a foam arm shield, hold it up like it’s an O Lineman blocking them, then drop it and go around it.

Field 2: The QB’s have a drill where they go back to pass, a coach rushes them straight on, then they have to move left or right and throw the ball.

Field 3: Kickoff drills (only cover drills, no return team).

Horn.

Field 4: O Line does high stepping over pylon drills.

Field 3: RB’s, WR’s and TE’s do “Gauntlet” drills; they run a ball between two lines of players with foam arm shields, who try and knock the ball out. Think of the scene in Star Trek: Next Generation where Worf undergoes the gauntlet of pain sticks, only wimpier.

Field 5: D Line knocks ball from pop up QB dummy, then dives to recover it.

Field 3: (Sideline). TE’s doing blocking drills.

Field 3: QB’s and RB’s with center exchange and handoff drills.

Field 3: WR’s working on short passes thrown by coaches high, low, left or right.

Field 4: D Line working on “Intercepting Tipped Ball out of the air” drills, where a coach flips a ball end over end over the D Lineman’s head, and he has to catch it.

Field 4: Backpedal Interception Drills.

Field 4: LB’s go next to the 5 trash cans for gap filling drills.

Field 4: D Line does pylon stepping, then pylon stepping and going after the QB pop up dummy.

Field 3: WR’s and DB’s working on press coverage.

Ok, take a breath. It was that rapid…looks like TC is trying to get two practices in one, to compensate for yesterday. (Speaking of yesterday, the weather was PERFECT in the AM…everyone could go to Weather.com and see the night before that there was only a risk of rain in the afternoon. Why he didn’t move practice,something he’s done before, baffles me).

Notice something…the NFL refs look like they are working out the kinks as well, following WR’s when they do routes, etc. I’m guessing this is a bit tougher than the Lingerie Football League some of them were working (google it yourself!).

Tynes and Weatherford are still working out the kinks on Field 2.

Field 5: DB’s are doing the backpedal, then break back for int drill. D Line working on gap rushes.

Field 3: QB’s are doing green zone pitch and catches with the WR’s.

Nicks and Beckum are hanging out on the sideline. Nicks body posture is better than I’ve seen it all camp, and he’s laughing, which is a good sign.

Field 3: RB’s catch short passes from coaches.

Field 2: Two QB’s throw TE’s/WR’s, one on the left, one on the right.

Field 4: D Line work against O Linemen with arm shields.

Field 4: DB’s and LB’s working on coverages.

Field 5: D Line working on countering traps.

Field 3: RB’s working on blocking. Against outside LB rushes?

Field 3: Now it’s 3 QB’s throwing to receivers, one short, one medium, one long. Eli can’t help it, he moves receivers around even when there’s no DB’s…you can see him giving hand signals.

Water Break.

Field 4: LB’s press cover TE’s going out for a pass.

Field 3: QB’s are throwing to receivers covered by DB’s. It’s a one on one, notable catches are by DePalma, who faked a DB to the ground, and Bear, who throws Kenny down and then catches the ball. I think there were four yellow flags on the ground for that one!

Horn.

The pace slows down, as the Offense goes to Field 3, and the Defense to Field 4 (the camera towers were on Field 3, which makes it the main field today). They are just doing play walkthroughs.

In case you’re wondering, the “NFL Experience” (that’s the bouncy bounce and a few kid slides) are on the left side of Field 3. I think the food tents are there as well).

The offense splits up into two groups; both are doing what looks like “hurry up offense”.

Horn.

Field 3: Hey, the crowd’s been waiting for this…O vs D!

Manning is up, and hands off to Bradshaw for a run up the middle. Then the crowd roars as he hits the Unicorn (85) on a seam pass right. Ware with an off tackle right run.

Don’t faint. On the next play, Mr. Manning throws a FLEA FLICKER to Barden.

Who has kidnapped TC???

Mr. Cruz brings out the cheers with a diving catch on the right sideline over Mr. Rolle.

Mr. Carr is now in. The next pass may have been tipped, it hits the ground in front of Barden. A middle run by Brown is stuffed by Rivers and Jones.

Carr overthrows Randle. And I notice David is back to BirdDogging! He’s a vet, he knows better. I notice every time he feels pressure, he’s staring at his primary target…that’s a big no no in the NFL.

The next pass goes off Talley’s hands, to the ground.

Monsieur Perrilloux is next, and hands off to Wilson, who shows a nasty jump cut. Another run by Wilson off tackle right stops with a bone jarring hit by Dante Hughes! Hughes strikes again with a nice strip of a pass to Donnell. Ryan is almost intercepted on a pass to a double covered (Donnell and Bing) DePalma. Bing does pushups in disgust over not snatching the ball out of the air!

Douglas comes back with a nice diving catch on the right flat.

Horn.

Eli’s back, and he hands off to Bradshaw off tackle left. The next pass is out of the shotgun, a left screen (!) to Ware. Bradshaw tries the middle, but is gobbled up by JPP and Rogers (don’t worry, he’s ok. I haven’t seen the Ball on a Stick for a couple of practices, so don’t think Shaun is that hungry!)

Hixon with a nice catch in the right flat against Tyron, then Eli hits Brown on the right flat.

Carr’s revved up, hands off the ball to Brown, who meets Mr. Herzlich in the hole. Loud Noises occur. Kaboom!

Another BirdDog by Carr trying to hit Collins results in a pick by Hosley. Carr hits Scott in the flat…and he’s gone! TD! He was hardly touched, it was like everyone else was in mud!

Wilson takes a handoff off tackle right (he should have cut into the middle, he’ll learn, though.)

Perrilloux’s back, but Wilson lost his hands somewhere and can’t catch an easy dink in the right flat. Wilson tries again with a run up the middle, but Herzlich fills the hole forcefully, and Jones cleans up quickly.

Perrilloux then looks around and tries to pass to Brown, but Andre drops it (better part of valor, he was surrounded).

Horn.

Field 2: The QB’s are hanging out with #80. I have no idea what they are doing, it could be rock, paper, scissors for all I can see.

Field 3: KO Drills will full 11 on 11; Wilson and Randall are running the ball back. Canty and Beckum look like they have had enough of the Sun, and walk back to the locker room.

Field 3: FG time with Tynes! The ball is moved back 5 yards each time, but Tynes has great form; he hits all six FG’s, with most of them hitting the camera tower (one lands on the camera tower umbrella!).

Horn.

Seven on Seven!

Eli: Pass to Bear in the left flat. Pass to Ware, who was covered by Corey on the right sideline. Pass to Bradshaw on the flat. Left dink to Cruz. Barden beats double coverage for a catch. Barden’s overthrown on the next play, but Eli may have seen Coe coming in quickly for the interception.

Carr: Randle is ready. He makes a veteran slow down adjustment on the fly on a long right sideline pass that was over 40 yards in the air. Randle really impresses me, I’ve never seen a rookie run routes as well as he has in all the 16 years I’ve been to camp.

Field 4: O line vs D Line 4 on 4 with the NFL refs in attendance.

Back for Field 3:

Carr: Nice right slant pass to Collins for 20 yards. He then over throws a wide open Scott in the flat. Another beautiful curl route that Randle reverses to get open.

Perrilloux: Dink on the right to Wilson. Overthrows Douglas, who tries to make a fingertip catch.

Then the CATCH OF THE DAY! Douglas makes a one handed diving grab on the right sideline while he’s falling down…you MUST catch this highlight, I’m sure it will be on Giants.com.

Ryan then throws to Wilson on the right sideline, and Tally’s next with a comeback catch on the right side.

Horn.

11 on 11, Offense and Defense.

Eli: Cruz makes a catch on the right sideline over Corey. Jernigan makes a catch in the right flat (Eli fakes out JPP with a patented hard count…yeah, he practices that too!. Osi would have sacked him in a real game).

Right now, either JPP is right end or right tackle when Osi is right end.

Eli hands off to Bradshaw off tackle, then Ware runs off a trap off tackle Left run. A dink on the right to Cruz.

Here’s a play where you really have to appreciate what Eli does. He moves right, to pass…his head is right, his body lean is right, yet he swirls around in a flash and passes to Bradshaw in the flat, who is wide open. A defensive player will not only key the head, he will key the body lean. It’s the details where Eli really shines.

Eli throws a right seam pass to Bear who’s covered by Rolle. The Defense gets going, as a float pass to Ware goes nowhere,as he’s surrounded by five defenders!

Carr’s back, and he hands off to Brown off tackle right. Brown comes to a sudden halt on the next play, as Rivers fills the hole hard up the middle. Then a check down to Scott, but David is still Bird Dogging. A dink to DePalma on the left flat. DePalma goes long on the next play right sideline for a TD!

I notice Hosley being carried off by the coaches. He tries to walk it off, but they have him go in the cart to the locker room. Hopefully, it’s just a cramp; with the Sun beating down, there were plenty of water breaks, but cramps happen.

Carr throws to Collins up the middle. Then it’s the Adventures of Perrilloux!

Perrilloux: Passes to Wilson on the left sideline. Then off tackle right with Wilson. Ryan looks and looks, runs right, then throws to Talley in the middle. Ryan tries to pass to Wilson on the right, but is picked by Hall. Martinek goes up the middle, then off tackle right.

2 Minute Drill time!

Eli. Left seam pass to Hixon. Then Hixon makes a great diving catch on the left sideline for 30 yards. He gets back up, to everyone’s relief. A handoff the Bradshaw for the TD, everyone yells, and practice is OVER!

What you didn’t see after practice:

Was Pat tweeting or watching the Olympics on his phone???

The QB’s doing their sideline to sidelne sprints after practice. There were others, but they had taken their jerseys off, so I wasn’t able to identify them.

Tuck goes off the field with his wife and children (he was carrying one of them on his shoulder). Made a great picture!

Hey, did Hopkins just sign a baby??? Hey, get a program, guys!!!

The crowd is chanting “Eli, Eli, Eli”, trying to get him to come to the fence. While they were doing that, Corey Webster was jumping and leading the cheers.

Me, I was tempted to chant “Tim, Tim, Tim!!”

Whew, that’s it!