Offensive Notes 3/25

Today's weather was less than ideal for football, but despite the cold and rain, guys looked excited to be out there and it resulted in quite a few big plays on both sides of the ball. Although the defense won the day, the offense showed quite a few things to be excited about.

Offensive Theme of the Day

The theme for the day was boom or bust. The offense looked disjointed for most of the day, but despite that, it still managed to come up with some big plays. This offense isn't afraid to air it out often, and even though there were far too many drops, there were still several very nice long completions. The rain certainly didn't help with ball security, but even with the rain, there were far too many drops on what were—for the most part—very accurate throws.

Williams looked to be the best of the quarterbacks today, and although Huntley really struggled at the beginning of practice, he improved as the day went on. Bateman got a couple of series at the end of practice, and looked solid enough, but he was going entirely against the backups. This offense showed flashes of what it could do, but still needs to put it all together.

Key Moment

The key moment of the day came from Kenric Young. The defense had been taking it to the offense all day with several sacks, forced fumbles, and a few interceptions. The defense was letting the offense hear about, going crazy on the sideline. Cooper Bateman came in for the last two series of the day, and struggled to move the offense at first, further fueling the defense's excitement. However, on what ended up being the last play of practice, Bateman found Young on a comeback route near the west sideline. Young then muscled through a tackle attempt and raced up the sideline for nearly a 40-yard gain before finally being brought down inside the 10 yard-line. He lost his helmet in the mix, but jumped up and immediately got in the faces of the defensive backs that brought him down. This whole sequence quieted down the defense and fired up the offense, and was a good note for them to end on.

Standout Performers

To give this award to anyone other than Siaosi Wilson would be wrong. Wilson not only had the best day of all the receivers, but possibly the best day of the whole team. He was bringing in just about everything thrown his way, including at least three completions of 20 yards or more in 11 on 11 work. Even with the rain, there was one drop from Wilson, and that came on a highly contested ball thrown into double-coverage.

Devont’ae Henry-Cole showed some very nice things today as well. He broke off several long runs and looked explosive and shifty every time he touched the ball. As mentioned above, Williams looked the best of the three quarterbacks today, and by quite a bit. Hopefully the other two will use this as motivation, but regardless of what the other two do, it's good to see the incumbent starter show some fire and separate himself from the pack.

Quote of the Day

Despite a mediocre showing from the offense today, Troy Taylor, as seems to be his style, was upbeat and positive. He didn't reveal too much that hasn't already been said, and when asked about the QB battle:

“They've played really well. Both of them played really well,” said Taylor with a pause, “and Cooper did a good job today too. I'm really pleased with how the quarterbacks have played."

Perhaps Bateman is still in the mix, but from what Taylor said, it sounds as if the QB battle may be down to just Williams and Huntley. This will be something to monitor closely in future practices and scrimmages, and see if Bateman starts getting looks at other positions.