E-Boland & Gang Green

* Spent a majority of the morning concentrating on the defense and that was a good thing. That’s where most of the good plays were coming from. How much of a struggle was it this morning for the offense? Even Chansi Stuckey dropped a pass, from Kellen Clemens, over the middle on about a 12-yard play. It was the first drop I had seen from Stuckey since one of the early OTA practices [for the Stuckey fans, you had to like this: after practice the receiver spent 10 minutes in front of the JUGS ball machine or, as Dennis Waszak Jr. of the Associated Press called it, the “football hurling apparatus.” OK].

* The first thing that stood out was Vernon Gholston. In a tackling drill not yet 10 minutes into practice, Gholston squared his shoulder and hit tight end A.J. Schable with enough force to jar the ball free. The turnover earned Gholston cheers from the crowd watching the drill and earned Schable a lap for fumbling. Later, it was a day of mixing and matching in terms of what makes up the “first team” but Gholston saw quite a few reps in the two-minute 11-on-11 drills toward the end of practice. He mostly lined up at left outside linebacker, sometimes to rush the passer but other times dropping into coverage. On the final drive of the morning, Gholston lined up on the right.

* Bryan Thomas and Calvin Pace look like a nice tandem on the outside. Eric Mangini several times this offseason has complimented Pace on his “smarts” and Thomas looks more than motivated to show last year’s sub-par season was a fluke. Yes, Thomas was the one who, after an OTA practice in May who said if he didn’t play well this year he would find his “a** on the bench.” He’s not on his way to doing that to this point, but let’s not get carried away with much of anything just four practices in. [for the Kris Jenkins fans, I'm writing about him for tomorrow's paper but he feels his adjustment to the 3-4 is going well. And, as he put it, he likes the "grunt" work of the position].

* A solid, and solidly-hitting, morning for safety Kerry Rhodes. Rhodes popped – although he didn’t outright drill because they’re not quite in live tackling mode yet – Wallace Wright after the second-year receiver caught a 15-yard Pennington pass inside the 10. Wright was slow to get up after hitting the turf. After a Leon Washington run, Rhodes stepped in front of Washington to tip away a short pass, a ball Rhodes, from his reaction, felt he could have intercepted.

* Hank Poteat and Drew Coleman covered well and David Barrett (I know his name is a lightening rod to some, but I’m just reporting) intercepted a Clemens pass that first deflected out off the hands of Laveranues Coles. It was the third straight practice Clemens threw a pick, though this one wasn’t his fault.

* And David Bowens did some good things, the most impressive being not taking a Thomas Jones fake on a draw play to meet the running back at just beyond the line for a short gain. Perhaps more impressive was Shaun Ellis doing the same on a draw to Leon Washington, who through three days of practices looked mostly un-tackle-able (not a word, I know) in the open field.

* Of the four quarterbacks, only Chad Pennington led the offense to a touchdown and it came quickly, on the last play of the morning. In his two-minute drill, Pennington from the 32 lofted a ball 35 yards down the middle to Brad Smith, who had beaten Dwight Lowery off the line. Safety James Ihedigbo came late to help and Smith had a 68-yard touchdown. Give the morning to Pennington, though there were lots of throw-aways from both quarterbacks. Actually, all four. Really, just give the morning to the defense.

* Besides the above-mentioned pick, Clemens also fumbled a center exchange with Nick Mangold, with the loose ball quickly recovered by linebacker Eric Barton, who early in camp has become Clemens’ personal pest. Barton, remember, picked off Clemens’ first pass of training camp Thursday. Clemens ran a lap after today’s fumble.

* We saw Dustin Keller gain some good yardage on an end around. That was something new we hadn’t seen yet from the rookie tight end.

* When I got out to the practice field at 8:45 a.m., at the far end of the bleachers was a fan chanting what he had written on a two-sided poster board. On one side was, “Woody, cut the check. Make it happen. Favre (4).” On the other side was, “Chad we love you But we need Brett Favre.”
A few people laughed but no one cheered. But a lot did after practice when Pennington came over to the bleachers and spent 45 minutes signing just about everything put in front of him.

Afternoon practice here at 5:45 p.m.