Favre: Just about has it down
Brett Favre said the crash-course portion of his season when it comes to learning the playbook is about over.
“We’re not cramming really,” Favre said. “We’re kind of going back. We’re kind of rehashing some of the things we’ve done well, some of the things that could have been done well, really narrowing down, not so much adding. Maybe adding something off a play that worked well. A different formation, personnel group, something like that. But we’ve got enough really to go into the rest of the season and have success with.”
[* An interjection to reader BigM, who posted this under my previous entry: “Im sure one reporter will say ‘So Favre, Do you now feel like your on the same page with your WR's? Is the chemistry finally there??’
Mmm, sigh. I was hoping not…but BigM was pretty close].
Anyway, back to learning the terminology of the playbook. Damien Woody and Chris Baker had some interesting recollections about Favre’s early struggles with it.
“Now the way I can tell is he’s not forgetting the play call in the huddle, now it’s like he just knows it now,” Damien Woody said. “Once you get to that point, you just go out and play football. I think he definitely he’s more comfortable in the offense, guys are more comfortable with him calling the plays. We’re more in sync, so now I think you’ll start to see his true abilities start to come out on the football field. And by no means is this a finished product. I think it’s going to get better and better.”
Baker smiled when I asked him to compare Favre in the huddle now to the first few training camp practices.
“It’s been a dramatic jump,” Baker said. “We do have a pretty complex offense and just to call the play out was for tough for him early on. A couple times we just got the play, we didn’t get a formation or the protection, things like that, back in camp. But he’s really evolved and he’s obviously had to study a lot and he’s taken ownership and he really understands what we’re trying to do and the concept of everything we’ve done. There’s been a lot of effort put into it and I guess you could say you saw some of the results of that on Sunday.”
* Not too much from the 35 minutes we were able to watch practice. We watched Reggie Hodges punt for the first portion of the practice. Nothing great; nothing horrible. A couple of good hits downfield, though not consistently. But no shanks, either.
Hodges, still recovering from a hamstring injury, took to the sideline exercise bicycles for the final part of the time we were out there. James Dearth was also on a bicycle. Kris Jenkins, limited much of last week, didn’t appear, in the time we were outside, limited in any way.
* Eric Mangini on David Clowney and Mike Nugent: I’d say they’re both making significant strides. David hopefully will be involved to some degree either this week or next week.”
* Mangini on Eric Smith's suspension: "I definitely support the Commissioner's initiative to protect the players and to do everything possible to promote player safety. But I'll just reiterate that Eric Smith, he's a good player, he's a good person, and he'd never do anything intentionally to harm somebody else."
* Laveranues Coles caught three touchdowns Sunday and treated each of the footballs differently. The first one he handed to a kid in the crowd, the second he kept for himself and the third he signed and gave to Favre, who very much appreciated the gesture. As for the kid, Coles said he spotted him before the game.
“I saw him early,” Coles said. “As a player, you’re always scouring the stands to see just how many of your jerseys are up there, to see how popular you are. Of course, I’m outnumbered by No. 4, but that’s to be expected. But anytime I see one of my jerseys, I say ‘Man, he’s got my jersey on, he must really like me.’”
* Irving’s Delicatessen in nearby Livingston, N.J. brought a huge selection of sandwiches, salads and desserts into the press room today for lunch. The word tremendous doesn’t even begin to cover it.
* We’re back again tomorrow for this week’s final practice and player availability. And, again, Live Chat VII here on this blog at 11 a.m. Thursday morning.
E-mail
Facebook
Digg
Delicious
Comments (12)
Ugh, Never fails Erik, never fails. Oh well. Mangini always says Clowney is making strides. Any kind of indication of when he will start seeing the field? If at all? I guess not much will be told this week.
Anyone know an accurate source for the Jets practice players? I few sites reported that the Jets re-signed Marcus Henry to their practice squad after he cleared waivers on September 24th yet the Jets "official" website does not have Henry listed on the practice squad. Is (hopefully) Henry on the Jets practice squad or not?
Boland:
Are you heaping Lenn Robbins-sized portions of all this food on your plate?
What's with the Rhino? If you're gonna put that out there, at least give us an explanation. Was it a Robbins reference of some sort?
BigM, Mangini sounded - and I stress the word sounded - a bit more optimistic with Clowney. I would guess next week we might see Clowney out there.
RDubbs, Henry is indeed on the practice squad, signed to it Sept. 24. Not sure why he's not listed on the team Web site.
Glauber, I thought you were off today.
Glauber, i hope your not one of those cats who like to use powdered Rhino horn for some sort of weird kind of action.
To the famous Mr. Green T:
No, not into Rhino horn. Just curious to see why our man Boland used a picture. Just don't get the symbolism.
In response to the Rhino questions...well...I've got one answer; the symbolism of the Rhino is that it represents the randomness that is Erik Boland's blog. You'll be reading and then all of a sudden you'll just see something and ask yourself, well, wtf was that? Did he just compare that player to a bottle of perfume? Sometimes, when I have the time to read the dissertation that is Erik Boland's Gang Green Blog, I meander through it like the winding Yangtze River through whatever country it meanders through.
That's it for today, at Mangini can't ruin anything this week. By the way, Bills lose this week.
Erik,
Is there any bigger embarrassment to the NFL than Al Davis?
Cliff, though you meandered a bit, you just might have hit on the correct interpretation...(and good to read you again!)
John Z, that press conference in Oakland yesterday was one of the stranger things I've ever seen/heard in this league.
Reading a Jet blog about their bye week, asking for Jets stories. Here's mine. It's too late for the other blog, so here it is.
I was standing on the sidelines watching the miracle of Super Bowl III. I was never a sports fan even though I played defensive line for 4 years in high school at a giant 5'8", 165lbs. I played for social standing. So, despite my desire for doing socially redeeming work, I ended up producing and directing for NFL Films in Philly from 1968 to 1970.
As a perk for creating the football ballet, "The Headcracker Suite", my wife and I were given a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami but I had to work at the game as an assistant cameraman. I was assigned to assist Howard Neef, a ground cameraman who shot those extreme close ups of the ball in the air right into the receiver's hands and Howard eventually became Director of Photography for NFL Films.
Howard and I had worked for the company that produced AFL highlite films before the merger brought all the teams and films under one banner, so we were both rooting for the Jets to beat the stodgy NFL. I never assisted Howard before and didn't have his equipment mastered so someone he knew did my job and I was assigned to a folding chair on the 50 yard line, behind the Colts bench, with the understanding if the intercoms went out, I would have to run messages to the top decks.
The intercoms didn't break down and I couldn't see the game sitting behind the milling Colt players. So I got up and started walking back and forth with the action. As the game is turning to the Jets, Howard and I keep passing each other giving each other "I can't believe this is happening" looks. By the end of the game we were ecstatic.
Steve Sabol was a major Colt fan and he stood dejected in an empty end zone, depressed. A great cameraman, Steve was supposed to film the winner's locker room but he was too upset so he sent his assistant, Danny Lerner, to film the winners celebration. I went along for the ride and to do any interviews.
Namath had an average day on the field, but, in the post game locker room, he joked and baited a hundred reporters, most of them non-believers. All of this naked with a towel around his waste standing on a table. It was a hilarious blast; Namath at his smart-ass, wise-guy best. He threw zingers right and left.
There was no way I could get to Joe so I saw Matt Snell sitting by his lonesome and interviewed this spent warrior. He was exhausted. I thought he was the MVP and Jets' management agreed with me. I read Snell got the MVPs Cadillac from the owner.
I was not a Jets fan, right away. A few years later, the Patriots were at Shea and I had become friends with the Sullivan family who had owned the Pats since they were the Boston Patriots. They got me a seat in their owner's section but the Jets trounced them with Joe throwing like 5 TDs. I couldn't help myself and started cheering Joe's heroics. I was the only one cheering in the section I was sitting in.
The next time, the Patriots came to Shea, I asked the Sullivans for tickets for me and my son, John. They gave me 2 tickets that were at the very last row at the top of the stadium, 5 miles from the owners family. They had invited me to a pre-game snack before; this time inexplicably, I was not allowed in.
My full fanship, my out-of-the-closet Jets worship, started when Parcells took over. His personality and the Giants and Pats success intrigued me. I went from a fan of Tuna to a lover of the green and white. I was hooked, doomed to the SAME OLD JETS! But along comes this celebrated stranger from the south and north. I'm looking for Howard Neef. I've got that "I can't believe this is happening" look again.
Great fun Simon. Thanks for sharing.