WEDNESDAY PRACTICE NOTES

[PonyPride]

The team got back to work Wednesday with a full-team practice on the Pettus practice field. Two noticeable facets of the session were the wet grass, as players slipped and lost their footing all morning, and increased intensity (Wednesday featured some of the hardest hitting of the spring and some spirited jawing back and forth) and somewhat sloppy play, with more dropped passes and missed tackles than usual.

Get it right: When special teams coach Frank Gansz runs his coverage drills, he normally has three or four guys come downfield, staying in their coverage lanes as they corrall the return man, after which Gansz immediately starts sharing (with the entire team, through his ever-present P.A. microphone headset) a correction about a player's technique or the route he took to the return man. A couple of mistakes were made Wednesday that prompted Gansz to interrupt the regular rotation of coverage groups, making a group repeat their coverage. (For example, Chris Butler - who normally relies on speed and elusiveness when working as a return man - stiff-armed safety Ryan Smith and then split the coverage group. Gansz sent Smith's group back to the front of the coverage lines, and they went through the drill again ... and locked up the return man right at the goal line.)

Armed and dangerous? In the same drills, Bryce Hudman served as the return man and took off toward the right sideline, only to be thrown down by walk-on DB Fred Leach ... with one arm.

More than just a receiver: Aldrick Robinson gets a lot of attention - and rightly so - for his speed and potential as a scoring threat. But at one point during the team's 11-on-11 drills, Emmanuel Sanders caught passes on three consecutive plays and broke each for a long run into the secondary. All three were made possible by Robinson, who broke out of his route and found a DB to block downfield. Twice he sealed off a pursuing DB at the sideline, creating a lane for Sanders down the sideline that theoretically would have led to a score.

Zeroing in: QB Bo Levi Mitchell looked more accurate than he did in a couple of recent passes. The run many deep routes Wednesday, but most of his passes on short and intermediate routes were thrown with great accuracy ... and the velocity he has shown since arriving last year.

Acknowledging a mistake: Mental mistakes often are punished by a few push-ups. When DB Bennie Thomas dropped a sure interception that hit him right between the 3 and the 1 on the front of his jersey, he didn't need a coach to tell him - and dropped to the field for a quick set of push-ups before returning to the huddle.

Starting to show flashes: Even to the casual observer, DE Margus Hunt is showing visible improvement every day. He is getting much lower with his pads, adding leverage to the explosive power in his legs. For the second consecutive practice, Hunt had a pair of sacks Wednesday, and on more than one occasion shot into the backfield before the tackle in front of him even got up out of his stance ... and that's against an offense that features blockers operating out of a two-point stance.

It doesn't mean Hunt is anything close to a finished product yet, and he obviously has a lot to learn about technique and general understanding of his role and of what the blockers in front of him are trying to do. But it does suggest that the reports of his speed and explosiveness are not far-fetched, and that he can react very quickly at the snap of the ball.

[The PonyGrad]

on more than one occasion (Hunt) shot into the backfield before the tackle in front of him even got up out of his stance

It certainly cuts down on your reads when you are in the backfield before the linemen come out of their stances. As long as the ball is snapped of course.

[PonyPride]

on more than one occasion (Hunt) shot into the backfield before the tackle in front of him even got up out of his stance

It certainly cuts down on your reads when you are in the backfield before the linemen come out of their stances. As long as the ball is snapped of course.

Right - I should have mentioned that!

One other note ....

Hold on: It's a position of critical importance that gets noticed only when something goes wrong - holder on placekicks. Working on holds Wednesday were Braden Smith and Bryce Lunday.

[GeorgiaMustang]

How is the defense looking as a whole? Do they seem to be getting the 3-4 down?

[ALEX LIFESON]

I have been to a number of workouts, and Margus looks better each time.


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