Totally_Red
Air Raid Warning!
I talked to a sheriff's deputy who said the Prescott P.D. estimated the crowd at 3,000. Judging by the traffic jam encountered upon departure, I'd say that was a "conservative" estimate. Lots of folks on hand. Interestly enuf, among the jersey-wearing crowd, Fitz and Anquan were about equal, with Kurt a distant third, and that included some retro-Rams jerseys. Funny incident after the scrimmage. Q, Fitz, and Kurt had their own queues, while most of the rest were freelance. Anyway this 6 or 7-year old boy makes it to Anquan and excitedly blurts out, "You're my SECOND favorite player." (He was wearing a Fitz jersey.) I assume if he got to Kurt, he was #3.
Back to the scrimmage itself. Before hand, Denny Green took the mike and addressed the crowd about what would happen and when. After some stretching and warm-ups, one of the Cardinal cheerleaders, Morgan, did fantastic acapella(sp.) version of the Star Spangled Banner, and she did a fantastic job, despite the wireless mike breaking up.
One thing before I start on the scrimmage itself. I concentrated the offenses. I make no apology for that. I like offense. Any defense observations are just in passing. (The first-team defensive line did bat down several passes, including one deflected by Dockett, that Robert Tate returned for a pick-6.)
The concept was first team offense against second defense, and 1st team defense against second team offense. As you might expect, with those parameters, the first-team offense, featuring Kurt about 2/3 of the time, looked great, and the second-team offense was shutout and didn't look as good. To my recollection only two Warner passes hit the turf. I can see why Denny mentioned once that Kurt may be closer to the 1999-2001 vintage, than the "bad" Warner of 2002-2004. One of those incompletions was a deflection by Antonio Smith, who flashed a couple times as a pass-rusher from RDE. Yeah, it's just a mock game, but he was impressive. The other incompletion came when Kurt led Femi a bit too much over the middle. Not enuf adjustment from the speedier J.J., who did a lot of receiving in this scrimmage, and looked good doing it. The guy is super quick. J.J. played almost all the first team offensive reps, with Marcel getting a handful in short-yardage and goal-line situations. James Hodgins and Femi split the fullback reps almost evenly, and both occasionally split out wide.
Kurt looked very sharp today. He and B.j. (Bryant Johnson) brought the crowd to its feet about mid-way thru the scrimmage with a perfectly thrown bomb and catch for six, when Bryant got behind Lamont Reid and caught the ball in stride, streaking down the right sideline. The Cardinals are gonna play some long-ball this year folks. Was talking to another guy, and were remarking about B.J. is catching everything this season versus some annoying drops last year. (I know it's early, but it's a good sign.)
With just a couple of incompletions, the receivers were doing their jobs. Most of the passes were to B.J., Fitz (who caught one of the TD's on a laser from Kurt at the right hash, 2 yards in), Charles Lee, Femi, and J.J. Lee split reps with Lawrence Hamilton.
Josh was up and down, obviously having trouble on a couple of occasions, and either throwing poorly, or taking off running. He did look good on those scrambling occasions.
John Navarre and Timmy Chang split the 2-T reps, with Navarre getting maybe 2/3 of them.
The starting offense was Davis, Wells, Nick Leckey in for STep?, Bridges, and Ross, along with Fitz and B.J. at WR, with Lee and Lawrence Hamilton splitting the third receiver snaps. Adam Bergen and Golliday split the TE reps with the first team, with Bronson and Blizzard on the 2T offense.
J.R. Redmond got lots of opportunities in the return game, and was a crowd favorite, along with special team LB Johnson, whose first name I forget right now.
Chatted very briefly with Clancy Pendergast about whether Antrel Rolle will have any trouble because of the holdout. It may just be the Dennis Green party line, but he is unconcerned and said (paraphrasing), He won't have a problem, in part because he is such an intelligent player, who picks stuff up quickly.
Thanks for reading! Thanks to the Hampton Inn, whose computer I'm using for this.
Bring on
Back to the scrimmage itself. Before hand, Denny Green took the mike and addressed the crowd about what would happen and when. After some stretching and warm-ups, one of the Cardinal cheerleaders, Morgan, did fantastic acapella(sp.) version of the Star Spangled Banner, and she did a fantastic job, despite the wireless mike breaking up.
One thing before I start on the scrimmage itself. I concentrated the offenses. I make no apology for that. I like offense. Any defense observations are just in passing. (The first-team defensive line did bat down several passes, including one deflected by Dockett, that Robert Tate returned for a pick-6.)
The concept was first team offense against second defense, and 1st team defense against second team offense. As you might expect, with those parameters, the first-team offense, featuring Kurt about 2/3 of the time, looked great, and the second-team offense was shutout and didn't look as good. To my recollection only two Warner passes hit the turf. I can see why Denny mentioned once that Kurt may be closer to the 1999-2001 vintage, than the "bad" Warner of 2002-2004. One of those incompletions was a deflection by Antonio Smith, who flashed a couple times as a pass-rusher from RDE. Yeah, it's just a mock game, but he was impressive. The other incompletion came when Kurt led Femi a bit too much over the middle. Not enuf adjustment from the speedier J.J., who did a lot of receiving in this scrimmage, and looked good doing it. The guy is super quick. J.J. played almost all the first team offensive reps, with Marcel getting a handful in short-yardage and goal-line situations. James Hodgins and Femi split the fullback reps almost evenly, and both occasionally split out wide.
Kurt looked very sharp today. He and B.j. (Bryant Johnson) brought the crowd to its feet about mid-way thru the scrimmage with a perfectly thrown bomb and catch for six, when Bryant got behind Lamont Reid and caught the ball in stride, streaking down the right sideline. The Cardinals are gonna play some long-ball this year folks. Was talking to another guy, and were remarking about B.J. is catching everything this season versus some annoying drops last year. (I know it's early, but it's a good sign.)
With just a couple of incompletions, the receivers were doing their jobs. Most of the passes were to B.J., Fitz (who caught one of the TD's on a laser from Kurt at the right hash, 2 yards in), Charles Lee, Femi, and J.J. Lee split reps with Lawrence Hamilton.
Josh was up and down, obviously having trouble on a couple of occasions, and either throwing poorly, or taking off running. He did look good on those scrambling occasions.
John Navarre and Timmy Chang split the 2-T reps, with Navarre getting maybe 2/3 of them.
The starting offense was Davis, Wells, Nick Leckey in for STep?, Bridges, and Ross, along with Fitz and B.J. at WR, with Lee and Lawrence Hamilton splitting the third receiver snaps. Adam Bergen and Golliday split the TE reps with the first team, with Bronson and Blizzard on the 2T offense.
J.R. Redmond got lots of opportunities in the return game, and was a crowd favorite, along with special team LB Johnson, whose first name I forget right now.
Chatted very briefly with Clancy Pendergast about whether Antrel Rolle will have any trouble because of the holdout. It may just be the Dennis Green party line, but he is unconcerned and said (paraphrasing), He won't have a problem, in part because he is such an intelligent player, who picks stuff up quickly.
Thanks for reading! Thanks to the Hampton Inn, whose computer I'm using for this.
Bring on
