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Adam Kennedy played solid, but Chuckie Keeton fully tore it up, making
Kennedy's window that much smaller. |
The lights were on at Romney Stadium Wednesday night for what will be the final major scrimmage of this 2012 fall camp. A solid crowd turned out to see what will likely have been the final chance for a lot of guys to solidify their places on the depth chart going into the start of the season.
As has been the case throughout camp, a handful of guys saw very few, if any reps. Guys like Kerwynn Williams, Matt Austin, Chuck Jacobs, McKade Brady and Tavaris McMillian are among them, giving chances for a lot of other guys to step up and make their case for playing time.
Let's jump right into the basics...
The first team offense was rolling tonight, gaining yards with relative ease against what looked to be a mix of first and second team defensive players. It's tough to really tell the impact of all that from either standpoint, with a lot of the offensive superstars being held out and not all of the first team defense playing together. For what it's worth, it's encouraging to see the offense moving the ball, regardless of who it is against. For the bulk of camp, the defense has been looking absolutely stellar, so to see the offense start coming together a little better is encouraging.
Chuckie Keeton was pretty excellent for this scrimmage, as he has been for most of camp and all of spring ball a few months back. Adam Kennedy is still solid, and he should still see plenty of snaps this season, but Keeton was a solid step above tonight.
Outside of one guy, the run game wasn't to be stoked on, but that was all without Williams taking snaps, and we know he's going to produce.
The receivers had a lot of that same thing going on, with two guys really looking solid out there, but everyone else leaving a lot to be desired. But keep in mind, Austin and Jacobs weren't in that mix, leaving the guys deeper on the depth chart going against first team cornerbacks.
Speaking of the cornerbacks, they look awesome. The fact that Willie Davis is listed as the Dime cornerback is astonishing, and says a lot about the other guys ahead of him. Davis made a handful of clutch plays in limited reps last season and looks to be solidly improved this camp, standing out several times with good coverage downfield. Back there with them, the safeties look just fine.
Let's just break the rest down by positives and negatives though.
POSITIVES
Cam Webb -
Dude absolutely KILLED it!!! He finished with eight catches for 101 yards and was just all over the place making plays. Outside of him and Travis Reynolds at times, it seemed like nobody else could get open, and Webb did it at will. He took a hard hit on a screen pass late in the scrimmage and appeared to be shaken up pretty badly, which is a major bummer to finish off his night. If I were taking a guess, I'd say it was a concussion, and you never know how that'll linger. Hopefully not long, because tonight Webb looked like he could be an impact player for the offense.
Joe Hill - With the top spot at running back locked up, Hill has separated himself from the rest of the bunch to get a lockdown at the No. 2 running back spot. Tonight made it obvious as to why. Hill was finding holes, hitting them hard and racking up yards on the ground. He accelerates to full speed in almost no time, and his top speed makes him almost impossible to catch from behind. He's not the strongest of runners, but he's also young. As it stands, Hill looks like he'll be a solid replacement to Michael Smith in the role of super-speedy No. 2 running back.
Defense - I wanted to pinpoint a specific area of the defense because it seemed every different area performed well enough to earn individual mention. The line got solid push and put some real pressure on the quarterbacks. The linebackers were flying all over, making plays everywhere and adding to the pressure of the quarterbacks. And the defensive backs were basically shutdown on every receiver not named Cam Webb. The offense still got theirs at times, but that's going to happen regardless. The defense made everything difficult on them.
NEGATIVES
Punt returns - Calling that part of the scrimmage anything less than a shit-show is giving them a bit too much credit. If the guy returning the punt actually managed avoid muffing the catch, which was rare, guys were running backwards way too often trying to burn the defenders around the edges. That didn't really work for anyone at all. Credit to the punt coverage team I guess, but the returners did the coverage guys plenty of favors. It brought back a nightmare or two from the Colorado State game, and that's just an awful awful thing to reminisce on.
Running backs NOT named Joe Hill - Outside of a couple decent runs by Abou Toure, the running backs behind
Hill didn't really do the offense any favors. Inexperience might play a
factor in that, seeing as how Williams and Hill are really the only two
healthy backs who have been around a while. You've got to hope though
that as guys like Kelvin Lee, Ladale Jackson and Toure get their feet
wet, that they will step things up and add more quality depth. When Joey DeMartino and Robert Marshall get healthy again, the depth will get a big boost, but let's hope that some of those other guys can take a giant leap forward or two in the meantime.
Kicking - Damn this theme of special teams not doing all that great... The kicking game is still just wildly inconsistent, much like it has been for what seems like forever. If this results in going for it on fourth down a lot rather than attempting a long field goal, that might not be the worst thing in the world. At this point it certainly looks like it'll be a better option than trying to kick anything from deeper than about 45 yards.
