Practice Report 8/22

Pre-Season Practice Report – 8/22
August 22, 2011 - Bob Gretz | Comments (9)

From the Truman Sports Complex


It was another hot steamy day for a football practice on Monday
afternoon at the Chiefs facility and head coach Todd Haley had his team
working long and hard in another session of trying to make up ground
from the owners’ lockout.

And it was another afternoon where the defense controlled the show. In
the team’s competitive period at the end of practice, the No. 1 offense
got to run 10 plays against the No. 1 defense. The Matt Cassel-led
offense managed just one first down and overall was only five of 10,
with one pass knocked down at the line of scrimmage. The final
incompletion came on a fourth down with the game clock running out when
he rifled a short pass to TE Tony Moeaki and it went right through his
hands.

That’s the way it’s been now for the better part of 10 days on the
practice field, as the Chiefs defense is performing at a pace ahead of
their offensive mates. It must be remembered that the Chiefs offense
isn’t doing much in the way of adjusting their scheme. The plays are
pretty plain Jane, but Haley has been pushing his offensive players and
coaches to pick up the pace of getting plays called and getting the snap
off.

Actually, the best offensive play of the afternoon came from QB Tyler
Palko. He got flushed from the pocket and started scrambling away from
pass rush pressure. Eventually, he stopped and jumped up and threw the
ball to his right, where it floated over the head of LB Demorrio
Williams and over the head of TE Cody Slate, who got his hands up and
made the catch and ran into the end zone. It would have to go down as
one of those “Oh no Palko don’t throw that … hey Tyler great play.”

Other observations from the day at Arrowhead where the Chiefs were in full pads:

– Out of practice on Monday were WR Jonathan Baldwin (wrist/thumb), TE
Jake O’Connell (ankle), OT Ryan O’Callaghan (unknown), C/G Darryl Harris
(knee), NT Anthony Toribio (knee), LB Eric Bakhtiari (head) and LB Gabe
Miller (hamstring). O’Connell, Bakhtiari and Miller were not on the
field at all; the others were in the rehab area.

– OT Jared Gaither was with the offensive line for the whole practice, but he did not participate in any of the teamwork plays.

– The No. 2 defense lined up like this: Dion Gales and Wallace Gilberry
at DEs, Amon Gordon at NT, Justin Houston and Pierre Walters at OLB,
with Demorrio Williams and Brandon Siler at ILB. CBs rotating in and out
of the unit were Travis Daniels and Quinten Lawrence and Javier Arenas
and Jalil Brown. Jon McGraw was at FS with Sabby Piscitelli and Donald
Washington splitting time at SS.

– Palko threw a pretty pass to a wide open Terrance Copper going into
the end zone, but the wide receiver dropped the ball. Copper beat
coverage from CB Quinten Lawrence on the play.

– WR Steve Breaston was a bit more active in catching the ball in
practice on Monday. Breaston is still rehabbing some off-season work he
had done on his right knee and the Chiefs haven’t been pushing the
practice pace with him.

– CB Travis Daniels had tight man-to-man coverage on a deep pass to WR
Dwayne Bowe from Cassel. He tipped the ball in the air, and then was
able to make the interception. It was one of the better defensive plays
of the pre-season to date.

– The offensive and defensive lines worked combinations on pass
protection and pressure and there were some good battles, especially
those involving OLB Tamba Hali. There was violence in the two-snap set
between Hali and DE Wallace Gilberry against LG Ryan Lilja and LT
Branden Albert. The defenders ran a nice stunt where Gilberry was lined
up inside and went after Albert, while Hali came inside and badly beat
Lilja … a bit later, Lilja got some revenge as he teamed with Rodney
Hudson and Jon Asamoah against Hali and DE Allen Bailey and kept those
two under control … the defensive duo of OLB Cameron Sheffield and
Bailey worked together quite well in beating RT Barry Richardson and RG
Butch Lewis … Gilberry and OLB Justin Houston were paired together for
several snaps, but they were continuously jumping offside … later
however, they ran through Albert and Hudson like it was a jail break.

– The No. 1 kickoff team lined up like this: Jon McGraw, Quinten
Lawrence, Pierre Walters, Terrance Copper, Reshard Langford, Jackie
Battle, Demorrio Williams, Andy Studebaker, Cory Greenwood and Eric
Berry lining up with K Ryan Succop.

– The No. 2 kickoff squad had Ricky Price, Sabby Piscitelli, Amara
Kamara, Justin Houston, Verran Tucker, Jeremy Horne, Justin Cole,
Brandon Siler, Donald Washington, Javier Arenas and Succop.

– The No. 1 FG-PAT protection unit on Monday were lined up like this,
left to right, in front of Succop and holder Dustin Colquitt: Leonard
Pope, Jon Asamoah, Mike Ingersoll, Butch Lewis, snapper Thomas Gafford,
Rodney Hudson, Branden Albert, Lucas Patterson and Andy Studebaker.

– Chiefs will practice on Tuesday morning, in a change of pattern for them in this pre-season.