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| Wednesday, February 14, 2001 |
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Practice
Notes Index | Game
Notes
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Not much love was spared for the Outlaws players
today from the coaches; Valentine's Day or not, the focus was on
improving the offense. It was a long day for the players in
full pads, and they started with the basics. The linemen and
running backs did a lot of work with the blocking sleds, and then
went into live blocking drills for nearly an hour. Last week
against the Maniax, the Outlaws O-line struggled; they couldn't
open holes for running backs, had difficulty pass-blocking, and
were prone to penalties and mental mistakes. Today the coaching
staff directly addressed most of these shortcomings, and promise
to do so tomorrow as well.
 The
receivers and defensive backs spent nearly an hour running patterns
against coverages, and man-to-man coverage was stressed today for
the DB's. The Outlaws coaches are taking Saturday's game against
the Los Angeles Xtreme very seriously, and that set the tone for
today's practice.
The big news today for the Outlaws is who their starting QB will
be. It was a shootout between Mike Cawley and Jim Ballard,
with a winner to be decided by day's end, but the practice ended
without a clear winner. Both Cawley and Ballard started out
rough, but by practice's end, both were making sharp reads and crisp
throws. Cawley put on a particularly surprising performance
today, as he seemed to finally settle down in the pocket and make
better & more complete downfield reads; prior to this, Cawley
had a tendency to feel pressured, and instead of completing his
reads, he would take off on a downfield run. Today he shook
these tendencies off and looked ready to step in as starter.
Ballard also displayed confidence and poise, and looks comfortable
with the Outlaws' offensive scheme.
Backs and receivers received a lot of work, and they all seemed
very sharp; very few passes were dropped or missed, and patterns
were executed pretty consistently. Something new that appeared
for the first time was the use of forward motion by the offense;
in training camp, the Outlaws struggled to grasp this, but today
looked very comfortable while implementing it.
Backs and receivers were taking turns with the forward motion with
good results, so look for this to be used much more by the Outlaws.
Something else to watch (but that we have yet to see) will be passing
by RB Chris Chukwuma (pronounced chu-KOO-muh); he has a good arm
and can consistently connect with receivers. There is some
speculation that Chukwuma may have to fill in as third-string QB
should Cawley and Ballard go down on Saturday against the Xtreme.
QB Ryan Clement is out for at least a month, and was placed on IR
today; whether or not he will return this year is too early to guess
at. Ryan was in practice today, and when he tried to throw
a short pass, he received a lot of negative attention from the coaches.
QB Chuck Clements will undergo shoulder surgery on Friday, February
16, and will not return this year. Staff and coaches have
been making many phone calls, searching for a third-string QB, but
have been unsuccessful so far. When asked about bringing back
some QB's that were previously cut by the team, the coaches feel
that those QB's are either too inexperienced (the coaches feel that
some time in NFL-Europe or CFL would do them quite a bit of good),
or in the case of Mike Buck, that he had been out of football too
long and was too slow to get back into the groove. The main
problem is not lack of interest; many QB prospects have contacted
the team, but all are under contract to NFL, NFL-Europe, CFL, or
Arena League teams, and are not able to be released. It is
even more imperative for the Outlaws' offensive line to step up
their level of play in order to protect the only two QB's left on
the Outlaws' roster. The improvements shown by both QB's today
won't do any good if they are injured and forced to leave a game.
DE Ty Parten still has not been cleared medically in regards to
his knee surgery, and is doubtful to rejoin the team. Parten
was hoped to be able to join the team last week, as he is believed
to be an immediate impact player. Instead, Blaine Berger was waived
last week, and Jermaine Smith (#99) was signed to fill Parten's
spot. Smith showed a lot of ability and should see action
in Saturday's game. Rickey Brady came limping off the field
halfway through practice today, and had his left ankle attended
to before running back onfield. Toby Wright was placed on
IR last week, and is in physical rehab with an undisclosed injury;
he was nowhere to be seen today.
Sadly, yesterday the AP announced that former Outlaws WR Donald
Sellers was killed in a car wreck, while returning home to Arizona
from Las Vegas. Sellers had been released during training
camp to resolve some legal troubles in his home state of Arizona;
he was a promising prospect and the possibility existed of Sellers
returning to the Outlaws if he was able to successfully resolve
these problems. If not, then he would have been barred from
playing in the league entirely.
The Outlaws showed a great deal of improvement today with their
offensive performance, and this will be critical for them to acheive
in order to have a chance against the Xtreme on Saturday.
The Xtreme will be the biggest test to date for the Outlaws, and
the Xtreme will challenge the Outlaws in every aspect of the game.
The Outlaws' advantage lies with their defense; the Outlaws have
a lot of depth on defense, and they use it to their advantage.
The offense MUST continue to improve and cannot afford to let their
guard down on Saturday. |
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