AJC > Sports > Falcons > Training Camp Blog > Archives > 2007 > August > 02
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Harrington loving the new offense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning was a fairly quick practice for the Falcons, and Bobby Petrino used it as an opportunity to rest a couple veterans and a few others with nagging injuries. Alge Crumpler, Wayne Gandy, Kynan Forney (stiff back), Lawyer Milloy and Darrell Shropshire (groin) all joined Warrick Dunn and Rod Coleman on the sideline.
Petrino’s focus this morning was on tempo and kept things moving with a 40-second clock between plays. He said, other than one play, he was satisfied with the ability of the offense to keep up.
Joey Harrington addressed the media after the practice and again praised the new system. It’s becoming pretty obvious that Harrington wasn’t a fan of the offense he was running in Detroit, but he’s liking what he sees so far from Petrino’s offense.
“It was a bit difficult to pick up initially,” he explained. “But now, it’s great. I love it. It’s by far my favorite offense I’ve played for in the NFL.”
He also complimented the group of receivers he’s working with. Laurent Robinson continues to have a great camp. It seems like every time there is an impressive catch from the group of wide receivers, you look and it’s No. 19 making the play. I know this is a group that took a lot of heat last season because of dropped passes, but the addition of Joe Horn to go with a talent like Robinson should really help.
Harrington called Robinson a “tremendous” receiver, pointing out that his huge strides close the gap real quickly between him and a defender.
“And he’s open to criticism and open to learning,” Harrington pointed out, two positives you have to like from a rookie.
For the first time that I’ve noticed, there were officials out on the practice field during scrimmaging. Petrino said they were just there to answer questions from players and keep everything within the rules.
Lastly, as we continue to follow positional battles, I spoke to defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer about the play of Jimmy Williams who is battling Chris Crocker at free safety and thought his response was pretty candid.
“Jimmy’s got great range,” Zimmer said. “He’s really a good kid and he’s trying to learn everything. Sometimes he’ll get a little brain lock like all of the do. They get a little tired so we have to pick up his focus and intensity. I like a lot of the things that he does. We just have to keep the nail on him all the time. Not because he’s lackadaisical, but because he’ll go to sleep on you and that position, going to sleep is not a good thing.”
No, it’s not.
Falcons seek offensive balance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two practices today, and the 9 a.m. session is just getting underway. I’m working on a defensive line story for Friday’s paper, so I’ll be watching guys like Grady Jackson, Tommy Jackson and Jonathan Babineaux pretty closely. Darrell Shropshire didn’t practice yesterday because of a groin injury - we’ll see if he’s out there today.
While driving up to Flowery Branch, I was interested in listening to an interview with Warrick Dunn on 790. Dunn was pretty candid, both in his assessment of training camp (basically, no player likes it) and the coaching staff from last season. He spoke about the importance of getting more balance in the offense this year, especially at the goalline.
Basically, he said, once the team got close to the endzone, everybody in the stadium knew the Falcons were going to run the ball.
Under Bobby Petrino, Dunn doesn’t think that will be the case. Expect a more balanced offense this year, something Petrino addressed after practice yesterday.
“We need to be as balanced as we can on first and ten and between run and pass plays…. We can’t just run the ball and we can’t just throw the ball,” Petrino told reporters.
He also stressed the importance of having Joey Harrington look downfield to keep defenses honest.
“I think it is going to be paramount if we can throw the ball deep too,” Petrino said. “Teams are going to drop safeties down and blitz early on us, so we are going to have to hit some big plays down the field.”
Permalink | |
