After sitting out the morning session, Chaz Schilens suited up for the second practice and ran some drills. He made several nice catches and cuts and his foot seems just fine. Cable will continue to be cautious with him to be sure that his ankle doesn’t have another setback. Cable execised the same caution with Louis Murphy’s concussion recovery. Marcel Reece was also held out of practice after tweaking his foot in the morning practice though the injury, according to Cable, is nothing serious. He emphasized the importance of proper recovery in his press conference.
“With all the literature that’s out and research that’s been done I just think that, you know, number one issue is safety and looking at this thing with some realism here. And you’ve got to get them rested and you’ve got to get them back when they’re healthy and ready to go back.”
Jacoby continues making JLH obsolete
Well, to be more accurate, Jonnie Lee Higgins is helping Jacoby Ford make him obsolete. Higgins has not had a great camp while Ford has continued to impress with each passing day. Higgins started practice with a dropped pass. Then on 7-7 drills he gets his route cut off and the ball falls incomplete. It drew the ire of Hue Jackson who yelled, “How the hell do you get stuck on a route like that?” It was one of just two incompletions in an otherwise fantastic session that saw Jason Campbell go 7 for 8 and Gradkowski go 4 for 4. The other incompletion was a drop by tight end Tony Stewart.
All the while Jacoby Ford just keeps making some pretty eye popping grabs. He had such a nice day yesterday that Cable was raving about it in his press conference afterward. In this afternoon’s practice Ford had a nice over-the-shoulder grab from Kyle Boller on a corner route between defenders.
Jackson is making it clear that these two are in direct competition too. During the afternoon session Ford couldn’t get lined up properly and Jackson pulled him out in favor of Higgins. But getting lined up in the proper formation is something that Ford will pick up on as he familiarizes himself with the offense. Higgins has had plenty of time to learn how to run routes and bring in catches. And Ford is already outplaying him.
In defense of the defense
Yes, the offense was nearly flawless in the 7-7 drills but keep in mind that this was accomplished with no pass rush. As Cable said “there’s no pass rush so it’s a fairly easy drill. You should have a higher level of completion.” The morning practice started out looking like the Raiders offense was far superior. But by the end of practice, the defense started to make some plays.
Rolando McClain got it started when on two consecutive plays he stuffed Darren McFadden at the line on a run up the midde and then broke up a Campbell dump pass intended for McFadden. Then the next play Tyvon Branch shot into the backfield to sack Campbell.
Jerome Boyd and Chris Johnson continued the defensive momentum when both had their receiver in tight coverage to knock down consecutive passes by Boller. Then McClain read a short dump pass by Jason Campbell intended for Michael Bush and knocked it down. The solid defensive play prompted Michael Huff to exclaim “This defense is gonna be amazing!”
CJ continued his great play in the afternoon as well. Jerry McDonald vocalized what I had been thinking already– that Chris Johnson has been the best looking DB in camp not named Nnamdi. Even despite recent praise given to Stanford Routt for his work ethic and determination to try and break into the starting lineup. I don’t see him being able to take Johnson’s job away from him. If he can improve his play in the slot and the Raiders can field three of the best corners in football. Joe Porter and Walter McFadden both had some nice moments as well.
Combine the corner play with the solid safety play from Branch, Huff, Mitchell and Boyd and the entire secondary looks more than solid.
Campbell and Barnes getting their shot
While Schilens was back for the afternoon practice, a few veteran guys got some rest. Those guys were Robert Gallery, Cooper Carlisle, John Henderson, and Richard Seymour. It is not coincidence that they are all the most veteran lineman. Cable quipped that they were “Big and old”.
With Gallery and Carlisle not practicing, Khalif Barnes and Bruce Campbell were given all the first team snaps at the guard positions. Barnes replaced Gallery at left guard and Campbell stepped in for Carlisle at right guard. I wouldn’t expect either player to supplant Gallery or Carlisle any time soon but it is good for them to line up with the first team and we have a more solid idea of the depth chart and the team’s plans for Barnes and Campbell.
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