The Falcoholic
Skirmishes dominating the conversation on Day 3 of camp, Michael Penix continued looking good and we finally got a glance at the kicker battle.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky this morning. Genuinely, walking up to camp today amid another frenzy of a crowd packing out the hill for a second consecutive day, there wasn’t even any semblance of reprieve from the unrelenting and sweltering late July Georgia sun.
It’s been like that all three days of camp so far, but it hasn’t discouraged Falcons fans from making the trek to see their team hit the practice field, as the scenes on the hill today similar to what we saw yesterday.
Following the usual start to practice — a walkthrough, some stretching and then drills against air — we got an action packed day, with standouts on both offense and defense as well as some serious tension in the air.
Here are some observations from Day 3 of Falcons Training Camp this year!
The main story of the day was an eruption of emotion in the middle of 11-on-11 drills between the first team offense and second team defense. Rookie OLB James Pearce Jr. got into a little bit of a back and forth with C Ryan Neuzil before players on both offense and defense joined in the scuffle.
Pearce went from Neuzil right to LG Matthew Bergeron as a little bit of shoving happened and Bergeron lost his helmet. Some heated words were exchanged as well.
Just one play later, the offensive and defensive guys were right back into skirmish mode, with Pearce again being right in the middle of it, this time with RT Kaleb McGary. I am not sure what set either of these off, but defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said in the post practice press conference that the violence “went a little too far:”
After being plagued with pass catcher mistakes in yesterday’s practice, QB Michael Penix Jr. dissected the defense with those mistakes cleaned up today.
Penix went a combined 13-16 in the 11-on-11 period as well as red zone drills. He set the tone early with a deep shot home run to WR Ray Ray McCloud down the left sideline on the first throw of scrimmage. McCloud was, however, chased down by CB Keith Taylor who forced a fumble from behind.
Penix wasn’t afraid of pushing the ball downfield, as he never is, with six of his 13 completions going 10+ yards downfield, by my count. He went 4-4 in the red zone portion with three touchdown passes — one to McCloud, one to WR Drake London and one to WR Chris Blair, on a play where MPJ beautifully stepped up in the pocket to evade the two edge rushers.
Of his three incompletions, two were on home run passes deep down the field and one was on a pass over the middle...
