After what I saw today- the o-line has improved. Smith is quicker, his passes are sharp, he's looking off receivers. The WR's are impressive. Great hands. Some new plays and packages. The play book and script will be radically different from last year, less elementary, more algorithmic and adjustable. The tempo is quick, nothing designed for 6-7 second drop-and-pass. QB's are getting rid of the ball very quickly, 3-4 seconds, or they're taking off with the ball by 5-6. Didn't see much on the run game side of the equation. Hard to say of we're not good at it, we're great at defending it, or DC felt it wasn't a priority in the scrimmage.
On defense- let's put it this way- I'm not sure if our passing game is that good or if our pass defense is that bad. The run game couldn't do much against them. They're swarming to the ball better than I've seen in the past. However, they really struggled in penetrating the line- recorded two sacks against the #2 O. 3rd down defense doesn't appear to have shown much improvement, which was the biggest concern from last season (51% conversion rate vs. 'Pokes LY).
DC was most frustrated with the punting game. Tried four times out of the end zone, first three ended up as safeties, Gags in his blog put it on the punter, but the first snap went over his shoulder and nearly over the fence in the south EZ, second snap nearly bounced off the ground, third snap he had to chase down and was blocked out of the back of the EZ. Fourth one was wide right, again, but he got it off for about 40. It was the only part of the practice and scrimmage DC really criticized. While the punters need to make sure they're making every effort to snag the snap, from what I saw, long snapping might be an issue in pressure situations. That being said, snap-and-holds were pretty flawless. It think Williams missed one FG from 48 the entire session.
There was a "show onside" kick that went out of bounds, not good. But the thing I noticed most was the slow and sloppy play of the secondary. They were getting burned for wide open catches, smoked on YAC, and missed a few easy picks because they lost sight of the ball on a contained receiver.
