It was another nice weather day for the Saints as they closed out their public viewing portion of training camp practices Wednesday. The rest of the team’s work will be closed to fans.
The practice was again competitive with the offense at times getting the better of the defense. Still, the Black and Gold defense made many plays on the ball. In a battle of first units, the defense kept the offense from scoring in a two-minute drill forcing an incompletion from quarterback Drew Brees.
WILLIAMS DEMANDS COMPITENCE
You have to like defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. His booming voice can be hears all over the practice field and whether it’s 7-on-7 drills or full on team drills, Williams is Sunday mode.
Team drills however seem to really get him perked up as on every play, Saints defenders are getting real time do’s and don’ts, combined with praise or scolding. Wednesday was a perfect example of both. Early in practice, linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar intercepted a pass and Williams was heard shouting, “That’s the way to work!”
Later in the practice, the offense ran a draw play on 3rd and 4, RB Mike Bell gashed the middle and wasn’t touched until about 10 yards later. Williams was furious calling close to ten players, consisting of DE Sedrick Ellis, Randall Gay and others, to the sideline. Once there, Williams line them up and scolded them on looking for the pass and forgetting about the run. He then made the group do almost 20 up-downs.
“It was just an attention deficit disorder, that’s what it was. Basically sometimes you got to imprint their memory to pay better attention next time,” Williams said of the decision to punish the players. “If we’re not getting better at learning football skills, the only chance we have to win games is being in phenomenal physical condition. So we chose to condition at that point in time because we weren’t getting any better mentally on football skills.”
BUMPS AND BRUISES
RB Reggie Bush was again held out most of the practice. RB Pierre Thomas was held out completely as he continues to nurse a MCL sprain to his knee. Thomas was seen hobbling around the practice fields.
CB Malcolm Jenkins suffered a wrist injury last in practice yesterday and today practice with some extra padding taped to his right wrist. Saints head coach Sean Payton said Jenkins is fine.
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