Ravens camp: Winners & Losers 7/30

The first day of full pads practice produced both winners and losers of todays training camp.

Players with a bad practice:

• Ryan Mallett - For every good pass, a bad pass countered. I have Mallett down for:

*Bad pass
* Coverage “sack”
* Blitz “sack”
* Intercepted pass

This is the time to get bad tendencies broken, and work on the issues. It’s not the end of the world, but I hope to see better production the next few days.

• Keenan Reynolds - Back to back bad days is no way to start the first week of camp. Didn’t stand out to me in the return game, but neither did Campanaro or Clay. They were doing some drills that nobody outshined the other. During scrimmage Reynolds made a fine block, opening Terrance West’s lane of 15 yards. But a series later he drops an easy pass across the middle, nobody in close coverage around either.
• Jeremy Zuttah - The center had a rough go, with two ugly snaps in shotgun. The first Joe corralled one-handed. The very next play the ball goes over Flacco’s head, landing over ten yards back, where the team stands by awaiting their snaps in scrimmage. Eric Weddle, who was part of the crowd not in scrimmage jokingly scooped up the pigskin and ran it back for his own celebratory touchdown.

While the bad sounds really bad, there was in fact winners.

• Chris Matthews - My first star of day 3 practice. The O-line went back-to-back false starts, and he let it be known how upset he was. A series later Joe connects a ten yard pass to the sideline where Matthews elevated his already tall frame, stealing the ball from the air. Next series Matthews cleans up house with a great crossing route, and nobody could have stopped him on his way to the house. The final catch before series end was in the middle, with a defender draped on him. Matthews finished the reception and hung on. The big fella looked good.
• Sheldon Price - Another young corner landing on the winners list always feels good. Price managed to intercept Mallett early in scrimmage, and throughout the day batted two more balls.
• Kamalei Correa - One of the first plays in scrimmage was the rookie dropping back into coverage and snagging a pick off Joe. I had it as play of the day, he could have taken it all the way back with an extra block. As I’ve preached the rookie shows promise both at inside and outside. He’ll be a versatile tool for Dean Pees.

A lot of highlights to run through today:

• K. Correa pick on J. Flacco - POTD*
• S. Price pick on R. Mallett
• M. Campanaro sweep goes for ten yards
• K. Aiken sideline diving catch
• C. Matthews touchdown
• C. Matthews elevating sideline catch
• J. Urschel/ R. Jensen duo pancake block L. Guy
• K. Reynolds block Z. Smith, opens full lane for T. West
• Defense goes B2B sacks, coverage sack then blitz sack
• M. Elam would have blown up N. Boyle if full contact was a thing. Boyle caught the pass and Matt just showed he would not have secured the ball. Popped his pads as Dean Pees wanted
• C. Matthews catch-in-traffic
• T. West jukes S. Price hard, opens lane for 10 yards
• PA pass leaves T. West laughably open