2021 Training Camp and Pre-season News and Chatter

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[Stripes]

I’m encouraged by the defense tearing it up. The offense has plenty of talent and will be fine. The defense is what is most likely to make or break a winning season.

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54 minutes ago, Stripes said:

I’m encouraged by the defense tearing it up. The offense has plenty of talent and will be fine. The defense is what is most likely to make or break a winning season.

YUP

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More details on defense’s good day here:

 

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Lap’s in the trenches wrap-up from yesterday‘s practice:

 

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So...the defense showing out stuff. Two pieces to read on it I recommend. First is Jay Morrison's piece on the attitude that Mike Hilton has brought from Pittsburgh:

https://theathletic.com/2748292/2021/08/02/no-loafing-around-mike-hilton-brings-cash-collection-system-from-steelers-to-bengals-secondary/

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Other than “soft,” there might not be a worse word you can attach to a football player, particularly one who plays defense, than “loaf.”

That’s why cornerback Mike Hilton is trying to eradicate the word from the lexicon of the Bengals secondary one fine at a time.  His former Stealers teammate Joe Haden started the loaf chart in Pittsburgh, and players who would show up on film giving less than full effort were fined by their teammates. Hilton brought it to Cincinnati after signing a four-year, $24 million free-agent deal with the Bengals in March.\

Normally, anything that involves taking money out of a man’s pocket is met with resistance, but not so with the loaf chart. It’s a system of accountability that the players and coaches have fully embraced.

“I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t think of that one,” safeties coach Robert Livingston said.

“It’s like anything else,” defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said. “Peer pressure, right? It’s in black and white in front of you. It’s just like, I played in a golf tournament this past summer, and they posted the damn scores. Big. First round was not good. Second round was better. But when you see your name up there, and it implies something in a negative fashion, that really gets the guys to drill down to what their assignments are.”

So what constitutes a loaf?

“When you’re not busting your ass to the football,” Anarumo said. “If you see a guy with what we call upper-body violence, they’re running with their arms as fast as they can to the ball, that’s a good indicator. If there’s no change of speed. So if you go from sprint to a jog back to a sprint, that’s a loaf. You should be on fire to the ball every snap.”

The loaf chart doesn’t just track loafs. It’s wrong steps, dropped interceptions, blown assignments and other mental errors, all of which result in a fine. Haden brought the system to Pittsburgh when he signed a free-agent deal with the Stealers in 2017, the same year Hilton joined the team as an undrafted free agent.

Hilton loved the idea then, and he loves it now. So do his new teammates. It’s all about holding his teammates, and himself, to a higher standard. “When I came over, I told myself, I want to hold this group accountable,” Hilton said. “I have to earn my stripes, though. I have to show that I’m a leader on the field, and I feel like this is the first step. “It’s things that really show what we’re about,” Hilton added. “As a defense, the secondary, you want to make sure your loafs and everything are as minimal as possible. Guys have invested in it, and I feel like it’s been working well for us.”

The loaf chart is a player-driven, player-policed system. The only reason the coaches are even aware of it is that it tends to be a topic of conversation in the film room.

“You better believe they’ll bring it up when they see it,” cornerbacks coach Steve Jackson said. “We’ll be watching film, and someone will say, ‘I don’t know. Was that a loaf?’ It’s good for us as coaches whenever they tell each other in the room that guys are not running to the ball or doing something that makes them not accountable to the other guys in there.”

Seeing is subpoenaing. “When it’s visual like that, it’s like anything,” Livingston said. “(Stealers coach Mike Tomlin) used to talk about how he would report the news. He says, ‘I’m not critiquing; I’m just reporting the news.’ We start with this is the loafs, this is what it is, everybody agrees, and we go.”

The agreement piece is another part of the bonding and the accountability built by the loaf chart. Hilton has taken ownership of the system, having brought it from Pittsburgh, but Jessie Bates came up with the idea to make it a more of democracy than a monarchy.\

“I brought up the conversation that there should be a different guy evaluating it every day,” Bates said. “So hopefully we can raise that standard and we all have that same kind of mindset of what a loaf is or what a missed assignment is. I think that will play very key. Mike Hilton came from a top-three defense, and that’s something they did over there, so I always try to translate something into getting better as a team.”

From 2016 to 2020, the Bengals defense ranked last in the league in forced fumbles with 39, seven behind the next-lowest team, the Chargers. And the Bengals were buried in the basement in fumble recoveries with 22, an amazing 13 behind No. 31 Miami.

Running to the ball doesn’t just look good on film; it produces results. And whether it’s cause and effect or just coincidental circumstance, there have been a lot of balls on the ground through the first week of training camp, and most of them have been scooped and taken in the other direction.

Monday alone there were two, with Bates ripping the ball free from Ja’Marr Chase and Jalen Davis raking one free from Jacques Patrick. Davis recovered both fumbles. The defense put four balls on the ground, by Bates’ count, during Wednesday’s first practice of camp.

“It’s contagious,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “Once one guy gets it, everybody feeds off that. We’ve seen that from our defense. Man, they’re hunting the ball and they’re doing a great job.” The defense has been feeling it the past few practices, getting more and more vocal about its wins with each practice period. The entire group erupted Monday when linebacker Germaine Pratt picked off a Joe Burrow pass — the quarterback’s first of camp, which puts him in the running for another competition among the defensive players.

Every player put in a flat amount at the start of camp, and the one who has the most interceptions at the end wins it all.

But that’s not the case with the fines collected from the loaf chart. No one player walks away with all that cash, which Hilton said could get into the $2,500 to $3,000 range during his time in Pittsburgh. Instead, at the end of camp, all the safeties and cornerbacks will take the money collected and go out as a group for a fun night out and a nice dinner.

“It’s not about policing and collecting fines,” Jackson said. “Those guys have a lot of pride and a standard that they want. They want everyone in the room to compete at that standard. And they just hold each other accountable so that nobody forgets.”

 

 

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The second is Dehner's piece setting the table as pads come on today:

https://theathletic.com/2748368/2021/08/02/i-expect-all-these-guys-to-be-frustrated-the-good-bad-and-why-behind-bengals-early-offensive-struggles/

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During the latest day when seemingly nothing could go right for Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense, a pass in 11-on-11 floated into traffic, knocked away from Tyler Boyd by safety Vonn Bell.

Like many on this day — and throughout camp, really — the play never stood much of a chance of being explosive. The tension built as Burrow dropped back on the next play looking for redemption and some kind of breakthrough.

As he scanned the defense, he went through his progression to see no lanes, no opening, nobody breaking free. In an environment where he can’t actually be sacked, this skill group that everyone spent all offseason raving about should thrive. Instead, Burrow scrambled to his right and, as nothing broke open even when he bought more and more time, floated toward the sideline and gave a frustrated underhand flip of the ball out of bounds.

He paced back to where his coaches and teammates stood behind the drill with his helmet off, striding in anger.

This was just practice, the fifth of camp, and the Bengals had yet to put on full pads. Both sides are still doing installation work. The normal options of the playbook are off-limits. Nobody should ring any alarms over a bad day, or a few bad days.

But Burrow’s body language clearly said he was frustrated.

He wants to make plays. He wants to start turning months of rehab into scores of highlights. He wants to hit a No. 9-to-No. 1 pass to kick-start this camp. Instead, the oft-maligned and rebooted Bengals defense has been kicking his butt. And it was about to get worse.

Linebacker Logan Wilson sprinted through as a free runner four plays later, and Burrow angrily chucked the ball into the ground of what would have been a sack.

Two plays later, Khalid Kareem blew up one end of a throwback screen only for Jalen Davis to be standing next to Trayveon Williams, catching it 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Now, this swaggering defense was talking as much trash as at any moment of a camp it has dominated to this point. It wasn’t done getting worse.

Burrow and the first group returned for one final run of 11-on-11, still searching for a touch of redemption to end a bad day on a good note and come back Tuesday for the first practice in pads feeling good about themselves.

Burrow dropped, looked and threw an aggressive strike over the middle. It was picked off. First time in camp. Germaine Pratt.

The linebacker sprinted the other way as the defense howled to demoralize the offensive group, and Tee Higgins jumped on Pratt from behind to surprisingly tackle him. For a minute, Riley Reiff was on the group getting up with a slight hobble, and you had the exclamation point for 24 more hours of clear bragging rights.

No mas.

After practice, head coach Zac Taylor excused the defense but hung with a gathered offense to relay a new message.

“They should be fired up,” Taylor said. “You saw the energy and momentum of the defense today. We should be fired up about that because they gained the momentum and kept it up through the entirety of practice … The biggest thing is, learn from what’s going on right here because it’s going to serve us well when the season starts here in a few weeks.”

Burrow bristled and could clearly use the jolt of a few connections downfield. He overthrew Higgins on a double move that appeared to contain a tug on the 85 of his jersey coming out of the break that played a role. Chidobe Awuzie knocked away the latest attempt to hit a bomb to Ja’Marr Chase. Sam Hubbard tipped a pass. Mike Hilton and Eli Apple knocked down passes. Higgins had a drop across the middle.

Perhaps, rust and comfort are playing a role. It’s also a combination of not being able to audible into other plays during a period designed for installation, not free playmaking. It also looks like Burrow’s bristling to where the defense might be poking a bear that could return the favor tenfold in the near future. But for this moment, he’s not hiding his disenchantment.

“He’s the leader of the unit,” Taylor said. “So it’s frustrating for all of us when we are not having the success we anticipated having. I expect all these guys to be frustrated today.”

The intensity and attitude of the defense must co-star in this storyline, though. It’s all part of the yin and yang of camp for a head coach. For nearly every play that succeeds or fails, there is a success or failure to understand on the same team.

The play by Pratt was a fantastic reaction and read of the play by a linebacker the Bengals badly need to do those things more often. The coverage of all the corners shows up every day. They stick to receivers and play the ball well in the air. Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell get their hands on the ball every practice. Trey Hendrickson, Hubbard and the collection of young edges are a real nuisance.

A portfolio of defenders built with the attitude of competitive practices and relentlessness in every setting has shown up in the early days. No loafs allowed and no mercy given. There’s a real reason to celebrate this development. If the attitude of that side of the ball alone is taken into consideration, the Bengals might have found something.

Beyond the pick, twice the defense stripped a receiver in a seven-on-seven drill for a fumble recovery. Jalen Davis stripped running back Jacques Patrick, and Bates notably yanked the ball away from Chase.

“It’s a fine line there because we forced 13 fumbles on defense last year and our offense is hell-bent on changing that narrative, and it’s contagious,” Taylor said. “One guy gets it, everybody feeds off that. We’ve seen that from our defense. They hunt the ball and do a great job. Conversely, there’s some lackadaisical snaps of guys turning upfield, the ball is getting punched out, they are not paying attention. Teaching moment for a young player, teaching moment for the entire unit. Just because it’s not 11-on-11 doesn’t mean you are not going to get hit.”

The real hitting starts Tuesday with the first day in pads. The offensive players will look to change the feel of camp, and do they ever need it. All eyes will shift to the trenches and the running game in the next phase, but whatever it takes to wash away the taste of the past few days will be welcomed.

 

 

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This was a good listen this AM (about 20 minutes)—- lap had some praise for cam sample and Shelvin 

 

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Hmmmmm