Miles
Well-known member
- Mar 18, 2019
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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- In the first six days of practice, the offense seemed to be out of sync.
Sometimes, a frenetic pass rush discombobulated the offense. At others -- particularly in Monday's practice -- the wounds were self-inflicted; that session was marred by drops and bad routes.
Thursday's practice was not perfect for the offense. But with an emphasis on controlled, short-to-intermediate passes to running backs and tight ends and quick slants to the wide receivers, the offense finally got into a rhythm it rarely located during the first week of training camp.
At one point, Flacco targeted running backs or tight ends on five consecutive plays. That paid dividends.
"We eliminated some of the drops we were having the other day," tight end Austin Fort said. "[We're] just being crisp, man. Getting in and out of the huddle, getting lined up and kind of knowing where we're going, taking those mental errors out of it was probably the biggest thing."
The offense was also resilient. One example came during a period that saw a bad snap and a dropped Joe Flacco attempt to Brendan Langley.
Facing third-and-8 at its 38-yard line, Flacco fired a perfect strike to Courtland Sutton for a 17-yard gain. Flacco began his throwing motion a split-second before Sutton cut toward the sideline, and the pass arrived in perfect time to move the chains.
Flacco and Fort also collaborated on a 50-yard touchdown that saw Flacco execute a perfect play-action fake before hitting Fort, who had worked past Josey Jewell 17 yards downfield outside the left numbers. Fort rambled the rest of the way for the score.
"I think we're getting better technically, too," Fort said.
Another area that saw the offense flourish was in the red zone, both in seven-on-seven and team periods.
The No. 2 offense fared well in a red-zone period late in practice, with touchdowns on back-to-back snaps. On the first, from the 15-yard line, Hogan dumped off to Fort in the right flat, and he navigated through the defense, using a downfield block from offensive tackle Elijah Wilkinson on cornerback De'Vante Bausby to reach the goal line.
On the next play, Hogan hit rookie wide receiver Trinity Benson on a fade route in the back right corner of the end zone for a 10-yard score.
"I thought we did a great job," tight end Troy Fumagalli said. "There's a lot of different scenarios today, and I thought we did a good job executing. The red zone was better, things like that. It's stuff that takes time, but we're headed in the right direction."