Nothing like an overcast, humid August afternoon in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Come to think of it, there has been nothing like a Green Bay Packers team taking part in a joint practice away from Lombardi Avenue but Head Coach Matt LaFleur brought his squad down to the Queen City for a spirited, two hour workout against the Cincinnati Bengals who won an AFC title two years ago and played for another last season under LaFleur’s former LA Rams fellow assistant Zach Taylor.
Matt LaFleur meets reporters before Wednesday’s practice.
The Packers have hosted Houston Texans, New York Jets and New Orleans Saints over the past few years but with the Pre-Season opener coming against the Bengals at Paycor Stadium Friday night, LaFleur convinced the organization to load up his young team and take the training camp show on the road. LaFleur really believes in the value of joint practices, especially against a talented team, and on getting his team away from home for a little summer time bonding.
The EA Sports Madden Cruiser in town.
Just across Central Avenue (where a curious looking bus was parked Wednesday morning, the legend of John Madden should never be far away from anything NFL related), the Bengals have two large turf fields and a third, smaller one, all surrounded by fans catching the action. Everyone just missed a real gully washer of a downpour an hour before the teams took the field but even under heavy cloud cover, the temperature was a sticky 80 + degrees.
LaFleur and Taylor worked out the practice structure which included team drills and fundamentals with each club on their own field. They then gathered by offense and defense for some 7 on 7 work (something LaFleur never does at practice, calling it unrealistic football) before 11 on 11 team periods. There were two unscripted periods involving a move the ball set and of course the two minute drill. The best of the 7 on 7 work was delivered by Alex McGough who hit Malik Heath in stride for a sideline scoring bomb.
The first team offensive line against the Bengal starters had Zach Tom at right tackle again. David Bakhtiari padded up and was on the left side with Elgton Jenkins, Josh Myers and Jon Runyan on the interior. One formation hard not to notice had free agent fullback Henry Pearson from Appalachian State lining up early with the ones in 21 personnel. He even made one of the most acrobatic grabs of the day, twisting around for the ball on a wheel route.
In Red Zone work, Jordan Love went to work and experienced the good, the OK and the ugly. The good was a perfect crisscross route between Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson in the end zone, allowing Watson’s speed to cross the field and away from the defender. The ball led Watson nicely to the corner of the end zone for a score. The OK was Love just missing Doubs on a high, back shoulder try for 6. The ugly had Love check out of a run call to throw a quick bubble screen out left for Doubs but Mike Hilton read it perfectly and came up with an interception.
Doubs would come back later and beat DJ Turner III deep on another fine deep sideline ball from Love.
In the final move the ball session, the Packers ran a screen with Jenkins out front. He carried out his punishing block a bit too well and a Bengal took exception and a scuffle ensued. It turned into a pretty large melee with players jumping in or trying to pull others out. It took a couple of minutes to restore order as LaFleur made sure to keep Love out of the fray. Runyan and Doubs unfortunately got pulled from underneath a pileup. Cooler heads prevailed but only for a while. Again, Jenkins took exception with extracurricular activity and took a swing at defensive tackle DJ Reader. LaFleur was incensed this time and pulled Jenkins from the drill and sent him to the showers early, escorted off the field by Packer personnel, very out of character for the usually mild mannered Pro Bowl guard.
Defenses dominated the two minute drills. Neither offense got into scoring position although Love got the Pack close enough for Anders Carlson to try what appeared to be a 58 yard boot for the win which came up just short. Carlson did go three for three in his one special teams period set.
When the two hour practice came to a close, both sides huddled up and then mingled to catch up.
Love met up with reporters to talk about his day, the offense and the unexpected wrestling matches.
I’ll admit, most of my attention was on Field 2 where the Packer offense went against the Cincinnati defense. Field 1 had the Packer D taking on the Bengal offense quarterbacked by Trevor Siemian and Jake Browning and from all accounts, the Green Bay unit made life very difficult for the QB’s and the secondary matched up well with Cincinnati’s outstanding receiving corps of Ja’Mar Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd.
Rashan Gary also dressed but didn’t take part in team work, he still did an inordinate amount of running and conditioning. Grant Dubose also worked on the side in uniform. The only injured players held out were Eric Stokes, Innis Gaines, Jake Hanson and Lew Nichols.
The team is back on it’s own for a quiet Thursday featuring film review of today’s practice and a walk through before the Packers and Bengals get reacquainted again Friday night at Paycor Stadium.
