The last practice before heading up to Indianapolis was brief for the Panthers. With joint practices ahead on Thursday and Friday with the Colts, the players only wore helmets, jerseys, and shorts on this 80° morning in Spartanburg. LB Denzel Perryman, CB A.J. Bouye, WR Keith Kirkwood were in red jerseys riding bicycles as they missed practice. OL Dennis Daley was excused from his 2nd practice in a row to deal with a family-related issue. C Matt Paradis was back but in a green jersey. LT Cam Erving was also limited in practice as he recovers from a shoulder injury.
11 on 11 Situational Football
With practice only being 90 minutes long, the team periods focused solely on two-minute offense and time management situations. Here are the highlighted plays:
S Jeremy Chinn got an early INT on a pass from QB Sam Darnold, intended for TE Dan Arnold.
QB Will Grier threw a pass right into the hands of RB Spencer Brown, who bobbled it. Chinn was right there and almost had his 2nd pick of the day.
Darnold threw three consecutive passes to WRs D.J. Moore, Robby Anderson, and WR Terrace Marshall Jr. to set up a 45-yard field goal conversion by K Joey Slye to end the half.
Grier threw two consecutive passes to WR Brandon Zylstra. The first was a 45-yard bomb downfield. The 2nd was about 20 yards as he dragged both feet for the completion.
CB Stanley Thomas-Oliver made a huge pass deflection while covering WR Omar Bayless.
Rush Review
Overall it was good to see Coach Rhule put heavy emphasis on different types of critical game-time situations. Without pads on the offensive line struggled to block the defensive front seven. Had it been real-time, there would have been six to eight sacks easily. It’s going to be interesting to see how the joint practices will go with the Indianapolis Colts this coming Thursday and Friday.