2005-08-01

Today's notes from yesterday's practice

Tempers flared in practice between a tightend and a defensive end. With the first day of full pads came an altercation between third year defensive lineman Dewayne White, and . . . well, I'm not sure who White fought with. It depends on which newspaper you read.

The St. Pete Times reports that White scuffled with Anthony Becht.

"One of our guys got into a little scuffle," Becht said. "I kind of hesitated, because I wanted to see how the team reacted offensively. You've just got to have somebody out there. I'm not trying to fight anybody. I talked to the guys after everything was cool. But you've got to get the guys knowing that everybody is going to get their back - offensively. It'll rub off on some guys. Not to cause any fights, but you've got to have each other's backs throughout the season, and that's important."

That's all well and good, and it's nice to see Becht bringing some attitude to the offense, except according to the Tampa Tribune it was rookie Alex Smith, NOT Becht, who instigated the fight.

"Just two guys going at it," said Smith, a third-round draft choice out of Stanford. "I don't think it was a surprise to anyone. Guys were there to break it up, and everyone went about their business. It felt real good to be able to go out there today and hit somebody."

So to recap, the St. Pete Times reports that Becht was in the fight, while the Tampa Tribune claims Smith was the instigator in this altercation. It looks like we'll have to go to the Orlando Sentinel for the tiebraker.

The first day in full pads brought some cool collisions, fancy cuts and a moment of chippiness. Third-year DE Dwayne White and rookie TE Alex Smith were the combatants in the ceremonial first scrap of the season. It wasn't much, but it didn't need to be to get the fans excited.

So there you go, the St. Pete Times was wrong and the Tampa Tribune was right.

In other news the kicking game looked horrendous yesterday as both Matt Bryant and Todd France missed far too many kicks. The first two practices both had been perfect from 40 yards, but today Gruden made their jobs more difficult.

Adding a twist to practice, Gruden simulated a change of possesion and last second kick from the 47 yard line. This new twist, which Gruden calls "sudden change", is intended to see how kickers can respond to pressure. It didn't go well as Bryant missed from 47 yards.

"What do you think I think? It wasn't very good,'' said Gruden, who has endured two seasons of the worst kicking efficiency (.620) in the NFL. "It's an area we've obviously got to do better than that. We took a step back today. It's been a positive for us to this point, but today just shows you we've got a lot of work to do.''

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