I'm gonna preface this with the fact that I prefaced my night with a couple 22 oz'ers of Steel Reserve (malt liquor/swill/fermented urine, for the uninitiated) with my friend who brought me to training camp. We got there about 7:10, and took in the rest of the remaining practice, which only lasted until about 8:15/8:20. I feel the need to state this because my observations and recollections may be spotty, scattered, and brief at times, but I will do my best to recall them as accurately as possible. I also feel it necessary to state that, although I am passionate about the Bills, I don't necessarily understand the intricacies of the X's and O's involved in everything.
When I got there, they were in the thick of their 11-on-11 drills. Immediately, I saw EJ overthrow a receiver by about 3 yards on a sideline toss about 20 yards downfield. Immediately, my intoxicated mind presumed this would be a depressing night. Lewis and Tuel swapped in, with Tuel seemingly taking more 2nd team reps than Lewis. Neither Lewis nor Tuel looked outwardly spectacular. Tuel was at least decisive in his decisions, albeit not as accurate. Lewis seemed to stare down receivers and was pretty inconsistent with his throws.
All that being said, back to our starting QB, he didn't look nearly as bad as he was made to sound. Maybe he just had a better night than before. You may see a disproportionate amount of incompletions, but the receivers weren't spectacular tonight, which perhaps can be attributed to the incredibly wet conditions of the field. He did hit a couple/few nice passes throughout which drew applause from the crowd. One of them was a diving catch along the sideline from Mike Williams, who kinda laid out for a very nice catch. Manuel did not seem to progress through his reads as well as I had hoped, but did seem to improve as practice went on. Or maybe I just completely imagined that because I really wanted to believe that he was and that at that point I was still significantly inebriated. Who knows.
Defensively, in regards, to the 11-on-11's, the defense was stout and putting a decent amount of pressure on the QBs, and the DBs were really solid all around.
After that, they moved on to the 2-minute drill. Manuel was decisive and quick, though not particularly accurate or spectacular. His drive ended with an incredibly athletic interception by Ron Brooks along the sideline who came off his man (not the intended receiver, but was in the area), which drew verbal discontent from a large man next to me, who had completely decided at that moment apparently that EJ was not the answer, and proceeded to exit with what looked like his mom. I was confused. Tuel....ummm. I can't remember what Tuel did. I'm pretty sure he wasn't great, but I don't remember him doing anything too terrible. Oh wait, I do remember. And this has to do with Lewis as well. I know Hughes and Mario were in for at least part of the time against Tuel and Lewis's OL's. During the 2-minute drill, the OL held off the defense as well as a wet paper towel. Tuel, and Lewis in particular, never had a chance to even make a play in the 2 minute drill, as the defense was constantly in the QB's face within approx. 2-3 seconds. I remember specifically Hughes blowing by Cyrus on one specific play with a particularly lackluster move to the inside. It was thoroughly embarrassing. At the end of Lewis's 2MD, with 3 seconds left and the clock running, Lewis heaved a deep ball up, and the Bills' resident scapegoat got out underneath the pass near the endzone and extended far to reel it in, take a significant hit, and held on to the ball for a very nice catch. Unfortunately, he wound up about 5 yards shy of the endzone as time expired. Lewis, who looked pretty inaccurate and indecisive tonight, still easily has the best deep ball of the QBs. He makes it look very easy when he heaves them up and is dangerously accurate.
The last thing I saw was them doing some sort of endzone drill which involved no OL/DL, and, assuming I was not seeing doubles at that point, consisted of 6 on 6. Tuel and Lewis, particularly the latter, didn't look great on these. EJ, on the other hand, was very decisive and quick and consistently threaded short passes into traffic which his receivers gobbled up for would-be touchdowns.
Side note, one of the bonuses I was hoping to see was the prodigy, Samuel Watkins, in action. He was conspicuously missing from action the entire night (at least from 7 pm to 8:30 pm), instead standing on the sideline, holding his helmet and watching the action.
Also, I'm not sure whether to be happy about how stout the DL looked tonight or how terrible the OL was. Guess it may be a mix of the two. I suppose one could expect a defensive shellacking against a patchwork, trial-and-error offensive line.
Ok. That's it. I'm gonna drink some water, take some ibuprofen, and go to bed. That sounds like a plan. Hope you enjoyed the read!