Razors article...

[timmyboy]

The offense scored a bit of revenge from the spring game today, going on a streak of about 15 minutes where the passes crisply hit their marks and running backs broke free for first downs.As Carlton Jackson and Sean Hakes moved the ball, the offense’s sidelines looked like a team counting down the seconds before being handed the MAC Championship.Of course, the defensive captain (and craziest man on the field), John Mackey, didn’t like that. He fired up the defense, which began to blitz, and the defense regained its dominance for the remainder of the fourth-to-last spring practice.Notes:Dennis Kennedy continues to look really good. He doesn’t possess LaDanian Tomlinson’s speed, Jerome Bettis’ force or Barry Sanders’ vision, but he does each of those things pretty well.Also notching some impressive runs were Joe McDaniel and Joe Tuzze. Both are superb blockers, but you’re not handing the ball to either on first-and-10. That brings me to my next point…The run blocking has really improved. The holes are wide up the middle and running backs have even more space to the outside. Kennedy’s longest run was off tackle left. Coach J.D. Brookhart said run blocking has been the focus so far in spring. It shows.The downside to that is the pass blocking is subpar, and even inoperable at times. “Pass protection in general (is struggling),” Brookhart said. Defensive highlights include back-to-back pops on the ball carrier by Al-Teric Balaam and Yamari Dixon. Neither of these guys have a problem firing themselves like a rocket right at your helmet. Those consecutive hits swayed the celebration back to the defense’s sideline.It’s sort of a shame the quarterbacks are protected by red jerseys. I really want to see the them run more in the open field. It’s one thing to slide through a hole in the line and hear the whistles blow. It’s another to run the option, knowing a linebacker wants to stick his helmet into your jaw.Speaking of the option, the Zips ran a nifty reverse option today. It didn’t really go anywhere, however, because the defense did not overpursue.From what i was told from a few friends who play for Akron, they felt that C. Jackson was a completely different player from what he has been in any other spring practice or in the spring game. They said he stepped up and took charge of the offense, and ran things like he was a veteran. Glad to see that our QB's are starting to come around, now if we could only work on our pass blocked and Kicking game, we will be all set.