A Lighter Mood In The Building
Posted by Matt Terl on October 21, 2009 – 2:53 pm
If there was one thing that was clear during open locker room and the first portion of practice today, it’s that the players on the team are actually loose and ready to go. The oppressive tension and electricity that characterized Monday were gone, and … honestly, the mood around here hasn’t seemed this pleasant in more than a month.
“Its hopeful,” Clinton Portis told the assembled media. “Everybody in the locker room is still showing hope. We have a tough opponent coming in this week, and we know they coming in here ready to win. We have to find a way to fight. We’re going to be on prime time television Monday night. We haven’t done good really this season; here is the time to turn it around.”
Jason Campbell echoed the sentiment. “Honestly,” he said, “today you would have thought we were 4-2 the way we walked out the door, or 8-8 after practice this morning. I don’t know what it is but guys have found that new energy, and a new relief and a new relaxation – even talking to some of the coaches. Right now, for us there is nothing to lose. You’ve got to relax and just play the game and coach the game the way you want to, and just go out there and have some fun. That’s the only way you’re going to enjoy this. You can’t go out there and play the game frustrated and worry about trying to be perfect every time. That forces you to think too much and not play up to your abilities. What we have to do is get better at having fun, not worry about the mistakes, not worry about the ‘boos’, not worry about any of those things, but just playing football.”
Everyone I talked to seemed cautiously confident in the move to Sherman Lewis as playcaller as well, saying that he seemed much more like an authoritative coach than he originally came across. “He’s got this big ring,” one player said, “that carries a lot of weight.”
And Portis did his best to downplay the suggestion that Lewis wouldn’t be familiar enough with the scheme to call running plays. “You ether run a gut, counter, stretch, toss, dive or draw,” Portis said. “Those are the only runs in football. For him to be an offensive coordinator for as long as he has, he probably knows that as well. So I don’t think that there will be a problem with him calling running plays.”
In fact, Clinton Portis was 100% onboard the Sherman Lewis Optimism Express. “I am confident that it is going to work,” he said. “Its not like we are learning a new system, we just have to go out there and execute.”
Tags: Clinton Portis, ClintonPortis, Jason Campbell, JasonCampbell
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