WESTFIELD, Ind. — Veteran Panthers offensive tackle Cameron Erving told Panthers.com’s Darin Gantt on Thursday that his team “didn’t match (the Colts’) energy today overall,” after the day’s practice. That was apparent in the Colts popping highlight-reel plays all over the field and winning the physical battle on Thursday, as linebacker Bobby Okereke said.
But Erving also offered a promise — “We’re going to come out with more intensity tomorrow.”
The Panthers definitely brought more intensity to Friday’s practice at Grand Park, which featured a handful of legitimate skirmishes and quite a bit more trash talking, especially from Carolina’s defense.
Mostly, though, Friday’s practice was physical with a capital P. After a particularly heated scuffle, running back Jonathan Taylor burst to the second level and cracked helmets with Panthers safety Sam Franklin, upping the ante on the energy and physicality of the day’s work.
“JT being JT,” smiled running back Nyheim Hines when asked about Taylor’s powerful run.
The competitive, physical work we saw Friday is what Reich wanted to get out of these joint practices with the Panthers.
“It was almost like it was gameday,” safety Julian Blackmon said. “Guys were ready mentally, physically. Everybody was ready to go and that’s what we expect.”
Jacob Eason will start Sunday’s preseason curtain-lifter against the Panthers and will play about a quarter and a half depending on the flow of the game, Reich said. Ehlinger will take over in the second quarter; when the Colts play the Minnesota Vikings on Aug. 21, those roles will be reversed with Ehlinger starting.
Reich said he wants to see “more of the same” from Eason and Ehlinger, who’ve stacked some good practices over the last few weeks in Westfield.
“I feel like they’ve been getting better,” Reich said. “It’s not been perfect but move the sticks, make the play in situational football that we need to make to extend the drive, to finish the drive, and then make good decisions. Be a good decision maker. We think we have a good football team, right, so if one of those guys is our starting quarterback Week 1 they don’t have to be a superstar. We want to see them go out and play good football, trust the teammates around them, trust the running game, make the plays in the play-action game and then on third down and red zone, where you gotta be right, be right.”
Reich added a “fair amount” of starters on both sides of the ball will not play Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium, although he didn’t have specifics of who would and would not sit out yet.
Reich hosted former Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson the last two days, with Pederson rocking a blue Colts shirt and taking in the joint practices with the Panthers.
