Bye Week Practice Notes

--  One guy ruined all the fun for the offense.  It was never the same guy, but it was always an important person that led to a failure in execution.  The team is most consistent at being inconsistent, "We're either really good or really bad." Shannon would like a little more in-between. -- "We gotta do a better job to motivate our guys, and that's the bottom line."  Shannon Dawson thanked the Lord that his team's learning lesson was on a win.  He didn't see an edge from his players and Stoops didn't see the effort.  They didn't have the mentality needed to win necessary one-on-one battles. --  Boom called last week "one of the longest weeks of my life."  He didn't elaborate on his personal issues, but he was thankful for the support from his teammates.  He wished that he could've been out there last Saturday - it killed him - but he should be ready and good to go for Auburn. He said all of the right things and was a good teammate on Saturday.  Hopefully it's the last we'll hear of Boom's melodrama. --  Stoops has never seen anything like C.J. Johnson's past two performances.  He's been around plenty of elite defensive linemen, but nothing can stack up to the 30 tackles from C.J. in the last two games.  He wasn't trying to say that C.J. is in that same next-level talent group, but he is saying that it takes a special person to do what he's done.  He isn't simply cleaning up the trash or making up for another person's poor performance, he's making amazing plays. --  Dorian Baker was a stone cold killer.  He had the right mentality, the right body language; it was pretty much all that Shannon needed to see on the sideline to know that his guys had enough to comeback and get the win. On a side note, Patrick Towles talked about Dorian's greatest catches.  Now, he makes the tough stuff look routine, but when Dorian first arrived he made the greatest catch Patrick has ever seen.  During 7-on-7, Dorian caught a post route over pretty much the entire defense.  It's something Patrick won't forget anytime soon. --  Shannon Dawson is an optimist when it comes to examining the quarterback.  While many want to look at the bad, Shannon cannot let the bad linger when analyzing the QB.  Some incompletions were because Patrick was pressured and needed to throw it away.  He blames his impatience for some of the bad play-calling early on.  Patrick's to blame for a few bad throws, but he also made some great ones, like the fade to win the game and the running throw to Blake Bone, "I haven't been around too many people that can make that throw. I couldn't tell you about all of the things Stoops said in his defense of Towles, but the stern words sent a chill down my spine.