St. Brown vs. Sheppard: St. Brown and defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard are as competitive a player and coach as you’ll see in a practice setting. Sheppard is always chirping and trying to rile his defenders up. St. Brown is never one to back down from a challenge. The two went back and forth a couple times Monday night with St. Brown being sure Sheppard was the first to know when he made a catch. Same thing when Sheppard’s defense made a play on St. Brown. That healthy competitive banter seemed to fuel both guys Monday night.
Playing referee: Head coach Dan Campbell talked Sunday about never wanting to relinquish control of the red flag, which the NFL is allowing head coaches to do this season if they want to give the duty of tossing the challenge flag to an assistant.
“Look, the buck stops with me anyway. I’m answering the questions, so why would I give it to somebody else for me to answer for somebody else?” Campbell said. “It all comes to me anyway. And so yeah, that’s it.”
Campbell added a yellow flag to his repertoire Monday as he played lead official calling out penalties on both sides when he spotted them.
Long drive: The best drive of the day for the first-team offense was late in the scrimmage when quarterback Jared Goff led a 14-play drive from the 29-yard line down to about the six-yard line. The offense picked up a couple third and longs on catches by wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa and running back Jahmyr Gibbs but eventually had to settle for a short field goal after stalling inside the 10-yard line.