Aug 5, 2016 3 min read

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Mike Tomlin likes the night practice at Latrobe Memorial Stadium each year because of the energy it brings to practice after a week or more of the doldrums of Saint Vincent College.

This year was no different, especially the second time through for the guys in backs on backers.

Fullback Roosevelt Nix flashed early, as he typically does, stoning Lawrence Timmons on back-to-back opportunities.

That prompted Tomlin to say after the first rep, “Get him again Rosie. We’re going to use Rosie like a weapon.”

Anthony Chickillo blew past Xavier Grimble on his first attempt, causing Tomlin to ask for a reload on that pairing as well and Grimble acquitted himself well against Chickillo, standing him up.

“That’s it X,” Tomlin yelled. “You can’t warm up to this. You’ve got to be ready the first time.”

From there, it became the Tyler Matakevich show.

Matakevich, the undersized inside linebacker from Temple, proved to be too much for anyone to handle in this one-on-one blitz drill. First he blew past Cameron Stingily twice like he was standing still. Later, when facing Daryl Richardson, who had schooled him in one-on-one passing drills Thursday, Tomlin told Matakevich, “OK, Dirty Red. Remember what he did to you yesterday. Here’s your chance to get even.”

Get even he did as he put a ridiculous spin move on Richardson that had the running back grasping at air. Then, he faked the spin the next time in and simply did a little swim move around Richardson, who had looked solid in this drill when the Steelers did it last Sunday.

At the end of the drill, Tomlin called for Matakevich to go up against Nix.

Matakevich easily did a little swim move past Nix the first time, causing oohs and ahs from his teammates. On his second attempt, he spun inside on Nix, getting to the quarterback.

“Dirty Red, men, Dirty Red,” Tomlin yelled as the group moved on to the next drill.

Jarvis Jones also showed off a nice little inside move tonight, going hard outside before using a hump move to break inside. He used it several times to get to the quarterback.

• I stood behind the defense tonight in seven shots and heard six different guys coaching up young nickel safety Sean Davis, telling him what to do. Of course, the loudest voice was defensive backs coach Carnell Lake, but Mike Mitchell, who did not participate in that drill also was very vocal helping the rookie.

Mitchell, by the way, was replaced by Shamarko Thomas.

• I get what Tomlin is saying about using Nix as a weapon this year. He ran a wheel route down the sideline and caught a touchdown pass from Dustin Vaughan on which the fullback basically outran the defense.

It was second-team defenders, but you don’t typically see fullbacks with the hands and speed of Nix, let alone ones who were college nose tackles.

• Before leaving briefly after having his foot stepped on, Landry Jones threw a perfect pass down the seam to Sammie Coates.

He threw the ball before Coates had broken open, putting just the right touch on the pass.

Jones has looked much, much more confident this camp, both on and off the field.

• Ladarius Green looks pretty close to returning following surgery in the offseason on his left ankle. He was doing a lot of work testing the ankle Friday night and even jumped up and touched the goal posts a couple of times on it.