Training Camp News and Notes: Shaun Lauvao carted off field

The biggest news from training camp came in the last few minutes of practice. Right guard Shaun Lauvao, who is battling for a starting spot over Jason Pinkston, was taken from the field on a cart after apparently injuring his ankle. The injury occurred during position drills. It is believed he was trying to block Phil Taylor when the injury happened. Coach Rob Chudzinski did not see the injury and wouldn’t comment on the extent of it until after further tests.

Lauvao has started all 32 games in his career.

The offensive line was having a very good day. The team did goal line drills at the beginning of practice, and had a lot of success running the ball. After being denied on the first two attempts, Ogbonnaya ran straight up the middle for a touchdown against the first team defense. Jason Campbell and the second team offense scored on three straight attempts. Campbell connected with Travis Tannahill on short pass across the middle, and then Brandon Jackson ran off tackle to the left twice for scores.

The first unit kept the scoring going with Dion Lewis rushing up the middle for a touchdown and Jackson going right for a TD. Owen Marecic caught a pass from Weeden for another touchdown, but Barkevious Mingo would have nailed Weeden from the blind side. He may or may not have gotten that pass away. Brian Hoyer handed off twice to Miguel Maysonet for touchdowns before the defense shut down the third unit.

The defense got a little revenge though. In one minute drills designed to set up field goals, the defense kept the offense from getting kicks off. Of course, being practice the team kicked the field goals anyway, with both Bogotay and Graham making 52 yard attempts.

After more individual drills, Brandon Weeden looked very sharp in 11-on-11 full contact drives. At one point he hit on nine consecutive passes. The team worked on some of the deep routes, and Weeden hit Jordan Cameron, Davone Bess and Greg Little for deep touchdowns.

– Travis Benjamin made a great leaping catch, but then fumbled the ball after taking a few steps. Nobody hit him.

– Jordan Cameron has looked better the second week of camp than the first.

– The battle for back-up running back jobs is pretty good. Dion Lewis and Brandon Jackson are running hard every day. Montario Hardesty may have been listed as the back-up to Richardson, but he didn’t practice again Monday.

– Trent Richardson was back in practice, but was used sparingly. On his first carry he was hit hard on a sweep to the right. “We are going to be smart with him,” said coach Chudzinski. “We have a plan for him from a general sense. We want him to be able to work to get better to be able to come out here on a daily basis during training camp.”

– David Nelson, Oniel Cousins, Brad Smelley, Brock Bolen and Montario Hardesty all worked on the side with trainers. Safety T.J. Ward was back in limited action at practice.

– Rob Chudzinski said that today was the last major install day. “This will be a really good opportunity to shift the focus from the installation phase of training camp into getting more focused on specifics about games. We are getting guys ready to play and seeing how they react in game-like situations. Obviously we are looking forward to get going with that.”