Brian Flores – November 21, 2021 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 21, 2021
Postgame – N.Y. Jets
Head Coach Brian Flores (transcribed by N.Y. Jets)
On getting their third-straight win….
It’s always good to win. Our guys played hard for 60 minutes. We knew it would be a tough game and a tough environment against a tough team, and that’s what we got. We were able to make a few more plays than they made.
On what has worked on offense lately…
I think it’s just truly a series of things: good preparation in meetings, in walkthrough, in practice, execution in practice. That gives you a chance to execute in the game. We’re seeing some of that, and we made enough today, but we’ll just keep preparing the way we’ve been preparing and try to string good days together.
On what a good week of practice looks like…
Good energy, good preparation, when I ask questions in a meeting guys will have the answers. They have a good understanding of what we’re trying to do, what our opponent’s strengths and weaknesses are so when asked, they can answer, and then it looks like they understand the things that we talked about in meetings and practice. So generally, that’s kind of the thinking.
On what led to the sloppiness of the team in the first half and the way the team bounced back in the second half…
I think it always comes down to execution – our operation, getting in and out of the huddle offensively, defensively and in the kicking game, communication. And look, you’ve got to give credit to the Jets, they created some situations that forced some communication issues for us. I thought they did a nice job and had a nice game plan, so credit to them. They played hard, they made some plays for sure, we just made a few more plays than they did.
On if there has been an effort between the coaching staff to be more creative in play-calling with trick plays…
I think we always want to be creative, really in all three phases. You’ve got to practice them, you’ve got to feel good about them, not running them from practice. We felt good about some of the plays we ran today, had some success. Some of them we didn’t really execute the right way – I’m thinking about the one in the low red – but I think again, we did enough. We always want to be creative and try to run plays that are going to get us positive plays. Some of those trick plays allow us the opportunity to do that.
On how he felt about the execution at the end of the half…
We had an opportunity to kick a field goal, Jason (Sanders) missed it, but Jason came right back and made one at the end when we needed it.
On QB Tua Tagovailoa’s performance today and how he would assess where he is right now…
I think he’s getting better every time he steps out on the field. I think he made a lot of good decisions today. I thought we moved the ball pretty efficiently, especially in the second half. Those drives in the second half are big drives, and I think we answered their score with a score and then we were able to go up two scores with the next drive. Tua is leading the way from that standpoint, so I think he’s playing well. I think he played well today, obviously there’s some throws he wishes he had back I’m sure, some decisions he wishes he had back. I think we all feel that way, that’s how everybody feels after a game, but he made enough plays for us to win.
On his FDNY shirt…
My uncle is a fireman – or he was a fireman – he’s retired now. He was very instrumental in my life and he gave me this shirt. His work for ladder 118, they were one of the first fire houses to go in on 9/11, and no one came out of there. So, he’s been very instrumental, he introduced me to football. He gave me this shirt and I figured this would be a good time to wear it.
On how important it is to use their four-minute offense and eat up the clock like they did in that possession…
I think at the end of the game anytime we’re at the end of the game with the lead, we always want to do a great job of kind of milking the clock, using as much time as possible. When you’re on the other side of it, you want to conserve as much time as possible. So, that fourth quarter and that time of possession in the fourth quarter and in the second half is very important, something to talk about. We were able to execute it today. I thought we ran the ball, picked up some third downs, some short yardage plays. Everyone contributed to that, it was Myles (Gaskin), Duke Johnson, (Jaylen) Waddle, Durham (Smythe). I think we got contributions from a lot of different guys and we were able to string good plays together, and that’s what we talked about, just stringing good plays together. Not having one good, one bad – that doesn’t get it done in this league, you’ve got to string them together. We were able to do that and punch it in at the end, and those are the winning points.
On the status of CB Jamal Perry and LB Brennan Scarlett…
We’ve got to run some tests. I don’t want to give an initial diagnosis and come back and tell you it was different tomorrow. Both guys were ruled out, we’ll go through the gamut of tests, X-rays, MRIs, etc. Hopefully it’s not that bad, but we’ll have more information after we run those tests.
