Chan Gailey – November 3, 2020
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Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey
(I wanted to ask you about QB Tua Tagovailoa – what he did well, what he needs to do better and what you can do better to get him more plays?) – “He made some good reads. He did some good things as far as understanding what we’re trying to get done run game-wise; which everybody thinks is just pass game, but he understands what we’re trying to get done with the run game. He needs reps. He’s just got to keep working, timing with these guys and keep getting reps. Those reps he got the other day were invaluable. I think he’ll start to get better in bigger jumps as we go forward, because the more he sees, the more he understands, the more feel he gets with the receivers and I think he’ll get better and better. He just needs to play. He’s got a lot of talent so I’m anxious to see what steps he’s going to take this week.”
(You’ve worked with a lot of young quarterbacks. Where do you see the most games or most improvement? Or where do you hope to see the most gains from QB Tua Tagovailoa as we continue to progress in these starts?) – “Two things happen to me for young quarterbacks. One, they start to see defenses better; and two, the game starts to slow down for them because it’s at a hectic pace the first time you go out there. Then the game starts to slow down the more you play. That’s what I see from young quarterbacks, or that’s what I’ve experienced with young quarterbacks through the years, is they understand better what defenses are trying to do and then the game seems to slow down for them.”
(Because it was QB Tua Tagovailoa’s first NFL start and because the Rams have a very good pass rush, I’m assuming that the game plan was focused on getting the ball out quick, short passes, not necessarily targeting a lot of downfield throws. Is that true, and do you envision the use of the field, including more downfield passing, expanding as time moves forward?) – “Yes, that’s definitely true. We knew how good their pass rush was. We were trying to get him protected and get the ball out. And because of the way the game went, we didn’t have to take a lot of chances with the football. We hope to be able to do things in the future that create more big plays for our offense. I think obviously Tua is very talented at throwing the football, so hopefully we’ll make those things happen.”
(In the last three games, you’ve built halftime leads of at least 18 points. When you go into a break with a significant lead like that, how does it change your plan offensively, and if it does, what becomes your new No. 1 goal at that particular point of the game?) – “Well, we try to score every time we get the football. That doesn’t change. But, we probably do take less chances with the football than you might if you were in a seven-point ballgame or tied or something like that, where you know you need to go score every time. Then you take more chances. You do. You take more shots and do things that you wouldn’t do if you had an 18-point lead, which we had been fortunate to have.”
(Can you educate me a little bit about the RPOs that everybody likes to talk about? It seemed like you guys ran maybe three or four early in the game and QB Tua Tagovailoa had a completion on one, and then you kind of went away from it. Is that what you’re referring to as far as the score dictating that or was there something else that was maybe why that wasn’t as big of a part of the game plan later on?) – “We felt like we didn’t need to have to go to that in order to move the football. They are good, he’s good at them and we’ll continue to use those types of things. There were a couple of times we had them that we handed the ball off and you didn’t know it. (laughter) They were still in there. I don’t like to talk about them because I don’t want the defense to go, ‘Oh, maybe that was an RPO.’”
(I’d like to go back to the topic of timing with the receivers. I’m assuming that since he was second team for the longest time, how much work has QB Tua Tagovailoa had with some of the No. 1 receivers and where do you see that going now? Are there some guys that he’s just naturally more comfortable with because he’s thrown to them more in these first six weeks of the season?) – “During camp, we got a lot more reps. We worked everybody everywhere basically. But once we started the season, then he got very few reps with these guys. He would get them occasionally but not on a consistent basis. Last week was the first week he was able to get that on a consistent basis with those guys. All of that, it takes a little time. You don’t just run out there and understand it and throw it. You have to see the guy’s body language to know when he’s coming out of the break and things like that. Everyone of them is different. It takes a little bit. You’ve got to get used to it a little bit.”
(I know Sunday’s game was odd and you didn’t have a lot of offensive plays. RB Myles Gaskin had 21 touches. The rest of the team as far as receivers, running backs, tight ends had 14. Is that a bigger disparity you would ideally want as far as your starting running back and others? And just in general, would you like to get WR DeVante Parker, TE Mike Gesicki and RB Matt Breida more touches moving forward?) – “Yeah. You’d like to be balanced where somebody can’t say if we just stop this, we can win the game. But as was said earlier, game situations dictate a lot of things. We find ourselves from time to time having one guy getting it more than anybody else. As I said, we weren’t taking chances. We were throwing screens. We weren’t throwing it down the field. We were doing things like that so naturally Myles is getting more touches than anybody else at that time. If I had it ideally, the running backs are obviously going to get it more because he’s the running back; but I’d like to see a balance, as I’ve said from Day 1, between run and pass. Now, who catches it? As long as we are getting yards, I don’t care who catches it. But I’d like to see more balance of pass and run.”
