Brian Flores – August 15, 2021
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Sunday, August 15, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Do you know if you’re going to play starters next Saturday and into the third quarter sort of like a third preseason game in past years? I also wanted to ask you about four guys who practiced Thursday but didn’t play yesterday just to see if health was an issue at all? Your two starting corners obviously CB Xavien Howard and CB Byron Jones, DE Emmanuel Ogbah and WR Allen Hurns. Those four guys – two starting corners, Ogbah, and Hurns – were they held out yesterday for health reasons or for some other reasons?) – “’X’ (Xavien Howard), Byron and Ogbah, we just wanted to rest those guys. Hurns is dealing with something, so he’s kind of rehabbing and taking things one day at a time. That was those four guys you mentioned.”
(For the second preseason game this year with only three preseason games, could this be your regular season dress rehearsal? What’s your thinking at this point with that game?) – “We’ve got Atlanta coming in and we have the players today reviewing the game film. We’ll talk about next week’s preseason game in a few days. We’re a little ways away from that. We’ve got two good days of practice with Atlanta. That’s kind of where the focus is. Based on how that goes, we’ll kind of make a determination on what we’ll do from a game standpoint.”
(After reviewing the film, how did you feel T Austin Jackson did – what do you think he needs to do to live up to his best?) – “I thought he did some good things. I thought he competed well. We were playing against a good front, some good players over there. I thought he competed well. I thought he did some good things in the running game, did some good things in pass protection. I thought he did a lot of good things. Obviously there were some instances where his techniques and fundamentals weren’t as good and we’re making those corrections right now. But I was pleased with how he played.”
(I saw QB Tua Tagovailoa – I didn’t notice this while I was watching the game, but on the replay, I noticed that he stuck his shoulder in there to try to make a tackle. What does that say about him and are you ok with that?) – “Yeah, I think that’s what he’s got to do. When you make a mistake, which he did, you just move on to the next play. In that instance, offensive players become defensive players. I thought Myles (Gaskin) made a very nice tackle on that, which kind of set us up in decent field position defensively, which turned into a stop and then good field position for us on the next offensive series. We talk to our guys about, if there is a turnover, you’ve just got to move on. We’re not going to just sit there and be upset about it. We’ve got to move on and try to get the defensive player on the ground and play the next play. Tua and really the entire offense did that. Everybody was running after the ball carrier.”
(The second drive that ended inside the five, when you have opportunities like that in the short area, especially after a chunk play, what can cashing in on those opportunities do for your players and for your team?) – “Obviously any time you’re in the high red, low red, that red area, cashing in with a touchdown is what you want, what you’re looking for. In order to do that, you’ve got to have good execution, which we didn’t have down there. I thought it was good for us to learn from that. We just met about it and understand how important those opportunities are and how important our execution is when we get into the scoring range. Again, another learning opportunity for our team. It was good to get down there, it was a good throw and catch by Tua (Tagovailoa) and Mike (Gesicki) on a third down. That’s a positive, but I think we’ve got to cash in.”
(Just from a confidence, morale standpoint and just wanting to see your offense improve as a whole, when those opportunities do come up for you guys to cash in, what do you think will do for your players mentally?) – “I thought they were in a good place mentally yesterday. You go down, make a big play, you don’t get in – obviously there is a little bit of ‘man, we’ve got to punch that in;’ but our guys do a good job of moving on to the next play. We’re not sitting on the sideline sulking. Our defense went out there and got a stop, got the guys the ball back and we just keep playing one play at a time. That’s kind of the mentality. If you are really going about it any other way, you’re putting yourself – we want to stay even. I thought that’s what we did yesterday and hopefully we’ll continue to do that.”
(I wanted to ask you a bit more about that sequence we just referred to. How did the offensive line perform in that sequence? I know on that second run, I think it was a safety who shot the gap. I’m not sure if the line was responsible for picking him up or what’s supposed to happen; but in general, how did the line perform in that goal line situation?) – “We had a missed assignment. It wasn’t on the offensive line, which is where we had someone unblocked and if you have someone unblocked down in that area, you need to get a hat on a hat, which we didn’t have. We talked about that already this morning. You’ve got to have good execution down there. All 11 defenders are down there. There’s going to be an extra guy. There’s going to be an unblocked guy. There’s 10 offensive players and then the quarterback, so there’s going to be an unblocked player. We’ve got to combo and try to get that player down or leave somebody unblocked away from it. We didn’t execute.”
(I wanted to ask you about TE Cethan Carter. He left the field with a knee injury. Are we looking at anything long-term or is this another one of those day-to-day, one day at a time deals?) – “I think we’ll take this day-to-day with Cethan. I haven’t talked to (Head Athletic Trainer) Kyle (Johnston) about where we’re at on that one but the early reports are day-to-day.”
(When I asked QB Tua Tagovailoa after the game about who was communicating to him, he mentioned Quarterbacks Coach Charlie Frye. Can you tell us how many folks are involved in calling the actual plays for the offense and is that something that is going to waver throughout the preseason or is the system that is being implemented in the preseason going to be the system that is utilized in the regular season?) – “We’ve talked about this. We’ve got a system in place. We know how we’re handling that situation. I thought it went well yesterday. We’ll just continue to handle it the way we’ve talked about handling it internally. I thought it went well yesterday and we’ll continue to go the way we’ve planned to do it really since George (Godsey) and Eric (Studesville) became the co-OCs.”
(Just to be clear, you do not want to reveal if one, two or three people are calling the plays on game day?) – “No, I don’t want to reveal. It could be six people. (laughter)”
(I wanted to ask you about C/G Michael Dieter and T Liam Eichenberg. With Deiter, we’ve seen him open with the first group all 12 practices and yesterday’s game. How has he done in practice and yesterday? And then with Eichenberg, I know obviously in May and June and the first three days of camp, we saw him at right tackle. The eight practices after that, we saw him at left guard. When he returns from being nicked up, have you and Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre determined where he will be – left guard again or back to right tackle?) – “Liam is day-to-day and working his way to get back out there. We saw him at left guard. We’ve seen him at right tackle. I think Solomon (Kindley) did a nice job yesterday so that’s good competition there at left guard with Liam. But like we’ve said, we’re going to play the best five and they’ve all got some versatility. Liam obviously has some versatility having played tackle and guard. We’ll play the best five guys. I think the most important thing for us is to get him back and get him back out there. Wherever he plays, he plays; and he’ll have an opportunity to compete.”
(And C/G Michael Deiter at center, just how he’s done through camp and yesterday.) – “I think he’s done a nice job. Good communication, good fundamentals, good techniques. He had some tough matchups this week against Chicago in practice and in the game, and I thought he handled himself well.”
(What did you take from a week of joint practices and the preseason opener as you go into joint practices with Atlanta?) – “I think we had good competition in practice. It’s good to see a different group, different schemes, different concepts. I think the Bears were very welcoming to us and I’m very appreciative of that. They’ve got good players. I think that was good for us to see that in a practice setting and then compete against them in the game. I think it will only help us.”
