Mike McDaniel – December 9, 2024
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Monday, December 9, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(At this point, is there any consideration given to surgery for T Terron Armstead, or is this more of a rest until he’s able to play again type of thing?) – “Yeah, it’s a rest thing. I think you might have seen his frustration level to try to contribute in this particular game and it’s something that he can’t control, so you talk to him about – I’ve been very proud of how he’s handled all of it because he’s probably at a new level of maturity to handle these types of things based upon his necessity. I think we’ll let it cool down a little bit and what that means for time moving forward, I’m going to make sure that my communication is steadfast with him, and we’ll play out all the scenarios with our group.”
(What were you hearing from him as far as what he was experiencing? Was it sort of tweaks that indicated it wasn’t right?) – “Yeah and just going into the game, just knowing what was ahead of him in terms of like he was trying to will himself. I just made it very clear that, ‘don’t waste your time trying to be a superhero.’ We had extra communication last week so that he did what was best for the team just in case actually what happened, did happen that he didn’t make a competitive choice that would put our team in a compromising situation. So that communication has to be honest and direct. Otherwise people make decisions for the wrong reasons. I already knew going into the game, much like I always do with him, but like what he was ready to do to will himself and I didn’t want him to put himself in harm’s way or the offense, and sometimes the honest truth is the hard truth that, that day, he didn’t have it.”
(When you look at the film, what were some of the things you noticed that went wrong with the run game yesterday?) – “There were some opps that we missed. I think the tonality and what people view changes a lot when probably our best run situation, I think the guys were frustrated with the results having higher expectations going into the game. As a result, we get a holding penalty that changes on a 30 or 40-yarder. It might have been what, the fourth-longest of the season or something of that nature that got called back. That’s a piece. I think we need to block better. That’s been a focus of ours. They get paid. Too. They had a good plan, changed things up in a way that they were still able to play aggressive. They have a good front, a good defense, so give them credit as well. There was stuff that I expect to be better and I think it’s also magnified when you’re taking in the totality of what the players on offense are doing. What do I mean by that? There’s a lot of times with the consistency of the decision making and accuracy of Tua (Tagovailoa) that I’m exchanging tone-setting run plays for tone-setting pass plays. Protection is firm and telling guys to be aggressive and then when you’re throwing a five-yard out route to Julian Hill for 14, you’re throwing a five-yard out route to Jaylen Waddle for 10, you’re throwing a five-yard out route to Tyreek (Hill) for, I think one time it was 13, one time it was nine. They’re getting less opps after not taking advantage of ops. So the key is, is you take advantage of those opps, you make people overplay the run structure one way. Then you get another call and another opportunity in the run game going the opposite way. I think the numbers do represent something that we absolutely need to improve; however I think it’s magnified given the circumstances, adjusting to 75 percent completion percentage and giving guys opps that are very good players on our team. So it’s a priority for the blockers to run the ball better. They need to take advantage of their opportunities better and they’ll get more opportunities.”
(Going back to T Terron Armstead for just a second, did you feel it was more of a pain tolerance issue or an issue of further doing damage to that knee?) – “I think he has a very high threshold of pain and pain tolerance. It’s when you’re compromising both potentially the player and unable to do his job as he knows how to do it. He’s able to do a lot of really cool things and we’re very, almost desensitized to however we’ve had to get him to game day. There’s not professionals at the left tackle position that do that really, and so to do that, you have to be very trusting in your body because you’re doing a lot of things mentally during the week and if your body doesn’t meet the expectation that you have going into it, things can snowball quickly and for him and his teammates, we’ve also been taking advantage of the adversity has been an opportunity for Patrick Paul, for instance on Wednesdays, being able to get all season, being able to kind of develop his game so that he could be ready for a situation like this should it present itself, which I think undoubtedly, deep down, that factors into how compromised in a position Terron feels that he can put himself in. His bottom line is he feels he’s got a (captain) ‘C’ on his chest and he’s won in this league, and he wants to make sure that his locker room does whatever it takes to win. And I think he exemplified his winner mindset ironically by being responsible and communicative in the game. And he does see the big picture and what we have in store for us one game at a time, and each one of them was crucial and crucial for him and his prep and he’s trying to just do right by his play and his teammates.”
(When you guys added TE Jonnu Smith, obviously the emphasis was on improving the contribution from the tight end position. How much of that was just taking some of the plays that you used with the 49ers, George Kittle and implementing here? Or is this all just a new origination of plays?) – “I think the process, you’re hitting the nail on the head with the starting point and you’re forecasting. But for me, you’re finding the individual player and what he’s good at and so then you traditionally put it in a bucket of your experience and to see what things, what he gravitates to, what he doesn’t. Very much of training camp was just trying different things and then leaning into things that you could see he could use as a competitive advantage. For us, there’s elements as the starting point to a lot of the stuff that we do in the offense that go all the way back to 2005, but much like the ever-evolving way to attack defenses and the different defensive presentations that get thrown at us, there’s a lot of different things that we kind of try with him that I hadn’t tried in the past with a tight end. I think the biggest thing, regardless of position, thought we could really benefit from the extra space that the other three eligibles get based upon over attention on ‘10’ (Tyreek Hill) and ‘17’ (Jaylen Waddle), and that expansion of the field that the defense is defending, how to best take advantage of that space. And I think we’ve done some elements of it, realistically. I don’t think I’ve – some of the short-and intermediate routes that we’ve really called a lot too, I had never called it or been a part of an offense that has ran it that much. We’ve probably run more screens to him than ever been used to, just adjusting to his skill set. And I always respond to conviction in play and when I see guys have confidence, you lean into that. So we’re really evolving to his game. It started with a lot of stuff that we’ve done in the past, but it’s kind of morphed into a unique contributor that can play in the core and I’ve never had a tight end take two screen plays back-to-back; that’s because he’s never had Jonnu Smith. I think he has his own skill set and his own niche on this offense that really is problematic for how defenses want to defend us.”
(After you guys made the game-tying kick there at the end, the broadcast showed QB Tua Tagovailoa on the sidelines kind of getting the guys fired up, going. Were you in earshot of that?) – “After the game?”
(No, during the game. After the game-tying field goal.) – “Oh yeah, so we had communicated previous to that, and then all we were – just the possession before, you just wanted the ability to have your last drive, get the game tied. I think he was very confident, and I think what we had talked about is, ‘Hopefully, we have an opportunity to score a touchdown to win the game. If we have the opportunity, we need to make sure that our mindset is not to go get points; it is to go win the game.’ So he was, I think, probably calling his coin toss shot, felt very confident that he was going to win that by not saying anything, I guess, because they chose right? They chose heads. So I think he was letting everybody know – it’s a part of his kind of growth within our offense and just as the quarterback and kind of understanding his value to the team. And I think the best person to inspire confidence and conviction in what we’re about to do is probably him, and I think he’s fully recognized that. So in the situation where the offense was going to be positioned to have the opportunity to have the ball in overtime, he wanted to make sure guys’ minds were right. That we’re going to score and nothing else.”
(When you look at the run game I’m wondering if stats or situations are the better judgement. You’re 1-4 when you have over 100 yards rushing and 4-1 under 100 yards rushing in each of the last five games. So what does it mean that you’ve had those numbers and those results because I know QB Tua Tagovailoa has been there and Tua hasn’t been there. How do you reconcile that?) – “I think it’s important to have versatility in how you execute, given that you have different presentations week in and week out. I think to be able to adjust in-game, I think going into the game, I would’ve expected a different box score if I was guessing. I think for me, if you’re going to have 47 pass attempts or whatever it was, you better be a super high completion percentage without turnovers. If that’s the case such as this past game was, there was a multitude of situations that we passed not because we couldn’t run it, but because of trying to attack what was coming at us and as long as you are – because the starting point for running the ball versus passing is that it’s a proactive, safer line of scrimmage dictating-type play. Well, there’s also ways you can dictate the line of scrimmage on pass plays and if you’re not leaving yourself as vulnerable to negative sacks, quarterback hits or turnovers; I think having an open mind to, all right, there’s plenty of times in the last couple games that historically my brain would say ‘run the ball.’ But with a high level of production and maybe a predictive coverage and maybe a non-predictive front, it is easier to change a 3-technique to a 4i (technique) than it is to change from Cover 2 to Cover 4. So the variables. It’s something that I look at it this way: I have no problem and I don’t think the players have any problem being able to say ‘we need to block better’ and I can show them how we need to block better, but again, that being said, some of the statistical variance has to do with some momentum built and the decision-making, trust in timing of the pass game and our opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. I think if the wide receivers weren’t – if ‘10’ (Tyreek Hill) and ‘17’ (Jaylen Waddle) weren’t as in a good place running certain routes, that choice to pass the ball at certain times wouldn’t be as advantageous. There was certain times in short yardage that people – their kneejerk – if you don’t run the ball, is that you’re passing because you can’t run or based upon a previous result; however, there’s not many times other than short yardage that defenses are giving us presentations with not zoning linebackers just jumping in the middle of the field. You might some man coverage opportunities. There was one at the 21-yard line in the end of the first or beginning of the second quarter. It was probably the best pass opportunity that we had all game; it was incomplete. So there’s so many different moving parts. Bottom line is we’ve never shied away from saying things need improvement. I know the blocking mechanism and handing the ball off and getting the production that we’re going into a game expecting; that needs to improve and I think it would also look very different if the pass game production was different or if our opportunities, we took advantage of them fully and didn’t overcook an outside zone to the right, that was a 30 or 40-yarder that we get called back for holding. That doesn’t get called back for holding, there’s probably going to be another run opportunity in the next two plays just based upon getting them on their heels. And then you have all sorts of different scenarios play out, so front end, have to take advantage of opportunities when given and you can see in games like that where the really premier situations can be few and far between, so you’ve got to take advantage of them.”
(Do you have an update on WR Dee Eskridge?) – “I would say still getting more information back, but it would be unlikely for this week and more in the timeline of the weeks following. Not anything close to IR-related, but it definitely calls into question this week.”
