Austin Reiter – November 22, 2021
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Monday, November 22, 2021
C Austin Reiter
(I don’t know if you’ve had time to meet with Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre yet but what was the feedback you got as a group about how you did yesterday collectively as an offensive line? It seems like there was an improvement in both pass protection and in the run-blocking aspect as well.) – “We’re about to watch the film right now. I think the feeling though – I liked the initial drive was really good. I think there were some times in the middle of the game that we could have improved but I think that final fourth quarter drive to chew up the clock and just run the ball, I think that was one of the highlights for the offensive line play there. That was a good feeling, keeping the ball in hand and taking the time off the clock.”
(It seems like a bunch of mature guys on this offensive line – T Liam Eichenberg seems like a mature, smart guy for a rookie. Have you had to try to keep his spirits up – you and G/T Jesse Davis at all – because obviously it’s been a tough adjustment playing left tackle for him? He did some good things yesterday.) – “No, I don’t think I’ve had to keep his spirits up. He’s a smart guy. He’s played a lot of football just not at this level but it always kind of surprises me and I have to remind myself sometimes that he is a rookie, which is pretty impressive on his part for the way he composes himself.”
(What do you think – obviously you guys have been trying hard, very hard, to develop a run game for the last month and a lot of it with you being there as the starting center. What was the difference this week against the Jets? What were you guys doing differently that led to success?) – “I think getting in a rhythm in part of the game helped. I think kind of finding our groove there. I think there’s some runs that we do well. About to watch the film right after this with the whole o-line and we’ll have a better sense of what we’re doing well and what we like. I think just consistently working, it’s day-by-day in this league and getting the whole o-line ready to cohesively work together, it doesn’t happen overnight. I think our hard work is starting to show on film.
(You obviously are into the mix, three centers. You’re a center so you know that’s never a good thing. How difficult is it to just learn everybody as a center as one of those leaders in terms of on short notice from a communication standpoint?) – “It’s tough. You understand that. I think in pass protection, it’s kind of knowing where guys’ feet are as far as the guards. You’ve got two guys on each side of you. In the run game, it’s kind of fits and where guys are going to be on defensive linemen when you’re trying to run block them. It isn’t easy to just come in and cohesively gel with everybody. It’s something that we work on in practice a lot so on Sunday there’s no excuses for anything less than what we want.”
(You arrived in Miami during a rough patch that was getting worse at the time. Now that you’ve strung together three straight wins, what’s the difference in the locker room vibe that you’re seeing if there is one?) – “I think we’re gaining some confidence. Three games in a row, I know that’s a good thing. That’s hard to do in this league and you see it across. It’s a big confidence game and when you’ve got a team that plays with confidence, every game you’re going to have adversity that hits whether it’s turnovers or anything. If you get down, you’ve got to have that confidence knowing that you’re going to win the game no matter what. I think that’s kind of where that switch mentally flips for a team.”
(I know you guys are programed to think of one game at a time, but have you given any thought at all now that you’re on this three-game winning streak, to making a playoff run? Has it crossed your mind, ‘Hey, we can get back into this playoff race now.’) – “Not me personally. I’m looking week-to-week. You’ve got to take small bites of the apple to get to the whole thing. I’m week-to-week. I think a lot of the team is focused the same way. I know coach is focused that way too. We’re all Panthers this week and beating them.”
(I heard last week that there were good practices last week. Obviously everybody thinks that they practice well but when you talk about having a good practice, what does that mean to you?) – “First, I would start by saying no mental errors. People are going out there when we run the plays that are scripted and we are not having to start things over. We don’t have to re-run a play, we don’t have to go back after we get through that set and ‘hey, pull up play six.’ We’re lined up right. We’re not chewing up the clock in the huddle. I would say those types of things. Just being efficient is probably the No. 1. Guys are going to get beat. That happens all the time. But I think No. 1 is not beating yourself mentally, everybody knowing the assignment and operating efficiently as an offense.”
(How do players hold players accountable for when they do have these mental errors, busts and preventable penalties, preventable mistakes and missed assignments? How do you guys hold each other accountable for that?) – “I think that comes down to the position group. That matters which position that would happen at. I know as an offensive line, if we have people jumping or missed assignments, we’re going to vocally let them know like, ‘Hey, this can’t happen.’ I’m sure that goes across the board for other position groups and I’m sure that the coaches would feel the same way.”
(I’d like to follow up on something you just mentioned with the crispness of practice and not having to re-run plays. How’s that maybe compare if at all when you first got here and the team wasn’t doing so well? Were the practices maybe not quite as crisp as they are now?) – “There’s been so many practices. I wouldn’t say at the beginning when I got here that they were bad. Obviously in the course of the seven, eight weeks, there’s been some days the second week that I was here, the third week that I was here that were maybe a few mental errors. It’s hard for me to notice that because I’m so locked into what I’m trying to do that sometimes I don’t see if the defense is having errors. When coach says we have a good practice, some days I’m thinking to myself, ‘I could have done this better.’ It’s tough for me to assess the whole team sometimes.”
