Brian Flores – November 1, 2020 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 1, 2020
Postgame – L.A. Rams
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I know there was a lot of talk going into this week about QB Tua Tagovailoa, but it seems like the defense and the special teams were able to carry him and the offense towards this win. What did you think of their performance in light of the offense’s struggles?) – “It’s like what we talk about on a daily basis. It takes a team effort. There’s 11 guys on the field, there’s 53 guys on the roster, 16 guys on the practice squad. All these guys work hard. Everybody’s role is important. But total team effort, offense, defense, special teams. I thought it was a really good drive by the offense at the end, picking up a first down when we really need it, and we needed that in the fourth quarter. As far as the rest of the game, plays in the fourth quarter are critical, and they showed up for us and got us a big first down late. A lot of things for us to improve on, like there are every week, but good team effort. I think our guys showed a lot of mental toughness this week, a lot of quarterback change and a lot of … I thought they showed a lot of mental toughness, and I thought there was a lot of other things going on basically aside from football I would say, and those guys kind of put that stuff to the back burner and really focused and prepared and played well.”
(It felt like that interception from DT Christian Wilkins early on kind of changed the way the game was going, especially when QB Tua Tagovailoa came back out on the field, it felt like everybody was a little bit looser. Can you talk about that momentum shift and that moment?) – “We got off to a slow start, so when I talk about the mental toughness of the team, I think that was part of it. Got off to a slow start, had a turnover, they scored, we were down, I think they got the ball back and we just kept playing hard and it was a big interception by Christian (Wilkins). He’s always talking about how great a hands he has, now I’ve got to listen to that moving forward. He’s going to ask for the ball in goal-line situations and things of that nature. And it’s worthless until I guess if he’s going to make good plays like that. But it was that play, multiple other plays. Jakeem (Grant) I thought played a great, great game and we’ve been talking about one block away in the kicking game really all year, and we broke one today, and it was a big play, along with a lot of other plays.”
(What was your plan for QB Tua Tagovailoa going in, and did the way the game went make you change that plan? Obviously up three scores you can be a little bit more conservative.) – “Every game is a little bit different. You’ve got a run game plan, a drop-back plan, a screen game plan, a play-action game plan based how the game is going, based on how they’re playing things defensively, we really have to adjust that game plan. What was the plan? It was … We could go through a lot of different scenarios. There’s a lot of plays on (Offensive Coordinator) Chan’s (Gailey) call sheet. But the plan was to play good, efficient football, move the ball efficiently in the run game and the pass game. Look, there are some things we need to correct and we’ve got to play better in all phases, but it’s good to make those corrections after a victory, and the other guys picked them up.”
“Regarding QB Tua Tagovailoa, just in general how do you feel he played today?) – “We won. We won the game. And again, it’s a team football game. I can’t stress that enough. It’s not a one-man show. I think he made enough plays for us to win the ballgame. I think collectively, look, if we don’t play well in one phase we need to play well in other phases, and we have a lot of confidence in him. He had a good week of practice and did some good things, but obviously, look, it’s his first NFL game against a real good defense, one everyone was … We talked about all week, Aaron Donald and their defensive group and their front, they played well. They’re hard to move the ball on. We’ve got to take that into account as well. Look, the rest of the players on the team picked him up and we got the W and we’ll make the corrections over the course of the week.”
(From DE Emmanuel Ogbah to LB Kyle Van Noy to DE Shaq Lawson, you guys were just seeming to pounce all over the quarterback and that offensive line there. How did you feel about the synergy by your defense and how they were able to kind of lead the way today?) – “I thought they played well. I thought they got a lot of pressure on the quarterback. We could have tackled a little bit better. But we turned them over, scored defensively. Again, in every game there’s corrections that can be made, but those guys, I thought they … There was good communication. They executed the game plan. It was good preparation throughout the week, and we executed. If we do that … And we played a lot of defense today. We did. Guys were a little bit gassed at the end. I can always talk about conditioning now. That’s a good thing, and we’ll get better from that standpoint. But I thought they played well, and it was great energy on the field, really on all three sides of the ball.”
(Being a defensive guy, how much fun was it for you to coach in a game like this where your defense stepped up the way they did?) – “I love defense, but I love offense, I love special teams, too. I think you all know I got my start in the kicking game coaching. I love all areas of the game. I thought the defense played well. I thought the special teams played well, and then offensively we made plays when we needed to make them. But more than anything, I love winning, and I love the guys seeing the fruits of the preparation, of the practice. I’m happy for them. I’m happy for our coaching staff. I think (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer) called a great game. He really did. (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) called a good game. (Special Teams Coordinator) Danny (Crossman) called a great … He did a great job from a preparation standpoint. I think we’re all getting better on a week-to-week basis. We need to continue that. That was my message to the team. We just need to keep preparing the way we’ve been preparing and continue getting better.”
After QB Tua Tagovailoa’s first drop-back and he loses the ball, do you say anything to him when he comes to the sideline or do you just run him back out there again?) – “I said to the defense we’ve got to pick him up. I said to the kicking game we’ve got to pick him up. That’s team football. Again, I don’t know how many different ways I can say this. It’s a team game. We’re going to pick each other up. Tua (Tagovailoa) is going to pick us up at some point. We just need to stay with that. Look, we encourage him but we encourage everyone. We try to pick each other up.”
(I wanted to ask you about QB Jared Goff in terms of how many different looks and packages that you threw at him because he seemed kind of confused and rattled. Was that the game plan, to give him so many different looks?) – “I think every week (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer) and our defensive staff, they did a really good job this week coming up with different things that we think will give them some problems. Again, in a week’s time, there’s only so much we can give the players, but what we gave them, they executed, and we were able to put some pressure on the quarterback, and just looking at the stats here, they did run the ball pretty effectively and we did give up some passing yards but I thought we were able to put pressure on the quarterback. I thought overall we played well and we kept the points down and got off the field on third down quite a bit. But yeah, different looks, trying to put pressure, trying to apply pressure. Sometimes it’s not necessarily the sack total but I think you can watch a game and see that a quarterback feels us. I think that’s essentially what you’re looking for. I’m not sure how many sacks we had today, but I know that we applied some pressure and forced them to do some other things offensively maybe they didn’t want to do, not just keep a back in, keep a tight end in, things of that nature.”
(Just as a follow to the question about after the fumble, what does it say to you and to the team that QB Tua Tagovailoa is able to have a start like that, obviously not an ideal start but able to bounce back, not let it get in his head and do the things he needs to do to help the team win?) – “I think as a team we all bounced back, and the idea there is to pick each other up, to support one another. I think you saw that. I think you saw that from our defense. I know Bobby (McCain) went right up to him and said, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re going to pick it up for you.’ The o-line was that way, our coaching staff was that way. I think they went out and did that, defensively, special teams, in the kicking game, offensively. We were able to bounce back. I think that shows some mental toughness, especially against a good team. That’s a good football team there. That’s a well-coached team. They were 5-2, they’re just coming off a big win on a Monday night. This is a good football team. So look, they’re going to make plays. I think we all … To think that that’s not going to happen, that we’re not going to have bad plays it’s silly in a lot of ways to think that we’re just going to play a perfect game every week. But when we do make mistakes we’ve got to pick each other up. We can’t go in the tank. We didn’t do that. We need to when that happens, I think it’s a good … Just moving forward, hey, we can come back, we can turn things around. Hopefully we’ll continue to do that.”
