Brian Flores – November 8, 2021
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Monday, November 8, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(On straight handoffs yesterday, removing the one wildcat play and the one run by QB Jacoby Brissett, your backs got 34 yards rushing on 23 carries, which is obviously very poor. When you looked at the tape, was the offensive line simply not creating holes? Was that entirely the problem or were there some runs where RB Myles Gaskin and RB Salvon Ahmed could have achieved more but didn’t?) – “I think you can give a little credit to Houston, I thought they did some good things. Collectively, the o-line, backs, receivers, tight ends need to do a better job of creating more space for the backs to run. The backs got to do a better job of running. Collectively as a group, we just didn’t do enough in the run game to have sustained success in that area and we need to do a better job of that. We’ll talk about that with these guys today. We’re playing against a very good run defense on Thursday. We’re going to turn the page to that and we’re going to have to play a lot better.”
(Did QB Tua Tagovailoa throw today? Do you have any update on his availability for Thursday and is WR Will Fuller out Thursday?) – “Will Fuller will be out on Thursday. Tua has not thrown yet but we will see him a little later.”
(I wanted to ask specifically about the offensive line as you’re kind of halfway through the season and you’ve settled on a five-man line for the past couple of games. Are you pleased with the progress that they’ve made and has there been any thought to maybe giving one of those young guys like G Robert Jones or T Greg Little an opportunity?) – “Yeah, I mean every week we look at the group and evaluate it, but we got to do a better job on the offensive line. We got to coach them better. They’ve got to play better. So we’ll look at areas to improve that unit. Those guys you mentioned, they’re part of those conversations for sure.”
(Do you have an update on OL Greg Mancz?) – “We’re still running some tests. It looks like it’s something that will keep him out this week.”
(When you’re evaluating a player, how important is their ability to stay healthy in making an evaluation and do you believe in the concept when people describe a player as being injury prone or is that something that coaches don’t think about?) – “Availability is a big part of playing in this league and I think that goes without saying. I think our guys, they work hard in the offseason, in-season, nutrition, sleep, strength training. They do everything they can to withstand the rigors of an NFL season and an NFL game. We need as many able bodies as possible to play in this league. Obviously, it plays a role but again, injuries happen in this league. That’s just part of it. I think we all understand that at all positions. Every team is dealing with them and that’s why we spend so much time on the guys who are backups to prepare as if they are going to be in there because oftentimes that ends up being the case.”
(Do you think specifically with QB Tua Tagovailoa, is there a concern – whether he plays this week or doesn’t – is there a concern that you may not get enough of him on the field this season to give a proper evaluation of what he can be for this team moving forward?) – “I think Tua is a tough kid. I think he does everything he can to be out there. He’s had a couple unfortunate injuries this year but when he’s been in there, he’s played well. He’s a tough kid. He wants to be out there and he’s going to do everything he can to he can to get out there.”
(I wanted to ask you about your young safety tandem who have gotten an uptick in pass rush and overall production the last couple of weeks getting after the quarterback. I was just curious to get your take on the value of having safeties who can both come down and show pressure but also flip out and get to the deep part of the field?) – “I think both of those young guys are doing some good things. When you have guys who can play down in the box, play in the deep part of the field, do a good job with disguising – are they blitzing, are they playing in coverage, are they playing in man, is it zone? That gives us some flexibility defensively. I think those guys are improving in those areas every week and it’s helping us.”
(It looked like late last week, just at least based on your comments, that WR Preston Williams was trending as though he might have played yesterday and turns out he was inactive and WR Kirk Merritt got snaps after being elevated from the practice squad. I’m wondering whether you can shed some light on the decision to make Preston inactive and whether you think he might play Thursday night?) – “Preston will play Thursday night.”
(Can you shed some light as to why WR Preston Williams was inactive yesterday?) – “There’s a lot that goes into it as far as things that happen at practice, happen within the building. I expect him to be up on Thursday.”
(Based on your comments that, can we assume that there was a disciplinary issue yesterday?) – “No, it wasn’t a disciplinary issue. We just felt like we wanted to give Kirk (Merritt) – we wanted to elevate him for a number of reasons, the kicking game, offensively. He practiced well last week. That was why he was up.”
(It seems like for years, when you think of the Ravens, you think of how physical they are, especially defensively. What have you seen on film from them, as far as living up to that reputation this year?) – “More of the same. This is a well-coached team, they’re physical, they run the football, they do a good job stopping the run. They play well in the kicking game. Definitely a physical team and we’re going to have to play a physical ballgame, play a disciplined ballgame, if we’re going to have any success.”
(How do you rate your own team in terms of playing physical football?) – “I think we’ve done it in spurts. I think we’ve got to be more consistent across the board. I think we’re certainly capable of playing physical, which we’ve done at time. We just got to do it a lot more.”
(I wanted to ask you about the offensive line play. How would you evaluate it from the Houston game? Obviously it’s been an issue all season, but it seems like there was a ton of pressure against Houston. Also, I needed to get an update on T Greg Little because he hasn’t been active all season. What does he need to do to get into that mix of guys competing for playing time?) – “To answer your first question, we’ve got to do better along the offensive line. We’ve got to do better in the run game. We’ve got to protect better. Our guys understand that. It’s something we put an emphasis on, really on a weekly basis, on a daily basis. We didn’t do a good enough job yesterday. Specific to Greg, Greg has done a good job at practice. He’s been inactive really the entire year. The conversation we had this morning about potentially getting him up and getting him some playing time. We’ll see how that goes this week.”
(I wanted to ask about CB Noah Igbinoghene. For the second straight game, he was active but didn’t play any snaps. I just wanted to ask what was the thinking behind that and has he not shown enough to at least contribute on special teams?) – “Noah has actually done a lot of good things at practice. Obviously we’ve got the two – Byron (Jones) and ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) out there who get the majority of the snaps outside at the corner spot. That’s where we’ve gone defensively. In the kicking game, we just had some other guys we played instead of him. He’s done some good things.”
(Along the same line as T Greg Little, what do you need to see from TE Hunter Long for him to get in a game?) – “Hunter is another guy who is a good young player. It’s been a little bit of a crowded tight end room with (Adam) Shaheen and Mike (Gesicki) and Durham (Smythe) and E Cethan (Carter). He’s been active a couple of games. (He is) somebody who we think is going to be a solid player in this league. Just waiting for his opportunity.”
(When you play a team where you know that they pride themselves on their physicality on a short week, how much do you have to talk to the team – obviously the opponent is high-caliber. But how much do you have to talk to the team about how physical the game is going to be?) – “I think our team understands that. We talk about playing physical every week. You have to do that in this league if you’re going to have any success. They understand that. I think we all understand that Baltimore is a physical team in all three phases. If we’re going to have success in the game, it’s going to start up front. It’s going to start on the offensive line, on the defensive line and really across the board we’re going to have to play a physical ballgame.”
(Ideally you don’t want to burn elevations on a guy who isn’t going to get into the game. LB Vince Biegel did play three special team snaps. You didn’t use him on defense. Was the thinking that you might need him if LB Jerome Baker couldn’t go in terms of changing linebacker positions or was there another reason why he was elevated but didn’t play on defense?) – ‘I think you’re hitting it on the head with Jerome. He went out there and felt good. We had to have a little bit of a backup plan in case he wasn’t able to go. You’re right, you don’t want to burn them. But we were in a little bit of a scenario where the potential for Biegel to play or his snaps to increase with Jerome possibly being a little bit limited, we felt like that was what was best for the team.”
