Brian Flores – October 7, 2019
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Monday, October 7, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(In terms of what just happened with the Redskins, how does that impact your preparation – their new head coach situation?) – “Bill Callahan is obviously a veteran coach. He’s been a head coach in this league. He has the o-line background. He’s a very good coach. For us, we’ll go about our business as we normally do. Obviously, he’s got a run-game background, so we’ll – we’ll always do our due diligence from a run-game standpoint. They’ve got good backs, they’ve got good receivers, they’ve got a good o-line. They’re good defensively. We’ll just go about our business the way we normally do.”
(How do you prepare with the uncertainty? They seem to have a different quarterback every week. How do you prepare for that?) – “Prepare for them all. We’ll watch them all. They’ve had a few different guys in there on the o-line, a few different receivers, tight ends. They’ve had some injuries like every other team in the league, so really you end up preparing for the different guys that could be in there. So we’ll prepare for them all.”
(You all mentioned you were going to do some self-assessment over the past week. What did you find?) – “A lot – offensively, defensively and in the kicking game – things we need to do a better job on. The first thing that comes to mind is tackling defensively. It’s something we spent some time on last week just in practice and then going through the evaluation. That’s something we can definitely do better. Breaking tackles offensively – blocking, defeating blocks, catching the ball, getting the ball out a little bit more defensively. So a lot of areas. We spent some time on that last week and we’ll continue to focus in on those this week as well.”
(How was it to have to go back and watch those first four games again?) – “It’s just part of the process. Really, we even went back as far as the preseason. Again, you go through it. Some is good, some is bad; but you just try to learn from it and get better, you try to coach it better, try to help the players understand what we’re looking for a little bit better. I think they understand that and they do a good job of taking coaching and trying to improve and get better and then trying to apply it on the practice field.”
(What did the bye week do for you and can you make any determination on what it might have done for your players?) – “I think it’s just a time for reflection. (It’s a) time to see – you look at everything we’ve done from a scheduling standpoint, from a practice standpoint, from a playing standpoint, from a coaching standpoint. You take a look at everything, you evaluate it all and you look at the things you can do better and you try to do better and try to raise the level of everything we do in the building. The bye week gives you an opportunity to look at all things and try to improve them.”
(What’s the most significant thing you feel you’re going to change moving forward?) – “There’s a lot of places where we can improve so just the basic fundamentals – tackling, catching the ball, blocking, communication. We just need to do all of those things better. I think what we’ve seen over the course of the first games is it’s a block here, a tackle here, a dropped ball here. If we can eliminate some of those basic, basic mistakes, I think we’ll be in a little bit better position so that’s kind of been the focus. It’s the focus every day but you get one missed block, one missed tackle, one dropped ball and those start to accumulate. That’s eight to 10 plays a game that could’ve gone a different way. If we make half of them, the game is a little bit different. So I’m trying to impart onto the team, onto the coaching staff – that every play counts, every play is important. I think they understand that, but when you watch it and you look at it and you go through a game or a half and sit there and say, ‘this could have gone differently.’ One or two plays or sometimes, some cases more than that. We just try to make sure they understand how important every play is.”
(G/T Jesse Davis and S Bobby McCain, will they play this week?) – “Both guys, I expect them to practice today. They’re both working their way back, both doing everything possible. They will do everything they can to be out there. I don’t like to put expectations on guys. I think they are doing everything they can to get back and hopefully they will be out there.”
(What about WR Allen Hurns? Is he still in the concussion protocol?) – “Still currently in the protocol, yes; but he’s definitely getting better. It was good to see him out there a little bit last week and he’s doing better; but he’s still in the protocol.”
(Piggybacking off of that, there was a really scary hit yesterday with Pittsburgh Steelers QB Mason Rudolph. Did you happen to see that and what are your thoughts on they have done so much to protect these quarterbacks and something like that still happens.) – “I mean I saw the play. It was a good collision there. That is part of the game. I don’t think there was anything malicious. I think it was guys playing fast and it happens. It is unfortunate and you never want to see it. I saw it up close and personal with Allen (Hurns). We try to protect the players as much as possible. We talk about it. We try to coach it. But it is a fast game and it’s an aggressive game. Sometimes you try to hit a strike zone and the strike zone moves and occasionally that happens. You never want to see it. It was a scary moment to watch it and then you just hope for the best for the player and hope he is okay.”
(I wanted to ask you about T Isaiah Prince. Based on what you saw from last week’s game – his first start – is that something where you say, ‘okay, with continued investment we can get more improvement from him?’) – “I think that is something we talk about and think about really every week. But it is up to the player. He has to come in, practice well and not get too high on getting his first start and playing fairly decently. And he has done that. He was excited to play and said he had so much fun playing. So he is motivated and that is a good thing. I think with a young player like that, you want to get them more snaps and get them more comfortable so you can develop them, especially on the offensive line. A guy with his size, his athletic ability, we want to get him in there and try to see if he can get better. But, that is up to the player and we have got some other guys that are playing well also, so we will see how it all unfolds over the course of the week.”
(If you guys should win this week, would it be just another victory or as you get later does that first victory become even more significant?) – “My focus is on practice today, getting this team up to speed on how we want to play the game. I think the rest of that kind of takes care of itself. If we do all of the right things, then the results, they take care of themselves. That is kind of my approach and my thought process with this team. Let’s have good meetings, let’s have good walkthroughs, let’s have a good practice, let’s not worry about the end of the game. Let’s worry about today.”
(Do you guys talk about that at any point, like on Sunday or right before a game? The value of a win and what the means to you guys.) – “I think when you start thinking about the end of a game, you just get lost. So it is one play at a time. That is one day at a time, one practice at a time, one really – it is really a minute to minute thing. So, no, I don’t focus on the end of games or anything like that. You have got to go through the process. I think you lose a lot within the process when you start thinking about the end or wins or losses. That’s not really where my focus is. I think if we go through the process and we do it the right way, the results turn out the way we want them. And sometimes they don’t. But you still have got to go through the process. I think if you are focused on anything other than that, then you are not putting your energy in the right places.”
(How was your bye weekend with your wife?) – “Good. We had a good time. (We had a) lot of good family time.”
