Brian Flores – September 25, 2019
Download PDF version
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(To ask what may seem to be an obvious question, is QB Josh Rosen your starting quarterback this week and presumably the foreseeable future?) – “He’ll be the starter this week, for sure. You can write that one down. (laughter)”
(What is your system for challenges? Who’s your eye in the sky and how does all that work?) – “The system starts during the week. I spend a lot of time – a good amount of time – on challenges throughout the league and the way things are being called. Then we’ve got a team of guys up in the booth who have obviously the video footage and are taking a look at it and kind of helping me out as far as the challenges are concerned, rules, etc. We’ve got a pretty good system, I feel. Hopefully as we get into more games – look, at the end of the day, we just want to make the best call and do what’s best for the team because it’s obviously a long process that goes into it, and we just try to do everything possible to get all the right information and make the best call.”
(Do you have any update on S Reshad Jones or WR Albert Wilson? Do you expect either to practice today?) – “I expect to see both of those guys at practice today. Again, they’ve both worked extremely hard to get back and we’ll see. We’re taking it day-to-day. They’ve been out for a little bit, so from a conditioning standpoint, from a communication standpoint, from a technique and fundamental standpoint, there may be a little bit of rust. We’ll try to knock some of that off hopefully in practice.”
(Regarding social media, I know it can be kind of bitter out there. Do you talk to your players about that, and have you talked to them maybe since the second week or last week about not getting caught up in it or anything along those lines?) – “I’m not really on social media, so I don’t really know what’s out there. Again, I tell my guys really the only thing that matters and is important is what happens on the practice field and what’s going on in our meetings, in our walkthroughs. Good, bad or indifferent – it doesn’t matter what anyone else is saying. I think individually, we need to come in, try to improve and get better and nothing that anyone says on social or outside of our building – it really shouldn’t affect anything we’re doing in the building. That’s kind of my message on a daily basis and really a message to myself. It doesn’t matter (whether it’s) good, bad or indifferent, we’re always trying to improve and get better. So that’s really the focus and the message.”
(I feel like every day you try to present to us and I’m assuming to your players the same tone, the same attitude, the same approach. Can you talk about how you’re managing your emotional stability?) – “My entire life I was taught, ‘never get too high, never get too low, you want to stay even.’ I’ve had some highs, I’ve had some lows and I always stay the same. I think that’s the way you have to approach really anything because you’re going to face adversity, you’re going to have success and you don’t want to let success get to your head, and you don’t want to let adversity get you in the tank. I guess that’s how I handle the emotional part of the game. If that makes me ‘emotionless’ – but I just try to stay even.”
(When do you process the pain of the losing? When is your time to process that and flush it?) – “It’s after the game and then the day after, we make the corrections and then we move on. That’s the beauty of the game is we have another opportunity on Sunday against a really good opponent. We get to come back to practice today and try to find a way to win a game, so I’ve moved on. I move on from wins and I move on from losses very quickly. I think when you dwell on either, you just kind of get stuck. I’m always moving forward and improving, and that’s really the message I give to the team, and that’s not just for football. Everyone’s going to face some adversity and hard times and hopefully a lot of successes as well. How you handle both kind of speaks to the kind of person you are. People handle success the wrong ways as well. That’s really my message. I just try to stay even always.”
(How much of an immediate impact do you expect or do you want to get out of T Andrew Donnal?) – “Immediate? (laughter) Well, let’s see if we can get him into practice, get him lined up. We’ll just see how much he can – there’s a lot to digest in a little bit of time. If we can do one or two things or if he can do a lot, then he may be able to help us, but I think this being Day 1 for him, we just need to get him in the huddle, get him aligned and let him know his assignment. We’ll be in pads today and see if he can execute some basic fundamentals and technique and take it from there.”
(How are the linebackers doing so far?) – “I would say as a unit – obviously everything could be better – I think from an alignment, assignment and execution standpoint, there have been some good plays. You see speed and athleticism out of (Jerome) Baker, Sam (Eguavoen), Raekwon (McMillan), guys playing downhill, guys playing hard, guys getting off blocks and making tackles. We just need to see more of that more consistently. I think as a unit, we’re playing okay. It could be better. I would say each one of those guys feels the same way, and we need to do it over 60 minutes. I think there have been spurts of good play, and I think you could say that about really every unit on our team – spurts of good play but we just need to do it more consistently and really over the course of a 60-minute ballgame, not a quarter, not a half, not three quarters but 60 minutes. That’s been another message to the team and hopefully we get there, but it starts in practice.”
(And are the run fits okay?) – “The run fits, there is a lot that goes into it. Setting the edge, run fits inside – inside are we playing the blocks the way we practiced them? I wouldn’t put it solely on the linebackers. Again, it’s a defensive – It’s a team defense and a defensive effort, and again, if one guy is out of his gap, there’s a problem. When you’ve got 11 guys and you’re expecting one guy to be in his gap and he’s not, and you go to your gap, that’s how big plays happen. When you’re playing team defense, when you’re expecting everybody to do their job and one guy doesn’t, we have problems in the run game and the pass game. It’s the same thing offensively and the same thing in the kicking game. We’ve just got to shore that up, and then guys got to defeat a block and make a tackle.”
(Can you talk about Chargers QB Philip Rivers a little bit and the challenges he poses for your defense?) – “Again, he’s one of the top quarterbacks in this league. He’s done it for a long, long time. Very cerebral, great arm, can get them in and out of plays – will get them into the best play. He definitely (has a) perfect play mentality. To him and to that team, they do a really good job from that standpoint. He gets up to the line of scrimmage quickly, he surveys the defense, looks at it. If there is a weak spot, (he) puts them in a play and tries to attack it. That’s hard to defend. They’ve got a lot of good skill players – obviously Keenan Allen, (Austin) Ekeler are guys that have been very productive this year. But, they’ve got obviously a lot of good skill players and it starts with Philip Rivers. (They have a) good o-line. This is a good team – another good quarterback. We’ve got to do a good job really as a total defense. From stopping the run, to rushing the passer, to doing a good job in our zone coverage and playing with good leverage in man coverage, and with our picks and games in the pass rush, we’ve got to execute it correctly. Run fits as we mentioned, everything has got to be spot on. They are going to stress us. That’s what Rivers does. He does a good job putting his team in positions to stress the opponent. They’ve played well this year offensively. It’s a good team.”
(The first red zone drive, QB Josh Rosen came over to you guys on the sideline and kind of signaled that he wanted to go for it on fourth down. Do you like it or do you encourage guys having that confidence in themselves and his teammates to want to go for it on fourth down?) – “Yeah, I love it. We want competitive players. We’ve got a group of competitive guys. We just didn’t feel like that was the right call in that situation. We kind of had a different plan of action, so we moved forward with the field goal. But the fact that he wanted to go for it, I liked that. I want our players to want to go out there and put it in the end zone. We need to do more of that for sure.”
(What did you notice about how QB Josh Rosen reacted, communicated, interacted after some things went wrong?) – “I thought he was good on the sideline. I thought his interactions with his teammates, receivers, line, tight ends, backs were very positive – trying to get guys going. I think he saw, just like a lot of guys saw, there were some plays to be made in that game. That’s good as we move forward to this week in particular. Hopefully there is some confidence that we can get open, we can move the ball offensively and there are some plays out there that we could’ve made and that we did make, and hopefully as we move forward, we continue to improve and do that more consistently. I think that’s kind of – for all of us – coaches, players – that’s what we’re looking for.”
(Did you see during the game any frustration in CB Xavien Howard that might have affected his play, and if so, have you talked to him about that?) – “I mean look, he played against a good player. I think when you have a tough player, yeah there is always frustration. Xavien is very resilient. The kid has been through a lot. He’s a tough kid. He’s very resilient. He definitely has a next-play mentality. What you may see as a frustration on one play and it’s gone the next. That’s what you want out of a corner, specifically one as talented as he is. That, to me, is not anything that’s a red flag or anything. I think he’s – I think Xavien will be good to go. He’s a good player and I think he’ll be ready to go.”
(It’s been a while sense we’ve asked you about CB Cordrea Tankersley or DT Robert Nkemdiche. Are you confident that both of those guys will play at some point in 2019?) – “I know they are both working to get back. They are working extremely hard – both guys. As far as the time table – They are working to get back. If they are healthy enough to get back into practice, I’d love to have them. But right now, I’m not even sure of the exact date – I think it’s October, somewhere in October where they are eligible to come back. Actually it’s October 14th. We’ll see. If they are ready then, great. If not, then we’ll just continue with what we have and hopefully they’re back sooner than later.”
(Are we going to see G/T Jesse Davis working today?) – “Jesse thankfully felt a lot better than Monday and these last couple of days. We’re going to take this thing day-to-day and see how he’s feeling. He’s as tough as they come, so if he can get out there, he will. I know that. He’s one of those guys where you almost – he’ll try to get out there. That’s what you want. That’s what you want out of your offensive line and out of leaders on your team, and he’s certainly that.”
