Brian Flores – September 30, 2019
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Monday, September 30, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Now you’ve got two weeks here. What do you want the mood of your team to be this week?) – “Always positive and upbeat. I think there’s obviously some disappointment with the way we started, but I always want our team to move on and really look towards the next day and the next challenge. I think they’ll do that, but obviously there’s some disappointment in that locker room kind of reflecting on the first four weeks of the season and really the last couple weeks where I think we can all feel some improvement and feel some opportunity and feel some possibility of things going a different way and when they don’t turn out the way you want them, there’s some disappointment; but always upbeat and always positive. That’s what I’m looking for out of this group. To go the other way, it helps no one.”
(Do you think things are trending in the right direction for you?) – “I would say there’s some improvement. ‘Trending the right way’ – I don’t know if that’s the phrase I would use. At the end of the day, this is a production business. It’s about wins and losses, and we’re not doing very well in that department. I think there’s some individual improvement, some improvement within groups, improvement for a half, good play for a half; but it’s a 60-minute ballgame, and we’ve got to find a way to put a 60-minute game together – not a 30-minute game, not a 40-minute game, not a 10-minute game. A 60-minute game. That’s where our focus will be.”
(Do you split the season into quarters, and if so, how would you evaluate the first quarter?) – “Yeah, it’s easy to do that with 16 games where you split it into quarters. The first quarter I would say not so good. I would say we made a lot of changes to the roster, (we were) kind of building the team on the fly in a lot of ways, but we’re not going to make excuses about that. We try to put the guys in the best positions to play well, but at the same time trying to build a team and build some camaraderie and build some communication and build some rapport. I think that’s been a big part of these first four weeks. I think that’s trending in the right direction as far as the team coming together, getting to know each other and building relationships in the locker room, off the field, on the field. That to me is very, very important on a team. I think from that standpoint, there have been some positives, but on the field, we’ve got a long way to go. I think they know that. I think specifically over the last two weeks, there have been some positives or more positives than there were the first two weeks but still not good enough. The first quarter of the season is over and we just move onto the next part of the season.”
(I guess that being said, what would be your No. 1 goal for your team and what you want to see in the second quarter of the season?) – “Putting a full game together. That would be my No. 1 goal. You’ve always got to do that one play at a time, one practice at a time, but we’ve got to string more plays together more consistently. That’s everybody. That’s players, coaches – it’s everyone. We’ve got to string the whole thing together. I would start right there. There’s a lot that goes into that – coaching, execution, fundamentals, conditioning. There’s a lot that goes into that. I think that’s my No. 1 goal.”
(Aside from effort and attitude, what do you see as the positives from the first quarter of the season?) – “I would say communication has definitely improved offensively, defensively and in the kicking game over the first four games. I would say offensively, our execution – obviously, we were better on third down yesterday than we’ve been, which allowed us to sustain some drives, put the ball in the end zone. We had another opportunity to put it in the end zone. We didn’t. Defensively, I think we didn’t tackle well, then we did tackle well and yesterday we didn’t tackle well. There’s some inconsistency there, so we need to continue to just focus on that. We didn’t defend the deep part of the field well early. Then we did. Yesterday it was a little bit of the intermediate pass game that kind of got us. We’ve just got to play a little bit more consistently. Our opponents – there’s a lot of good coaching in this league, and they do a good job of trying to attack your weaknesses. If you’re taking something away, they’ll try to – we took away a lot of over-outs. They checked it down, and then we couldn’t tackle. There’s just a myriad of things that go on within the game. We’ve got to be able to handle it all. You’re not going to take everything away, but you want to kind of play the way you want to play. If you’re giving something up, or if they catch you in the area where you’re a little bit weak, you need to understand that and do everything you can to limit the bad plays.”
(You had a bunch of guys that were questionable on Friday and didn’t end up being up – S Bobby McCain, WR Albert Wilson and G/T Jesse Davis. The thinking on those three and now you have two weeks. Do you anticipate CB Jomal Wiltz, WR Jakeem Grant, all these guys who are dealing with these little things…) – “I would say those guys – they wanted to play, each one of them. They fought their way into getting into practice and trying to go, and at the end of the day, we just felt like it was the best decision for them individually and us as a team not to play them.”
(And you’re optimistic that a lot of these are doing well?) – “I am. I would say yeah, I’m optimistic that those guys will be out there next time out.”
(When you look at these past four games, how would you assess the performance of the running backs, and do you have some clarity as to where you want to go from here with those four guys?) – “I think we’ve got three guys – four including (Patrick) Laird – who are all different, all have had moments of production. I thought we ran it better than we have yesterday. The offensive line played well. They were tough. They were physical. They did a good job moving a good defensive line. We had some opportunities in the run game. We had a big run early that got brought back because of a penalty. Again, that’s one of those things where if we just get lined up right, we’ve got a 30-yard play. If we don’t, we don’t (have a 30-yard) play, so we lose that. I think (Kenyan) Drake – I think he’s been productive. He ran hard yesterday. We’ve got to do a better job of ball security. That’s two weeks in a row where we’ve lost one. I think (Kalen) Ballage – he runs hard. He had a run called back as well yesterday with a holding penalty. Mark (Walton) – I thought he went in there and ran well yesterday. He’s caught the ball well and done some good things. I think Patrick has done a good job in the kicking game. I like our backs. Again, we’ll do a lot of evaluating. We’ll evaluate the entire team and try to find a way to get them all out there but get the guys we want out there in specific situations.”
(How would you evaluate DE Taco Charlton’s first two games?) – “I think he’s still learning the defense for sure. There were some instances there where he was a little bit out of position. He’s a hard-working kid. I like him. I think he brings energy. He’s got length. He’s got toughness. He’s got a long way to go from a pass-rush standpoint as far as using his length, using his speed, using his ability and putting it all together; but I think there’s a lot of potential here and we’ll just keep working him. He had a couple of good rushes yesterday and a couple of not-so-good rushes. We’ll just keep working. I think he’ll help us.”
(You had some other guys in that mix, too – DE Avery Moss, DT John Jenkins, LB Vince Biegel, LB Trent Harris – what are some things you’re liking from those other guys?) – “(Avery) Moss – I think he’s really shown up the last couple weeks in a positive way. From a run standpoint, he’s playing with the right techniques. I’m thinking of a play last week against Dallas. They’ve obviously got the big offensive line. He had a couple good plays against (them). They’ve got two good tackles. He played well there. (John) Jenkins does a good job holding the point in the run game. Trent (Harris) has done a good job on the edge and does a good job with communication. (Vince) Biegel – he’s a ball of energy. I think all of them are still finding their way within the scheme, and they’re really finding the way within the building to be honest with you. I think that group’s starting to come together. They’re working to come together, and you see flashes and spurts of a unit playing well together, and hopefully we can just continue to improve, get better and build that rapport and we can start to play more consistently.”
(Going back and watching the game today, it looked like you were fired up with DT Christian Wilkins after the penalty?) – “Yeah, I mean – Look, it’s 10-10. I think we just missed a field goal. We were right in it. We don’t need those. He knows that. I think everybody on the team knows that. I thought it was a bad penalty. We show plays like that on a weekly basis: ‘This is what we’re not going to do,’ and we do it. I love Christian. He knows that. I’m going to coach him hard, especially a kid like this who has so much ability and leadership potential. I think he’s going to be here a long time and be the face of what we want to be about, and that’s not it. He knows that. Everybody on the team knows that. I was upset and I’m still upset, but it’s football. You kind of get over things quickly.”
(K Jason Sanders is 1-of-3 on field goal attempts of 50-plus. How do you view that? That’s a tough distance but maybe a makeable distance.) – “He’s a good kicker. He can make these kicks. I have a lot of confidence in him. I still do. I just said that in front of the entire team. We’ll keep kicking them and he’ll make them. I have a lot of confidence in him. He makes them in practice day after day after day after day. I think he’ll be just fine.”
(It’s your bye week. How much rest will you take away from this place and kind of de-compress?) – “Me personally or the team?”
(You personally.) – “I think my wife has something planned, so whatever she says we’ll do. (laughter) But if it’s up to me, I’ll be in here. It probably won’t be up to me. (laughter)”
(Earlier you were talking about improvement, especially after these past couple of games. I’ll put you on the spot here: when you think of guys who are most improved since training camp began, who are a couple of guys who come to mind for you?) – “Training camp?”
(Training camp or the beginning of the season.) – “Well, the first guy that came to mind was Avery Moss. He’s a guy who has improved since he’s gotten here. Obviously he wasn’t here during training camp. For a guy from training camp, a guy like (Michael) Deiter. He’s a guy who has really made a lot of improvements over the course of – really, since he got here. The guy ended up playing tackle last week and played guard, played well yesterday. If you go back to the first preseason game when the lights came on and there was some movement, he looked like a deer in headlights. Now he’s out here playing tackle against the Dallas Cowboys in a hostile environment and he didn’t bat an eye. I think we’ve got a lot of guys who have made a lot of improvement. It’s a young team. We’ve got a long way to go. I think there is a – you have to learn how to be a professional as a young player. That’s something that we talk about on a daily basis. These guys are doing that. I think he’d be at the forefront. Christian (Wilkins) as well. I think I would say I’ve definitely seen improvement from guys like that – Avery Moss, etc.”
