Chan Gailey – November 24, 2020
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Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey
(What burden of the six sacks, what burden of the responsibility do you think the quarterback has in some of those, and what is QB Tua Tagovailoa being told in general about not holding the ball?) – “There is a fine line in there. Sometimes you can hold it longer than you should, and it’s easy to say ‘oh, you should’ve thrown it.’ But he’s seeing things and he’s looking for things. Part of that is on receivers. We have to do a better job of getting open at times and beating coverage. I’ve got to do a better job calling plays where he doesn’t have to stand there and hold it, waiting for the guys to get down the field. It’s a combination. Sometimes it’s missed blocks or poor technique, it’s bad calls, it’s him standing there and trying to see everything and figure it out. We’ve just got to get better overall with that whole process. It hadn’t been an issue. This week was the first time it really was an issue. Hopefully we learned from that and we don’t let that become an issue anymore.”
(It seemed the Broncos had a pretty good key on your tendencies this last week. When they key into a game plan to affectively shut you down early, what adjustments did you make and were those adjustments enough?) – “Well, we felt like we had to change from the original thought process and go to a little bit more spread out stuff, and that’s what we ended up doing to move the ball a little bit more, get into a little bit more play-action type stuff. We were able to get a few things in there, but the problem is consistency. We’ve got to be able to move the ball with consistency. We’ve got to be able to run it better. We’ve got to be able to see what we’re getting defensively and throw the football effectively as well. We’ve got to be able to adjust, and that’s my job.”
(I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on the slot position. I know there has been an evolution about the position in recent years with what the Patriots have done. Do you believe that the slot receiver is a specific position or can you have any wide receiver play it?) – “I think that there are people better suited probably in the slot, but it’s what you ask them to do that’s the key. If you ask them to be that quick, short route, all of that kind of stuff, then it does take a certain person. If you’re talking about affecting zone coverage, getting into the deep creases and things like that, it’s a different kind of guy. I think that’s overstated just a little bit, that somebody is a slot receiver. I think good players can play in a lot of different places.”
(Do you feel like you’ve seen improvement in the running game over the course of this season?) – “There have been spurts. We go to some games, we run it better than others. Then some people say we’re going to put big people in there and not let you run it. That’s where we have to do a better job of countering that with the passing game when they do that. If they want to drop eight every time, they can take away a lot of your passing game. If they want to put big people, seven or eight people, up towards the line, they can take away your running game. As an offense, you just have to be good enough to counter what they do, and be able to adjust to take advantage of what they are doing. I still like to keep trying to run the football because I think you need that balance in there. Sometimes it’s just not as productive as it needs to be. We have to find different ways to maybe get that done.”
(I wanted to ask you something about what QB Tua Tagovailoa said on Sunday that was interesting. He said sometimes he sees guys as covered when they are not necessarily covered, and QB Ryan Fitzpatrick tells him just to get the completions. I wanted to get your view as to what maybe he’s seeing as far as guys being covered or not covered, and what you tell him about that.) – “It depends on who we are talking about. If a guy’s on the back hip of DeVante Parker, sometimes he’s not covered. You can throw it and he can make a play. If they are on the back hip of some other receiver, they might be covered. I think it depends on the player. I think it depends on the DB. Is that a rookie out there that doesn’t have speed, and he’s even with somebody but we’re getting ready to burst away? I believe all of this comes with experience. To be able to go out there and see a guy – ‘ok, he’s even but he’s open. Well, this guy is even, but he might not be open.’ I think you have to just keep working with the receivers, you have to keep working with the routes and you have to see it time, after time, after time to know this guy is going to come open, I just have to throw it in a spot and let him go get it. Then other times, don’t try to force the ball. That’ a fine line. That’s talking out of both sides of your mouth as an offensive coordinator. If it’s complete, great job. If it’s incomplete, poor decision, you shouldn’t have thrown it. That’s easy to say. We just have to help him get more comfortable with seeing things, more reps at it and let him keep learning and getting better because if he knows that’s something that he’s looking at, that’s an advantage for us because at least he knows. There are some guys that don’t even know that.”
(Win or lose, you know that football is not static. Where are you seeing improvements in the offense across the board?) – “The problem right now is that it’s sporadic. We go to Arizona, we play pretty good. We come out the next week, we play average. We don’t play good at all this past week. We are inconsistent. There are some improvements. We’ve got to get better at keeping people off balance. That’s a part of what I’ve got to do is keeping them off balance. We’ve got to continue to grow with the people that we have. We’ve got to continue to work with those guys and get them in a position to be successful.”
