Clyde Christensen – December 29, 2016
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Thursday, December 29, 2016
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(I asked Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph about this team statistically. Some of the numbers, the rankings – yardage numbers and things, point differential – are not that impressive. The bottom line is 10-5, could be 11-5 this week. What’s your take on that?) – “Talking about their numbers or our numbers?”
(Comparative. The fact that you’ve barely outscored the opposition, some of the defensive rankings are not very high in the league, some of the offensive numbers are middle of the pack, and yet you’re 10-5.) – “It’s interesting to look at our numbers. You really don’t see an explanation. Probably if you took our numbers after Week 5, then they would be more in line with how we’ve played and (the) winning. It has kind of been funny. I don’t know. We’ve done it the hard way. (Head Coach Adam) Gase is always wanting me to wear the Renegade shirt. I think I’m probably joining the Renegades. I don’t know how we do it. We keep throwing blows and seeing what’s happening. That has been our deal. It hasn’t been the conventional way. It hasn’t been the way any of us have been used to. We have his personality. We go in there and take chances and go and play hard and see what happens at the end of 60 minutes, look up and see what the scoreboard is. I don’t think the numbers do … I do think, probably, we have protected the ball really well during this streak. I’ve said it to you: we were 32nd after Week 5 and now we’ve climbed up. So, we haven’t given away the ball. We have not given away the ball. Jay (Ajayi) has been consistent. We’ve been consistently been able to hammer the ball up in there, and then we’ve also made the big plays. As far as the consistent, top-ranked something, we really aren’t that, which is interesting. These guys (New England) continue to be impressive. Same thing – they do the critical things really, really well plus they have a prolific quarterback who’s on fire this season. Same thing – sometimes a lot of years you look at theirs and go, ‘15th in this, 16th,’ but then all of a sudden they win football games. They do the important things really well.”
(One aspect of the game Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick – we talked yesterday – praised was he said you might be the most explosive team in the league. You guys always seem to get those big plays. It’s WR DeVante Parker breaking a tackle, WR Jarvis Landry running past people, WR Kenny Stills and RB Jay Ajayi. Is that something you can count?) – “Yes and no. Yes, you can count on it in the sense that it keeps happening week after week after week, but they’re not by design. You don’t design it with No. 14 (Jarvis Landry) all of a sudden breaks six tackles and runs for another 20 yards. No. 32 (Kenyan Drake) – we don’t get the point-of-attack blocked and he turns and runs around the end for 45 yards. They’re kind of weird. The same thing, I don’t have an understanding of exactly how we do things other than we keep playing hard; but I think you can count on it in the sense that they keep doing it. They keep breaking tackles. DeVante – that was great to see. To go do that … We’re getting those run after the catches. All of a sudden, Kenny gets behind somebody. They’ve been consistently inconsistent, if you will. I don’t have an explanation for them, but I do count on them, because that’s the way we play and all of a sudden, those things happen. Jay Ajayi is going to bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. It might be a couple games and then all of a sudden he’s going to go for 200 (rushing yards) and pop a couple runs. That has kind of been the story. Even the tight ends. The tight ends all of a sudden … They haven’t had big numbers and then all of a sudden they catch a 50-yarder or so. It really has been one of those seasons.”
(How advantageous is it to not only have three quality wide receivers with WR DeVante Parker, WR Jarvis Landry and WR Kenny Stills, but to have three guys who have different skill sets?) – “It’s good. It’s really good. I still don’t think we’ve hit on all cylinders with all three of those guys. We’ve been consistent. Or when they’re consistent, all of a sudden, we haven’t protected well or something. That’s the encouraging thing that we’ve gone on this streak, but I still think our margin … Usually when you’re doing something you say, ‘Our improvement at this point in the season is going to be really minimal, because you’ve been going for 15 weeks, 16 weeks.’ But I still feel like we haven’t come close to playing as well as we can. We haven’t done everything on the same Sunday. I think there’s still huge room for improvement instead of … Usually at this time you’re saying, ‘Let’s go make two to five percent improvement each week.’ I said I think this group can still make some gigantic improvements health-wise and big-play wise. Those three guys give you … They all do it different ways, and it is all different weeks. Probably the one consistent thing has been Jarvis. Jarvis is going to give us some juice just by his energy and how he does things and running into people. Even when he has a 1-yard gain, sometimes it’s an energy producer, because he puts his helmet underneath the defensive lineman’s facemask or something. He has been the really consistent guy as far as that tempo that he brings and I think does ignite the whole unit. I still think we can be more consistent. I think all three … The neat thing is those three guys all can make big plays. That’s unusual to have three … Usually you don’t have three receivers who can make 50-yard plays. You usually have one, maybe two, one-and-a-half and then you have a couple guys who wallow around in there and make their catches. These three guys can go 50 at any time. They can go 50 with a diagonal. They can go 50 with a hook, break three tackles and go 50. They can run by you for 50. It’s unique how they can get their 50-yard plays. A lot of … There are certain speed burners; they’re going to get theirs all by running by you. These guys do it a different way every single week. DeVante catches a 3-yard gain play and runs for 50-plus yards. Where you’d say, ‘He’s your long strider. He’s going to go down and catch balls.’ That’s good stuff. That is good. I don’t know how you calculate the benefit, but it’s just good. You just have to hang tough and then one of those guys does that and then off we go. We’re kind of streaky that way.”
(When it comes to RB Kenyan Drake, he’s a playmaker. But have you guys adjusted to the idea that he’s not going to always make plays within the construct of the play design itself?) – “Yes, but he’s really gotten more consistent. I’ve really been impressed with him. His consistency is really good. That ball was going to hit right where it should. That thing was going to open up and we just didn’t finish on a block, so it sent him back the other direction; but he was right where he should be, which is what you look for as a coach. You don’t want him, all of a sudden, just anticipating and doing stuff just randomly. But that thing just kind of happened. He was exactly where he should have been. That thing should have been … we should have turned the tackle out and the thing was going to rip through for a 5-10 yard gain, right where it should, and we lost a block late. He ends up spinning out of that thing and just going. I think he’s doing, from a coaching standpoint, he’s really dependable. He’s where he should be. He’s worked hard on his discipline and his steps and all of those things – his kickoff returns, his ball protection, his receiving skills. The hard thing is just getting him in more. We keep coming out of games and he has seven reps on offense or he has nine reps on offense. But when do you pull (Jay) Ajayi? When do you not put ‘26’ (Damien Williams) in there? It’s kind of a good problem to have. He probably warrants more in the game plan, but there is a bunch of them that do. So does Damien. Every time he goes in there, he’s like Jarvis; he’s an instant big play. He just shows up. The big thing would be getting him in there more, but he’s really developing as a disciplined, good football player. He obviously has some great ability to make some plays when they’re not there, but he pounded up in there. In 4-minute, Jay gets banged up a little bit and he goes in there for some really critical carries and just rams the thing up the A-gap for a key first down up there in the fourth quarter of the Buffalo game. I think he’s really developing into a good football player and, certainly from a coaching standpoint, a disciplined one, which is important. He’s not just randomly bouncing all over the place. We’ve been really pleased with him.”
(In your estimation, just how versatile is RB Kenyan Drake?) – “He’s real versatile. I think we probably haven’t seen how good he can be as a receiver. He’s a gifted receiver. He’s really fast. I was teasing him, I got home that night and I thought he was maybe the fastest human being alive and then I watched that Kansas City game and watched that kid (Tyreek Hill) go run. I said, ‘You look slow compared to the guy on TV there.’ (laughter) But he can run, he really can run. The same thing, I don’t think we’ve come close to tapping our potential on what these guys can do, how to use them, when to use them. We just continue to learn about them and they continue to take their role and make their big play. The same thing with him, he ends up with seven plays but two of them are big plays. That’s a great characteristic to have. That big play per snap is huge. That’s a huge ratio and he’s cut out the critical errors and he’s been really good.”
(Your philosophy on playing players this week when you have clinched a playoff berth? Especially those who might be a little banged up?) – “I got a text from (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase the night before and he said we’re going to go play this thing to win. As soon as he said that, then it’s just a one-game season and let’s go try to win this one game like we’ve done all season. It doesn’t matter what my philosophy is. We’re going to go and the guys who can go are going to go and the guys who can’t are not. The next guys will step up and go. It is just like Game 1. It’s just a one-game season like every other game has been. A nameless, faceless opponent, let’s go just try to win one football game.”
(The offensive line seemed to really run block better than they have in weeks. Is that a fair assessment on our part?) – “Yes, I think it is. I think we kind of came out of the thing and said we made an emphasis on getting back to what we did those first weeks and really get running off the ball. (Let’s) take it to them on their side of the line of scrimmage. It just looked different. (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase made a comment in the team meeting that it just looked different. It did. We kind of got some energy. I do think we got healed up a little bit. I also think some adrenaline kicks in at this point in the season and you get your second wind, if you will, at the end of December here, because you are playing some big games. Whatever reason, I think it did look different. It looked like there was an improvement. We felt like we came off the football a lot more like we were doing the first half of a season. So it was a point of emphasis and they responded. I do think that what you saw is true. We did come off the ball the best we had in several weeks.”
(We saw RB Jay Ajayi get a couple 200-yard games going back to Weeks 6 and 7. And then his totals kind of went down steadily for several weeks even though he was still running hard. And then against Buffalo, obviously back to 200 yards. So what changed and what happened in that Buffalo game that you can use going forward?) – “Yes, I don’t know. I do think we were coming off. I do think that nothing’s changed that way. It’s kind of, if you will, you kind of mind, that you just keep digging. You don’t hit gold every single day. There are a couple days where you just keep tunneling, you keep tunneling. Then there are some days where you have a great day and you strike some gold. But it’s not one of those jobs that it happens every time you get the football. You just kind of got to have that mentality that ‘I’m going to tunnel, tunnel, tunnel. I don’t know when I’m going to see the light. I don’t know when the thing is going to pop out. I don’t know when I’m going to hit on something.’ And that’s what he’s done a great job of … Like I mentioned to you last week, I don’t think he’s been up and down. I think he’s been really, really consistent – unbelievably consistent on his run reads, on his effort, on his pounding in there physically. And that’s a great characteristic to have because there are a lot of times there are certain positions – like a receiver – you run 15 times as fast as you can and then a ball comes. But you don’t know when that’s coming. You just have to keep running. That’s the same with running backs. You keep tunneling. You keep going, you keep going and you don’t know when you’re going to see light. You don’t know when you’re going to strike, and he’s done a great job of that. That’s what you look for. A lot of guys can’t do that. They get discouraged or start trying to make something happen on every single run. He has not done that. Why at Buffalo? I don’t know. Maybe percentages. We were due, right? He had been pounding and pounding and pounding and all of a sudden, bang. It hits, right in the nick of time there, right when we needed one. So that was good. That was great for us.”
(How critical is it for you to have that level of production the playoffs to get to where you want to go? – “Really critical. We’re at our best when he’s running hard and we can play action off of it and we’re protecting the ball and keeping the third downs manageable. We’re not in those third and really longs. I think it’s really critical. It’s not fatal for us. We’ve proven that there are days where we can’t run the ball and we can throw the ball and win football games. So I think that’s one of the good things about us. Those three wide outs, they go into Buffalo and they do a great job going down there and rooting out safeties, and it’s kind of grimy day, if you will, to be a wide out – to go to Buffalo and have all those runs. It was kind of a grimy outing for them, if you will – forearm pads, neck roll and the whole deal. But the Jets game, it was opposite. It was kind of fast-break offense, if you will. So I think that’s a good characteristic to have. We’ve proven we can play either kind of game and they’ve kind of just fallen. I couldn’t tell you how it’s going to fall this week. This isn’t one of those teams that you can predict. ‘Hey, we’re going to run it twice, third down we’re going to convert it…’ It’s not one of those things. It can be a … I don’t know who’s going to go off. I hope all of them at the same time but it’s kind of been different people, different ways each week. So we can’t be too predictable because I don’t know what’s going to happen so that’s a good … We don’t have any tendencies that way. If we do, I’ve missed them.”
(The Bills added another linebacker in at safety and they still couldn’t stop you guys. How good does that feel?) – “It’s a good feeling when you run the ball and they got their 4-4, the four down (linemen) and four linebackers in there and they said, ‘Hey, you’re not running the ball,’ and then you run the ball. That’s a great feeling. That’s a great feeling. They’re a good run defense. They’re a good, physical, big bunch. So they’re a good football team. That was really big. You just don’t know. That’s the kind of … What I’m trying to get across is it’s weird. You just keep pounding. The time you don’t have a chance is when you don’t keep pounding and you don’t take care of business then it doesn’t have chance because that extra guy is in there. That was big. That’s a good feeling. It’s a good feeling to go into Buffalo and win a tough, hard-nosed, grimy game like that. That’s going to pay dividends to do that in December on the road, inclement (weather) sort of. Those are good deposits to put in the bank because you’re going to need them somewhere if you’re going to go very far.”
(After RB Lamar Miller left, obviously there were discussions with veteran backs and the question for the front office and Head Coach Adam Gase for a couple of months was, ‘Do we need a veteran back?’ RB Arian Foster came and retired. Has what you gotten from the three young backs wildly exceeded all your expectations on what you could have thought when you were sitting in May saying, ‘If we just go with RB Jay Ajayi, RB Damien Williams and RB Kenyan Drake, is that good enough?’) – “Yes. I think the answer is yes. It would wildly exceed … I wasn’t sure. I think we all made an effort to keep Lamar here. He’s really, really a good football player. A guy didn’t … Being new, a new staff. He’s one of the few home run hitters in this league that can go (the distance). So I do think that no one really knew. No one knew what … I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted what Jay has done this year and the seasons that he’s had. Damien was a little bit like Matt. His film was really good. His film was really, really good. But you had (Isaiah) Pead. You almost had too many. Then you add Arian (Foster) to the mix and what does he do well? We probably, by elimination, it got clearer. That kind of ended up being a positive. I think we came out of the preseason and offseason and OTAs kind of going, ‘Gosh. We have six guys and all six guys had a different profile, if you will.’ That’s a hard way to play. So I do think that … I was looking at this game when we went up there last time, Jay wasn’t even really the starter. Jay wasn’t the starter. Jay came in he had the fumble, and so, even in this season, at that point, we still kind of were like, ‘What’s Arian? Is he going to be healthy? What’s Jay?’ We had a couple of guys suspended at that point. All of those things. It really feels like three years ago we played these guys, and a lot has happened, but I do think that the reduction has made it clearer and giving those guys a chance. And it’s still hard to get them reps. Kenyan’s a good example. It’s hard to get them into 20 rep-wise in a game. His ability and production would warrant it, but those guys in front of him have done a great job too, and then he’s picked it up on the special teams. Him and Damien have been, that’s where they’re so valuable. They’re a two and a three (on the depth chart), but they give us big plays on offense; they give us a toughness on offense – running the ball, protecting, and they give us consistency in the special teams and they’ve given us big plays in the special teams. So that’s exactly what you need out of that two and three slot out of the running back. It’s hard to get. You kind of have someone who doesn’t play special teams and then it gets all out of whack. Those guys have contributed. You’d have to watch all the film and say, ‘Man, oh man. What a year Kenyan Drake’s had. What a year Damien Williams has had.’ Every week we give out a ‘War Daddy’ t-shirt. Damien is getting it on offense, on special teams and that’s great stuff. That’s why you do go on a little streak and win some games, because you have guys like that who keep doing what you give them to do. It’s all different things. It’s holding up on punts. It’s getting a third-and-1 and scoring a touchdown. It’s taking a third down and running over the corner, spinning and going 50 (yards) with it. There are not that many guys who do that many different things like Damien does. So that’s really, really … He won’t get the credit for what kind of year he’s really had. It’s been magnificent. He’s really had a great year and you’d have to dig deep to find out everything he’s contributed. It’s good stuff. Good stuff.”
(What can be taken away from the interception that occurred shortly before halftime?) – “What can be taken away? We don’t want to do that ever again. (laughter) We don’t want to do that ever again. That was a bad interception. That took three (points) off the board. I was sitting there thinking we’ve put such a stress on it, and then Matt (Moore) knew it as soon as it left his hands. The thing you do take away is you’ve got to stay aggressive and that stuff is going to … This isn’t a game of perfect. He’s going to, he’s going to … He was being aggressive and we’d rather not do that. All of a sudden I’m looking at that game and all of a sudden we’re going to lose that game by three points and that’s the three that we left on the field at the end of the half. Those are the things that bite you in the rear. So it’s no small thing, but again, you have to overcome some of those. I think he’d be the first to tell you ‘Gosh, I made a big mistake.’ We threw it to the guy we really were reading. We don’t want to do that ever again. We want to just not do that ever again.”
(What does a player have to do to win a War Daddy t-shirt?) – “Yes, that’s … I don’t know, I don’t know. It’s just kind of subjective, but what we look for is just an effort and a level of playing for the whole game that is above and beyond, that he plays physical, that he really is a guy who just sold out at whatever role we gave them – kind of how I just described Damien (Williams) The reason for it is this: you might be the left guard and you come out of the game and you have no touches, you’ve got no carries, you’ve got no interceptions, and no tackles; but you laid it on the line for 75 snaps in there. That’s a way to honor those guys that maybe the numbers don’t show up on the stat sheet – (Jermon) Bushrod didn’t show up on the stat sheet this week for anything – but really played really good football, and was really physical in there. It would be a way to honor those guys. It’s easy for the quarterback to show up and get his accolades and stuff. But some of those guys who are holding up the center on punt return, and doubling up the gunner on punt return, those kind of guys, it’s a way that we honor them and just put a premium on team football. That’s kind of what that is for us.”
(Are you sure you don’t want to do those interceptions again?) – “No, no. That was our last one. We got it out of our system.”
