Clyde Christensen – November 10, 2017
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Friday, November 10, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(How did the two-running-back system work for you last week?) – “I thought they did a good job. We had the fumble – which was a huge play in the game – that we can’t have. It was a huge play in the game – a big swing. I think it was good because it kept the numbers reasonable for them. I think it would have been a big load for any of them to take completely themselves. We’re better off when there is both of them. We probably need to get the third guy (Senorise Perry) working a little bit. Just percentages say it’s hard to make it through a whole half of a season with two guys not having an incident or two – a hiccup or two. I thought it worked out well. They’re good that way.”
(When you say the third guy, do you mean RB Senorise Perry?) – “Yes. I think we just have to have him ready to go also. You just don’t know. All of a sudden he’s two snaps away. The thing that makes it a little interesting is those two guys (Kenyan Drake and Damien Williams) are such key special teams players. They’ve had their reps cut down on special teams but they’re still special teams players, so you can lose them on the opening kickoff. You can lose them somewhere in the special teams game. The third guy is important also. Senorise is coming on. He’s working hard. He knows that he’s in the bullpen, so to speak, and better be ready to go.”
(You could have on Monday one offensive lineman, C/G Ted Larsen, that hasn’t played a down all season starting against a very good defense. You could have another playing a position he’s never started at in the league in G/T Jesse Davis. How worried are you?) – “I don’t know if worried is the right word but it’s not ideal. It’s just the way the league is right now, just with all of these injuries. The good thing is we played Jesse Davis all over the place. I remember talking to you guys about that we probably hurt the kid as far as his progressing (by playing him at a lot of different positions) probably is now an advantage. All of a sudden, now he’s going to have to play some tackle and do some stuff like that. These guys always amaze me that veteran guys come back and get it back quickly. I hope that will be the case with Ted. The same thing, it trickles all the way down. You’ll have Sam (Young) and some other guys who have to be ready to go too, that everyone moves up a slot.”
(Where is your confidence level that G/T Jesse Davis could start for a good portion of the season at tackle?) – “It’s high. You’d rather go the whole year or go three years without having an inexperienced guy starting for half of the season. Ideally from a coaching standpoint, you’d like to have veteran guys and veteran backups and guys with experience; but I just think the league, the way it is now with the injuries, with the roster, with the salary cap and all of those things, you’re going to have to depend on some guys who don’t have a ton of reps under their belt. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t happen; but in the real world, it’s happening every day all around the league. That’s the case.”
(Anything in particular about G/T Jesse Davis’ skill set that you like?) – “Yes, he’s long. He’s a conscientious guy. Football means a lot to him. Skill set wise, he’s a big, long guy. I do think he’s suited to play tackle. I do think his skill set – as far as being versatile and having played a ton of positions, a ton of different places and a ton of different practices and games – is probably going to be to his advantage. I wish we had a couple of JV games here first before we go play on Monday Night Football, that we could slip him into the JV game tomorrow afternoon and let him get a little experience before the varsity game; but we can’t. (laughter) That’s the deal.”
(QB Jay Cutler had statistically his best game of the season last week. Was it actually his best game of the season?) – “I think it probably was, yes. He looked comfortable. He threw the ball accurately – more accurately. He protected the ball. He was extremely prudent with the ball. We all thought that he looked comfortable. I think some of it probably is that he’s getting more and more comfortable. If we can keep the arrow going up that way, that would be huge. We didn’t have the drops. We caught the ball. I thought there were some positive things. It was a no-interception game. I don’t know that there was a ball that was close to being intercepted. That’s huge for us. That’s huge. All of a sudden now, then a fumble shows up and I won’t say it lost the game, but those are tight games with tight margins and that’s a big one.”
(How much do you think the pass catching of the running backs has helped QB Jay Cutler and the offense evolve?) – “For the one game that we’ve been doing it, a lot. The check downs … I think the backs caught 12 balls, is that right? They caught 12 balls and I don’t know what the average was…”
(It was 82 yards.) – “So they were 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, 10-yard plays. That’s huge. That’s huge to be able to check the thing down, especially in that game where they were hurt in the secondary and it turned to kind of a zone game. To be able to hit those guys and then be able to turn them up and run with them is really big. That touchdown was an extra effort … Damien (Williams) with the extra effort and stuff. Those are really big. The one thing we do know about these two backs is that they’re exceptional, they have exceptional receiving skills. They’re very good receivers and they have a big-play ability in them. They have a knack for making big plays and hopefully with their numbers being up, their ratios will stay the same and they’ll make more big plays because they’re playing more snaps.”
(Are you seeing anything different from TE Julius Thomas the past couple of weeks?) – “Yes, I think his production is up and that always makes you a little more confident and gets the quarterback looking over there a little bit more. I do think his confidence is up. I don’t know that there is anything specific but it’s amazing how when you get feeling it, you just look better and have a little more bounce in your step, and practice … Everything looks a little bit better. I do think that’s been good for us, just for him to get a little bit of confidence.”
(Where does WR Jarvis Landry fall? I know you’ve coached a lot of good receivers. Where does he fall in that category?) – “I don’t know. He’s a good player. He’s having an extremely productive year. I know this, he’s a tough guy. Reggie Wayne was an extremely tough guy. Pierre Garcon was a tough guy. This guy is a tough guy. It’s always amazing. It’s fun to have a receiver who likes contact, who likes to mix it up in there. Those guys aren’t all over the place. He’s unique that way. He’s got elite hands. His hands amaze me. Every day in practice he does something that has a ‘wow factor’ to it, just how good of hands he has. I do think he’s a good football player.”
(Your tackles have faced some good pass rushers – Melvin Ingram, Khalil Mack – you’ve got a couple of good ones this week. How have they done as a group, whether it’s T Sam Young or T Ja’Wuan James with T Laremy Tunsil?) – “I would use the same word that we’ve been inconsistent. We’ve done well at times and then we’ve been loose at times. I don’t think it’s been just whiffs, but we’ve been too loose. We’ve just been inconsistent. We’ve got to find more consistency in the protection unit and in the offensive line. You sure can’t get whatever it was – five holding calls. That’s hard. That makes for a hard (game). You’re not going to beat many teams like that where you’re first-and-20 or second-and-20. Then we had the huge callback of a couple of big plays. Was it fourth or third down … The fourth-and-9 I guess gets called back that’s a conversion. That’s a huge play because that’s a minute and a half of clock. If you go down and score right there, you’ve got some time outs left and you’ve got more time on the clock. The other one that went down inside the 15 is a 20-plus-yard play that got called back. That’s bad ball. That’s bad football. We have to eliminate it. You can’t get where we want to go and play bad football.”
(When you look at WR Jarvis Landry’s production, he’s averaging 7 yards a catch, which is like 5 yards less than he did last year. Why do you think that is?) – “I don’t know. I don’t have something that just hits me specifically. Sometimes it’s just the way it falls and all of a sudden … I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for you on that.”
(When you look at the Panthers defense on film, what is it that stands out and what do they do really well?) – “Here are a couple of things that stand out: 1) We pulled out some film of watching practice with them two years ago and it’s the same defense and many of the same players. I’ve always had a special respect for people who keep things the same. They keep the same system, they keep the same coaches for the most part – they hired from within on the defensive staff. They’ve been doing it a long time with a lot of the same players – the same key players – so I think that’s the first thing that jumps out is that they know what they’re doing. They’re a very, very good team defense. They’re very well coached. They know how to adjust. They’re aggressive. Now you plug in that they have some really, really good players – a premier guy up front, a couple of premier guys in the middle and a couple of premier guys in the back. They’re very talented to go with their experience, which is a great formula for success, which they’re having. They’re the No. 1 defense in the league and they’re playing extremely, extremely well. It’s a good challenge, a good challenge on a third national TV game in a row. We have to prove we can win one. This is the kind of game that if you want to get where we want to go, you’ve got to go win one of these games in a prime time, (against a) prime team and a team that’s playing extremely well. This is a big game.”
