Clyde Christensen – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(RB Kenyan Drake has the two big runs the last couple of games. How do you view his overall contribution, being able to move the chains, and what do you want from Kenyan?) – “I think when we first talked about him a couple of weeks ago, we just said that both of these guys (Drake and Damien Williams) have a chance to make big plays. They’re home run hitters. They can go at any time and so I’m not surprised. I mean that’s what he’s done. He’s probably one of the highest ratio big plays to snaps (guys), since he’s been here, on the offense. It’s probably not a surprise whatsoever. Those guys have done, him and Damien, have done a great job with that plus the check downs. That’s the other thing that jumps out at me, taking check downs and averaging 8 or 9 yards with those things. That’s big. That’s helped us on third down. That’s helped us shorten our third downs, which has happened the last couple of weeks, and so that part of it’s been really good. They both have exceptional hands and they’re very good with the ball in their hands after the catch.”
(Have RB Kenyan Drake and RB Damien Williams done a good job of moving the chains and keeping drives going?) – “They have. I think they have. I think they have and we’re getting better with the protections and that’s always a challenge for the backs. There’s a ton of schemes, especially all of a sudden when you’re playing every third down and the third downs in this league get complicated. Defenses are darn good at it and the blitz packages are sophisticated. They prey on getting you picked off or showing you something that it isn’t, so I think that will be an experience issue and a concentration issue; but they’re getting better and better at it.”
(Has RB Kenyan Drake done enough to warrant more carries?) – “No. I don’t think so yet. I think we just keep doing it. We keep doing it with the two of them both doing it and we’d love to get him more carries. It’s not that he doesn’t deserve more carries, but I don’t see us changing the formula right now. I do think that keeping him fresh, that helps. It does change it. All of a sudden, if you play an extra 20 snaps … I think we’ve got a luxury that we have confidence. Coach (Head Coach Adam Gase) has confidence in both of those guys. You don’t have to call the game any different when one of them is in than the other, and that helps. I think it will stay the same formula.”
(Several of QB Jay Cutler’s passes in the last game weren’t close. They were well off target, from my perspective. I’m not a coach. When that happens, what does Jay need to be aware of? What are some coaching points to avoid that?) – “Coach (Head Coach Adam Gase) kind of handles Jay (Cutler), but I think he would be the first one to say ‘Hey, I’ve got to hit that. I’ve got to hit that.’ You can’t give away completions. If you get a guy open, it’s hard to get a guy open in this league. If you get him open, we have to hit him and Jay knows that. Just the coaching points, I’ll let Coach (Gase) deal with that just because he’s kind of handling him; but those are big. They’re not small things. There are no small things in this league that all of a sudden a miss, a drop, an offsides, and the drive stops. You don’t recover from the drive and there aren’t enough of those things. You can’t stop drives and that’s probably been, if there’s one issue for us, it’s been that. We’ve had drive stoppers. It’s a holding call, it’s an offsides, it’s a second-and-20, it’s a drop, it’s a third down miss of guy – a miss of guy on the first third down. You don’t get that drive back. They’re crucial and they’re precious. You’ve got to treat them as such.”
(How would you evaluate T Jesse Davis’s first start at right tackle?) – “I thought Jesse did a solid job. I thought for the magnitude of the game and Monday Night Football and being in a different position out there for him, I thought he played solid. I think he would love to have five or six plays back; but overall, I don’t think he was a factor. The game got away from us a little bit in the second half, where you were throwing the ball, and to go zero sacks for the offensive line against a team that always – I think it’s the first … I don’t know that many folks have gone zero sacks on them. If you reach for positives, there is one. There is one that that’s a very good defense and a good rush team and they didn’t sack us. There’s a positive as you look hard for one.”
(I would hate for people to go back and take things I’ve said in the past that haven’t come true; but I want to ask you about WR DeVante Parker because you had such high hopes for him back in the spring. We haven’t seen that dynamic-ism that you were expecting. How do you explain it?) – “I think just the injury; but I think even this morning, we had a good discussion that we’ve got to get him right back to where he was coming out of training camp. I just thought he was so darn hungry. I thought he looked like a guy who wanted to be great and there’s nothing worse than being a receiver and having some nagging injury that you just don’t feel great. I haven’t given up on that. I haven’t changed my opinion of a guy who can be a really, really fine player, and he is still doing some things really well. I do agree with your assessment, that he doesn’t have the edge that he had coming out of training camp; but I think sometimes with those guys who are speed guys and outside guys, that you get a nagging thing and even if it’s little, you just don’t feel 100 percent. I’d say that that’s the reason; but again, there’s still seven more games. We talked about it this morning that we’ve got to get him right back to that level and he still could do some great things before this year is over. He still could make it into a heck of a season.”
(You guys have predominately been more of a zone-blocking scheme type team. Some of your larger runs are gap scheme. Have you guys taken note of that? Is there any thought of doing gap scheme a little bit more?) – “Yes, we talk about it every week, although the 60-plus yarder was a zone scheme this week. So it was zone scheme on the long run; but yes, every week we kind of assess it. Every week it kind of depends on their personnel and the run pod – the run division – looks at that and assesses it, so we’re always constantly talking about that.”
(How did C/G Ted Larsen grade out?) – “Ted was solid. I think (it’s the) same thing, that he wasn’t a huge factor in the game, which is a compliment. I was probably more worried about him than Jesse (Davis) just because you can’t simulate the contact and the physical-ness of playing inside there, and especially with (the Panthers) having such a good inside player (Kawann Short). For him to hold up in there was really good. This time of year, you don’t get many padded practices anymore. You can’t find those days to get him ready physically, so I think if he wasn’t a veteran like he was, that would have been a rough day. For him to go in there and just kind of hold his own and again, the same thing, I think he probably has five or 10 plays that he’d love to have back; but for a guy coming off of IR, that’s a big stage. That’s good inside players, big good inside players (on the other team) and I thought he held his own and did okay. I was encouraged and I think it will get better and better and better – him and Jesse – just the more they settle in there.”
(Earlier you talked about the two running backs’ ability to hit the home run, which I don’t think anybody would say RB Jay Ajayi couldn’t do that.) – “No, I wouldn’t say that.”
(But the criticism was settling for 3 or 4 yards when that was all that there. How do you see these two guys, RB Kenyan Drake and RB Damien Williams, in terms of patience, when there’s only 3 or 4 yards to get?) – “Yes, I think so far so good. I do think even with (Jay) Ajayi that him having those couple a hundred, 200-yard games, all of a sudden you think that’s the norm and that can be a curse sometimes. Just getting back to just settling, just keep pushing pockets, pushing piles for 2-, 3-, 2-, 3-(yard gains) and then all of a sudden it pops. So far so good. I think sometimes that the impatience comes with success or a gross failure, and all of a sudden you’re trying too hard to make something happen; but these guys have been excellent so far and we’ll see. Again, it’s getting their feet wet as starters and regular players in the position, and so I think there’s a ways to go. I do think platooning them maybe helps you too because you stay fresher and sometimes that helps you stay more patient. You don’t go ‘X’ number of plays in a row and start feeling some pressure to hit a grand slam to knock one out of the park.”
(C Mike Pouncey has an extra day of practice. Did you see any tangible results whether it’s communication with C/G Ted Larsen or with the no sacks or anything like that? Or can you measure it like that?) – “I think you can measure it and there were some things we did better; but there were some disappointing things that again we set some people free on some runs where our communication wasn’t up to snuff, and so I don’t think that … I thought it was five steps forward, five steps back kind of. I thought that for everything we improved at, we also again had an issue with communication, and so that’s one of the priorities this week. We have to get the communication right. We have to all be on the same page and then that’s a chance to go do something fast and hard and with leverage and pad level and all of those things, and then this thing will go. But the communication is the starting point. It’s the starting point and there was some improvement in some areas, but there were some disappointing ones also that we should be beyond at this point.”
