Clyde Christensen – November 30, 2017
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Thursday, November 30, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(Have you gotten any briefing on TE A.J. Derby as far as what the front liked about him?) – “Very minimal. Very minimal. It happened late yesterday so I don’t know much about him and obviously just trust the personnel guys. Actually I haven’t even watched the tape they’ve made up of him, so I have not seen him.”
(I know you’ve commended C Mike Pouncey this year saying he’s been the best linemen. Head Coach Adam Gase has as well. From a run blocking standpoint, have you seen any diminishment at all from last year to this?) – “I have not. No, I think probably the opposite. I think it’s been better and of course he’s been in there more, which is the best news of them all is that we’ve had him available and that he stayed healthy. So that’s been great. There’s been a consistency there, especially given how the quarterback things have gone. I think that has given us a chance. At least you do have a stability right there at the control center, if you will.”
(You obviously have five more games to evaluate G/T Jesse Davis. Potentially, I guess it would depend obviously on who’s available and whether you need T Sam Young or not; but do you have a feel yet as to where Jesse’s better – tackle or guard?) – “That’s a great question. I really don’t. He’s long. He’s a big long guy and you know and he’s a big long guy, which your first thought would be tackle; but his versatility, that will help. That will be a la (Laremy) Tunsil last year. I do think there is a long-term benefit. There’s a short-term setback but a long term benefit to having him play both and kind of seeing how that whole thing works. I don’t know which is better. We haven’t left him at any spot long enough to see. We haven’t had a long enough evaluation at one spot. Hopefully we’ll get that at some point.”
(What are RB De’Veon Smith’s strengths?) – “Tough guy. He’s stayed engaged. I’ve been impressed with him. You just see him on look team where you’re running off a card, etc. But you do watch him and being engaged would be his strength. I think he’s a tough guy. Yesterday he got in there and mixed it up and got into a couple of little tussles. I do think he does bring an attitude. Football means a lot to him and probably that’s his best trait and probably the number one trait I kind of value – that football means something to you. So I think that’s the biggest thing. I think he will give us a little toughness and leverage. He’s a low, hard-nosed guy, and it will be that kind of game. These guys are thumpers. These guys thump and I think he … I would look at him as more of a thumper than he is a finesse guy. It should be his kind of game.”
(Obviously this offense hasn’t reached the level that any would have hoped this year.) – “That’s right.”
(What have you specifically done to try to get this fixed? I know Head Coach Adam Gase calls the plays but you, what do you take on yourself to get this thing right?) – “Yes, as always just to be a support and just to tie it all together for … Adam has a trillion things going on and my role would be more probably to tie it together staff-wise to try and … That would be the biggest thing. If you said specifically, it’s probably been just trying to tie run, pass, play action and some of those things together, and just keep everyone moving in the same direction trying in a cheerleader manner, just keeping people encouraged and working hard. There’s a long way to go and we’re contracted to play 16 and that’s what we’re going to do. Anything less would be unacceptable and we just keep playing. You just keep playing. You keep working on improving. So I’m probably … I always tease I’m the village idiot who just keeps giving the same message over and over and over again that in the center of the town square there, that you just playing, you just keep working and who knows? We look up at the end and see what happened. A five-game losing streak and what now? So what? What now? We’ve got the next game coming up. I probably would see myself that one of my roles has been just to just keep the message right out in front, that it’s still about leverage, it’s still about hitting, it’s still about not getting out-hit and all of those … It’s still about fundamentals and techniques. It’s still about all of those things.”
(How frustrating has this year been to you personally?) – “I think it’s been extremely frustrating just because there’s been no rhythm to it in any way – not weekly schedule-wise, not personnel-wise, not quarterback-wise, not success-wise. There hasn’t been a consistent level of success. There hasn’t even been geographic consistency, just as far as just being in a spot. I think it has been frustrating. I think it’s been frustrating for everybody and there’s nothing fun about losing and we’ve said that to the team. You should have a little attitude on you. We should have a little attitude about us that it’s frustrating and you’re annoyed and you keep going; but you do have to keep going. It has to feed having the right attitude of just turning it somewhere, somehow, we’ve got to get one win, which I know has been (Head Coach) Adam (Gase)’s theme too, and it’s the truth. Just go find one win and then we’ll look at next week then.”
(What is your comfort level when it comes to RB Kenyan Drake’s ability to handle the increased work load?) – “It’s solid. I mean you can’t lay the ball on the ground. He knows that. We know that. So that would probably be the thing right now so far, to keep it from just having complete confidence. I have a lot of confidence in him as a kid. I have a lot of confidence in him ability-wise, but I told you when he went into the starting role, the playing role, that’s a whole different game when you’re getting thumped and you’re the guy and all of a sudden you’ve played three weeks in a row and your body’s sore and can you take the pounding? Can you hold onto the football and all those things? I think even now it will go up another notch. Now there’ll be a feeding frenzy. He’s laid a couple of balls on the ground. They got the ball out. That tends to lead to everyone comes after it. He’s probably more sore than he’s ever been and now with Damien (Williams) down, he’ll get a bigger work load. I think this will be a great challenge for him and I have a high level of confidence in him; but he’s got to go do it. He’s got to go do it. It’s not an easy job. It’s a hard job. These guys are, as I’ve said, these guys are big physical guys who run and hit and thrive on that, so it will be a heck of a challenge for him. It should be a great chance for him to make a statement about what he’s about. (It’s a) great opportunity for him and we’ll need him to play way.”
(Has the fact that WR DeVante Parker hasn’t taken another step this year has it left you puzzled?) – “No, because of just the injury. I mean its left me frustrated and kind of hurting for the kid. You just want these guys to be healthy and have a chance to do what they do, and show what they can do. I know he’s frustrated and probably I would share his frustration; but not puzzled, because I don’t think it’s one of those where he’s healthy and it just hasn’t happened for him. I think it’s clearly been more of a case of him not being 100 percent. Now some of the technique things and the drops, that can’t happen; but the same thing. It’s not puzzling. It can’t happen.”
(Did you see the interception before the half?) – “Yes.”
(How did you see the interception before the half?) – “How did I see it? I saw it as you’d love to throw the ball out there further. I’d love for him to break the thing up. I’d love for it to be an us or nobody ball out of Matt (Moore). I’d love for DeVante (Parker) to make sure it doesn’t get picked and for everyone to understand we’ve got to get three points at the end of the … that we’ve got to have those three points. Those are huge points and it’s happened a couple of times this year and you need the points, which ended up being the case. You need the momentum going into halftime. You sure don’t need to go in absolutely deflated, where you just took points off the board at the end of the half, and we’ve had a couple of good 2-minute drives at the end of the half that we haven’t finished, and I think that that does cause a level of frustration. It’s not very fun.”
(You’re 11 games in. Obviously the team has not been playing up to your expectations. Do you feel like this team has an offensive identity?) – “Not yet. I think we still … the same thing. Now we’re back, quarterback-wise, back (to Cutler). I think we’re fighting for (an identity). I do think there’s sort of an identity showing up that there are some good signs, some things that we’re doing better; but I think the big thing for us right now, that while we’ve improved those things, the number one thing – and that’s turning the ball over – we’ve kind of lost our identity. We’ve kind of thrived on protecting the football and right now we haven’t been doing that. People have gotten the ball out and we’ve had interceptions, which not all of them have been the quarterback’s fault. I think the biggest thing identity-wise would be a protection of the football identity; and that we’ve lost and we’ve got to get back. The other things – third down has gotten a little better, the red zone’s been pretty solid. Some of those things we’ve done better; but the run game, protection, turnover thing, those have to be our identity and they’ve been shaky and we’ve kind of lost our identity there. We’ve got to get that back.”
