Clyde Christensen – October 13, 2016
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Thursday, October 13, 2016
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(On whether he had any role in the offensive line shake up and if he thought it was definitely necessary) – “(I had a) minimal role. Obviously, those decisions would be above us; it would be higher up. All those things are always discussed. They’re constant, ongoing (discussions). After every game, we have personnel talks. We talk about the roster, and then of course whatever gets to my level (and) what they decide above me and it’ll be discussed. For the most part, that was above us, but it had been discussed, yes, sir.”
(On how much you can depend on new players to help right away) – “I think the good news is that we’ll hopefully get healthy – ‘B.A’ (Branden Albert) and ‘Tuns’ (Laremy Tunsil) – that we’re going to catch a break there. If that didn’t happen and you’re trying to prepare all new guys or something, that’d be difficult. It’d be extremely difficult. But we’re optimistic on Tunsil. We’re really optimistic on ‘B.A.’, and then ‘Pounce’ (Mike Pouncey) came through the game clean. You guys lied last week and said that we were back at full strength offensive line-wise. (laughter) You guys accuse coaches of lying … you guys set me up last week and told me we were back to our five starters again, and it wasn’t quite true. (laughter) I’m just saying you told me. That’s all I’m saying. You told me we were back to full strength at the offensive line. (Reporter: “You need better sources, Clyde.”) (laughter) “I need better sources. I like that. That’s good.” (laughter)
(On who the third guard is at the moment) – “It’ll be more of an all hands on deck, and we’d probably have to shuffle around if we got to that. (Anthony) Steen, (Kraig) Urbik – all those guys are cross trained. Steen is still iffy, but again (we are) optimistic. (The) arrow (is) pointing up, and we’re optimistic on that. I’m not directly answering it, but a lot of it does depend on injuries and etcetera, etcetera. Showers. (laughter) We’re going to try to take them Saturday night this week, so at least we’ll have some time to prepare. Everyone is going to shower Saturday night, and then we’re going to go straight to the ball park.” (laughter)
(On what amount of time is considered good pass protection in this scheme) – “Again, it’s a little bit hard … Let me say this: pass protection is everybody, okay? Pass protection is not just the offensive line. We held the ball sometimes. You got to beat man coverage fast. That is all 11 guys; in our case it has been all 11 guys. It has been the (offensive) line at times. It has been the quarterback at times. It has been the (running) back at times. And it has been the receivers at times. When you say pass protection, everyone’s focus tends to go to the offensive line, and that would probably be unjustly so. A lot goes into it. We assess a lot of times … Sacks may go to the (running) back. Sacks may go to the quarterback just like an interception may go to a tackle. There’s a perception that interceptions are (on) the quarterback. Guess what? They get spread around, too. (Maybe) it’s a wide receiver who didn’t get his depth. What’s an acceptable time (for pass protection)? It kind of depends on the concept. There are sometimes you know it’s going to take three-and-a-half seconds – it’s third-and-12, you’ve got to push up field – (in the) quick game, that would be an unacceptable number. That thing should come out a lot quicker. It’s not quite as clean as a … We would have them – we would have a feel that, ‘Hey, this ball ought to come out quick,’ – the first two reads are quick, they’re short runs for the receivers, and the ball ought to come out quick. You ought to be able to set firm, and we should be in good shape right there. It’s not quite that … They do measure it now, which is okay. Overall, if you look at a big statement … New England, I think, led the league last year in balls coming out the quickest. They were really, really good at getting that ball out quick. A lot goes into it. Your system goes into it, etcetera, etcetera. We are kind of a mix. We do have the play-action stuff where the ball is not going to come out as quick as the drop back and getting into the shotgun like some people do. I think we would be more middle of the pack would be more satisfactory as far as that time the ball comes out.”
(On at what point a quarterback doesn’t have enough time to make a certain play happen and has to take off and run) – “Often. It just depends. These guys (Pittsburgh’s defense) really do a good job that they’ll pressure you, but then they’ll also rush three. (If) they rush three, you have to have a feel (of), ‘I have a little extra time to let things develop.’ (With) pressure – you’ve got to have a little feel (of), ‘It’s one, maybe half a read more, and then I’ve got to go or throw that thing away.’ We’re working on that hard this week. I think some of that’s really valid for us, so we’re putting a big emphasis on (how) we got an athletic quarterback and pulling the thing down and running. Every time when I look through the league on third down, you see a lot of guys that all of sudden rush lanes get distorted and they take off running and convert a third down. Those are huge third-down conversions. You’re not going to be good on third down unless you get a few with your legs also. That’s a huge advantage for good third-down teams.”
(On whether he has found G/T Laremy Tunsil’s play reliable thus far) – “Unbelievably so. I really think he’s a pro. I’ve said that to you before. He has exceeded our expectations. I really liked him when we drafted him. I really liked him as a player and a man when we drafted him. That doubled or tripled once we got him and saw what we had. He has been nothing but professional. He has been nothing but a worker. He has a maturity way, way, way beyond what his years are (with) him being not even a half year into this thing. He has been (an) extremely pleasant surprise. Not a surprise, because we felt like he was a mature guy, but he’s really sharp. He has a chance to be a great pro.”
(On whether Pittsburgh’s defense has a different look without longtime coordinator Dick LeBeau) – “They’re not. They’re the same. One thing they’ve always done – we were talking about that – they’ve been running the same thing for it feels like a couple decades. Each year, they’ll accentuate something, but all the elements are still there. When it was (Troy) Polamalu, they loved brining him around the corner and off the edges. Now they’ll bring a corner. But they’ve always had the same package. It looks really familiar. This year they’re a little more zone-and-drop-eight team then they have been. Looking at the Tennessee game – even Tennessee and (Titans Defensive Coordinator Dick) LeBeau – there’s some carry over as far as there’s carry over of what their package looks like. What they do a good job of is inside of that package, game planning it. You never feel comfortable (with), ‘Here’s how they’re going to play us.’ They may have been all Cover 2 last week, and they’re all Cover 3 this week. They could be all zone (coverage) last week. They can play you man (coverage this week). The Jets – they’ve been really a zone team and they played the Jets a ton of man and a ton of walking up in the A gap. They hadn’t done that in this season. I think that’s one of their strengths in what they do well. I think it’s a huge, huge missed factor that how long has a team been in their system. The team that have been in their systems for a long time – and recruited and drafted to it, taught to it … I coached with their defensive line coach (John Mitchell). I looked it up today, (and) he has been there since 1996. There’s something to that. There’s something to being in the system and coaching in the same system. That’s one of the things that gets a little lost in the NFL, because everyone tends to change so often. It’s no small thing to change systems. It’s no small thing to change personnel. It’s no small thing to change coaching staffs. It’s no small thing. But Pittsburgh would be one on defense – like New England – they’ve been doing it for so long that I think that they know what they’re doing. They know how to adjust it. They know how to fix it. They know how to game plan it. They can find their answers inside of their package. They don’t have to create something new. I think the real, real … I think it’s the same system. It looks like it’s the exact same calls. What they emphasize, maybe they’ll emphasize a little more zone than man than when LeBeau was there. But even LeBeau sometimes, he would go some years where he was going to be heavy, heavy pressure, and some years, he was going to be heavy, heavy coverage. I think that’s one of the things that you admire about them (and) they do a good job with.”
(On whether RB Arian Foster would get most of the workload even if he isn’t 100 percent and what he can add to the offense) – “He would add a lot. I think, probably, we’re looking for him to be really close to 100 percent. It’s tenuous to play in this league at a position that you get tattooed like they get tattooed and not be 100 percent, because it’s hard to protect yourself, you take extra hats – all those things. There are a lot of things. So, we would really love for him to be … I think (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase has said all along that we’re looking for him to have a full week and be darn close to full speed. And when he is, he’ll give us a little bit of lift there. But we’ll be careful with him. He’s a veteran guy. We’ll be careful. It is a … Running back is one the positions (where) if you’re not sharp, you take an extra two hats every run. That’s significant. Now you put yourself in harm’s way. You’ve got to be able to defend yourself, and that’s a violent position, and it’s a hard position to play if you’re not feeling 100 percent. He practiced considerably yesterday as you guys saw. We’ll go again today and see. I think that one will be probably after tomorrow that we’ll have to look hard at (him) and see how he feels. The other thing that happens is when you do practice – that was the first thing I asked him this morning – when you do practice, it sometimes (regresses) you, or all of a sudden you get some blood flowing and stuff heals faster. I’m no doctor, but I do know this: blood (is) flowing, right stuff heals and sometimes you feel better after you have practice like that. So, we’ll see. (He’ll have) two good days of work – yesterday and today. Today will be inside on the turf, and that’ll have a whole different feel to him and doing it two days in a row. We’ll just see. We’ll play it by ear. (We are) not sure on him. I think that one is questionable. But we are looking to see him really, really close to 100 percent before we throw him in there.”
(On his assessment of RB Kenyan Drake) – “I think he has been a little bit of a mixed bag. His good is really good, and then his rookie stuff is really rookie … rookie-ish – if that’s a word. We’re not discouraged. We’re looking for consistency from him, because he’s a good player. He can give you a lift. He had the big drop on the third down and has great hands. That has kind of been probably us. That has been us. You look for those rookies to give you a lift, to give you a little lift. He didn’t play a ton of snaps, so he has got to come in and bring energy and for the most part has. (We are) not discouraged. (We will) continue growing him. You know deep down as a coach, if you stick rookies into these kind of games that you’re going to have some of that stuff. We know that. You know that. Everyone knows that. But the less the better, and the quicker they disappear, the better. There does come a point – coming soon – that there isn’t any such thing as a rookie. There’s no such thing. Everyone has to contribute, and that day is fast approaching. Then you have zero tolerance for rookie play, because there are no rookies. We have to head into the second half of this season – or whenever that moment is – that there is no such thing as rookies. Everyone has to carry their weight and go.”
(On whether it’s difficult to get much out of the tight ends in the passing game without TE Jordan Cameron and sometimes needing TE Dion Sims and TE MarQueis Gray to block) – “Again, at the risk of sounding redundant again, all of a sudden you’re 40-some snaps (in the game) again … I don’t know if it’s on purpose, but those factors plus there were probably 16 … I think there were 16 or 17 passes thrown in the game besides screens. That’s not many to go around. It hasn’t been on purpose. Some of it has been to use them in protection. Some of it has been, because we’re trying to get those wide outs going. Some of it has been the emphasis on the run game. A lot of it has been on, ‘Where are those other 30 snaps that we can spread around to those guys?’ He’s like everybody on the unit that some of those are in that 30 that haven’t shown up yet – those 25 or 30 plays that haven’t shown up. They’re the fun ones to distribute. Now all of a sudden, you got a lot more happy faces and the ball gets spread around a little more.”
(On WR Ryan Tannehill’s interception on a pass intended for WR DeVante Parker at the end of the game) – “We were down two scores with very little time, maybe under a minute and it was just a shot. I think if he had a chance to do it over again, it has got to be us or nobody high and outside. But I do think that at that point we were stressing to him, ‘We got to be aggressive, and we got to take some chances and hope the ball gets tipped, we get a pass interference, (or) we jump up (and) make a big catch,’ – those things. I saw the right idea. Maybe it could have been executed a little bit better, but at that point we were having to take some chances, and we were struggling protection-wise in that fourth quarter where you maybe didn’t have a chance to do it exactly like you’d like to do it. That’s what I saw.”
(On the interception on the first drive of the third quarter in the Titans game on the pass intended for WR DeVante Parker) – “We just missed him. We missed him. When we coached it we said ‘Hey, we’d love for somehow someone to make a play and for that not to happen. Get the ball in front of him or somehow rip that thing out of the DBs (hands).’ But I didn’t think that DeVante could save the thing. The receivers coach did. I didn’t. That’s really hard because you don’t have any strength when you’re running that fast and you’re trying to catch a ball from behind. (The defender) is catching it in front of him and you’re catching it behind, it’s hard to wrestle that one out. That’s tough. We’ve got to throw that ball out in front of him. Ryan (Tannehill) knows that; we all know that. And we didn’t (do it).”
(On the importance of a quarterback not bringing a defensive back into a play) – “I think ball placement is the deal in this league. Ball placement is the deal – missing it on the correct side, giving guys a chance to run. We talk about it all the time, the accuracy is what separates them. That separates the really good ones and the average ones and the ones who can’t play in this league. The ball has to be in front. Yards are hard to come by; the ball is out in front of people that they can run with is really, really important. We’ve always said accuracy equals yards after the catch. If all of a sudden – we talk a lot about it – you throw a ball to a running back that’s down low and he has to go palms up on it, you’re not going to get as many yards after the catch. They’re not quite as skilled; they don’t get as many reps at receiving. All of those things are huge factors in this thing for quarterbacks. We’re improving at the thing. I thought we came out of camp a lot more accurate than the offseason. With an emphasis on it; we have to keep emphasizing it. It was re-emphasized again this week. We’ve got to get the ball on the right side of people. Where you miss is really important. I think in the past life, he was a master of that. There were a lot of us or nobody balls that we either make or it lands out of bounds. Those things are all big. Where you miss is really big. That’s what this league is because the coverage is so stinking tight. You guys asked about it last week or two weeks ago about back-shoulder, just open-hand throws, finding an open spot, finding a place to give a guy chance, that’s all accuracy. The average ones can’t do that. It sounds good, but then all of a sudden you stick a rush around them and the accuracy a lot (of times) is a factor of the pocket. It’s easy to say just throw it in front of them, but all of a sudden someone’s hand is whacking you on the side of the head and someone has pile-driven you into the ground and you’re seeing three guys crossing instead of one guy crossing. Again, we tend to … which is alright, but people on the outside look and everything kind of just goes to one person – whatever that is. Protection just goes to the line, and that’s not fully true. That’s not fully true. Accuracy would be one of those things. Did the receiver get his depth? And all of those things. That case right there, we have to get the ball right in front of him and give him a chance to take that thing, break a tackle and go run for 20 (yards). That’s the other end of the spectrum. They got lucky … not lucky, they got fortunate the ball is behind him and the guy makes a good play and it turns into an interception. Let’s us get fortunate and have one out in front and all of a sudden a guy goes for the interception, misses the interception and we go turn up the sideline for 20 (yards). That’s what we’re looking for to turn this thing around and that’s when we’ll get somewhere is when we start making those plays. They’re not accidents. They’re practiced plays and we just have to be able to do it day-after-day-after-day-after-day, week-after-week-after-week, year-after-year, and then all of a sudden you have a heck of a program going. You’ve got something.”
