Clyde Christensen – October 24, 2017
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(How is QB Matt Moore different than QB Jay Cutler?) – “He probably wears it on his sleeve a little bit more where they both have great motors, but Matt just wears his emotions on his sleeve. He’s kind of outgoing. He’s all over the place. I think probably that. He has a little – we talked about it last year – he has a little gunslinger to him. He’s going to take some chances. He’s going to get that ball out quick. He came in and did a really, really nice job, as you would expect him to. I don’t think anybody was surprised that he came in out of the bullpen and threw strikes, if you will.”
(Sometimes as a quarterback, you have to let the ball go a lot sooner than you would like, but QB Matt Moore is able to still throw it on the money, even though he’s letting the ball go a little sooner. How does that help you guys?) – “That’s huge. This league is about that. You see so many guys come out of college and just the anticipation isn’t there because the off-schedule throws and the throws that maybe the receiver hasn’t quite come open yet, whereas in college, a little bit more, you can see the whites of his eyes and then you throw him the ball. This thing, you kind of have to let it go and you have to anticipate. It’s always changing. You just don’t keep four guys covered up, or if it’s blitz, more than four guys covered up very long. There’s always someone on an edge. There’s always a hand out there. There’s always a presence. We work hard on putting those guys in those circumstances. The on-schedule throws are minimal in this league, especially once you get to third down.”
(I know you mentioned that C Mike Pouncey is your best blocker this year. Who has been your second-best blocker?) – “I don’t know. (Jermon) Bushrod has played extremely well. Bushrod has played good, solid, steady football. I’m not sure, I’d probably stop short of saying second or first or something like that, but I would tell you that he’s really been consistent. He’s steady and you kind of know what you’re going to get every week from him, which is a compliment, a great compliment.”
(How close are T Laremy Tunsil and T Ja’Wuan James to the level of where you think they realistically should play with their talent level?) – “I think it’s just at times, they are. At times, they are special. At times, the right tackle is as good in the run game as any right tackle in the league. He’s an aggressive guy. He’s very good in the run game. Probably just the consistency, we just keep working on getting the consistency. It’s a hard position to play consistently because … We talked about Tunsil will probably have his biggest challenge of his young career this week. (Terrell Suggs) is a veteran guy. He’s an active guy. He’s been a pain in a lot of people’s rears for a lot of years. I do think they get more pitches. They get the wider variety of pitches out there on the edge. You’ve got a lot going on and it’s a tough position and it’s harder to be consistent at it; but I think probably if you said ‘What are we looking for?’ it’s their good plays have been good enough. Now we’ve just got to get it consistent, day in and day out, where you know exactly what you’ve got. Then the special ones, all of a sudden you just don’t worry about it. ‘We don’t worry about our left side any more. It’s taken care of.’ Then you’ve got something really special.”
(The last six quarters, what can you say about the offense, especially in light of personnel losses like C Mike Pouncey, WR DeVante Parker, T Laremy Tunsil, QB Jay Cutler?) – “I think I’ve always tried to think of myself as the voice of reason and the even-keeled guy but I’ve started wearing my ‘We Are Not Normal’ shirt. I should have worn it today. I’ve bought in. I’ve drank the Kool-Aid. We’re not normal. It’s something different every single week. I’ve drank the Kool-Aid so to speak and given up on being the voice of reason. I just adopted it. Now it’s whatever, whoever. Even the last two weeks, the second halves have been unbelievable. Even to look in, guys are coming in and trainers are coming up to you (saying) ‘This guy is down. This guy is out. Hey, this guy is back. This guy is out.’ It’s one thing after another and guys have just kind of gone in and look in the huddle and see who is going that series and see who is hanging on. It really has been just kind of one of those years. I think this one will be the same thing. This will be a short week. It will be, probably, I think … We said to the unit today that of all of the challenges of this season, and there’s been a bunch of them, that this one may be the biggest one. It’s a short week. It’s a really, really physical bunch. It’s coming after an extremely physical ball game. These are two of the most physical defenses in the league back-to-back and now doing it on a short week. That thing (against the Jets) was a brawl. That was a three-hour brawl Sunday. It took 59 and a half minutes to win a football game and now, to go on a short week, hit the road, go to a great venue with a place that prides themselves on playing great defense and being physical. I think this might be the biggest challenge of the whole season for us. We will have to go be physical and make ourselves play physical even though maybe the body feels like it just came out of the ring. It didn’t get the rest it is used to. I think it’ll be a tough one. These guys always are challenging up there and it’s a great venue and a great atmosphere, and really a great defense over, in my opinion, the last 15-20 years – one of the top, consistent defenses around. They’ve been in the same system for a ton of years. They just keep doing it. They do it well. They know what they’re doing. They know how to draft to it. They know how to personnel it. I have an incredible respect for them; and frankly, they got after us last year when we went up there. They got after us physically. Much like the Jets thing, we’ve got to take on the bully so to speak and go match them physically and throw blows again for another 60 minutes.”
(Has your offense turned the corner?) – “We’ll see, we’ll see. I hope so. The last two second halves have been a lot more fun than the first halves, I’ll tell you that. It’s the same as what we were just talking about with the tackles. It’s good enough at times, it’s just not good enough for the 60 minutes, and to be a great team – to be an upper-echelon team – we’ve got to be able to do it for 60 minutes drive after drive after drive, and we have not been able to do that so far. We’ve done it for bursts for periods of time, but we haven’t done it consistently for 60 minutes. We’ll keep striving and keep working towards that.”
(We’ve seen a lot of starting quarterbacks go down in this league – Arizona QB Carson Palmer and Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers. There aren’t a lot of QB Matt Moore’s out there, are there?) – “No. They’re hard to find and they’re expensive. They’re expensive, frankly. I do think that you have to look hard to find one, a guy who can come in and win games. We had this discussion when we first got here because I think Matt was up and there just aren’t many. It’s kind of a Catch 22. Even when you have a real durable guy, you hate to spend money on a veteran backup and it costs you a couple of special teams guys or something; but you don’t need them until you need them, and when you do need them, and you get caught without one, it’s not fun, as we’re seeing around the league. For us last year and this year, to have one, to have that insurance policy and maybe you pay a little extra for it; but once you have to use it, you’re sure glad that you’ve got it.”
(Plays want to be made, they don’t care who makes them. What is it about whatever it is that you guys do in practice that enables these guys to step up when plays need to be made the most?) – “I think we try to create pressure situations in practice. We go against the defense. We always start practice off with a good ‘best on best’ if you will, a competitive period. You try to create that situation where there is some pressure on them and where things are contested. Then you try and make it part of your DNA that you just make plays. Part of it is personnel – getting the right guys, getting guys who have made plays all their lives. That’s a knack and some guys do have it and some guys don’t have it, but you do want to keep it sharpened and developed by going as much as you can ‘best on best.’ That’s where training camp and all of the practice we get against our defense is really good, and try to put them into those situations in practice.”
(Do you expect the personality of the offense, whatever that might be, to be different with QB Matt Moore than with QB Jay Cutler?) – “I think so. Probably we would all say that we all see the same thing and (Moore) is a fire ball. He comes in there flinging it. He’s fun to watch. I’m glad he’s on our side. You don’t have any doubt when he goes in there that he’s going to make something happen and give yourself a chance to win the thing. He throws a touchdown against (the Jets) last year on Cover Zero and they ‘zero’ him again this year and he hits another one that kind of turns the game around. I do think everyone loves the backup (quarterback). Everyone loves the guy, the reliever, coming in. That’s part of it. Some of it is built into the position, but he’s that kind of guy. He’s an electric guy. He works every day. He comes out there and he’s the pied piper. He takes the young guys under his wing. He’s a popular guy in the locker room and I think that his energy is contagious. I think you saw it. Probably the whole stadium knew. ‘We’ve still got a chance,’ whereas a lot of times we’ve all been around when the starting quarterback goes down and the air goes out of the building and you think it’s going to be extremely hard to hang on or win this thing, especially when you’re down two touchdowns like he was. I do think hope is a big thing and when a guy comes in and says ‘Hey, we’ll still win this thing,’ I don’t think anyone had a doubt that we were going to have a chance to win this. That’s a compliment to (Moore) and that’s a great thing to have said about you.”
(WR DeVante Parker and Lazarus last week? How is that working out?) – “He hasn’t risen quite yet but I felt some tremors. (laughter) We’re still hoping. We’re still looking anxiously. We’ve got to keep working. This is a hard week because of the short week just because you can’t … We’ll do very little full speed, so it’s hard to get a good evaluation of him. We’ll just have to get him out in between practices and stuff and just see how the thing feels. It is getting better. He is improving. How far can he get on this short week and without the practice sessions will be … I think the same thing, it’ll be a game-time decision. It was up there (in Baltimore) last year, right, where he came out and made an appearance there? I’m hoping so. We’re all hoping.”
