Dowell Loggains – November 8, 2018
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Thursday, November 8, 2018
Offensive Coordinator Dowell Loggains
(The play you guys have gotten at guard, obviously losing G Josh Sitton is huge, has C/G Ted Larsen been adequate in your mind? Are you looking for more from that position where maybe you’d consider C Jake Brendel or C Wesley Johnson?) – “Ted has stepped in and fulfilled the role for us. Obviously, it’s a big hit when you lose a player like Josh Sitton and that’s not going to be replaced by … Very few guards in the league can replace him, because he’s one of the top guards in the NFL. But Ted, he’s played solid to this point. Obviously, there’s definitely things we need to improve. Some of the stuff in pass pro last week, we got a little sloppy as a unit and allowed a little bit of push that we need to get cleaned up and we worked hard this week to clean some of those things up.”
(Incorporating RB Kalen Ballage, is that something that Head Coach Adam Gase was thinking of? Had you put a bug in his ear as far as some Wildcat, which obviously, he did in college?) – “Yes, sir. He had the one big game where he scored a bunch of touchdowns. I think against Texas Tech he scored like seven or eight touchdowns in a game in college. He does a really good job with that stuff. You guys saw the explosiveness. You guys see it every day when you’re here. But the explosiveness … He hit that run that got called back for the hold. At that point, I thought it was going to bring a little energy to the offense right then and punch one in, in the run game right there out of the Wildcat package. The way the game played out, obviously, we had a package for him with more plays and we’ve had a couple weeks now. As you start to learn your personnel a little bit more, you start to grow those packages. Sometimes you put it in, but you don’t call it until a week or two later. We have plays off those things. He’s obviously a guy that could help, but we have some depth at running back. We have three good players back there that can help us.”
(What’s the biggest challenge the Packers defense poses?) – “It’s a good unit. You don’t want to take away from anyone, but those two interior guys are really good players, (Kenny) Clark and (Mike) Daniels. They’re good football players. It’s as good a group as we’re going to play at this point inside, so the guards and center are going to have a challenge this week and they need to step up and play well for us.”
(You guys won a game on Sunday, but got 6 points out of the offense. How do you rectify that?) – “Our goal always is to score one more point than they did. Obviously, it was a team win, because the defense scored a touchdown and we weren’t able to. But we didn’t execute the way we needed to. At times this year, we’ve relied too much on splash plays and not execution and the detail of those things. When you don’t get those splash plays and you don’t execute the way you need to, you’re going to get into some slug fights. One thing we’ve done a really good job of this year in those games is we didn’t turn the ball over. I think in the NFL, we have the second fewest pre-snap penalties in the NFL. You guys know the old saying, ‘To win, you can’t lose first,’ and that’s what the offense did. We did enough not to lose the game and the other two phases played really well and we were able to get out with a win and we didn’t beat ourselves. If I’m looking for a positive, that’s what I would say it was, because that’s about the only one.”
(With the splash plays, losing WR Albert Wilson limits that. He was your biggest big-play guy the first few weeks of the season. Do you have to change your offense because of that?) – “You don’t change your offense and we still have guys that can do it. ‘19’ (Jakeem Grant) can do it, ‘32’ (Kenyan Drake), ‘10’ (Kenny Stills), ‘11’ (DeVante Parker). Those guys have done it. You just can’t rely on those things. You have to rely on execution and detail of your assignment. Those are things that we need to work on and improve. We need to coach it better and we need to execute better, because you can’t rely on splash plays to score 28 (points). You play 65 plays in a game, you can’t rely on six, seven plays to win the game for you. We need to put drives together and finish drives.”
(Do you feel like since the quarterback change, has that made it more apt for you to look at no turnovers as a goal whereas maybe more than previously with QB Ryan Tannehill?) – “No, sir. I feel like when we first got here in the offseason, one of the big things we wanted to clean up was some of the discipline stuff, the pre-snap penalties and the turnovers. One of the biggest stats in winning and losing is the turnover ratio. We knew if you can finish plus-five, you have a chance to have a really good football season. We’re at plus-five right now. We really do believe in the building that before you can win, you can’t lose. A lot of teams in the NFL right now when you look and say, ‘Why did we win or lose a game?’ Well most times it’s (like in) the Cincinnati game (when) we had too many turnovers. We played two-and-a-half really good quarters of team football and we turned the ball over at the end. If you don’t turn those balls over and you punt or you take a sack, whatever it is, most times you’re going to have a chance. It’s going to come down to the last series of the game. Turnovers have always been a big priority for us and it’ll continue to be.”
(With RB Kenyan Drake, his versatility, how important is that especially with how WR Albert Wilson is gone? You have a player that can do so much for you guys.) – “Kenyan is a big part of this offense. We need to continue to find ways to get him the ball and not just in the passing game but get him carries as well. When the game didn’t go the way we wanted, obviously, we kind of got off. We’d like the number to be closer or more similar (with) how many touches each guy has. Kenyan is a guy that has a lot of flexibility. He can flex out and run routes. He can catch balls and do those things. He’s also a good running back from the backfield. We need to do a better job using him, keep making sure we keep getting him the ball. He’s a guy that can definitely score for us and we need those guys.”
(How do you make sure that discrepancy isn’t so wide, the 20 to three carries?) – “We just have to do a better job during the game. Each game is going to sort out differently. Sometimes he’s involved more in the passing game than he is getting carries and doing those things. Sometimes it’s based on other things. We felt the inside stuff we were a little bit better at and Frank (Gore) was doing a nice job of finding holes and getting skinny and getting through. Not that Kenyan can’t do that, but that’s Frank’s game. The way the game was playing out, Kenyan was getting used more in the passing game. So, it’s something that we’ll definitely monitor. I don’t see any discrepancy that’ll happen in the future, but it could or it could go the other way where Frank doesn’t get more carries or ‘27’ (Kalen Ballage) starts to play a little bit. We’ll continue to use those guys and try to put them in the best position to be successful.”
(How much was WR Kenny Stills able to give you guys last week and can you get a bigger package for him I guess this week?) – “Kenny battled through some things. I don’t know that he was full speed, but I don’t know if anyone in the NFL at this point is full speed. He battled and fought through some pain and soreness and all of those things. As he gets healthier, there will be plays definitely designed for him. He’s a guy that can do a lot of different things and he can win on deep balls for us.”
