Eric Studesville – December 1, 2020
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Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Running Backs Coach Eric Studesville
(Do you and Head Coach Brian Flores have a policy with regard to when a running back fumbles, he does not play the next series? Is that pretty much an approach that you all have?) – “No, not one that we’ve talked about. When the balls came out – both of them, Matt (Breida) got carries later in the game even. But DeAndre (Washington) went in the next series and he was playing well, that’s why we kind of took with the hot hand there from where it went. But no, nothing that we’ve talked about.”
(I wanted to ask you about that final six-minute drive where you guys just absolutely ate up the clock. You’ve been trying to do that pretty much all season. What was the difference this week?) – “I think execution. I think it takes everybody in those situations where they know you want to run it. We know they’re going to try to load the box and stop the run and we’ve got to get hats on hats, we’ve got to be decisive running the ball downhill and picking good spots and I think it goes into the execution of the entire group.”
(You guys had leaned on RB Myles Gaskin a lot early in the season. Do you have any inclination on now that he’s coming back, where he fits in the offense now that you’ve had a couple other backs who have run in there and played well?) – “No, we don’t really know yet. We’ve got to wait until tomorrow. I know he’s been working. He wants to get back in the worst way. He’s been in every meeting, he’s been great and we just got to kind of see where it goes and take it when we get him on the field tomorrow and see what happens and see where everything is; but I’m not making any plans. I don’t want to be disappointed for any reason. (laughter) I don’t want to get too excited, so I’m just going to take it when we get to tomorrow.”
(Kind of back to a previous question. Head Coach Brian Flores was very complimentary of RB DeAndre Washington and the run game’s ability to grind that game out in the fourth quarter. What does it say to you about DeAndre’s ability to step in just a few weeks after he arrives to have a big role in a big spot like that?) – “I think there’s a couple things that are worth noting regarding DeAndre. I think the first one is this is a passionate guy who prepares. He came in and learned this offense. He did a great job of working. That’s what you see manifested in his performance, was the amount of work and time and effort that he put in to give himself a chance to go out there. And then as all players do and coaches as well, we just want an opportunity to showcase what we can do and he was waiting for that time and he was prepared for that opportunity when it came forward. I think it’s a credit to him and who he is – work ethic, his preparation and truly his patience for his time and opportunity, that he was ready for it when it came up.”
(How much – a previous question mentioned earlier about that six-minute drive toward the end of the game where you guys were successful. How much do you guys practice those four or six-minute drives and trying to sort of I guess ice out the game and is that something that sort of has lined up to what you guys did on Sunday?) – “I think all those game situations, we talk about constantly with the entire team in all three phases of it. We’re constantly talking about the different game situations because we want to be a great situational football team, so we have to address those things and talk about them, show them when they happen around the league, watch things. We do practice those. We have practiced those situations where we talk about, ‘well, what’s going to happen here? What’s the time on the clock? What’s the situation? What’s our demeanor, our mentality?’ Those are all things that we’re constantly going over and not just in that four-minute grouping like that but whether that’s two-minute, whether that’s – there’s a whole lot of situations that we talk about very, very often.”
(I wanted to follow up on RB DeAndre Washington. What is the skillset that he has, in your opinion, that kind of will lead to him having success in this offense?) – “I think one thing that it starts with is his preparation and his work ethic. I think that’s one of the things that he did great coming in here. He took the extra time meeting with me and doing things and wanting to ask questions, wanted to know. He’s a professional in how he approaches his job and what it is. I think physically, I think he has vision. I think he’s got eyes to be able to find holes, I think he’s got good feet in the holes. He ran with some toughness the other day, which is hard for us to tell that when you get a player in the middle of the season because you’re not in pads all the time and you can’t bang those guys around. But I thought he ran the ball with toughness, with good pad level, downhill, aggressive – all the things that we talk about in our room that we’re trying to get done. And in pass protection, I thought he did some really, really good things in pass protection, picking up some pressures that we had. Then he caught the ball well. He had a nice screen play and he had another catch in the flat. I just think overall, I think he’s got a skillset that can help us and we’re looking forward to his skillset continuing to develop.”
