Eric Studesville – September 15, 2020
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Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Running Backs Coach Eric Studesville
(Is RB Jordan Howard still your starting running back after last week or in your mind is that job totally wide open and might RB Myles Gaskin emerge as your starter?) – “I don’t know that there’s a – the first guy out there is technically the starter, but it depends on what personnel grouping we use and how we think we want to attack. I don’t think that’s changed at all how we feel about Jordan (Howard). It’s going to depend on how we want to start the game and what we think is best for us to attack with.”
(In terms of RB Matt Breida, what vision do you guys have for him because it was a little surprising to us that he didn’t get involved much against the Patriots and what do you want to see more from him?) – “What we’ve got is really a diverse room and a bunch of different guys in there. We started out with Jordan (Howard) and Myles (Gaskin) got in and started going a little bit. And then we got Matt (Breida) in there, too, doing some things, so the rotation was to get those guys in there. Myles started getting going a little bit, so we felt like we were getting some productive runs out of him. That’s why we stayed kind of with that path. But then when Matt came in, Matt had out of his five carries, four of them of were productive runs; and they both averaged about the same yards per carry. Again, it’s us trying to figure out with two of them being new that I’ve never seen before and played with before, feeling them out, what the game was like, how it went, what’s going on and I think that’s still an ongoing process. Matt is doing everything that we’re asking him to do. He’s prepared. He’s working hard. He’s into it and he wants to contribute whatever way we ask him to and we’re going to try to find more and more ways to do that.”
(I wanted to get your assessment on FB Chandler Cox. Obviously his first year here was last year, now in his first game into his second season. How did you feel he played on Sunday and kind of how he progressed from that rookie season?) – “I think Chandler’s done a nice job all through camp. We had a couple of really good plays – the goal line play – him one-on-one against (Ja’Whaun) Bentley on the one lead play – the second-down play – was a pretty big collision. That’s got to be kind of what his role is as a physical presence in the run game for us, and I think he wants to do that. I think he embraces that and I think he’s demonstrated throughout camp and at least in the first game here, that that’s something that he can do. We’ve just got to keep building on that and find ways to where we can get him in those spots that he does what he does best, which is kind of line people up and go hit them.”
(The two-back set that you had with RB Myles Gaskin and RB Patrick Laird seemed to really help you guys in the second quarter, especially with the ability to pass out of the backfield. Is that package interchangeable or are those two guys probably the best for that package?) – “No, it’s very interchangeable. We’ve got flexibility with all those things. Jordan (Howard) can be back there. Matt (Breida) and Myles (Gaskin) can be back there. it can be Patrick (Laird) and – it can be any of them – that could be Patrick and Jordan back there. That could be Patrick and Matt. We have the flexibility within the room. We have to have the flexibility so we don’t let one broken shoelace take us out of that grouping, which we like.”
(We talked to Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey I guess earlier, and he talked about the reason RB Myles Gaskin maybe played more is because the base run game wasn’t working maybe as well as you wanted so you went to more of a spread game and that fit what Myles, I guess, his skillset was. Is it Myles’ I guess ability to do more as a runner and a receiver that makes him maybe the best fit for that package?) – “There’s lots of things that go into it. It’s what we have in the game plan. Sometimes it’s style of runs. Jordan’s (Howard) going to be able to play in that 11-package, if you will, where we’ve got three wide outs on the field. All of them have to be able to do all of it; but they all have different strengths and weaknesses so what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to find the plays and the packages that maximize their strengths and put them in position to do it. Jordan being the biggest guy, that’s why he goes in on goal-line. To me that makes sense, and why we utilize him in that sort of role; but they all can do the things that we need them to do. It’s what we put in the game plan and how we decide to use those guys as to what their strengths are that we really factor into it the most.”
(Going back to RB Jordan Howard for a second – 0.9 yards per carry – what went wrong?) – “The average yards per carry is more of a factor of so many things that go into it. There’s a lot of different things that you have to look at. The one thing that I think about Jordan (Howard) is that Jordan has vision. Jordan has good feet in line. You saw him on one play to the left where he makes (Chase) Winovich, as he pinches inside, he makes that guy miss one-on-one in the hole, which is what you need him to do. We can all be better at everything that is going on and I don’t know that to say what went wrong is on one group. It’s all of us. It’s the offense that we’ve got to get that stuff fixed to make those things better, and the backs have to do better. The backs have to find more places to run. I put that pressure on us to do more. We have to break tackles, step out of things, make somebody miss, run through an arm tackle. So that’s what we’re going to focus on – what can we contribute to this and get better from the process?”
(Kind of piggybacking off that what did you think of how the offensive line was able to create some space for you guys?) – “I think the offensive line did a nice job. There were some things there – certain areas – that we can all improve on. I go back to that same answer: it’s never going to be a perfect game. It’s never going to be blocked perfectly. Everything’s not going to be exactly like we draw it up on the board. That’s not how it goes. We’ve all got things that we can work on. Every group, every room has things that we can improve on from this performance. The thing is, are we going to be able to take what we need to improve on, go forward this week, work on that this week and get better as we get ready to play against Buffalo?”
