Frank Smith – November 8, 2024
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Friday, November 8, 2024
Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith
(The volume of plays 20+, 40+ obviously has plummeted. QB Tua Tagovailoa’s absence for a time obviously is a huge factor in that. Can you score and win to the level you want to win without higher volume of those chunk plays?) – “Yeah, I think it’s about just your overall efficiency as an offense. So if you’re not having 40 and 20 massively explosive plays, then you’re looking at your overall efficiency of how you’re moving the football. This last game especially when you look at our efficiency obviously we’re continuing to improve is just making sure we do the little things. This is the first game we were able to overcome some penalties we’ve had that in last couple of games before that set us back. Overall when you’re looking at a offense it’s about efficiency in what you’re doing, maximizing the situation and if you do have setbacks, making sure you’re able to get back on track whatever play is necessary in the situation.”
(Anecdotally it seemed like there were less shifts and pre-snap motion on Sunday. Is that true and if so what was the affect of it?) – “I think like everything you’re trying to do is intentional. Just with the environment up there and just making sure that for us we want to make sure that when it’s a loud environment that we were able to come off the line of scrimmage together. We felt that with a division opponent we were thinking, this is how they’re going to play and this is how we can take advantage of it. So yeah, that was part of the plan. Each week is a little different. With Buffalo you kind of know them a little bit better. This week for LA we’ll base our attack on what defenses they are going to play and what they present.”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa said that it wasn’t necessarily the game plan to spread the ball out so much, but how impressive was it to see him get the ball to TE Jonnu Smith, get the ball to RB De’Von Achane and even to WR Odell Beckham Jr. when so much attention went to WR Tyreek Hill, and WR Jaylen Waddle?) – “I think it’s a good sign of growth for us. It’s like when coverage gets pushed are we able to maximize one-on-ones or different parts of the space. And I think that’s what we were able to see this last game was when coverage gets pushed, are you able to get back to the other guys, like Raheem (Mostert) on the sideline for 15. They pushed coverage all the way to the slot and they had one-on-one on the backside. That’s just areas where you can see our growth. If they are trying to take away a part of the field, it means they are light somewhere else and it was great to see Tua with the distribution with the guys being in the right spot at the right time to take advantage of what they were giving us.”
(We saw OL Austin Jackson pop up on the injury report. Are you at a point where you could play T Patrick Paul at right tackle or is that a T Kendall Lamm type of situation?) – “I think it just plays to the nature for us. We always try to cross train the line so guys are versatile to play both sides if necessary. Like with all things, you guys know, as we go through the week we’ll try and make sure that we take all the variables in play and we put the guys out there that give us the best chance to be successful.”
(How would you evaluate, certainly since QB Tua Tagovailoa’s been back, but all season, how your offensive line has played?) – “I think overall you can see in the last month, you can see the continuity and the growth showing in areas of things that we wanted to improve, especially after the Tennessee game. So I think that the guys really understanding how to play together and how to work together, our communication has been outstanding as far as them getting connected, so yeah, the last couple of weeks we’ve been very pleased with how they’ve been playing.”
(With T Kendall Lamm, there’s a big body of work with him at left tackle. Where’s the comfort level with him at right tackle? I know he’s been a swing tackle most of his career but primarily the left side.) – “Yeah, here he’s played left, but he would tell you when he says personally, ‘I love playing right, but I like playing left, too.’ So he’s one of those guys that when you have a career kind of like him, you get used to playing both sides and that’s a luxury especially when you have a veteran with that kind of experience. So ultimately, you just never know the way a season’s going to play out, so when you ask a guy to do one side, one side only, and then he switches, sometimes it gets a little harder, but that’s the way our guys train.”
(Kind of going back to the balance thing, what kind of discussion did you guys have as a staff this offseason to incorporate a more balanced approach this season? I feel like we heard from WR Tyreek Hill earlier this season that we need to be able to sustain drives more, I think he said it wasn’t his personal goal anymore to just get 2,000 yards. How did you guys come together as a staff to make sure it would be a more diversified approach this year?) – “Ultimately that’s what we’re trying to achieve every week is the balance where you can’t overplay a part of your defense to defend an area. And as guys try to overplay an area, that allows us to attack with different guys. I think it’s just basically for us of when a defense tries to overplay an area, we’ve got to be able to attack the matchups that are presented from it and I think that’s an area that we wanted to focus on for growth because when they’re trying to defend or isolate an area and you can maximize with, maybe it’s not a 20 or a 40-yard gain, but you get 10, 16, 12, you’re right at that threshold where maybe just a hair more and you get the 20 (yard gain). So I think overall, that’s what we’re striving to achieve and especially at the end of the season when we started seeing those coverages where they’re trying to man up and do all that. Well, what happens? You get isolation of one-on-ones on the backs and the tight ends and that’s last week. So you’re going, ‘hey, there’s only so many yards and so many possessions that you get, and so that way, how are you maximizing the opportunities?’ Well, if they’re trying to play forward or take away two, the math is one-on-one in other spots, so how do we do that? You get out of that coverage, hit a tight end for 12 yards. Hit a back for 15 on a flat route. And now all of a sudden, it’s going, ‘I can’t push the coverage,’ so now you change it up, you get single-high and then you hit Tyreek (Hill) for 30. So that’s the variables that went on of how does it work out? Well, drive them out of a coverage that can’t defend a certain area, now guys get one-on-ones. We ran the ball one play to the right, we ran the ball for eight yards. Next play, we come back, hit Tyreek (hill) on the double move for 30 because we drove them out form two-shell, four man, single high, one-on-one. So that’s the game that we have to play because when you have to defend the whole field, where’s the ball going?”
(If FB Alec Ingold is limited in any way, what does that do in terms of changing up the offense if you have to play without him or have him limited?) – “I think it shows like all season, just trying to make sure we’re versatile with what we’re doing. Obviously he’s a big component of why we’ve been successful running the football but ultimately, as we go through any guy that’s down one week, we have to complement another in a certain area and another has to offset it. So like always, we’re trying make sure that we cover all variables for all potential things that can happen and those solutions.”
(What haven’t you said, what can you say to WR Jaylen Waddle? I know he’s frustrated because the team isn’t winning but I also sense that less than five catches per game, one total touchdown, in my opinion, might be getting to him a little bit. What have you said or could you say or do you want to make sure he’s thinking about in this time?) – “The great thing about it is you play a whole game and the way it’s going, maybe when you’re the primary and the targeting and the coverage pushed, like whatever happens, but you’re executing, you’re doing your job for your teammates. And then in a critical moment at a critical time, where we needed a critical reception, he makes it. I mean that third down was huge and then comes back, touchdown – huge. For us, we look at it as, talk about a guy who’s leading by example of executing when the plays come and then all of a sudden at the end. It’s easy to get frustrated in a game and then at the end, how do you perform? Executed his job, critical moments, making plays to help us win and he’s the guy on the sideline at the end, cheering on his teammates as the defense is fighting to get us the win. So keep doing what you’re doing because you’re being a fantastic teammate and helping this football team, and like all things, when you stay the course and you keep working at that level, it will come.”
(You’re rarely a team that gets blitzed a lot. You were the least blitzed team last year. This year, you’re by far the least blitzed team in the league. I think you’ve been blitzed 30 times. The stats said the next closest was 45. You can’t never account to say they’re not going to blitz us, but knowing that there’s a 90 percent chance that you’re not getting blitzed, does that totally change how you would approach protection schemes, using your backs, all that?) – “No, you prepare for the worst and what could happen because when you underprepare, what happens when that happens? So we always have to prepare in a manner of, ‘Okay, they want to bring that kind of day? Okay, what are we going to do. If they don’t bring that kind of day, what are we going to do?’ Because the worst thing you can have is – was it a couple years ago on Thursday night with Lamar Jackson and the Dolphins zeroed (blitzed) him all those times? You have to work all variables and assume if they do this, this is their plan; what is our answer? So we always make sure that if there is going to be a pressure day, here’s what we’re going to do. Alright, it’s a coverage day, here’s what we’re going to do. And you’re going, ‘how do you carry all that volume in plays?’ Well, it’s how it’s packaged and what you’re asking people to do is how you get it done. So no, we always have to prepare that the 10 percent could be the 100 percent. Otherwise, you’ll be sitting here next week going, ‘why didn’t you guys plan for that pressure?’ (laughter) ‘Yeah, well 90 percent of the time they said they weren’t going to do it, and I was playing the percentages.’ No, if it’s two percent, five percent, 10 percent, you got to assume that it could be 50 percent any day, so you always prepare for it.”
