George Godsey – September 14, 2021
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Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Co-Offensive Coordinator/TE Coach George Godsey
(I wanted to ask you a QB Tua Tagovailoa related question. In your view, where is he in his ability to go through his progressions, and if the first option isn’t the right option, where is he in his ability to look off that player and go to option two, option three, even if he’s under duress?) – “I think that’s the position and it’s a very complicated equation. He’s growing each day. There’s a lot of different defenses we see and a lot of different personnel groupings and ways to strategically align that. When you combine our play with the amount of defenses that are possible, there are a lot of variables. We try to give him as many looks as possible; but ultimately when we get to game day, there is probably a new look we’re going to have to discern and make quick decisions. We harp on that with him, and he knows that. It’s a matter of being decisive. We try to give him as many looks of that in practice and move forward from there.”
(I wanted to ask you about the scoring on opening drives of halves. What made you guys so successful coming out of the first half and the second half with a touchdown scoring drive, and what changes when it goes from that first drive? Are there adjustments in play that changes things going forward?) – “The first drive, our players really executed. We had a third down where we were on the ball and executed that to continue the drive. We had a big play on a run and when we got the ball in the red area, we punched it in. It was well executed by the players and obviously Tua (Tagovailoa) leads that group. He did a good job of getting us in the right plays there. And then New England made a couple adjustments that kept us from moving the ball on another drive. I think there are a lot of factors in that. Both sides were playing this game behind the game. They did a good job adjusting and then it took us a little bit to get adjusted from there. We scored right before half and then in the second half, we made some adjustments there that we were able to score on the first drive there. It was a little bit of back and forth and that’s how we feel every NFL game is. There are good coaches, there are good players and it’s difficult out there at times.”
(I have a question for you regarding just vertical passes in general, in particular the 36-yard pass from QB Tua Tagovailoa to WR Jaylen Waddle. He came back on a back-shoulder type of throw and it looked like he had a step on top of the defender. I was curious what the rules or the teaching points are on that particular type of look where you get the step and they try to make an adjustment for back shoulder or to go vertical over the top. How do he and Jaylen communicate what to do on that particular look?) – “That really comes from practice quite a bit. In that look, (Devin) McCourty was tilted over to where (Mike) Gesicki was on the single receiver side. That put the three receivers in a one-on-one situation where the longer it travels, the more accurate we’ve got to be because the ball hangs up in the air for everybody to see what angle it’s coming down. Jaylen did a good job of adjusting to it. It was a big play. It was a play that got us eventually for some points. It changed the field position and it was a tough throw. It was an inside fade is really what we call it. It was good to see that ball get connected.”
(Overall, what was your impression of the performance of the offensive line. You guys had a mixed bag of running the ball but I know in that first possession, you were able to get RB Myles Gaskin open on a third-down run running out of the pistol. As opposed to running out of the shotgun, how do you think that benefits your offense and particularly the offensive line?) – “Just overall with the offensive line, we were able to run the ball at times. It’s hard when you’re looking at an average and you take three knees at the end of the game. That average can kind of get a little skewed. Those guys know there are some opportunities there for some bigger plays. In the pass protection, that’s a good pass rush front. That group will cause some problems during the year for sure. For our situation at line, being able to handle some changes there during the week, and be effective and give us enough time to distribute the ball, we think that group needs to continue to improve but it was a good first outing. As far as the pistol is concerned, it’s another alignment that we look at. Some teams look at it as a back in the back field, other teams still look at it as a (shot)gun. For us, it’s just another formation. Our guys have done a good job of ball-handling to make sure we can execute that when we need to call that. On that particular play, it was well blocked for us to get the 15-yard run.”
(I wanted to ask you about G/T Jesse Davis and how important his maturity and leadership is for this young line. The second part of that question is are you a buyer into the theory that the right tackle is the most important lineman for a left-handed quarterback?) – “First off, you hit it on the head with Jesse as far as leadership and maturity. Keeping that group flat-lined is what we say – not too high, not too low. They pretty much carry the offense because they have to be able to get a body on a body in the run game and then protect for the quarterback. Jesse has a lot of experience in the division. He has a good wealth of knowledge to provide to a lot of those younger guys; but also at other positions because he’s communicating with the tight end too. He’s a big piece of our unit and we’re happy to have him and thankful we got him. We think that both of those tackles are very important – both left and right. There are so many things that kind of go on with the scheme with play action and RPOs, point of attack runs, backside runs, that Jesse’s a big piece, Austin (Jackson) is a big piece, Liam (Eichenberg) is a big piece. From outside in, a lot of times that’s where the pocket gets crushed. If we can be firm on the outside, obviously we’ve got to be firm on the inside for the quarterback. That can provide us with a little bit more windows to see left and right on the edge or on the perimeter.”
(We saw it a little bit with WR Jaylen Waddle this past week. Obviously you guys get WR Will Fuller back this week. What impact do you anticipate his speed and the combo of his and Jaylen’s speed will have for the offense?) – “Will has been a high performer in his career. We’re excited to get him back. For Will, I know he’s excited. He’s been itching at the bit. He had a little bit of a setback with an injury, but now he’s back out there – with the suspension too. It’ll be good to see him out there in practice and fitting him in. That group, we’ve got a lot of weapons. Moving them around, getting them open versus certain matchups, and really the catch and run element especially with Will is a factor with his speed. They’ve got to do their job in the run game, but when they’re called on in the passing game to get open, they are an important piece for creating those big plays and putting points on the board.”
(You had some success early with up-tempo, especially in that first drive. Did you get to it as much as you ideally wanted to? And how much does time of possession factor how much you go up-tempo? When it was as lopsided as it was in the second half, are you reluctant to go up-tempo in a close game with that gap in time of possession against you?) – “You pretty much hit on all of the questions that go through our head as we’re going through that. There are some situations where we will go up-tempo, whether it’s a positive or negative play. The three-and-outs are some of the things we talk to the group about, about eliminating those. If we can eliminate those three three-and-outs – there are some self-inflicting plays and then there are also some things we’ve got to do from a coaching staff to get them in a better position. We really want to keep moving those chains and when we can get into third-and-manageable, convert those. The more opportunities we have on normal downs, the more opportunities we have to use or not use the tempo.”
(Looking ahead a little bit to Buffalo, I don’t know how deep you’ve gotten into their film or into Sunday’s game, but was there anything you saw from this defense that strikes you as different from what you’ve seen from them in years past?) – “It’s a fast defense. They make a lot of plays. They tackle you when they need to make the one-on-one tackle. Every throw seems to be contested. They do a good job with their scheme of changing in and out of certain coverages so they are not predictable. They had a hell of a year last year and they held Pittsburgh to limited yards in the first half. This is the same defense that’s been as productive as it’s been in past years. We have a big challenge. We have a big challenge up front. The linebackers obviously have played a lot of football. They play every down. Then their DBs have a wealth of experience and a lot of people know every one of those DBs, regardless of what team they cheer for. There is a reason why they are a good defense. They play hard for 60 minutes and we’ve got our work cut out for us. From our perspective, I wouldn’t say we’re just getting ready to know them because they are in our conference, so we do have some familiarity. But early in the week is a very important part to setting the game plan for Sunday.”
(How you utilized the three running backs, did you like the carries/touch distribution? Would you have wanted to get RB Myles Gaskin more carries after he had five on the opening drive and only four the rest of the way and was averaging over five per attempt?) – “It goes back to (a previous question) about holding onto the ball a little bit more and having more time of possession to where we get the opportunities. We feel like that group, we have a lot of depth at the running back position, the tight end position and at the receiver position. There is only one ball out there. We know that. There is a point where we want to make sure that those guys all get their opportunities. At the end of the game, there was some good running by Malcolm (Brown). Early in the game, like you said about Myles, we had some critical runs there and plays from Salvon (Ahmed). That group knows it’s by committee. The same thing with the tight ends and the receivers. There is no ego in that room, which as a coach, we love that about those guys. We love coaching them. They know that when their number is called on, that their job is to perform and that group continues to do that regardless of which one of those guys are getting the ball.”
(This is the first time we’ve got to see the fullness of your guys’ new offense. What stood out to you about the operation process and the final result of what we saw?) – “From an operation standpoint, it was pretty clean from our perspective. We were playing on the road. That environment is not an easy environment. We saw a lot of teams here in this first week where maybe it wasn’t as clean with let’s just say line of scrimmage penalties, delay of games, in and out of the huddle, having to call timeouts. That part of it, Tua (Tagovailoa) did an excellent job of getting us from coach to quarterback, to huddle, to the line of scrimmage. Then we know we left some plays out there. It’s the first week, thankfully. We’ve got some room to improve and that’s the way we want to look at it. We want to improve each week. We’ve got to eliminate the turnover and be 100 percent ball security. We know we can do some better things in the run game and in the pass game. Fortunately we get another opportunity here coming up and again it’s against a very formidable opponent. We need to be correcting the mistakes now and making sure by Sunday that those fires are put out.”
