Matt Applebaum – December 22, 2022
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Thursday, December 22, 2022
Offensive Line Coach Matt Applebaum
(We just asked Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith about where OL Liam Eichenberg had really shown growth before the injury and he mentioned pass protection. Where was he as a run blocker at the time of his injury? And does he have the skillset to be really good run blocker and your scheme?) – “I think Liam has the skillset to excel in all the things we’re asking him to do. He’s got to continue to get better every day but I don’t see anything he can’t accomplish for us within our scheme.”
(T Terron Armstead throughout the season has kind of played through some of the various injuries he’s had. He said he was changing up his technique and having to kind of compensate for whatever’s kind of ailing him. I was wondering throughout the week, is that something that he talks with you about? Do you work with him on that? And then can you kind of give us an example of what that change would be?) – “I wouldn’t want to give an example because that could be a competitive advantage, but those are things that are more like one-on-one conversations and less something that would be addressed in front of the group. But the guy’s played for a long time. He knows his body. He knows what he can do, what he can’t do, what some that might hinder him from being able to do and the adjustments that he’d have to make to get a guy blocked, which at the end of the day, is the only thing that really matters.”
(Working with T Terron Armstead this year, has it just amazed you the number of body parts he has had affected and he’s still playing through it and playing it at a high level?) – “For sure. Especially for myself coming from being in the college game for a while, you certainly aren’t dealing with a lot of guys that are in their 30s and the accumulation of injuries. But it’s certainly setting a standard in my mind for how an older player, a veteran, should approach his business. It’s been awesome.”
(There was a rep in the game where I think T Terron Armstead was in ISO pass protection. And he whipped back around and picked up an inside blitz. Just wanted to hear your reaction to that play.) – “He’s a funny guy, man. He’s so good at like re-hashing what happened out there because he’s seen everything and he was even laughing about it himself. That’s certainly not the way that protection is installed, perhaps. But that’s just a great player reacting in the moment and getting his job done in a way that not a lot of guys could do.”
(How much of his ability is purely physical and how much of it is just knowledge and feel?) – “I don’t know how to break that up into a percentage. He’s certainly a really talented guy. I mean, as we’ve already talked in here about his Combine stats and whatever. And he’s a really smart guy. But I think like any veteran player, as they get older, they start to be able to use all those reps they’ve accumulated and kind of be able to make adjustments at a more efficient level than a younger player. It’s really just simple as that. We got ‘Fish’ (Eric Fisher) in here now, and me and him have had the same conversations about certain things that he can see that when he was a younger player he never would have saw. I don’t know how to exactly break that down. But that dynamic certainly exists.”
(How has T Eric Fisher come along since you’ve had him here, and do you envision him getting to a point where he contributes? Or only if needed?) – “He’s coming along great. He’s a true vet. I mean he’s picked up our offense very quickly. I’m super impressed by his intellect and his ability to put in the extra time to get to where he needed to be. In terms of where he stands on playing or not playing, there’s a lot of factors that play into that. We’ll see how it goes.”
(Going back to day one, watching his tape, when you got hired here to what he put on the tape on Saturday in Buffalo, what’s the thing you see about OL Rob Hunt that has really demonstrated his growth and where he is as a player now?) – “Big Rob is obviously a talented guy. He’s really big and physical. And I think he’s taken that part of his game to another level, just the physicality play in and play out. And then I think he’s improved a lot on his footwork in pass protection and being comfortable in what we’re asking him to do from a technique perspective. I think his game is continuing to improve a lot.”
(What did you like about what the offensive line group did in the running plays last week?) – “I think we played really physical. I would say consistently play in and play out, possibly the most physical game we’ve played up to this point. And not only is that important, of course, just in general to run the ball, whatever. But later in the season, against a really good opponent in a prime time game, a group that is a relatively younger group, put it together and came out ready to play, ready to fight. So just the mentality of how they attacked the game and attacked a really good opponent, I was very pleased with.”
(Was there one guy in particular where you’d say, this is the best I’ve seen this guy run block?) – “I don’t know if there’s one guy in particular. I think all the guys are ready to go out there and play. I couldn’t single out one guy like that.”
(You guys ran between the guards especially early in that game. When you talk physicality, I assume you’re touching that on that?) – “In our system, especially when it’s more the zone runs and where the ball hits, so much of that’s predicated on how they’re aligned and how they react. So it’s not necessarily like this ball is going go right there. That’s just the nature of zone running without getting too deep into that. But there’s certain things about the structure, their defense, that led to the ball going to a certain spot, and us being able to leverage blocks a certain kind of way. So yeah, I think that’s a legitimate observation.”
