Andre Branch – October 5, 2017
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Thursday, October 5, 2017
DE Andre Branch
(We don’t know if Titans QB Marcus Mariota is going to play, but if he can, the kind of dual threat he can be, what kind of havoc can that guy create?) – “(He’s) a run and pass threat. He can definitely throw the ball as an NFL quarterback, but he runs the same 40 (yard dash) as NFL receivers, so he’s dangerous and we’re preparing for it.”
(How hard is it to prepare for possibly two quarterbacks, because with QB Marcus Mariota’s hamstring injury, it’s unclear if he’s going to play or QB Matt Cassel?) – “It’s tough; but at the same time, we’re preparing like (Mariota’s) going to play.”
(With this run game, obviously they have two physical backs. How much of a challenge is it to set the edge, especially against this offensive line?) – “It’s important because we went against the same offense last year and they ran it down our throat. So for us, it’s just do your job and just know that it’s going to be a physical, physical game. We’re getting ready for it.”
(When you’ve got a running back like RB DeMarco Murray, is there a key to getting him down on the ground?) – “Tackle. The most important thing for us is just do our job and everything else will handle itself.”
(How well are you guys doing your job so far this season as a defense?) – “I would say we’re doing a pretty good job, but there’s always room for improvement. That’s why we go out each and every day, to get better each and every day. For us, it’s just everybody hone into their job and everybody do their job and be accountable.”
(What are the little things that you think can be improved upon?) – “No one plays a perfect game. My key for everything is just everybody do their job and the rest will handle itself.”
(Why is the rush defense so much better this year? I know it’s only three games, but you’re only allowing 3.1 yards per carry. That’s near the top of the league and last year it was 30th.) – “This is a whole new team at the end of the day; but it’s important for us to just do our job. We have new pieces in place and they’re playing outstanding.”
Adam Gase – October 5, 2017
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Thursday, October 5, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen basically just said he’s not doing a good enough job helping you out in terms of helping the offense and giving you ideas, and insinuated that the offense might be tightening up, feeling the pressure of what’s been going on. Your response to that is what?) – “Clyde is just probably being a little hard on himself. I think what everybody is trying to do right now is do more – find ways to help the offense, find ways to see if we can get some consistency going, finishing drives, converting third downs. As far as guys tightening up, this is the NFL, so we’ve got to toughen up a little bit.”
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen indicated that things haven’t only not been manageable on the field, but also off the field – all the travel, everything that’s included – there’s no continuity, really. Can you kind of comment to that?) – “The schedule is what it is. We’re going to line up somewhere Sunday. You roll with the punches and you get prepared for the game and just be ready to go.”
(Was CB Xavien Howard even close to being able to work yesterday?) – “We were going to hold him out regardless. He’s just still day-to-day.”
(How long does it take for a guy to get in shape? LB Rey Maualgua has been around for a while. Is he still not in shape?) – “He looks alright to me. We’ll see what we do Sunday.”
(Do you want LB Rey Maualuga to play if he’s healthy and in shape?) – “Of course I do. That’s why we brought him here.”
(Do you ever talk to your guys about outside noise or do you leave them on their own to manage it?) – “I just tell them don’t listen to anything. Why? If anyone was held accountable for what they said, there’d be a lot of people out of jobs.”
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen was in here a little bit ago and he talked about doing what you do, but continuing to do it and just do it better. Is that your philosophy as well as far as the run game is concerned, just do what you’ve been doing?) – “With what we’ve been doing we absolutely … That’s really the No. 1 key for us is just do your job. If we do that consistently, we’ll be fine.”
(With third downs, it has been an issue for the past two seasons, carrying over to this year. Is there any rhyme or reason to why the team continues to struggle on that down?) – “I looked at that after the season, trying to pinpoint one or two things. Some of it came from … It stemmed from first and second down to where negative plays … Last year, it was more we were having minus 5- to 8-yard plays sometimes in the run game. That hurt us. We’d drop a ball here or we’d have a misread or a missed cut – things like that. That kind of will throw you off. If you have a negative play on first or second down, it makes it tough on third down. When you start heading in that third-and-8 plus, third-and-7 plus area, it’s tough to convert in this league, because they know what you’re going to do. They know you’re throwing it and there’s a lot of good pass rushers in this league, and it makes it very difficult to protect the quarterback.”
(We saw WR Jakeem Grant early at receiver in the first series for I think a couple of plays. Was that something that you had planned to do early and not do a lot of later, because obviously you have three, veteran, talented receivers?) – “If we keep the game fairly manageable or get a lead one of these days, I’d like to keep rolling all of those guys in there. We’ve got a talented bunch of guys between the backs and tight ends and wide receivers. (I want to) try to play guys, keep them fresh, get some different guys the ball, see if somebody can pop one out and make a big play. When it kind of gets in a position to where I feel like those three guys need to stay on the field, because they have a greater grasp of the variety of routes that we can run and moving them around. With Jakeem, I don’t want to throw him outside the box we kind of have him in right now, because he’s really starting to make a lot of progress. If we ever got to the situation where he had to play more, we’re going to have to do that; but we’re trying to keep bringing him along. This is his first year playing that spot. I like the direction he’s heading. I want him to keep improving.”
(How tough has it been a decision for you in your first year and a half of being a head coach of how often to ream your team, how often to be really angry with them as opposed to being calm when things are not going well?) – “I just go by feel. I feel like you need to say the right things at the right time. Every week is different.”
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen said that C/G Ted Larsen is getting closer. How close is he right now?) – “I don’t know. He knows more than I do, I guess.”
(That’s not anytime soon?) – “I don’t know. I’m worried about this game. He’s not playing this week.”
(Mike Gundy … This is totally random, so I apologize, if this is stupid: I was talking to Gundy about play calling once – Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy – and he told me that if things weren’t going right, sometimes he would literally randomly call a play off his sheet. Have you ever done anything like that?) – “I joke about … It’s like playing Battleship. You really have no clue what the other guy is doing anyways. You try to organize it the best you can and go off of tendencies. All it takes is one game and all of a sudden the defensive coordinator flips all his tendencies. That’s done a lot. You try to give the quarterback and the players as many answers as possible. Teams usually lean on certain coverages, and they’ll throw some curveballs in there every once in a while. But for the most part, you have an idea of what it could be. When you give them a play and there’s just nothing, no answers whatsoever, that’s really where you get yourself in trouble.”
Clyde Christensen – October 5, 2017
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Thursday, October 5, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(A couple of things. One, from a run blocking standpoint, who has been your best offensive lineman this year? The other thing is how different are you seeing defensive fronts in terms of number of people in the box in the first three games compared to last December – Jets, Patriots, Steelers in the playoff game, Bills?) – “To answer your first question, (Mike) Pouncey is the one guy on offense who I think has graded out (well) all three of the weeks. He continues to play at an extremely high level. He has played extremely well for three weeks, especially on a (modified) practice schedule where we’re kind of having to rest him a little bit. Defensively, it’s really the same thing (we saw last year). We just haven’t handled it as well. We’re getting the extra man in the box and everyone starts with the same thing, ‘Let’s stop the run. Let’s not let them get going.’ The difference is that we haven’t gotten going much this year; but I think they’re playing us the same. I really think that they’ve played us very similar and probably the only advantage that they do have now is a whole year of film on us and it gives them a little more to start preparing for us. But it’s the same thing. Every week, week after week, it’s the same thing. It’s that extra guy in the box, let’s stop the run first, which we knew. You go into every game knowing there’s an extra man in the box and last year we ran the ball solidly on the extra man, and this year we haven’t consistently done that. This last game, it’s a hard thing to say; but when we were on schedule, we played pretty well. You called runs on first-and-10 and second-and-1-to-6 and when you’re on schedule … The bad news was we just weren’t on schedule probably two-thirds of the game, whether it was a penalty, whether it was a minus-yard play or whether it was something else, we just stayed off schedule. Then it’s hard. It’s hard-sledding and we didn’t handle it very well. If there was a silver lining – which there wasn’t much of one, but if there was one – it was when we were on schedule, it was okay. The first drive, we drive down there and did some good things and ran, threw (the ball) and kind of had a little rhythm going there and then we had the pick at the 5-yard line on first-and-goal from the 5 (yard line). But when we were on schedule, it was okay. It was okay football.”
(Is it fair to say that the run blocking is not anywhere close to where it was at the end of last year?) – “I don’t know if that’s fair. It’s a good question. We haven’t run it as successfully. There were moments and there were times last year where we had trouble running, that the extra guy is (causing trouble); but I think it’s certainly fair to say we aren’t running it as well. It’s a combination of an awful lot of things. Is it the line’s fault if we jump offsides, if we jump offsides and end up first-and-15? I’d be careful. I would not put it all on the (offensive) line or the run blocking, if you will. It’s been kind of everybody. Sometimes it’s the quarterback, sometimes it’s a tight end jumping offsides, sometimes it’s us not getting lined up right or something. There have been multiple … Getting a ‘Mike’ (linebacker) point, getting it ID’d correctly. All of those things. It would be widespread to blame (everyone), including me.”
(What does this offense need to do more than anything? I know score points, but specifically what do you need to do?) – “I think we’ve just got to get guys … I said last week, we’ve got to have more guys play winning football. That would be the first thing. And then I think third down continues to haunt us because everyone gets claustrophobic and frustrated that you don’t have enough snaps. It’s another game where there is 50-whatever there was – (47) snaps in the game. I watched Houston against these guys last week this morning and I think they had (78) snaps. Don’t hold me to the number. I think if you said two things, we have to play better football and everyone just has to do their job; and then two is we have to stay on schedule and sustain some drives and get enough snaps to where playmakers can make their plays and (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase can get into his full play call sheet, runners can get enough carries to get into a rhythm, we can wear down some pass rushers to where it’s a little easier to protect and block people – all of those kinds of things. Those two things I’d say would be of utmost importance.”
(With Head Coach Adam Gase calling the plays and having final say on the offense, how exactly do you two work together when you’re in a situation like this trying to fix some things? What is your role as far as that dynamic?) – “My role, which I don’t think I’ve done very well is just keep giving him some ideas and kind of manage the things underneath him, talk through some things like how do we get this thing back on track, so he can focus on calling the game. It’s the same as it’s always been, just to be a complement to him. It’s his show and I’m just dancing in it; but I’ve got to do a better job of giving him what he needs to dial it up. The same as everybody, there’s a frustration level I think (he has). When there are so few snaps, it’s hard to get a rhythm. It’s hard to get to the things in your game plan that you want to. You start pressing. I do think that probably one of my responsibilities would be just to be a soothing voice, if you will, that you can’t get frustrated. All of us have tendencies – players and coaches – to say ‘I’ve got to make it happen. I’ve got to make this thing successful. I’ve got to call the perfect play. I’ve got to dial up the one that turns the whole thing around.’ At the end of the day, that’s a recipe for things getting worse. You’ve got to stay with it and we’ve just got to work our way through this thing. The great news – I was walking over here trying to think of some positives and I couldn’t think of many, but one is we get to play this weekend; and two is that we have to find some way to end the first quarter 2-2. We’ve been around the globe with circumstances and geographics, and we can come out of this quarter 2-2 and regroup with a long way to go. That’s a positive, to play as dismally as we’ve played offensively and I think there’s just one undefeated team (Kansas City). If you come out of the first quarter 2-2 … We’ve got a chance to do that with a home game (this week) and we have to do that.”
(How do you improve the production in the run game? Is that a matter of continuing doing what you have been doing but doing it better?) – “I think it is. I think generally, the recipe out there in the stands and on the TV and everywhere else is we’ve got to change people, we’ve got to change things, we’ve got to change schemes, we’ve got to change everything, we have to change what we had for pregame meal. I think that’s kind of … ‘Replace this and replace that.’ Usually, in my humble history, you try to just do what you’re doing better. It’s not the system. It’s a proven system. It’s not the players. They’ve won games. Just keep doing what you’re doing, do it better, tighten it up and you hope for something to just kind of ignite it. A big play, we need someone to make a big run, a big catch, a big throw, a big block, something to just get us going. We all know who have watched this thing from last year that we’ve kind of been that kind of team. Once something gets it going, it kind of catches fire and then we go. I do think it’s not (about changing things). You have to resist a little (because) changing everything, that’s not the case. We’ll experiment a little bit but the answer to the question is stay the course, do it better and it’s about us. It’s not about the opponent. We’ve got to play better football; we’ve got to have guys play winning football. If we don’t play winning football, it doesn’t matter what offense, what stadium, what continent we play on. None of that matters. If we don’t play well, we’re not going to win; and that’s kind of the theme. If we play well, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. It’s the same thing. If we play well, we’re going to have a chance to win the game. We’ve just got to play well. We haven’t.”
(You’ve had this issue going back to last season. Three different quarterbacks. What is at the route of what’s going on in terms of how, you said, this team starts to feel the pressure?) – “Good question. I don’t know the answer. If I knew the answer, we’d have solved it already. It’s a lot of things. It is three quarterbacks. It’s getting off schedule. This week, it was completely unmanageable third down distances. It was probably the longest I remember in a long time where you had three third-and-20s and a third-and-17. The first thing we can do is to keep that thing manageable and to give ourselves a chance. That would be the one thing that jumped out that we all know, that’s obvious. You guys know, I know, everyone knows that; but we haven’t been able to do it. We haven’t been able to stay on schedule. We haven’t been able to get third down going. I would say that of every nine third downs, you could just divide it up and one is a receiver, one is a quarterback, one is protection, one is the defense does a good job. That’s been the question. We’ve studied it, we’ve worked at it, we’ve emphasized it, we’ve done all of those things and so far we haven’t been able to solve it.”
(You mentioned the big plays before. It seems obviously that you’re not getting enough. Is there a metric for that? Do you expect a certain number of big plays and why haven’t you?) – “Yes, I think we do. We feel like we’ve got people up in the box, we’ve got to throw the ball downfield and we’ve got a couple of guys that we think are big-play guys. I think there is empirical data that it’s hard to drive the ball if you don’t knock out a big play somewhere in the thing – a big run, a throw. They’re not always perfect. That’s the amazing thing. When you watch red zone, or you watch third down, a lot of them are off schedule and its Aaron Rodgers getting out of the pocket and making a play or someone making a one-handed catch. The fact is that you have to have them. It’s impossible to just drive the ball. It’s not like certain games in college where you can go 4 yards over and over. You need a big play and we haven’t had them. This week, we really didn’t get a chance to get balls up. The same thing, those number of snaps. That’s important, where you can take your shots. You do get puckered up a little bit where you’re going ‘Gosh, I don’t want to be second-and-10 or I don’t want to throw two incompletes in a row.’ That’s probably what I’m talking about that it’s a challenge to manage as a coach, just that you start pressing and that you want everything to be perfect. I talked about staying on schedule so you’re kind of afraid to take a shot and take a little deeper drop because you don’t want to be second-and-17 if it doesn’t happen, or some of those things. I think all of the above is not very fun, but we’ve just got to get out of it. We’ve got to get out of it and we’ve got to find a way to get out of it and get that ball flowing a little bit. That will be big plays. They have to happen for us to have any success. That’s everybody.”
(How far away is G Isaac Asiata from getting consideration? With C/G Ted Larsen not available, I’m trying to think of possible guard solutions.) – “I think (Asiata) is a ways away. I think in an ideal world, it’d be his redshirt year. That would be the ideal world. We may have to call him up and he may have to go this weekend; but I do think Larsen and a couple of guys are getting closer and that will give us a little extra depth in the thing. We’ve got plenty of good players. We’ve got to play better. I don’t think it’s pulling someone from another team. It’s not someone out on the street that we’re going to go find. It’s our guys playing better.”
(Do you guys have a definition for big play? 11 yards? 16?) – “Yes, we talk about a pass being 20 yards and a run being 12 yards. Different people measure it different ways. The league measures it a different way, but that’s kind of what we would talk about.”
Matt Burke – October 5, 2017
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Thursday, October 5, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(There was a report this morning the CB Byron Maxwell ‘failed to play defenses called by the coaching staff.’ How often was that occurring?) – “I can’t address any reports that I don’t know about, but ‘Max’ plays what we ask him to play. All of our guys do. We just made decisions on what we thought were the best matchups for the week. I can’t address stuff that I don’t know about.”
(What were some of the factors that went into the decision to make a change at corner?) – “I liked the way ‘Tank’ (Cordrea Tankersley) had been practicing. You guys know that I wanted tighter coverage and wanted some of the things that I just didn’t feel like I was seeing, so we just felt that that was a better opportunity for us to try to move forward last week.”
(How has CB Byron Maxwell responded? He’s been through this before.) – “He has. He’s been good. No one likes to be benched or replaced or to lose playing time, however you want to look at it. I wouldn’t expect him to be happy about it. He was upset and we had some good conversations, him and I and (Defensive Backs Coach) Lou (Anarumo) talked to him a bunch, about what we were doing, and he’s responded well, honestly, as well as you can expect. He’s getting some scout team reps now. We’re moving guys around and he’s been working hard and he says, ‘Alright, I’m just going to keep trying to show you that I’m ready to play and contribute to the team.’ So as long as he keeps on that track, again, it happened last year, it happened a couple of times, and he’s earned his way back in to where we thought we were ready to play him some more. If ‘Max’ continues on that track, then he’ll have an opportunity to get some more time.”
(If CB Xavien Howard can’t go, is CB Alterraun Verner the next man up for this week?) – “There’s still a lot of issues going on there – factors. I know ‘X’ is kind of day-to-day, so we’re seeing where he is. Honestly, we’re just getting all of those guys ready. Special teams will be a factor in terms of who’s active and who’s not, also. It’s just going to be how it fits for the team and what (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) decides to play in terms of who they’re keeping up and who’s going. We’re getting multiple guys ready to play and we’ll make that decision based on health and those factors.”
(Would you say that this is still a man-press defense?) – “I would say those are our base principles, sure.”
(Do you play it a lot, because people are asking why not more?) – “(Laughter) Schematically, I don’t want to say we’re a man-press team; but all of our techniques, even when we play what we consider our zone defenses, they all have man principles in them, and techniques, especially on the outside part of the field, those corners, they should be pressed. Again, depending on certain route concepts and what’s coming at them, they should be in man-oriented coverage.”
(Do the corners get to decide how far off the line of scrimmage they work?) – “No.”
(So they should be closer?) – “In certain calls. Again, the calls and formations dictate technique. So when we make a call, they should have an understanding of, ‘Okay, depending on splits or formation, this is the technique I have to use.’ Sometimes it’s dictated that you should be pressed, sometimes we can’t press in certain splits or certain formations that they have to play off or have to do some different things. The call dictates one thing, but then what the offense gives us dictates something else. There are certain times where they should be pressed, absolutely; and there’s sometimes they can’t be depending on what the offense is showing us.”
(I know it’s a small sample size, just three games thus far; but your rush defense is allowing just 3.1 yards per carry. Why is it so much better this year than last year? What’s different?) – “I don’t know. It’s a new year. We’ve got good players. We made an emphasis on it. I don’t know. I can’t tell you what’s different. I just think the guys are taking pride in it. It’s a point of emphasis from the top down, from me, from everyone else. We’ve been fortunate enough to have some success so far, but it is only three games.”
(How much of a factor is S Reshad Jones being healthy in improving that running defense?) – “Obviously he’s a great player for us. He’s a great tackler, probably our best tackler in the back end; so when you lose a guy like that (it hurts the defense). I thought one of our issues last year, again, was a run breaks out and Reshad gets it down for eight yards or 10 yards and it doesn’t look as bad and we can regroup and fix whatever happened, whereas if we miss a tackle back there and it goes for 40, all of the sudden it’s like, ‘Man, we can’t stop the run.’ Also, he’s been a good blitzer for us in run pressures, and (we’ve been) utilizing him around the line of scrimmage and stuff, too, and giving some different fronts, so he’s a huge factor in what we’re doing in the run game for sure.”
(Going back to what you said based on what you said about splits of the wide receivers. If they’re in close proximity to one another and you have one off the ball and one on the ball, your cornerbacks have to be at different levels to avoid being picked, so that takes away your ability to get hands on receivers.) – “Correct. Any team that is known as a press coverage team or wants to work out of press, that’s what offenses are going to try to do. It’s hard to press stacks and bunches and those types of splits and those things, so teams are going to try to work to get us off press. They don’t want hands on their receivers either, so we worked on it all spring. That’s what (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) tries to do to us every day in practice. That is one of the ways that teams try to get us off press.”
(How would you assess CB Cordrea Tankersley’s first game?) – “I thought he did a good job. He competed. As expected, he was challenged, which that wasn’t a surprise to any of us. There were some rookie mistakes and some things that he’s got to clean up; but I thought that his approach to it, his confidence, and the way challenged guys – he wasn’t backing off from anybody – trying to do what we asked. He was really into it and when he did have a couple of grey area things and we cleaned them up on the sideline, he was very responsive. He was good. It definitely wasn’t too big for him and he went the other way with it.”
(Everyone’s saying that in the last three games, the defense has played good enough to win a game. Would you disagree with that?) – “I would disagree. We haven’t won. I told the guys this, this past game for example. To me, we had five opportunities that I thought we let go by. We had two fumbles on the ground that we didn’t get on – one of them which was in our hands, literally. We had two interceptions that we had our hands on that we dropped; and honestly, for me, the biggest thing I felt was that last drive that we gave up, the last touchdown drive. We had them backed up on the minus-13, we’re only down 13-0 and we’re two scores (away). Literally, I was stalking the sidelines saying, ‘Man, this is just like the Rams game last year.’ If we get a stop here, we get them on a short field, the offense just takes one drive, then they get going, and now it’s 13-7. That’s how I was preaching it and we gave up an 87-yard touchdown drive, aided by some penalties and stuff. For me, that wasn’t a winning effort by our football team on defense. We had multiple opportunities to shorten the field for the offense, to flip things, get a turnover, whatever it may be, and I didn’t think we took advantage of those opportunities. We have one takeaway in three games and that’s something that we emphasize, so there’s plenty of work to be done. We’re not playing that game in my room. I can tell you that.”
(Part of that seems like you want more big plays, fumble recoveries and interceptions.) – “Yes, and it’s a fine line. What I think a good response to what’s been going on was is that our guys weren’t pressing to make plays, because that’s when we start getting in trouble. There’s certain guys that we have to caution against (that think), ‘Oh man, I need to take a play here,’ and getting out of his lane and not doing his responsibility, and then we’re giving up a bigger play. I don’t want the players pressing, feeling like, ‘Man, we have to make plays,’ but there’s always going to be opportunities within the game, and we have to take advantage. The urgency … We’ve had a lot of balls on the ground that we haven’t gotten on top of all season, so far, and like I said, we’ve dropped, off the top of my head, at least five interceptions this year. I mean dropped, had our hands on, had a chance to make plays. When those opportunities present themselves, we have to make those plays. We have to, if we want to be the defense that we are talking about that we want to be. I feel like we haven’t taken advantage of those opportunities yet.”
(Coaches might not look at it this way, but a fumble recovery. If you have your hands on the ball and it escapes, I can understand your point of view, but isn’t there a randomness to fumble recoveries?) – “Yes, there is. I’m sure there are some stats behind that; but some of the things we preach about always getting to the ball. We had that one, I think it was last week – I can’t even keep the days straight right now – where (Ndamukong) Suh had the sack and the ball squirted out and we have guys not … Kiko (Alonso) is the only one chasing after that ball that’s on the ground that they recovered last week in New York. In terms of us never giving up on the play and always running to the ball, good things happen when you have players around the ball. We had that one last week that’s squirting out and Kiko almost falls on it, it pops out and Cam (Wake) is (close). Do you know what I mean? If we have eight guys running to the ball, maybe one of them is there to clean that thing up or pick somebody else off the pile before they get on it, and that sort of thing. Sure, it’s obviously random how a ball bounces and who it goes to closer, but the more guys that we have getting in the area, the more guys around the ball, the more times we’re attacking the ball, whether it’s a ball carrier or in the air, the more opportunity we’re going to have to make those plays.”
(How eager are you to see LB Rey Maualuga in a game at linebacker and how can he help you?) – “I’m always eager to see all of the guys play. Rey, I’ve known for a very long time. He’s been working hard to get back and he’s getting closer. When that time comes … He’s a big man. He’s a physical player, in the run game, particularly. He’s probably one of the best I’ve been around at taking on offensive linemen because he’s such a big, powerful guy. I mean, he knocks offensive linemen back. In fact, I don’t know if I want to put this out here, he might get mad at me; but ask (Mike) Pouncey about it because when we first signed him, (Pouncey) told me we played them last year and he probably hit me as hard as anybody I’ve ever been hit by. He brings that element obviously with some extra beef in there in the middle.”
(Where is LB Rey Maualuga from a conditioning standpoint, in terms of being able to play let’s say 40 snaps a game?) – “Yes, that’s been part of the focus. Like I said, I think he’s close. I think it’s going to be a game-time decision by (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) and by what we’re doing, but basically all he’s been doing for most of the time here has been working, as part of the rehab and getting back healthy; but then also getting into shape. So it’s been an emphasis for him and I think he’s pretty close.”
(They have a couple of good offensive tackles there in Tennessee. How do they use that to their benefit in the run and the pass?) – “They do. Obviously, they feel good about being able to match those guys up. For an offensive line to have confidence in singling those guys up and not having to … We see so many chips and max protections and slides and stuff, so it’s a little different for an o-line to feel confident in terms of protections, where they don’t have to necessarily protect those guys against some of our rush players. They can get a few more players out in the pass game and those sorts of things because they’re not worried about having to protect (Taylor) Lewan or (Jack) Conklin or those guys. It’s a little different type of protection scheme then maybe we’ll see throughout the year. Then in the run game, it’s just their lifeblood of what they do. It’s their element. Obviously we know Lewan’s a tempo-setter for them and (has) attitude, and that’s part of their run game and part of their style and approach to what they’re doing. They’re two good players that we have to get after a little bit this week.”
(What are some of the specifics that you’ve been doing with S T.J. McDonald over the last few weeks? What are some of the things that you’re doing on a routine basis?) – “Again, he’s limited in some of the things he can do and he’s got some other things he has to resolve as he’s going through this process. He’s around in meetings. He’s allowed to do that, so when he’s in meetings, we’ve tried to just involve him in terms of being an extra set of eyes for us like, ‘Hey look at this cut-up or look at this play and maybe help some of the other safeties out with your evaluation,’ which keeps him involved in what we’re doing and the game plan stuff week-to-week. It gives him a way to contribute. When he’s available, he’s been around in meetings and just trying to help as another set of eyes and another veteran player that’s seen it, seen a lot of football and done it. He can help some of those other safeties and guys.”
(Is there any sort of simulation in terms of you showing S T.J. McDonald clips from the game and having him decide what he would do?) – “No, nothing like that.”
Darren Rizzi – October 5, 2017
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Thursday, October 5, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(The thinking last week in WR Jarvis Landry returning punts instead of WR Jakeem Grant and is Jarvis now your primary punter returner moving forward?) – “Is he our primary punt returner moving forward? No. We have two punt returners. Kind of like I said all along, there’s really no story there. It’s just a thing that we’re going to do every game based on an individual basis. Last week there was one of the reps that Jakeem was going to get, but he was getting re-spatted – his ankle was getting re-spatted at the time, re-taped. He was up on one and it just happened to be one of the ones they punted. One was a game plan thing. We knew Jarvis was going to play on that particular call during the week, all week; and then one was just a coaching decision. It’s still going to be an individual basis. There’s really nothing that doesn’t … We don’t go into, I don’t go into a game, saying ‘Hey, if they have six punts, Jarvis is going to get four and Jakeem’s going to get two; or Jakeem’s going to get four or Jarvis is going to get two; or one guy is going to get six.’ It just worked out in that particular game that Jarvis got three and Jakeem got zero, but there’s not, again, it’s going to be a little bit more of a … It’s really as the flow of the game is going on and the call that we have, game plan, all of those different things factor in. It just happened to be coincidentally that Jarvis got three last week and Jakeem got zero. There’s no indicator of my confidence of anybody, lack of confidence of anybody. There’s really no story there. It’s just going to continue to be a committee deal. We are fortunate to have two guys that can do it and I have confidence in both of them.”
(Some might have watched that and thought well maybe it was because WR Jakeem Grant fumbled the punt late in the game against the Jets. Was that any bearing at all in incorporating WR Jarvis Landry more into the punt return game?) – “He did fumble one, but that wasn’t part of the decision. Honestly, Jakeem was going to take the very first one and was getting re-spatted, and the trainers had come to me and said ‘Hey, right now he’s temporarily down,’ and it just coincidentally happened to be that they were punting the ball, so Jarvis went on that first one. Then like I said, the second one was a game plan and one was just my decision. That was it.”
(If I’m not mistaken, K Cody Parkey has had three plays in the last two games. A kickoff, extra point and a second half kickoff.) – “That’s an accurate statement.”
(Is there such a thing as kicker rust and do you worry about that?) – “Those guys obviously get a fair amount of work in the pregame, which is great, and then obviously they have their work days during the week. They’re a lot like – I kind of liken them to pitchers. They have a five-day rotation, you kind of have your work day, your game day, your work day and your off day. So what we’ll do in that situation is make sure he’s getting a little more work on the days where – like a practice day like yesterday for example – was his work day on Wednesday. So if he’s not getting those reps in the game, we’re going to try to simulate as many as we can. So he maybe got a little bit more field goal yesterday than he had been getting. Obviously we hope we get many more attempts with him and hopefully he’s playing more in these next coming games; but that’s a legitimate question. We just have to adjust his week as his week goes. It would be like a starting pitcher getting – in baseball – getting 40 pitches instead of 90. We’re going to get him more during the week. So that’s basically how we (do it).”
(Did anything or anybody stand out on special teams against the Saints?) – “I though Walt (Aikens) had his best game of the year. Walt Aikens I thought really played well. He obviously missed that preseason time and so, not that he played poorly in the first two games, but I saw the Walt in this game that’s kind of the Walt from the second half of last year. I thought he really had a dominant second half of the year last year and I saw that guy again on Sunday. I thought he really played well. Bobby McCain plays a limited role for us, but he’s really played well through three games. Whether it’s the field goal block or once in a while he’s a gunner or a jammer, or kickoff – he made a big open-field tackle on a kickoff. It was a really nice play. I thought he really played well. Terrence Fede I thought had a good game. Those are the three guys come to mind.”
(I believe your 28th in the NFL in net punting. What needs to improve?) – “After a three-game body of work, I really take very, very little credence in the stats right now. With where the league is, other teams have had one more game than us as well, and so the rankings right now, whether we’re really good at something or really bad at something, I don’t really put a lot of stock into the stats right now. The one thing we need to do a better job of, I will tell you this, is there’s been times where I thought we should have gotten the returner on the ground quicker. Like last week, I thought Teddy Ginn had a few more yards than he should have gotten on the one return in particular. Again, I think there’s a combination of things. It’s not putting your finger on one thing. I thought Matt Haack, for the most part, has punted the ball fairly well. There’s probably one or two punts he’d like to have back; but he’s had really good hang time on the ball and enabled our coverage to get down the field. We’ve got to do a better job of open-field tackling. As I tell our guys all the time, on special teams and your coverage, they can’t get a hat on everybody. In this league, the free players have to get the guy on the ground. If you’re not blocked in this league, it’s the same thing with defense, the unblocked player has to make tackles. Period. If your unblocked players don’t make tackles on coverage and defense, it’s going to be a long, long day. That’s one thing we harp on. We had a couple of instances so far where the unblocked guy didn’t get the player on the ground. That’s what we’ve got to do a better job of.”
(Both LB Stephone Anthony and CB/S Jordan Lucas will be active on special teams this week?) – “It remains to be seen. We’re going to kind of see how the practice week goes here. They’re both working. Again, it’s my job, as you guys all know, to get everybody ready. Both of those guys are actively taking reps in everything that we’re doing and rotating in. We have some decisions to make here at the end of the week on who the actives are; but both guys could potentially be in there for sure.”
(In your role as associate head coach – I asked you this last year when you were 1-4 – now that you know Head Coach Adam Gase even better, what’s the best way to help him do his job the best way?) – “I think the best thing for me to do is making sure I have an overall sense of the entire game and what’s going on. Obviously as the play caller, the one thing I can do for him is help him out with decisions during the game whether it’s penalty enforcement or time outs or time management – whatever it is – so he can really concentrate on that role as a play caller. I try to take that off his plate as much as I can. We’re constantly communicating through the game. Obviously whether it’s all of those things that could come up, different challenges or replays or like I said penalty enforcement or the time outs, I’m just trying to always stay one step ahead in those instances – the game management stuff – so that he doesn’t have to. So he can be thinking about the next set of calls or the next down or talking to Jay Cutler or the quarterbacks or whatever it might me. I think that’s the biggest thing I can help him with.”
(As far as the saturation that’s hit the field this week, with the punting and kicking, do you use longer cleats or anything like that to try to make up for it?) – “Yes, I’d love to tell you I know what our stadium looks like but we haven’t been there in a couple of months. (laughter) Yes, it’s no different than this past week. When we played in London, a lot of the guys ended up going with seven-stud cleats when you have a wet, soggy field. A lot of guys, what they’ll do is they’ll go out, they’ll have two or three pairs of cleats in their locker on game day, and you see a lot of guys running around early on in the game. A lot of times, that’s what most of them are doing is testing out their cleats. I know a lot of our guys did the same thing in London because that field is known to be a slick field with not great footing and hopefully we get some dry weather here in the next few days and it dries ours out. I would like to think it should be in really good condition. We haven’t been on it, and the University of Miami hasn’t been on it much either. Hopefully it will be in really good shape.”
(Are you taking K Cody Parkey to Hard Rock Stadium in the next couple of days?) – “We were going to take him today, so that’s not going to work out too well. (laughter) We’re going to probably get him down there early, whether it’s tomorrow or get him down there early obviously on game day. We’ll kind of see how the weather goes. We had planned on this being the day that we got into the stadium but I think it’s going to be a little bit of a wash out here. We did get some good work in the rain yesterday though. I know that seems maybe like a small thing but specialists obviously, you see a lot of times in these rain games or wet games where the special teams things really swing games, and so our operation between the snapper, holder, punter and all that stuff, we really got some good work out here. We stayed outside yesterday in the rain and got some really good wet ball drills and didn’t have to simulate it. A lot of times we simulate it. We bring out a bucket of water. We didn’t have to simulate. We had the natural rain, so we got some good quality natural work.”
(What kind of latitude do you give your returners as far as returning balls out of the end zone? Because obviously WR Jakeem Grant returned a kick and it kind of cost you about 15 yards there. So what do you exactly tell your returners when the balls are in the end zone?) – “It’s a really good question because I think it really depends on the … There’s a bunch of factors because I think it depends on the situation of the game, the time of the game, where you are. I’m very confident in our two guys. My problem last week was not with them taking it out of the end zone. When I watched the game with them, I made that perfectly clear. My problem was not that we took the ball out of the end zone, I had about three or four other problems with that play. Our communication was poor. We had a couple of missed blocks and all that, and if you go back and watch the play on film, we actually had a play there. So do I want a guy taking a ball out from 9 (yards) deep in the end zone with a high hang-time kick? No; but that ball was a line drive right at us and I thought that’s a ball that we should have returned. I had no problem with it. It was more of the breakdown of the play and the way we blocked it and the communication. That’s where we weren’t good, on that aspect. I probably, to answer your question specifically, I probably am a little bit one of those guys that’s probably down the middle somewhere. I’m not really strict that you’ve got to say in and I’m not that I want every ball to come out either. I’m probably somewhere in the middle in terms of special teams coaches; but those are opportunities for us to make plays. We had two guys back there that have proven they can make plays with the ball in their hands. We have a bunch of guys that can block and so I have no problem in the right situation, the right time, bringing the ball out of the end zone.”
Mike Pouncey – October 4, 2017
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Wednesday, October 4, 2017
C Mike Pouncey
(Where do you think the offensive line is playing now as far as where it is compared to where it’s maximum potential could be?) – “We’ll see. Obviously as a unit, we’re not playing the way we need to be playing. We’ve got to rush the ball, we’ve got to run for more yards in the first half to give (Head) Coach (Adam Gase) confidence in us. I think we’ve got a ways to go, but it’s still early in the football season. We went out today, had a really good practice and (we’ll) just keep building off that.”
(How good is it to have a ‘normal week’ and be back and be home?) – “It feels good. I can’t wait to go out there and play in front of our home crowd. Obviously we can never use that as an excuse. We got dealt this schedule and we’ve just had to deal with it; but it feels good to finally be able to play in a home game.”
(That smile came out as soon as I said you finally have a normal week.) – “(Laughter) It’s just good, man. It’s good to be at home. Everything’s a little bit easier. You get to go on cadence. You don’t have to really worry about the crowd. We’re just excited to go play in front of our home crowd. We’ve been all over the world these past couple of weeks and it’s been a fun experience, but it’s definitely not the record we want to be at right now. We kind of put ourselves in a hole and we’ll dig our way out just like we always find a way to, and get better week by week.”
(Talking about digging yourself out of a hole, does last year’s slow start give you confidence that you can get out of this hole?) – “Just any season, it’s a long football season. We’ve only played three football games so far. Obviously we lost to two teams that we thought we should have beat. Those games right there add up at the end of the year when you’re trying to make the playoffs. That’s why I said we’ve got to dig ourselves out of this hole. When you’ve got teams that you’re expecting to beat, you’ve got to go beat those teams. Right now, we didn’t do that these last two weeks. We’ll work on that. We’ll get better as a football team. We’re excited to go against this Tennessee football team. They’re really good on defense. They get after the quarterback with their two edge rushers and they play the run really well. It’ll be a good task for our offensive line and we’re ready for it.”
(Is it attention to detail, just little details that you guys are screwing up?) – “Yes, I mean it is one thing on this play, another on another play. We’ve just got to start playing as a whole unit and once we do that, we’ve seen what that turns into, and that turns into our offense looking really good. We’ll get back on track this week and look forward to running the ball a lot more.”
(What do you have to do to try to get the running game going?) – “We’ve just got to stay on schedule with it and whenever we get there, whenever we get the calls, we’ve got to make sure we do really good at it to keep (Head) Coach (Adam Gase’s) confidence high in us running the football. Obviously if we’re losing three or four yards when we run the football, then he’s not going to go back to it. So it’s something we’ve got to do as an offensive line and pay attention to. Especially early in the football game, we have to run the ball really well.”
(What would you say the atmosphere has been like this week? Has there a lot of anger about the way things have started out?) – “Yes, obviously guys are mad. Any time you lose a football game, if you’re not mad, something’s wrong. I think that shows that you have a really good football team, guys that really care when they come in and they’re pissed off about a loss. That’s pretty much been the attitude this week. Guys are just very disappointed in how we played last week, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The defense has been playing really well these past couple of weeks. We’ve got to do a better job of keeping them off the field, stop going three-and-out and keeping those guys fresh, so that in the fourth quarter they can win some football games.”
(Did you sense that in practice today too?) – “Well you can’t ever get that sense. We’re running maybe 25 plays in practice. In a game, we’re running 60-70. I think today, we did a good job running the football during our run team periods. We’ll look at it on film, but we’ll have a lot of confidence going into this football game.”
(The attitude more, though, like the mood and the approach in practice today.) – “Like were guys wanting to be out there in practice today?”
(Well like you were saying, you guys were angry from last Sunday.) – “Yes, guys are pissed. There were fights today at practice. If that’s what you’re asking, yes. Guys are mad that we didn’t play well this past weekend, so we’ll do a better job of that.”
(What do you remember most from the Tennessee game last year when you faced those guys?) – “That we were down three starting offensive linemen before the game. This year we’ll have all of our guys. Last year we had a few starters out and we had some other guys in. We’ll see how we do against these guys with our starting group.”
(On running plays that have been bottled up at the line or behind the line, do you think it’s been mostly the individual linemen being beat physically by their guy? Has it been a little bit of communication stuff?) – “You can point out anything. At the end of the day, it’s just not getting the job done. What I think we’ve got to do is do a better job in the first half of football games to run the ball well. That gives (Head) Coach (Adam Gase) a lot of confidence. It opens up our offense a lot more. We can do play action and stuff like that. We’ll get it rolling this week.”
Jay Cutler – October 4, 2017
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Wednesday, October 4, 2017
QB Jay Cutler
(The offense is struggling to score touchdowns…) – “That’s an understatement.”
(Do you wrestle with that or are you kind of business-like about it and kind of feel that it will come around soon?) – “I think today we were a little bit more positive and energetic and back to work. The last few days, you go through a lot of questions of what if we did this, what if we did that, and try to figure out answers to questions that you might not know. Now Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we’ve just got to get back to business and try to get better each and every day. That’s the only thing we can do.”
(It seems like the Titans defense is going through some of the same things. What sort of opportunities do you see there looking at them?) – “I mean the way we’re playing offensively, I don’t think we can take anything for granted right now. We’ve got to worry about ourselves. It’s a really good front. They’ve got guys in the secondary that can make plays. Just like any other NFL team, if we flop it out there the way we have the last two games, they’re going to eat us up.”
(One of the positive plays from last week – I found one – was the zone read, a Jay Cutler’s zone read. Head Coach Adam Gase said ‘zone read always works.’) – “Well, in theory it does. I mean I think we got five or six (yards) out of it, so it’s an efficient play for us. I think that’s the biggest thing, first and second down be more efficient. Getting three, four or five yards (and) giving ourselves a chance on third down. We’ve had a lot of third-and-longs. The third-and-1 we did have, we didn’t convert that one, so that’s a missed opportunity for us. We’ve got to find ways to become a more efficient offense in everything we do.”
(Is there any sense of relief that comes from knowing you don’t have to travel this week? You finally have a home game.) – “Yes, I think it might be a little bit odd. We’ve got to put our suitcases away; but it should be good. Everyone’s a little bit more comfortable at home, that sense of security of being here. Hopefully it pays off for us.”
(Is there such a thing as lack of chemistry between yourself and your receivers or is it just lack of execution?) – “I mean you’re always battling against chemistry and knowing what your receivers are going to do. Being on the same page, that’s always a constant battle. That’s always a communication, a conversation you have with those guys; but if we don’t execute, we’re not even going to get to the chemistry part of it. We’ve got to execute, myself included. All 11 of us, we’ve got to figure it out.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said that he feels he’s ‘wasted some good defensive performances’ the way the offense is play?) – “Yes, I think that’s fair.”
(How do you feel about that in terms of the effort level the defense is playing?) – “I mean I told them we can’t do any worse by the defense. We can’t put them in any more holes than we’ve put them in. I think we had six plays through the third quarter and nine plays after that. We weren’t helping them out at all, and they played well against a couple of really good quarterbacks. They went out there and they’ve played really good ball, so we’ve got to find a way to help them out.”
(I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that when the offense goes well, the quarterback gets a lot of credit. When it goes poorly, you’re going to get blamed. Are you insulated to the point where none of the criticism or the other stuff reaches you? Or do you see it out there?) – “I don’t see anything. I’m not on social media. Sorry I don’t read you guys’ stuff. (laughter) I mean I know what happens in this building. I know what we’re doing well and what we need to improve on. That’s offensively and personally. I know the temp and the pulse of this building. That’s kind of where it stops and starts.”
(The day after the game, Head Coach Adam Gase made it crystal clear that he has your back. Is that reassuring also?) – “Yes. That’s one of the reasons I came here. I knew that the quarterback position, he holds that relationship in high regard. You know he’s always going to have your back and he’s always going to do things game plan-wise and calling plays to help out the quarterback and the offensive line as much as possible. That’s never going to be a doubt or concern of mine.”
(You were seen throwing flat-footed quite a bit the other day. Is that a product of you trusting your arm or just not having a clean pocket?) – “A little bit of both. I think we’ve got to do some things upfront. I can help them out in the certain ways that I move. Like I said, it takes all 11 of us out there and that’s those five guys up front, me getting the ball out faster, me moving in certain situations. When it comes together, hopefully soon, we’ll clean up some things.”
(What’s your sort of general message to the offensive line knowing that you rely on them as much as the whole team relies on you?) – “Yes, they know that. They’re smart guys and they know when they play well; they know when they play bad. It’s important to them. They’re one of the first guys that help me up. They’re one of the first guys on the plane ride back asking me how I’m feeling, asking me how I’m feeling the next day. They take it personally. They’ve got a great o-line coach and (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) is doing everything possible to help them out. That group is one group I’m not that worried about. We’ll get that straightened away.”
(You said after the London game that there are, I don’t know if I’m quoting you accurately, different facets to the offense that maybe some people don’t understand. Based on what you know in your years in the league, are there things that you see that others don’t see on the outside?) – “I would think so. You wouldn’t agree with that? I would think so. I’ve been doing this for 12 years and the coaches in here have been doing it for … I mean some of the coaches have been doing it for double that. You guys don’t know what plays we’re running. You guys don’t know what (our) scheme is, what our protection is, what we’re trying to get done play in and play out. So on the outside it looks like all the walls are falling and we’re really bad and there’s no hope and no prayer for us; but in the building, we’re close. We’re right there. If we clean up a few things here, third down, we can be a competitive football team offensively.”
(When the opposing defense brings seven or eight players close to the line in the box area, how do you balance this desire to throw the ball down the field with one-on-one matchups and trying to keep the game honest knowing that how important the runs are too?) – “I mean that’s a question for (head Coach) Adam (Gase) because he calls the plays and he designs most of the offense. That’s something you can check with him on.”
(An obvious follow up. How much ability to change calls at the line do you have at this time in this offense?) – “We’ve got all kinds of stuff. I mean (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has been around a while and worked with a lot of different quarterbacks. We’ve got straight audibles, we’ve got check with me’s, we’ve got run/pass options, we’ve got run-around options, we’ve got pass-pass options, we have some plays that are just call and run it. We’ve got it all. Obviously we’re not using it right though, or we need to execute better – one of the two.”
(My last one. I don’t think you’ve ever caught a pass in the NFL. Is that…?) – “That’s accurate and I’m kind of disappointed about that. (laughter)”
(There’s still time.) – “There is still time.”
(How much of a target were you in that Wildcat formation?) –- “Zero. (laughter) I don’t even think they knew I was out there. They told me that I created quite a buzz, but that’s what they told me to do. Sit there. Don’t get hit. Don’t touch anybody. Don’t move. I feel like I executed that one. (laughter)”
Jarvis Landry – October 4, 2017
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Wednesday, October 4, 2017
WR Jarvis Landry
(Head Coach Adam Gase was very strong with us saying mistakes had to be corrected and people have to do their jobs, emphasizing that. Was there even a stronger tone, impassioned tone from him today – not angrier, but firmer – or angrier for that matter?) – “Coach’s words are exactly what he has been telling us – things that we need to get corrected, things that we need to do better. We can’t hurt ourselves and put ourselves in third-and-12 and expect to make the first down. No matter what the call is, it’s going to be tough. Finding a way to get into third-and-manageable, not even get to third down. Our thinking (is) we want to get first, second down and move the chains from there. For us, we’ve got to find a way to do that, not have penalties, and when we get in the red zone, score. (It’s) that simple.”
(Should a team with this many veterans have this many mistakes happening even with all the things you had to deal with – the game postponed, etc.?) – “Mistakes happen all the time. Sometimes teams throw in something that we may have not prepared for. Mistakes happen; but the minimum ones, if we can just keep it to a minimum number … I hate to throw a number out there, but we have more then we need to have to win the game. That’s not going to help us.”
(How do you like the idea of preparing this week and not having to hop on a plane Friday, Saturday or Thursday?) – “It feels good to be home. For us, we want to start this this train again. Start this train and find a way to put some games together that’ll allow us to create some momentum throughout the rest of the season. We’ve got to find a way to put wins together. Which better way to start it than at home?”
(You’ve playing in London twice, right?) – “Three times.”
(Three times. So, do you feel like there’s a way that it could be done that would be a little easier, a little more conducive? Like a place in the schedule it could go? Especially with it being fresh in your mind, is there a way to make it work better for the players?) – “I don’t know, and honestly that’s out of my control. I just play football. I can’t do nothing about that. I don’t know.”
(Did the time of day mess with you? The time of day that the game was, not the time change; but knowing that it was like 9:30 in the morning eastern. Did it mess with your…?) – “It was 8:30 in the morning for them, and they bust our ass.”
(I’m just asking you what you think about it.) – “I’m just saying it doesn’t matter.”
(What stands out when you think back to the Tennessee game last year?) – “Well, we didn’t start fast. We were behind the chains a lot – third-and-12, third-and-15, third-and-25. They’ve got a great d-line. Those guys set the tone for them. The other guys kind of play off of them. Overall, they have a great defense. If they get you behind the sticks – any team in the NFL – if they get you behind the sticks, it’s going to be hard to convert to get a first down.”
(I see Head Coach Adam Gase go and talk to a bunch of guys during practice. Is he talking details? Is that basically what you guys got to get straight, the details?) – “The details, ideas, concepts, what we’re thinking that we’ll get versus the formation – just little things. Trying to find a way to put us in the best position to be successful.”
(How specific does Head Coach Adam Gase get?) – “Oh very. To the ‘T’. He’s not trying to hide things. We want to be on the same page, so that we can be successful. So, to the ‘T.’”
(I know last year was different, but how does that slow start from last year give you … Does it give you a little bit more confidence that, ‘We can get out of this hole?’) – “We prefer not. We prefer not to have a slow start but it happens. I think the beautiful part about it (is) we have 13 more games left. For us, we’ve got to put our best foot forward, continue to stay together as a team and win one game, one game at a time. That’s all we’ve got to do.”
(Playing 13 straight weeks, what do you … Are you doing anything differently to kind of take care of your body and make sure you’re fresh for the duration of the run?) – “You have to. I try to look after (Ndamukong) Suh and (Andre) Branch and all those guys who do an excellent job of taking care of their body – Cam (Wake), a guy who has played a numerous amount of years – and just following their lead with seeing (Director of Sports Performance) Wayne (Diesel) and the guys in the training room as much as possible. The coaches are doing a great job of watching over us with our GPS and things like that as well.”
