November 1, 2021 On the positives he took from the game yesterday after reviewing the film: “There were some guys that I thought stood out. There again, I thought as a whole our special teams did some good things, which I alluded to last night. I thought, defensively, Jalen Reeves-Maybin I thought played well. I thought Tracy (Walker) played well. On offense, I thought (Penei) Sewell did a nice job. (T.J.) Hockenson did some good things for us. I though Godwin (Igwebuike) stepped up on offense and also as a returner for us, and I thought Josh Woods played outstanding on special teams. Those were some real bright spots in this game. Those are the guys that I feel like really flashed. And I would say just as a whole, it did not go the way we wanted certainly, but it wasn’t a lack of effort when you go back and watch the tape. It’s a lack of focus, details, fundamentals and sometimes just a lack of attitude if you will. It took us a while to get to 10 if you will. We hovered around the two, three, four area and it took a while to get ourselves going and get a little upset and play a little bit more aggressive, which ultimately, like I said, falls on me.” On if technique issues on defense led to the Eagles’ success in the run game: “A lot of it was technique, a ton of it and I thought we played pretty high. I think our gap integrity was not on point like we knew it had to be against this team when they do all of the read run stuff that they do. They found a clink in the armor and they just kept going back to it, which is a credit to them. We did want to make them beat us with the run game and they certainly did that. Now, that’s not what – we didn’t expect to make them beat us in the run game with 236 yards, but we didn’t hold up real good. We’ve done a really good job up front really for the most part all year. We’ve built a wall in there and we’ve been hitting the blocks and I didn’t feel like we hit the blocks. There are some things that in the second level we didn’t fill. We didn’t fill those gaps real good and you make the tackle, yet it’s for a five-yard gain. There were a lot of leaky yards. It just wasn’t the style of play that I feel like we’ve played, that we felt like that we’ve been playing, it wasn’t. Here’s what happens when you’re not able to respond offensively and they continue to run it and they get the ball back. You get to run number 36, 37, 38, then some guys start freelancing a little bit. They’re trying to make a play, so now you’re jumping out of gaps because you’re trying to do something which that only makes it worse. It’s a combination of a number of things.” On what he thinks his former coach Bill Parcells would say to him after an 0-8 start to the season: “Bill’s always about, ‘Man, just trust what you believe in. Trust what you believe in. Be convicted in it and don’t go away from it. Just stay the course. It will come. It will come. You just can’t get discouraged.’ Look, we’re in the middle of a lot of adversity right now, which we knew was going to come. We didn’t know – I don’t think any of us thought it was going to be 0-8, but I knew we’d have adversity and I warned the team on this that at some point, every team has adversity. Nobody thinks we can do much or will do much and there’s not much you can say when we’re 0-8, but I do know this, we’ve got to hunker down and just improve on the things that we’ve believed we need to do to win a game and if we can do that and just make one more play than our opponent, we’ll turn the corner. But, certainly you can’t play like we did yesterday and expect to win a game.” On if he has reached out to any former coaches or mentors for advice: “I have, but it’s almost like – yeah, I have. Now, I have a lot that haven’t contacted me in a while because they also know it’s kind of like, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m not going to.’ We’re a pretty superstitious group, so a lot of them are afraid that because they texted, maybe they’re the reason why, which I used to be that way too if I called a coach and they weren’t winning, then I felt like, ‘You know what? I better quit calling because maybe I’m the reason.’ But, yeah I have. As a matter of fact, just for example, (Titans Head Coach) Mike Vrabel reached out to me today, which was – that was pretty cool of him. It was the same message. ‘Hey, just stay the course. Just do what you believe in. It will come.’ You always appreciate those.” On how he plans to spend his time during the bye week: “I’ll be crunching the tape. I’ll be grinding looking at things, go back and look at these first eight weeks and all three phases, just see if I can find some hidden nuggets, hidden gems, what we can do better. My staff is looking at all of our self-scout, what we are. ‘What’s a snapshot of what we do well, what we don’t do well? How about our personnel? Would we be better suited to move a few guys around and put them in a different spot?’ We’re going to do that. Now, a lot of that is probably later in the week, maybe this weekend I’ll do it at home. Maybe Saturday I’ll do some of that and have it with me so I can see my family, but ultimately I’m going to spend it trying to see where I can help us improve and get a win.” On the players’ schedule during the bye week: “We had them in today. They got a lift and a run, but they weren’t with us. Tomorrow, they will be back in and we’ll go over the game with them, the Philly game. And then these guys, the veterans, the guys who have played a lot, they will be in a recovery mode and I’m going to take the young guys out. We are, and we’re going to get a practice in, about an hour, just move around, let them compete a little bit, see if we can just continue to develop them and just O versus D. Our plan Wednesday is to bring them back in for a half-day and we’re going to practice for about an hour, hour and 15 and it will be practice, but it will probably be more situational stuff, too. So, no pads. We’ll get their bodies back, but yet they can run around because there are things we still have to work on obviously.” On if he anticipates them being involved in the trade market before the deadline tomorrow: “I don’t see anything right now that I can say that’s got any legs.” On how active the team is in trying to find potential trades: “Look, we’re open to listening to anything, but there again that’s where (Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) goes to work and does what he does and if it’s something significant, he’ll bring it to me. I’m letting him deal with that right now.” On how the team can benefit from facing adversity: “I think that there’s got to be a little bit of this, ‘You don’t blink, man.’ You can’t blink and the minute you start to doubt yourself or the players think you doubt them or you doubt yourself and you doubt the people around you, that’s when all of a sudden everything crumbles. I’ll just say this again, I’m just not that way. I believe adversity does one of three things to you. It numbs you, which you can’t go numb. It makes you crumble, which certainly that’s not good. Or, it hardens you and turns you into what’s going to be special eventually. Something that maybe is not seen now, but it’s going to define you and it’s going to define you as a team as well. You don’t know if that’s going to be this year coming up after this bye. You don’t know if that’s year two, but it’s coming and you’ve got to have faith. Look, I’m still – am I frustrated? I am. Am I upset that we’re where we’re at? Yeah, I am, but I have not lost confidence because I still know we are not the team that played yesterday. That’s not who we are. I don’t believe that one bit. We’re good enough to beat teams in this League and I’ll just bring this up again, we’ve got to do more as a staff and we’ve got to demand more out of these players. And for us to win, it’s got to be damn near perfect? Well you know what, then we need to play damn near perfect and that’s on us. We’re charged with that as coaches.” On if he sees players beginning to feel numb to losing or hardened to adversity: “I can’t say that I see anything negative right now. I feel like these guys are still coming in, they’re still coming to work, but we are very young and they can be influenced one way or another if we’re not careful. And that’s why you want the right guys around them, which I think we’ve got the right vets around them. Our staff is – this is what we’re charged with is to keep them in the boat, keep them rowing, just trust what we’re doing. We’re going to get to where we need to go, but we’re not going to get there if you stop paddling and doing your job. There again, we’ve got to clean up all of the little details to what we are, our fundamentals, all of the stuff that goes back to day one. And I know you guys have heard this who knows how many times, it’s probably the millionth time you’ve heard it, but it’s the truth and if we don’t get better at all of the little stuff and all of the little details, then we won’t go anywhere. Those are the facts.” On his evaluation of G Jonah Jackson when he was first hired and his performance through the first eight weeks of the season: “Jonah was one of the guys that stuck out to me when I first turned on the tape to take this job. He popped right off the tape. I was pretty intrigued by him. I loved the way he played. He’s powerful, he’s strong, he’s a finisher. And watching him next to Frank (Ragnow), it was good and then at the time, I didn’t realize that he was a rookie because I just tried to watch it with open eyes. So, I’m like, ‘OK, that’s pretty good.’ I can tell even from that time that he’s grown. He’s becoming a better player. He is developing the way you want for a second-year player. He’s one of those guys that would fall into that bucket when you talk about these young guys, the guys we’ve drafted, our rookie free agents, and these second-year players, him being one of them, that you feel like has really begun to improve. I like where he’s at and he’s just got to keep going because he’s going to be a steady force for us, I believe, for years to come.” On if QB Jared Goff is having confidence issues and if the staff is doing enough to help him: “No, I don’t feel like he has confidence issues. Look, all-in-all, I thought he did some pretty good things yesterday. Like, I thought he made some really good throws. Certainly, we went to (T.J.) Hockenson a lot. They rolled down to (D’Andre) Swift quite a few times. We never could quite get him going in a rhythm. But no, I don’t feel like he lacks confidence and to go back to your question about are we doing enough to help him, that’s one of the reasons why I want to dive into everything, and my staff is this week. It’s one thing to try to solve these issues within the week getting ready for a new opponent, but sometimes when you can just step back and look at the totality of these last eight weeks and where we’ve been and where we want to go and who our best personnel group on the field is, it helps you get a better snapshot of what’s going on. So, I’d like to think that we can find better ways to get Jared Goff into a rhythm.” On if he is concerned by fan apathy and low attendance at games this year: “No. No, I’m not. Look, I don’t – look, I get it. When you don’t win a game and you’re 0-8 and you’ve lost at home, I’m not going to be upset with that. I understand and my job is to try to find a way to help us win so that they want to come watch a winning product. And so, that’s what I’m charged with is helping these guys on this team get a win. If we do that, then everything else will fall in place. Winning solves a lot of issues as we all know.” On the balance of making sure the team is competitive week-to-week and looking for long term success: “I think they’re going to go hand-in-hand a little bit. For example, we’ve been rolling in some young guys that we think can potentially help us, but we won’t know unless they get an opportunity, and maybe they are the best guy for the job at the time. Brock Wright, he got an opportunity. Jalen Elliott got an opportunity. There a number of guys that we’ve been getting up and going. We brought up (Tommy) Kraemer yesterday. He didn’t play very much, but we got him going a little bit. We got (Jashon) Cornell up a week ago. Da’Shawn Hand is back up. We’ve been going through every corner that we have on this roster pretty much. I feel like we’re learning a lot about all of our guys, whether it be practice squad or on the roster as to, ‘Hey man, maybe somebody’s going to step up in there and make a play.’ Or it’s somebody we think can help us not only this year, but maybe next year, too. And it’s just kind of falling in line that way a little bit with where we are at. So, it’s not entirely a bad thing. I hope I’m answering your question.” On if they address talks about a potential 0-17 season with the team: “Look, we’re eight games in. We’ve got nine to go. The focus has to be on really what we’ve talked about every week, minus the mistakes, is, ‘All we’ve got to do is put all of our effort, focus, attention, detail into this game, the next one, and find a way to win the one that’s right in front of you. That’s all we’ve got to focus on.’ And if we’ll do that and not worry about, ‘Well, we’ve got nine games. We’re going to lose nine games and we’re 0-17,’ like, you can’t think like that and we’re not going to let them think like that. All we’ve got to worry about is, ‘How do we go into this game, for example, in two weeks and we beat Pittsburgh? What do we have to do to move the football, score touchdowns? How do we limit their explosive plays? How do we shut down this running back? Special teams, how do we gain an advantage?’ That has got to be our sole focus. You can’t think of anything else.” |
