On RB D’Andre Swift’s injury status: “He’s pretty sore, and so right now it’s – I would say it’s hard to say that you’d see him playing. There again, we’ll know a lot more on how he feels tomorrow and then certainly Wednesday, but I know he’s hurting a little bit.” On the potential rotation between CB Jerry Jacobs and CB Ifeatu Melifonwu after activating Melifonwu off of Injured/Reserve: “We see Jerry staying put. Jerry will stay in there and keep doing what he’s doing. We’ve got Iffy available and we’ll work him in a little bit, but I think right now it’s just about getting Iffy back. He’s kind of been in practice, but now that he’s been elevated let’s see where he’s at. But, I don’t necessarily foresee us making any changes secondary-wise as far as the starting unit.” On his awareness of the criticism surrounding the Thanksgiving game and the season and if he feels the criticism is warranted: “I’m not aware just because I don’t read that. I don’t read the good or bad because I think it will sway you one way or another if you are not careful and neither one of them is good. I think just to stay where you feel, what you see, what your team tells you, what your coaches – just kind of living in this world if you will. Now, that being said, I get plenty of – it’s almost like I get the texts and I get the calls, ‘Hey man, hang in there.’ And so, it’s like the more that I get, the more I know there is chatter. I know there’s chatter out there. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be getting all of these calls out of the blue or these texts. I know that, and look, as far as being warranted, when you don’t win a game, I should be getting criticized. I don’t blame anybody for that. That’s the reality of it right now. I would love to be able to say there is something I can tell everybody that’s going to make everybody feel better, but as you guys know, it’s about winning and we haven’t done that yet.” On what he attributes the defense’s performance since the bye week to: “One of the things we talked about coming out of the bye was – well, obviously getting turnovers was one and then two was being better in red zone defense. That was the fastest way for us to improve our defense and we’ve done that and it’s shown up and it’s one of the reasons why we’re limiting opponents to where we have, no more than 16 points in three games. I think that’s – to be able to just kind of highlight that and work at it and improve on it is giving us a chance.” On the defense’s ability to hold opposing teams to fewer than 20 points: “Those guys have – (Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG and those guys I think have done a dang good job of trying to maximize what we’ve got, everything, just maximizing our staff, but also the players trying to put them in a position to have success. And there again, when you’re able to – it doesn’t always – like, defense it’s easy to say, ‘Well, if you want to be a good defense, don’t allow yardage.’ But, it’s not the yards, it really is the points and our guys are doing that right now. We’re able to limit the run, which really helps us. We’re kind of making teams a little more one-dimensional. But look, it says a lot because ultimately all you can ask for your defense is to give you a chance. To that point and to that stat, you would say they are giving us a chance. Now, there are things we’ve got to clean up that at the end of the day. When you’re talking about defense, your job is not to allow the opponent to score more than your offense. That’s what you’re charged with too, but I feel like those guys are – they’re banging away over there.” On the message to the team going into the last six games of the season: “The message is that we’ve got six to go and we’re playing spoiler now. We’re trying to ruin people’s day is what we’re trying to do. And so, how do we improve on the things that we’ve done a good job of and make it a little bit better? And then certainly the things that continue to show up, how do we help? But, I think now it’s all about how do we make these last six opponents kind of have to deal with what we’ve dealt with for the season? That’s the message.” On where he would like to see the offense improve in the last six games of the season: “The details of what we do in the pass game we’ve got to drastically improve. Believe it or not, there has been improvement over the last couple of weeks on some things. But, we’ve just got to grow from there. Just every little thing from the splits to the depth, they make all of the difference in the world to what we’re doing, particularly when you play some of these teams that are playing zone like we’ve faced. Look, Chicago did a lot of things that they haven’t really shown, but that being said, we’ve got plenty of ammo, but it’s like, man, when you are where we’re at, that split of where you’re at and that route depth makes all of the difference. In that route, that hook route that’s supposed to be 18 yards and it’s 16 and then I’m two yards inside of where I should be, you just covered yourself. Just little things like that. And so, I think if we can improve on that, improve on some of the things – we’re trying to push the ball down the field a little bit, we got one. Ultimately, it’s – even the other day that – what really killed us, we weren’t even able to get into a lot of things we did because of our own mistakes with the penalties, which is a lesson. And when the game starts going that way and they start calling it that way, you’ve got to let off. You can’t finish those blocks. That’s a lesson learned because when it starts going a certain way, that’s the way you have to respond. There’s no other way to do it. Get out of there and we’ll cut our – you’ll take what you get. ‘Hey man, there is nothing wrong with getting a two or three-yard gain. It’s better than having to back it up 10 yards from where you were just at.’ We clean those up and I think it will be better. But look, our pass game has got to get much better, much more improved.” On the teaching points he took after reviewing the holding calls from last Thursday’s game: “I think that was the big one was – look, there were a ton of those in there. Let’s call it what it is. That’s crazy. It’s a crazy amount. Some of those are – three of those are on the quarterback. Now, you’ve still got to keep your hands in and you can’t get outside the framework, but that’s the other thing you learn in that when you get in those games, there are enough of those in the run game where – look, I’ll be honest with you, one of (Tommy) Kraemer’s, one of (Taylor) Decker’s were – you can call them ticky-tack, but yet when they start getting called that way, you’ve got to let off the gas. It’s got to be perfect and you can’t finish. You’ve got to pull back and let him go. There again, ‘Let’s take what we get,’ and I think that’s the lesson learned. Every game is different. Look – I’m watching last week, the Minnesota-San Francisco game right now, and there are some plays in there where you see San Francisco breaks the perimeter on two or three different plays. I just watched somebody get tackled and it didn’t get called. Those are good games to be in, by the way, where they just let you play. But, that’s the nature of the beast. Every game, things happen and you’ve got to be able to adjust. We have to adjust a lot quicker than that. And, you can tell where it was going. It’s easy to say, ‘Hey man, get your hands inside.’ If you are not inside his framework and your body is not leveled or lined up with his, you better get your hands off of him. That’s the lesson.” |
