HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2023
(On what RB Travis Etienne Jr. has learned in red zone efficiency) “I think I put a lot of credit with the
offensive line, especially inside the five. That’s where it starts. One of the things that TJ [RB Travis Etienne
Jr.] does is that he knows how get small, he knows how to get skinny as they say down inside the two,
the one, those goal line plays. Which is nice too, that he’s also scoring further out where he’s breaking
tackles and we saw that in the Buffalo game, we saw that against Indianapolis, things like that. Travis has
done a nice job of anticipating where the hole is going to be and squeezing through there. Sometimes
there is a little bit of an art of knowing how to ride that wave of offensive linemen into the endzone.”
(On performance of offensive line in yesterday’s game) “To me, it’s one of the best performances. I know
I had talked to the team and we had some guys that were beat up. Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence] was
banged up going into the game, [OL] Brandon Scherff was beat up going into this game amongst other
guys. The offensive line really put it upon themselves to keep Trevor clean in the pocket. Other than the
runs that he had, he wasn’t touched back there. I give credit to [Offensive Coordinator] Press Taylor’s
play calls. Balls were coming out of his hand extremely quick, receivers were doing their job. It was a
really good performance there. Not only by the offensive line, but I think also the guys around Trevor
helping him out in that situation.”
(On how the offense handled playing in a difficult environment) “Yeah, it was loud. Credit to the guys, we
worked on the silent cadence all week. It’s something that we definitely pride ourselves on controlling
the line of scrimmage with cadence, so when you go into environments like that, we try to use it as a
weapon for us. Credit the guys for no false starts and things of that nature. Really playing a clean game,
that’s another part of what we talk about during the week when you’re on the road. No penalties, try to
minimize some of the mistakes, and credit the guys for really focusing in and doing a nice job there.”
(On if QB Trevor Lawrence is comfortable using silent cadence) “Yeah, if you remember the Buffalo game,
we had that one drive where we got them to jump offsides and create some first downs for us.
Obviously, we’re getting more comfortable with cadences that we have. It’s something we continue to
use as a weapon for the offense. Again, all other ten guys on offense have to focus in on the cadence,
they got to be smart about it. Trevor is using everything in his power to keep defenses guessing a little bit
at the snap.”
(On how sustainable RB Travis Etienne Jr.’s workload is) “Yeah, Travis is a tough kid. We’ve seen that over
the course of last year for the start of this year. We’ve got to be mindful that we’re not over working him,
we’ve got to get Tank [RB Tank Bigsby] and D’Ernest [RB D’Ernest Johnson] and if JaMycal [RB JaMycal
Hasty] is up, we’ve got to get those guys involved in the offense and get them some more touches. Right
now, especially on third down, we like TJ [RB Travis Etienne Jr.] on third down, not only from a protection
standpoint, but the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. We just got to keep the other guys
coming. It’s not that we don’t have confidence in them, but we just feel like TJ has the hot hand and we
continue to keep him going. We’re definitely mindful of the wear-and-tear on his body as we go.”
(On why WR Calvin Ridley didn’t get many touches in yesterday’s game) “It was one of those games
where we see Calvin as more of a deep threat. He is good in the short-to-intermediate areas as well. Last
night, they rolled some coverage his way so they clouded some coverage, they inverted some coverage
his way. They did a nice job of neutralizing Calvin. We still have to try to get him involved and get him
more opportunities to catch the football. You got to credit the defense sometimes too, they know when
you have a weapon on offense and if they can neutralize it, advantage them. Credit to the Saints for
doing that. Calvin is in a really good place, he’s a big part of the offense obviously. We’re going to
continue to find ways to get him the ball.”
(On any injury updates from last night’s game) “Not at this time. We got back so early in the morning
that the medical team pushed everything back this morning. Definitely have something over the
weekend that we can release to you. Cisco [S Andre Cisco] is more precautionary, he was cramping, and
he cramped the week before. He was cramping a little bit and it just didn’t loosen up enough on him and
his hamstring, so we just kept him out of that football game. Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence] came out of
the game extremely well on the knee, this will be a good couple of days here for him to rest and heal and
get some more treatment on it. [OL] Brandon Scherff came out really good, no setbacks with him. The
timing of this is good for the guys to get extra rest. We kept [WR] Zay Jones and [OL] Walker Little back,
[CB] Christian Braswell back in Jacksonville last night just to continue their rehab and treatment. I expect
Walker and Zay to maybe get on the practice field this next week. We’re doing okay on the injury front,
we’re just knicked up right now and banged up a little bit. This is a good time for this mini bye.”
(On difficulty on the players of the last three games traveling everywhere) “It’s a challenge. You’re
crossing about five different time zones to get from Jacksonville to London and back. You go back to
October 1 when we had our first Wembley game to last night, it was 19 days or so that we played four
ball games. That’s extremely hard on the guys, coaches and players because the coaches are grinding
here at the office and putting the gameplans together. The players from my standpoint, making sure
they’re rested as well as they can be but yet still getting preparation in. My credit goes to the players for
how they handled the last three weeks and really locked in. Whether we were doing a walk through or a
full practice, they mental side of the game. There’s still mistakes out there being made but overall, from
a team perspective, definitely pleased with how they’ve handled the last three and a half weeks.”
(On how different it feels winning games in October compared to last season where that wasn’t the case)
“Thanks for reminding me. It’s definitely different, obviously we’re further down the line. Even though
we’re young, I feel like we’re a veteran team and been around each other now for a year and a half.
Again, it’s a credit to the players. The resiliency, it’s the no-quit mentality, we’re in it to the end and it’s
definitely different. We’re excited and we’re happy with where we are, some really good football teams
that we’ve played and we’ve had success. We’re still seven games in and 10 more to go. It’s still a long
season.”
(On performance in yesterday’s game by CB Montaric Brown) “There’s a reason we took him a year ago
and got him on our team. We like his skillset, he’s a long corner. You see some of the lack of experience
out there let’s call it, but he played tough, he played physical, he made some tackles. The fourth down in
the endzone at the end was huge, it’s going to give him a lot of confidence moving forward. We all know
who [CB] Tyson Campbell is and he’s our guy, but to have solid backup players that can fill in and step up
is exactly what I was talking to the team about, the next man up mentality. We got to fill in the gap.
[Defensive Coordinator] Mike Caldwell did a nice job calling the game because we helped Buster a little
bit with the safety help and things of that nature. I’m really pleased with how Buster played in that
environment. That’s an extremely tough environment to go in there, of course they’ve got [Saints WR
Chris] Olave and [Saints WR] Michael Thomas, some really good skill athletes there and he held up
nicely.”
(On performance by LB Foye Oluokun and LB Devin Lloyd) “Yeah, what I see with Devin is the game
slowing down for him, which is a good thing. He’s seeing things well, he’s not overreacting and running
himself past gaps. We all know his speed and physicality, he’s really just settled in and doing a really good
job. Foye is the leader out there, he gives the guys lined up. I’m happy for him with the pick-six last night,
that was a huge play and really a deciding factor in that football game. I can’t say enough good things,
it’s the reason why we took him a year ago from Atlanta and got him in here. We’re starting to see
exactly who he is as a leader and obviously as a football player. He’s all over the field making a ton of
tackles. It’s really been a good duo, they communicate well and it’s exciting to see these two guys playing
this well together.”
(On if this winning stretch is showing the team what it looks like to win) “Definitely a product of learning
how to win. Last year, we probably would’ve made an effort but came up short in a game like this. Now,
what we’ve been able to accomplish at the end of last season and in the first part of this season is these
guys are locked in for sixty minutes. They know it’s going to come down to the wire, and really, there’s no
blowout type of games in the NFL anymore. The scores are always going to be close, teams are too good.
Our team is learning that and they’re learning how to play, how to play together. It’s amazing too, how
nothing really shocks this team. Whether you’re up 14 or 17 or down 14 or 10, these guys just continue
to play and somewhere, somebody is going to make a play. That’s what I ask them to do, we don’t go
chasing plays, we just make the ones that come to us. That’s what the guys are doing right now. Learning
how to win, I think our guys are figuring that out and it’s good to see.”
(On if he’s frustrated with some of the offensive stalling) “I don’t know if it’s frustration, it’s just
something that we’ve got to continue to work through. I think it goes back to John’s question of learning
how to continue to win. You just can’t have those let downs and lulls in football games. You give credit to
your opponents too, they continue to play and they’ve been coached to play for sixty minutes as well.
This is why I use phrases like everything matters, because every play matters in a football game. We’ve
got to continue to work on that, we’ve got to continue as coaches to look at those lulls and see if there’s
something we can do different schematically. Then, it’s the players, the ultimate focus and ultimate
concentration for the entire game, that’s a tough thing to do especially when you’re in that environment
on a short week. The fatigue begins to set in the second half of the football game then the first thing to
go is your mind. All things that we’re learning as a team together and we continue to work on them.”
(On describing the fake punt play) “It’s about how it went down as fakes would go, it didn’t come off very
clean other than the result. It was a design, the way the Saints punt return unit would play, we wanted to
get our gunners on the move. We had a short motion that we wanted to get him on the run where we
could snap it, and then it helps the gunner get down the field on a short motion. We had a particular
play that we were going to bring Tim [WR Tim Jones] in that short motion and then he was going to sell
like he was going to take off towards the punt returner and then he was going to spin out back to the
sideline. Logan [P Logan Cooke] was just going to flip it out there. There was a little bit of
miscommunication because they started out in a double-vice and then the inside guy began to creep in,
Tim didn’t know if it was still on or if it was off. But it was on because Dewey [S Andrew Wingard] gave
him the heel for motion and formally we were a little off. If you look at Logan, he caught the ball and
hesitated just a little bit, but saw the fact that the single gunner bailed. Then, he threw Tim the ball. It
wasn’t exactly how we worked it in practice, but sometimes you love it when a plan comes together.”
(On if he thought WR Calvin Ridley caught the ball on the sideline) “No, it was confirmed upstairs too. It’s
hard, it was a heck of a catch obviously. Even from my vantage point on the sideline, it appeared that he
might’ve gotten his shin down inbounds and that knee, but the Hawkeye system looked at it and ruled.
They did the same thing on the third-and-one and fourth-and-one. That’s why I didn’t challenge those
either, because when I get confirmation from upstairs, it’s pretty much out of my hands at that point.”
