Monday, September 16, 2019
(Opening statement) “It’s a short week. You went through it. I thought that defensively, it was a good bounce-back game, but I thought they played well. They did a nice job. I thought we did a nice job versus the quarterback and a good job against their skill [positions]. I thought we could have done a better job against the run at certain points in the game. I thought we did tackle better, but I think it’s something that we still need to improve on. We would still like to get turnovers. We had opportunities, but we really didn’t get any turnovers. We had a couple of opportunities where the ball bounces your way and you wish you can secure it and go. I thought offensively, I wish we would have done a better job up front. I think those guys will tell you the same thing. I think the receivers were working hard. I think Gardner [Minshew II] probably wishes he had a couple of those early throws back, which he could have made. At the end of the day, I thought he did a good job extending plays and running. You don’t really like to see that, especially as an ex o-line coach. I thought special teams-wise, I really thought Logan Cooke … He’s really done a nice job. He’s really coming along. He was coming along at the end of the [2018] season and going. We played the game without five starters. I thought the guys gave great effort. I thought we had a ton of intensity about us. That is one of the things that we talked about before the game and we obviously showed it on the field and we came up short. I think the call at the end of the game, I can only tell you what went into that. We think about this a lot. One of the situations that we talk about every week is, ‘Hey, listen, we are going for two [points] to win the game. What’s going to be our call?’ We have a bunch of two-point play calls on the sheet and like I said before, I thought about it prior to the drive with the different scenarios. If they were going to come with pressure, we were going to be able to throw the football and if they weren’t going to come with pressure, we were going to give the ball to Leonard and run. I thought we had a great chance either which way of what they wanted to do. I loved the play. I looked at it all week. At the end of the day, we just didn’t get enough push up front. Really, when you look at it on film, I wish we were able to get more push. I’m sure the players did. There was only one angle, which is amazing about the NFL. There is only one camera to look at, but it is what it is. We need to continue to keep working. It is a crazy league, a lot of crazy stuff goes on and as long as we continue to put in the work, sooner or later it’s going to start falling our way and we continue to get better, and I see that. There are a lot of good stories, but they are hard to write when you don’t win. Tre Herndon, guys that stepped up, came in there and played. Quincy [Williams] made some good plays. I thought [Dawuane] Smoot played his butt off. He played really hard. Taven [Bryan] got some movement, he did some things. There were a lot of good stories in there, but again, they are only good stories when you win. That’s what we have to continue to [try and] do.”
(On if the team has decided if there will be any repercussions for Jalen Ramsey’s sideline actions) “No. Those things happen. They happen all the time. They really do. I think now they are a little bit more publicized, but ever since I played, they are always things that go on during the course of the game. I know when I was a [offensive] line coach, I didn’t see a lot of them because no one was really in on them. Those things occur. It’s a high intensity profession. There is a lot of emotion that goes on. I’m sure you guys know, just as fans. When you see the fans in the stands, they [act like] they are playing in a game. They are locked in. Like I said before, we had a lot of intensity going into that game. We knew it was going to be a tough game, it was going to be on the road, we wanted to match that intensity, obviously, with the Texans coming off that tough loss that they had. We were all jacked up.”
(On if he has talked to Jalen Ramsey since the game) “Today, we gave the players off, but I talked to the players after the game. I talked to the whole team. I’m in the locker room. You guys see that. I talked to everyone after that. We didn’t have any personal discussions. Like I said, there is so much work to do on a short week and the players are off today, I didn’t talk to really any player outside of just maybe ‘hello’ or passing them by.”
(On if he has concerns with how the discussion between him and Jalen Ramsey looked) “No. I didn’t see it. I have to get ready for the short week. Do you like that being on [TV]? When you don’t win games, that stuff is going to be on. It’s going to be part of the thing that people talk about. When you win, a lot of times, everyone just moves on. They talk about the win. It’s just the way that it is.”
(On if things got too heated on the sideline between you and Jalen Ramsey) “No, you guys saw what happened. He [Jalen] felt that the ball was on the ground and wanted to throw the challenge flag. We have a process for what we do with the challenge flag and he was upset about it. That’s exactly what happened.”
(On if Jalen Ramsey was simply frustrated because you didn’t throw the challenge flag) “Yeah. First of all, I can’t hear if anyone says anything from the field because I have double headsets on, and I’m waiting to hear from the guy up [in the booth] or any of the guys on the sideline that can confirm it. It was early in the game. Was it a first down? Yes, it was a 3-yard play. I just want to make sure that we can confirm that it was [on the ground], and then if it’s confirmed, then I’m going to throw it. It’s tough. I told the players this in the preseason during camp with the OPI/DPI stuff. I said, ‘Look, guys, this is the way we do it here. This is what we do,’ and again, it’s tough because my experience as a head coach, if I listened to that quite a bit, even coaches – I’m not just saying just players – even coaches on the sideline, ‘You need to challenge. You need to challenge.’ Coaches, in my experience, have been worse than players about it. That’s the truth. Okay, you’re going to lose a lot of timeouts and a lot of challenges. That’s a tough call. Then it came back, and I guess someone told me that Gene [Steratore] came on TV and said they wouldn’t have overruled it. So, I don’t know.”
(On if the team should’ve given the ball to Gardner Minshew II on the two-point conversion after he was making plays) “Well, he was running a lot, scrambling, making plays with his feet. It’s a great question. We came into it, I just felt that we worked all week on a call, we can change it obviously over the course of a game. We thought that the defense they had given us was going to give us a great chance and we came up a couple inches short. A lot of times, people ask you the questions, ‘Hey, would you do it all over again?’ Well, obviously not. If you don’t make it, you’re not going to do it all over again. ‘Would you have run a different play?’ If I knew I wasn’t going to make it [with the same play], yeah, of course I would. It’s very difficult. We put a lot of work and a lot of time into these decisions of what we’re going to do. At the time, it’s my call, and I just felt that it was the best decision for our team. At the end of the day, it’s easy to sit there and say you’re wrong. I don’t disagree with that. When you don’t make it, you’re wrong. I’m not denying that.”
(On Calais Campbell’s lack of production through two games) “He missed a couple tackles. I think Calais would be the first one to tell you that. He made one at the end, too, though. Is it that high level? It’s early. We all need to be playing better. We’ll see as the season goes along.”
(On Gardner Minshew II’s first career start) “I thought in the beginning, a little dicey with some of the footwork stuff – feet were moving a little bit, and then he settled in and did well. Like I said, even afterwards, I wish, and I’m sure Gardner would tell you, I wish we had the [WR DJ] Chark throw and the [RB Leonard] Fournette throw back. The Chark one was tough; he had pressure in his face. I’m sure he would like to have those throws back, and he made some throws that got taken away because of the penalties. Like I said, I can’t say enough about the guy. He’s a different cat.”
(On going back to the bench to talk to Jalen Ramsey) “I wanted him to move on from on it. ‘That was over plays ago. Move on from it, let’s go. We have a long way to go in this game. Get that behind you.’”
(On if he feels he needs to have a conversation with Jalen Ramsey about how to handle his emotions better) “I think everybody…you always have to have conversations. You’re constantly managing players out there. You’re constantly trying to make sure that…the one thing I do understand is that when you’re on that field, it’s a high ass level. I don’t mean to put anyone down, I’m just trying to paint this picture for everybody. You work your butt off. You get on that field. Alright? Certain players have certain matchups. Jalen [Ramsey] is always in that matchup. Guys that are going against JJ Watt are in that matchup. You’re going against marquee players. All week long, this thing is building up. There is a ton of emotion, a ton of emotion. At the end of the day, all you’re trying to do is make sure, ‘Hey, take a deep breath. Let’s go. We’ve got a long way to go. Calm down. Here we go.’ Every little thing is tough. The anxiety level is extremely high, higher than any other time in anything you do in your life when you’re out there performing. Okay? Those things happen and, again, you’ve got to sit down, you’ve got to work with it, you’ve got to work with the players and you’ve got to get everyone to take a deep breath and let’s move forward.”
(On if it’s concerning that the first two games have had instances of players losing their tempers) “I would say this. The concern is, ‘Hey, we’ve got to take a deep breath and go play.’ That’s what it is. You don’t want to stand there as a coach and say, ‘We don’t want to be that intense, we have to take it down. We have to be smart about it. We want to channel it.’ If something doesn’t go our way, if we don’t get the call we want, we have a mistake or you blow an assignment…all that stuff that goes on, you just have to take a step back, take a deep breath and go out there. Is it concerning that you’re pushing, meaning pushing or you’re getting upset and it’s leading to penalties that hurt the team, absolutely, we’ve got to correct that. Absolutely.”
(On how he felt the offensive tackles played in yesterday’s game) “I thought they probably played better in Week 1 than they played in Week 2. I thought the Texans’ d-line did a nice job. There were some plays that we did well, but overall, I think we felt we could have done better.”
(On if he got a sense that Gardner Minshew II has the capability to turn it on in the fourth quarter or if that’s just how the play calling unfolded) “He stays the same, so it’s hard for me to judge him. I think that we were able to escape, able to extend some plays and have a couple back-to-back plays that got us going and moving. And the first downs, because I don’t think we did a very good job early on creating first downs in the game and trying to keep drives going and like offenses, if you can’t get into a rhythm, it’s difficult. I would say for him, he’s the same, felt like he was going to lead us. The last two drives, he led us to two scoring opportunities. I felt good. I really did. I felt like he was going to take us down the field and he was going to score. Obviously, I wish I’d done a better job with the two-point play.”
(On if he’ll have Cam Robinson at left tackle on Thursday night) “We’re hoping to. We got a bunch of guys that are full. Cam is full. Ced [Cedric Ogbuehi] is full. You know what I’m saying? So, we’re going to see those guys. It’s tough this week because for the guys that have played, we’ll walk through and stuff, but guys like Cam and stuff, we’ll still work out. When I say work out, I mean work out during the week.”
(On if Will Richardson Jr. will play at right guard or A.J. Cann) “We’re going to talk about that. I mean, those are all out there for discussion. We’re going to try to play the guys that give us the best chance to win. Like I said, competition is right. Just because someone is full doesn’t mean they can play all of it. We might have to play some different guys.”
