| Monday, November 18, 2019 (Opening Statement) “Obviously I’ve been over this film quite a bit, and like I mentioned yesterday, I think when you look at it, and there is, there’s a lot of things that obviously we’ve got to get corrected. We spent some portion last night, there were discussions, and then obviously early this morning and throughout the day of really looking to see what we have to do from A to Z. Like I told the coaches, I told the players, obviously the only way to get out of it is you have to communicate, and you have to fight your way out of it. There’s three parts to this thing and like I told you guys yesterday, it starts with me. I have to look at what we’re emphasizing, what we’re doing in practice, what we’re doing schematically. Where can I be best involved? All the things that I go through and ask myself all those questions. This week I’m going to change up some of the things in the practice schedule, the focus on the things that we need to be doing better. Obviously, it’s going to start with fundamentals, and then I’m going to challenge our assistant coaches, we’ve got to do a better job, there’s no doubt about it. Starting with me, going to the coaches, working with the players [and] giving our guys a chance. Putting them in position, teaching them exactly what we want done and then holding everyone accountable. And then I think the guys in the locker room, they have to keep battling for each other and fight their way out of it. They’re upset. They’re pissed. They should be. We earned it. People want us to play better, we want to play better, and we understand the frustration that’s out there. So, we’re going to get this thing together and we’re going to put our nose to the grindstone and get our ass to work. We’re 4-6, and that’s a situation and I’m not looking ahead. I think today we have to do a really good job of looking at ourselves and [at] what are some of the things that we need to do to perform better on Sunday and what’s expected from us.” (On the inconsistency of the run defense) “Obviously going into the game the first thing that we’ve talked about publicly is that we needed to stop the run. We felt really good with the plan coming in, and you’re right, at times when we’re doing everything, and we’re hitting on all cylinders, we’ve done a good job. There are very few, but there are a couple plays where everyone’s doing what they should and we’re able to do it. On that second drive after we had scored to go up 7-0 and started running that football, obviously we started to make some adjustments. I thought we were trying to mix up our alignment, and the gaps, and putting guys on the move. I thought we had a good tackling plan going in, but obviously it didn’t work. I think we have to put more emphasis on those fundamentals and our tackling because we know we can’t do live tackling in practice, but we’ve got to figure out a way to be able to handle that. So again, looking at it, getting off blocks, getting where we need to be, all those things come into play. I think when we do that, I think you’re exactly right, we’ve shown that we can stop [the run]. But when we don’t, and the thing that we have to get ourselves out of is when it starts to go, and you give up a play, one, or two, or three on that drive, then what happens, and this is a common mistake and it’s one that we preach, and we have to get it out of our guys’ mind, then guys start pressing. And then when they start pressing, everyone’s trying to guess, or trying to make plays and that’s where things just kind of pile up. We understand that we have to get back to the basics and back to the fundamentals, and make sure that we don’t press. That the situation is what it is and it’s not going to be over, we just need to get back on track and get a stop.” (On if they will try to get RB Leonard Fournette more involved in the offense going forward) “That probably comes back to my end, that I’ve got to do a good job. In the second and third quarter we weren’t able to get much going offensively as a group. Not just Leonard [Fournette], or the line, or anyone. We had back-to-back three-and-outs before the interception. I was looking back about my mindset on the game, and I can only explain what my though process is, and where I made a mistake, or where I make mistakes. So, when we threw the interception in the second, we still were only down 10-7. I know in my mind I wanted to stick with our game plan and come out in the third quarter and get it going offensively, get Leonard those opportunities. And [Indianapolis] came out in the second half, they had that big drive [and] it took a bunch of time up. And I think that’s where I wish I would have been like, ‘Hey, let’s stick with the plan, it’s still two scores,’ and that was my mistake. That was a big mistake by me. It becomes a two-score game and I just felt the way that they were running the ball I thought we needed to score points in a quicker fashion and I think that’s what led to the increased pass attempts, so that’s on me as the head coach. And I know we need to be more balanced moving forward. Believe me, I know more than anyone a strong rushing attack will open things up in the pass game. I know it works hand-in-hand. I know that we’re frustrated, I know Leonard’s frustrated, the [O]-Line. He wants to make plays and help us win the game. And again, I think that was the mindset, and I was wrong, and I made a mistake.” (On his assessment of the pass protection in the Week 11 game at Indianapolis) “I think it’s always difficult when you put you guys in that position. I think there’s some parts where I thought we did a really nice job when we looked at it. There’s a couple times where the pocket collapsed. I thought Nick [Foles] did good at times evading the pressure, being able to step up, but I think it’s something that we can improve on, but I think it’s going to improve if I don’t get away from the run game like I did yesterday.” (On if the Colts’ proven ability to stop the run impacted his run-pass play call ratio) “I guess the only way I can explain it is that obviously that was a challenge for us going in. And I thought when we first started, and we had a 10-yard run, a 4-yard run, a 6-yard run, I was feeling good. Then Nick got hot early. He was 6 of 7 and we went down and we scored. And then I think like I said before, there was still a tight game and when they started running the football, I made a mistake and got away from the plan. I think that it’s something that we want to be able to do and I think that was my mistake. We’re not taking blame for anyone else, that’s my mistake. I just felt like we we’re struggling stopping the run, and we needed to score, and I got away from it. And I’m going to be mindful of it and not make that mistake again. That’s what happened with yesterday.” (On if the plan was to play DE Josh Allen for around 50 percent of the defensive snaps and on if they want to get him more involved later in the game) “Obviously we want to get things in waves, and get our guys in the best situations down and distance wise, but to your point, that’s one of the things we’re looking at. That hey, maybe we have to look at what we’re doing early on and getting some increased snaps. Now, where those snaps are increased along the line, we haven’t gotten to that yet, those are things that we’re discussing, but I think that’s a good point. It’s one that’s been brought up and we’re addressing it today.” (On how he would evaluate TE Josh Oliver’s season with him being placed on IR and on the impact the lack of production at the TE position has on the offense) “You hit it right on the head. I think that the one thing we were excited about Josh [Oliver] and then obviously he had the injury early and was out. And then he started to come back and it was a question of is he going to become more involved, and we were watching him play in practice and he was really doing a good job. We feel really good about him going forward because of the way he played, and what he was showing and really he was getting a lot better. It’s a shame that that’s going to take a back seat. And then obviously James [O’Shaughnessy] [getting injured] early on. And I think when you’re going through that position, guys coming up, or coming off the street and things like that, it’s challenging offensively. Obviously, the team was built to have that position, to have the guys that we felt early on in the year, we felt like we liked the guys that we had, the versatility that they had. I thought James was really playing well, the best he’s played since he’s been here before the injury. And then now it’s a challenge for us as coaches. We’re in there, and these are the guys that we have, and we have to put them in the best position. It might not be a comfort level for us, or it might be some out of the box thinking, but we’ve got to find a way to put these guys in good position where we can get the most out of the guys that are around them and what we can do with the guys that are here.” |
