DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR MIKE CALDWELL
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
(On OLB Travon Walker’s roughing the passer call on Sunday) “Really, I just met him on the field and
asked him what happened. I told him, in that situation, that’s unacceptable. You can’t do it. He’s a
competitor, great kid. I think he didn’t hear the whistle, and he got his hands on the quarterback, and
you can’t throw him down, so we’ll move on from that. He’ll learn from it.”
(On if defensive players are confused about the rules on what they can do to the quarterback ) “You
have the rules, you just have to abide by them. They’re not changing, you just have to understand that
in that situation you can’t throw him down. You can’t pull them down, horsecollar him in the pocket, but
there are certain ways you have to land on a quarterback or try not to land on a quarterback. We’ve
gone over that and they understand it. It’s tough for a defensive player, but that’s what we’ve got to
do—abide by the rules.”
(On rules being open to interpretation by the referees game by game) “That’s every rule, depending on
what side you’re on. If it’s your quarterback, you want him to have as much protection as possible. If
you’re going after the quarterback, you want to go get him. It’s interpretation by the referees, and it’s a
tough job that they have to do. We have to understand what we can do, how we can help our team. Just
teach them the rules, let them understand what they can and can’t do and go from there.”
(On if that is part of the conversation with the team this week) “You always try to learn from other
teams. We talk about those situations and other situations that come up, so that’s been talked about,
but from day one, they understand that the quarterback is protected in certain ways, and they have to
understand that.”
(On not having OLB K’Lavon Chaisson available for a while) “We have a couple guys that can fill that role.
K’Lavon, we hate to lose him, but he’ll be back eventually. We just have some guys step up and take that
role, get opportunities to get out there and play a little bit more.”
(On having guys that can play both inside and out) “It’s really just how this team is built. You have to
have depth at certain positions, and injuries do happen. You have to have a guy, the next guy step up.”
(On where the Colts have improved over the last four weeks) “I think the, Taylor (RB Jonathan Taylor)
didn’t play last week, so the run game, you can still see they’re committed to the run game, and getting
their weapons back. I think Matt (QB Matt Ryan) is playing well in the fourth quarter when it’s crunch
time and you have to make plays. He’s getting the ball out real quick, so they’re evolving as a team, and
it’s a big challenge for us.”
(On going against a veteran quarterback who has also seen them once already this season) “It’s really
important, but they self-scout themselves, and we do the same thing, so you never want to go in with
the same game plan. We have to be multiple in what we do, and we try to do that around here. We try
to create different looks, but like you said, he’s a veteran, he’s seen it all. We just have to make sure that
we understand what we’re doing, concentrate on us, and go out there and just play.”
(On what it says about the defense being able to get stops late in the game) “I think it’s a credit to the
players that they condition themselves, but we’ve lost the last two. We have to find a way to win.
Whatever it is, we have to create another turnover or give the offense good field position. We’re a team
that’s up and coming, and we’re going to continue to get better. We’re ready for this week, and we’re
just going to continue to build for it.”
(On how much of a help it would be if DL Foley Fatukasi can play this weekend) “It’s big. Anytime you
can have all your guys together, it’s always big. We had Corey (DL Corey Peters) step up last week, did a
great job for us. Once you get Foley back and other guys, it’s just more pieces that you have out there
that makes us better.”
(On what he sees from the Colts offensive line) “The thing you see on film is the holes are there. They’re
run blocking better, pass blocking better, it’s just certain situations. They came back and beat the Chiefs,
just different games where you see them out there performing. I think Matt Ryan (QB) is doing a great
job. He’s the leader of that team. I think he’s doing a great job of willing those guys to victory.”
(On if this is an opportunity for the defense to get after the quarterback) “That’s one of the things we try
to do all the time is pressure the quarterback, but again, he’s a veteran quarterback, he’s savvy. He
understands when to get rid of the ball, so we just have to go out there and try to stay committed to
what we truly believe in and go from there.”
(On if there has been more emphasis on forcing turnovers after not getting any last week) “It’s a focus of
ours. Anytime you focus on something and it doesn’t happen, you come back to work that Wednesday
just like they did yesterday. They came back, and they were focused on creating turnovers, and that’s
what you have to do. They come in bunches, and we didn’t get one. That’s another thing we’ve got to
continue to get better at, turning the ball over and giving the offense another chance. That’s our
mindset, and we’re going to continue to work at it.”
(On how he has seen rookies OLB Travon Walker and LB Devin Lloyd grow over the season) “I think it’s
starting to slow down for them. Everything’s not new anymore. They can anticipate a little bit better,
and those guys, they do a great job of studying, coming to work, and listening to coaches and listening to
other players. That’s helping in their growth, and I think coach said it earlier this week, we’re five games
into the season, there are no rookies anymore. You’ve played a bunch, so they’re starting to perform
like vets.”
(On the fourth down stop they had together against Houston and how it shows what they can do
together) “You always look at the players, and the talent that they have, and you just look at what they
bring for this team every day. They come to work, they have the right attitude, they go out there and
they work hard, and it’s showing on the field. We hope that continues.”
(On CB Darious Williams making an impact play in the game last week) “It’s always good to have
someone, and that’s a credit to him because he did miss some time. Again, I think I’ve said this before,
he was real attentive in meetings, in walk throughs, he was getting every mental rep, and I think that
just shows what a professional he is. Being able to not take the physical rep but take the mental rep, and
now it’s paying off for him.”
(On Colts WR Michael Pittman Jr.) He’s a go-to guy. He’s their guy. If they need one, he’s the one they
look to make a play. For us, he’s a bigger receiver. He’s a guy that we understand that they want to get
him the ball, so we have to make sure we have coverage around him, put people around him, and see
how it goes.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR PRESS TAYLOR
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
(On if outside noise can impact the team and Trevor Lawrence) “Right, yeah. We can’t control what
happens outside this building, so that’s never been a part of our concern, our worry, anything we talk
about as a unit kind of stays within the walls of the building. Particularly, in our meeting room as an
offense. The last two weeks we haven’t played to the standard we’ve set for ourselves as an offense.
That’s Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) as well as a lot of other people, coaches included. We are included
in that. We have not met that standard that we’ve set for ourselves and that’s why we’ve come up short
as an offense in the last two weeks. We all take responsibility for that. There’s throws, there’s decisions
Trevor wants back, just like there’s decisions a lot of guys want back. Play calls we want back, play
designs we want back, suggestions, all that type of stuff. We’re all in this thing together.”
(On if the coaching staff is worried QB Trevor Lawrence isn’t living up to the expectation) “Oh, absolutely
not (worried). That’s two games in a 17-game season that he, like I said, he and the offense has not
performed the way we expect them to perform and we’re all in it together. It’s not Trevor alone, that
struggled, we all struggled as a unit. Anytime your defense holds somebody to thirteen points, you can’t
score enough to win, you take a lot of responsibility and ownership of that. That’s what everybody’s
done, that’s what’s been the good part of struggling right there; everybody has taken accountability for
what we did and we’re working to be better this week.”
(On RB Travis Etienne Jr.’s growth over the past weeks) “We know his skillset is certainly that way. He’s
kind of the guy that when you get the ball out in space, everybody kind of stands up for a second to see
what’s about to happen because we know he’s got that ability. I think it’s one of those things, I think it’ll
happen for him at some point where he really gets a big explosive. Obviously, a couple the other day
where he was able to get on the edge and get the ball out in space. You see his work every single day
prepares him for these opportunities and then he just keeps performing better and better and as a unit,
that’s what we want to do as well.”
(On WR Christian Kirk’s involvement on offense) “Yeah, that was completely on us as a coaching staff.
We got to be able to target him, he’s one of our better guys, clearly. As the game went, we weren’t
really able to force them out of Cover-2. We didn’t make them honor one thing well enough, we weren’t
good enough in the pass game, weren’t efficient enough in the run game to force them to play
something different. They were able to stay in what we want, and we feel good about the things that we
had, we just didn’t execute them to the best of our ability. There are ways to incorporate him that we
certainly need to do. He’s a guy that needs to touch the football and have an impact on the game for
us.”
(On preparing against a team with a consistent defensive coverage) “That’s kind of what we faced a lot
early in the season, a lot of zone coverage, a lot of eyes on the quarterback, a lot of guys dropping their
spots. Now, whether they play spot drop or zone, we’ll match however they play. I think these guys, too,
you’ve seen their growth from Week 2 to Week 5 of what they’ve done. They’re kind of sprinkled in
some new coverages and some variations of the coverages they’ve played that they’ve done a good job
of. It’s certainly something you’ve got to be very disciplined as a pass game unit, particularly, of we
know where they’re going to be, we have to know where we want to be, why we want to be there, the
timing that it takes to get to those spots, and then you just got to be able to execute a high level. That’s
what they’re trying to force you to do; they’re playing their defense; they execute it very well. You’ve
got to execute your schemes really well to be able to have a chance.”
(On the timing that it takes for red zone execution to come together) “I don’t know if I’d say it’s the last
piece to come together, but it’s certainly an aspect that there’s a lot of timing, there’s a lot of chemistry,
the field just gets condensed. All the bodies end up in a little closer proximity. Things happen so fast,
windows close so fast. It’s certainly an aspect that we want to continue to improve on. We have not had
the success that we need to have in that aspect of our offense. That’s just something we continue to
work through.”
(On the importance of moving the ball down to the red zone) “Certainly. We want to move the ball
every single play, every single opportunity we get. At the end of the day, you got to score points. That’s
what we haven’t been able to do the last couple weeks, or the last two weeks particularly, in the red
zone. That’s a big part of it, those are big plays, those are four point plays a lot of times, especially on
third down in the red zone. You can never turn the ball over, especially in the red zone. You’re taking
points away from your team right there.”
(On preparing to play the Colts for the second time in four weeks) “Yeah, the benefits are you have a
good feel for their personnel, their schemes, how they want to play, and then I think the fact that we
had success in Week 2, you hope the guys bring that confidence to it. Until they change the rules and let
us carry over 24 points into this game, it really has no bearing on this game right now. It’s a whole new
situation. A lot of times the second half of the game gets dictated by the first half of the game, well,
when you start a new game, all that’s out the window. That has nothing to do with this, it’s about
execution. It’s a game of execution, it’s a play-to-play mentality right here. Especially if we’re going to
say that the league is week-to-week and we’re going to flush the week before this, we can’t back and
say, ‘Well, we did this in Week 2, this is going to work again.’ You got to watch the tape, you got to
understand how they evolved in a new scheme as well, and where they’re at in Week 6. Everybody
understands our opponent, they’ve made some personnel adjustments as they’ve gone with people,
they’ve had injuries up and down, they’ve made some changes in the backend with personnel. It’s on all
of us to understand who they are and what they want to do at this point in the season.”
(On the Colts defense growing) “They’ve done a great job of stopping the run. Really, when you go back
to our game, they did a great job against us in the run game. We obviously broke off the one big run
with James (RB James Robinson) but for the most part, it was tough sledding against these guys. We
understand that, and in the backend, just the coverage elements of it. I think for them it’s just three
more games of them being able to execute their defense over and over and play coverages, match
routes, and see combinations of people going to attack them. Going back to one of the other questions,
when a team plays a certain coverage over and over and over, they have a good feel for how teams are
trying to attack it, where everybody feels the weak spots are. It’s more and more time-on-task for those
guys understanding the same issues, so it comes down to execution at the end of the day.”
(On TE Evan Engram’s performances recently) “Yeah, Evan has been a great contributor for our offense.
Obviously, he’s had more of the receiving yards production the last two weeks, but even going back and
watching this game in Week 2, he had some huge third down conversions for us, where he caught the
ball underneath and was on a corner and broke tackles or ran away from a guy to make first downs that
really kept the drives alive. He’s been a big contributor for us in the offense, the ball hasn’t really gone
his way until the last two weeks, and he’s produced at the level we expected of him.”
(On talent of Colts CB Stephon Gilmore) “Yeah, he’s a guy that we’d just call an impact player. We
always want to know where the impact players are. They’ve done a good job of moving him around, we
don’t know if he’s always on the boundary, always on your right, always on your left. You can’t just say,
‘We’re going to call this play and we’re going to throw it to this guy.’ You have to adjust within the game
once you get a feel for where he is. If it’s consistent, if there’s some rhythm to it, otherwise you’re just
playing the game. He’s certainly somebody you’re always aware of. He’s got great ball skills; he’s made
the play the last two weeks to seal the game for them. In their victory against Kansas City, he had a pass
breakup and then got intercepted, and against Denver he had the pass breakup with the game on the
line as well as an interception down in the red zone. He’s certainly a guy we are aware of, and we want
to be mindful of where he is at all times.”
(On the value of OL Tyler Shatley stepping into starting guard role) “Right, yeah. Tyler brings a leadership
aspect to that room. He has since the day we got here. He’s always been that consistent, mature pro,
that understood he was in a position battle, and he was willing to do whatever is best for the team. He
stepped in center, he’s played right guard, left guard, he’s a guy as a coaching staff, we trust. He knows
what’s going on, he knows how the speed of the game goes, he works well with the people next to him,
so we expect production out of Tyler as well.”
(On if the efficiency of the run game is getting closer to their goals) “I’d like to think that. I’d like to think
that each aspect of our game keeps getting better and better. Within everything, it’s always a case-by-
case basis. There were times against these guys originally where we’re not as efficient in the run game
early on, but also late. We understand late. We kind of get into a four-minute mode, holding onto a
three-score lead, you may be running uphill a little bit in some of those situations where you’re running
the ball on third-and-six or third-and-seven from under center. Looks that you probably don’t get to that
may skew your numbers overall, but we certainly want to be as efficient as possible in the run game and
understanding running into the right looks. It’s hard to be efficient if you’re running into heavy boxes or
your miss ID, things like that. We just want to make sure that we’re taking the next step as an offense in
every single aspect of our game.”
(On QB Trevor Lawrence learning the importance of end-game scenarios) “It’s definitely tough to
replicate the real emotion feeling of, ‘Alright, we’re in a desperation mode here, this is our last
opportunity.’ Coach (Head Coach Doug Pederson) has done a great job of creating those situations
throughout the week. That’s something we’ve been doing since Week 1, that’s something we
emphasized through training camp in competitive periods with our defense as well. We just continue to
present those situations to him, we’ll do meetings. There will be certain aspects or certain meetings
during the week that we’ll show him situations around the league, ‘Alright, what are you thinking here?
Here’s what we’re thinking here.’ Part of it puts all of us in the same situation and mindset of, ‘Here’s
how so-and-so handled one minute left in this game down three points.’ So, learning from around the
league and how things are going as a coaching staff, him hearing our vision, how we communicate, how
we understand these situations in what we’re thinking. Then, also hearing his thoughts before we even
go, ‘What are you thinking right here? Well, we have two timeouts.’ Playing the situation together as a
group and talking it through so we all get on the same page of that.”
