| November 16, 2020 Opening statement: “Good afternoon, hope everyone is doing well. Obviously a lot of tape to go through here today, just trying to do a good job here of getting it all corrected. Some really good things on film, obviously positives that we were looking for that I thought showed up in the game. Certainly from a rushing standpoint on offense, being able to stop the run on defense, I thought that was really good. We had some coverage things I thought we got straightened out from a special teams standpoint in the game, that I thought were really – that helped us from that aspect. There (are) certainly some things to correct. Obviously the second half, some not very good plays on both sides of the ball at the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth quarter there, certainly in those situations we have to do a better job of helping ourselves. We knew Washington was going to be tough, and we knew that they were going to play for 60 minutes. (Head Coach Ron) Rivera does a great job of getting that team ready to go, and they competed for all 60. We needed all 60 of it. It was really – excited for the team at the end of the game. I thought they did a great job on some of the situational stuff there to handle those and obviously give ourselves a chance to win. Really, I’ll go to questions from there.” On how QB Matthew Stafford’s X-rays turned out and his prognosis for the week: “Nothing really new to report. We’re still getting information there. We’ll go through the week, report it as we go.” On if the X-ray results were negative: “Yeah – I’m probably not going to comment on anything specific.” On what he makes of the criticism the team receives after winning games: “‘What do I make of criticism?’ I don’t know. I think for us, we try to focus on: What do we have to do better? What do we have to improve on? I think we stay pretty consistent with all this stuff. I think you guys know that by now. I think for us, it’s just to try to go evaluate the game, and what do we have to do better, how do we have to play better, and certainly, there’s things in this game that we can do better. We know that. We’ll go out and work on them this week and try to improve. Never upset about a win though, I’ll tell you that much.” On walking the line between celebrating a win and correcting mistakes: “That’s a great point though there. I would say that for us, we’re always trying to teach – no matter we win, we have a good game or a poor game. I think there’s always opportunity for us to teach and coach and try to improve, and the players do a great job of that. So that, I would say, that’s always consistent from that standpoint. I think everyone expects to learn things when you don’t play well, but I think there’s a lot that you can learn from when you do play well. Certainly whether it’s plays that were done correctly or plays that were done incorrectly. I would say those are definitely two things that we can always do.” On the difficulty of deciding whether a player should be placed on short-term Reserve/Injured or not: “I think they are tough. I think obviously, it’s a great tool to have. We definitely are trying to use it when we can. Certainly when you’re talking about everyone’s individual body and how they heal and how fast they heal, it’s certainly a little bit of a guessing game. You have a window that you think guys, hopefully, can come back, but it’s going to be day-by-day when you really start to narrow it down and get closer to it. So from that aspect of it, just try to do the best we can and go forward from there. But there is that side of it, definitely, yes.” On how to prepare this week with the uncertainty of who the starting quarterback and running back will be: “(Teddy) Bridgewater and (Christian) McCaffery are great players. So (from) our standpoint, I know (Head Coach Matt) Rhule is going to do a great job with the gameplan. From that standpoint, we’ll prepare like everybody’s playing, and we’ll adjust and go from there. But when you have certainly two dynamic players like those guys are, you better be ready to go for them.” On determining when to play man coverage versus other styles: “I don’t really know as far as – we just try to do whatever we can each week to give ourselves a chance to win. Sometimes that’s going to be one coverage more than the other. Whatever we think helps us do that, that’s what we’re going to do. Sometimes it’s based on our personnel, sometimes it’s based on the opponent personnel. So I would say we have a lot of coverages. We run a lot of different schemes, and we’re just trying to put whatever we can out there and put the guys in the best position as possible.” On what changed from the first to the second half: “I think we played well in the first half. There were a couples plays in there that weren’t very good. But I think we played well in the first half, and we just have to do the same thing in the second half – really just be consistent all the way through with all of it. I think that’s really what we’re going through right now on tape.” On WR Danny Amendola’s injury update: “I have no updates on him right now. We’ll see how that goes. Danny’s a pretty tough guy though. Danny does everything he can to be out there.” On if the Panthers’ offense changes without RB Christian McCaffery: “I think just in general, because of the player McCaffery is, but certainly (Mike) Davis and those guys that play behind him, those guys can run the offense very well. We’ll see what that looks like as we dive into it a little bit more. But McCaffery is just a little bit different with some of the stuff that he can do and how you have to prepare. It adds another element to it.” On what he liked most about RB D’Andre Swift’s performance against Washington: “I think one of the things I just thought was great was his overall toughness that you could see, probably came through on tape, probably came through during the game as you watched it. We know he’s a tough guy. He plays extremely hard, and he plays with a lot of energy. Some of the plays he made I thought were really smart, too. That’s something that’s maybe just evolving as him as a player, as he understands our offense a little bit better, understands some of the situations of the game a little bit better and how to execute them. I think you saw a couple of those examples on the field.” On if Washington’s decision to kick through the end zone changed the gameplan: “I think everyone tries to play to their strengths, whatever those are. I think from their philosophy and that unit, that was consistent all the way through the game, from that standpoint. That’s just how they play, and they’ve done really well in those situations without doing that, and that’s just kind of their philosophy. So from that standpoint we just took advantage of the opportunity that we had.” On TE Isaac Nauta’s progress: “I think Isaac has done a great job of – you know, he backs up a lot of different positions for us. When he’s out on the field, he can actually be in a couple different roles, which is really good, and that helps us in the overall rotation. He can just do some things in different positions. He has a great skill set, certainly in the passing game that we’ve seen, and obviously his run-blocking has gotten a lot better, and we just kind of trust him in some of those roles to go out and play for us. He’s a guy that works extremely hard every day – like he practices hard. This guy shows up every day and just impresses us all the way through the course of the week with what he does. He certainly does it on offense, and he helps us get the look that we need on defense, and I think that’s where you just continually just build trust in a guy to be able to go out and do it during the game. So I think that’s been a real positive for him, is just his consistency and work ethic that he showed every day in the building. I think that’s been a big part of it for us.” On the importance of players knowing playoffs are still in reach: “I think for us, it’s critically important. We just have to find a way to win when we’re in those situations and that’s what’s important. But we all know that what we do through the course of the week, and then how we play the game – there’s things in there that can help us win and put ourselves in a good situation to have an opportunity to win. So from that standpoint, I think the guys – they worked hard last week. They put a lot into the game. We know there’s some parts in the game that we have to do a better job of. But certainly the ones that we executed well, I think that’s what helped us be able to have that opportunity to win.” On if they talk openly about a potential playoff berth: “I think for us, we just really focus one week at a time. I think that’s all that’s important to us right now, is going out and playing well this week, knowing that we’re going to play another tough team. It’s the NFL. Carolina is going to be ready to go. We have to learn from yesterday’s game, certainly, because again – we talk about it all the time – it’s a copycat league. There’s things that come up in the game that are going to show up in the next game or a couple games down the road. So we have to get that stuff cleaned up and try to improve. For us, we just try to stay within the week and make sure we’re focused on that because I think if you looked outside of that, you can just get distracted.” |
