| Opening statement: “All right, so obviously a busy day for us here working on the red (zone) area and getting ready to go. Meetings are good, we’re kind of grinding away and getting ready for a long trip. We have to head out to the West Coast here tomorrow and get ready to go. I just think the more that we watch the Raiders and dive into them through the course of the week, the two areas – third down, which we worked on yesterday, and the red zone, which obviously we’re going to get to today. (They are) just highly efficient here on offense. Their quarterback is playing phenomenal in these two areas. (Derek) Carr is getting the ball out quick, they’re running the ball extremely well in the red (zone) area. So, two very important situational parts of the field that we’re going to have to defend defensively here in order to have a chance in the game. Offensively, same thing – a lot of different looks, disguises, blitzes, pressure looks – they can bring everybody in these situations they’ll drop into coverage. Really, they’ll just run the gamut. A lot of work to be done here today, we’re excited to get out on the field and have a good tempo practice, and get on and off, and be ready to go to travel tomorrow. That’s really about it, just about work today.” On the challenges for a defense when a quarterback is getting the ball out quickly: “It frustrates the pass rush I would say, first and foremost. I think that’s one of the reasons that they have that game. I would say one of the things they did last week that was different that they haven’t really done, which obviously plays in probably a little bit more this week, is they took those chances downfield, too. So, the ball is still coming out quick, but a little bit more of the shots on the outsides, (they) get the ball out fast, but now you have big plays on top of it. It’s not necessarily all everything underneath, it’s the vertical pass game in there. Zay Jones is someone I anticipate really having a bigger role with some of that, with his speed, his ability to kind of run those overs and those nine-routes and get downfield. Like we talked about all week, (Darren) Waller is doing a great job. They run a lot of, call them double moves, down in that area, too. They’ll kind of get a little bit of a fake on the short route and then roll deep into the endzone, so just the pass rush has to be a particular way because that really changes how we do things with the ball coming out fast. The coverage has to be tight if you’re in man, and then obviously if you’re in zone, being ready to read the quarterback and break. Just a lot of issues there as far as that’s concerned.” On WR Danny Amendola and how he has continued to be successful in the NFL: “Yeah, Danny is obviously a great guy, tremendous guy, unbelievable work ethic, unbelievable approach every single day in the building from a standpoint of just – he’s one of those guys that came in the League maybe not in the highlighted version, and grinded it out every single day like he still has that chip. I think that’s the edge that he has, I think that’s something that he does every single day. He’s worked himself with that sort of approach into just being – that’s his professional approach way that he handles every single week. He’s very competitive, he’s very hard on himself to go out and perform and execute at a high level every single play. He just has that drive every single day to be the best player that he can be. You love to see that, you love to coach it, you love to be around it, it’s contagious. It’s worked for him.” On if he can see WR Danny Amendola’s work ethic rubbing off on other players: “That’s a good question. You know I think the whole leadership thing – I think for us, I think everyone is a leader, everyone is a leader from that aspect of it. Everyone, if they come in every single day and are consistent and do what they are supposed to do, there is leadership in all of that. He’s certainly one of those guys as you watch him work, you say to yourself, ‘OK hey, I understand the standard that he’s going to put out there, and I’m going to match that or beat it or whatever it is.’ That’s the competitive part of it that I think takes over from that aspect of it when you have guys like that on the team.” On RB Tra Carson’s injury status: “Yeah, he’s going to be out there today, and we’ll see what it looks like from that aspect of it, and we just keep pushing forward. We’re always ready for players whether they can or cannot play, and we’ll see. It’s a day-by-day thing really for us. We’ll see what it looks like today.” On how difficult it is to defend against teams with quality tight ends and running backs: “I think that’s one of the more difficult things to defend against with the tight ends and the running backs, especially when you get toward the red (zone) area. Just in general football – those players become a bigger part of the offense when they are as dynamic as they are. With the Raiders offense it becomes just that much more complicated from a schematic standpoint to try to handle those guys – especially when they do both. They’ll be active in the run game and the pass game. They take that flexibility of the position and they use it really well to their advantage in both those situations. So, it does complicate things.” On if it is harder to defend play-action in today’s NFL: “I don’t know if it’s harder, but I would say the schemes are just – they’ve gotten a lot better with some of that stuff. I think there’s – the play-action game is not as, I don’t want to say simplistic, but just is not as basic as maybe it used to be with two backs in the backfield, quarterback up under center, everybody coming downhill, get a good read on the offensive line. I think the offensive lines are coached up better to give a better read on that stuff. I think the backfield sets are much different now. The quarterback is in the gun. There are a lot more gun runs with that, so now the play-action game off of the quarterback in the gun is really hard from that aspect of it because there’s just more space involved in the play entirely as opposed to everybody kind of being down in there really tight. I think that there’s just a lot more with teams, especially like the Raiders, there’s just a lot more distraction that is involved with the play-action game. It’s combined with the run game, so a lot of the horizontal – maybe shifts, motions, formationing, things like that that may be eye distractions are now incorporated in the play-action game. It’s really an eye discipline thing.” On if DB Tracy Walker will be out at practice: “Sorry, Tracy will not be at practice today.” On how much of a concern safety depth is if DB Tracy Walker cannot play: “For us, we’re always ready to adjust based on whoever’s out there. Sometimes safety depth isn’t necessarily just from the safeties. In those situations, we do what we can to kind of overlap those situations if he can’t play. But we’ll see as we go here and see how he feels through the course of today and tomorrow.” On his evaluation of the Lions tight ends this season: “I think it’s one of the rooms that I really enjoy a lot. Those guys are great. They work really hard. They’re all kind of interchangeable. I tease them a little bit once in a while because they kind of are like all brothers in there, and they’re on each other. They’re just a fun group from that aspect of it. I would say they work really hard. They’re very serious about their job. I think they all grind it out together. They all have roles that overlap from that aspect of it, and I think when you have good tight ends or you have multiple tight ends, they are an intricate part of your offense. Production for us isn’t based on individuals, it’s not based on position groups, it’s based on production overall of the offense. So, depending on what game it is, what situation it is, what we’re looking to try to accomplish based on maybe what the defense is doing or gives us. Certainly, I think games come in waves, so if we go out and have a productive game in a certain position, we anticipate that that might change in the next couple weeks. We have to be able to move in different directions from that aspect of it – maybe one of the reasons we kind of just always look at trying to stay in front of some of that as it goes.” |
