Monday, October 7, 2019
RB Mark Walton
(You got an opportunity to get some carries last week. What do you feel like you proved?) – “I’m just coming in here every day, just coming to do my job, not trying to figure out how many carries I’m going to have or how many reps I’m going to get. I’m just trying to do my job each day, every day. That’s what I come here to do. That’s why I’m here – to do my job.”
(What was that opportunity like to get some of the work?) – “It’s just showing that all my work just putting in, getting the coaches’ trust around this building to be able to get some carries – multiple carries – in the game, is something that I’ve been looking forward to and (my work) has just been paying off. I’m just trying to continue working.”
(How do you look at the bye week? Does it ‘reset’ coming back from the bye?) – “We just have to regroup together, figure out what’s going on and try to put all the negative plays aside and everything that we can do to make positive plays and just grow from that, grow from the negative plays from the first four weeks. We evaluate the first four weeks that we had before the bye week and we see what was going wrong and just try to fix that.”
Monday, October 7, 2019
RB Kenyan Drake
(So you are supposed to have the bye week and come back refreshed. Was the mission accomplished?) – “Yeah, I was able to go to the crib, see some family, chill with everybody, so from an ‘r and r’ (rest and relaxation) standpoint, it definitely served its purpose.”
(What do you get right back into when you get back?) – “I did some working out in Atlanta too. I tried not to get off the ground too much, so now I am just trying to make sure we hit the ground running in terms of a physical standpoint, using that week of rest to kind of hit the ground running in terms of being the most physical team and the most fit team. Especially with the weather we have down here, we feel like we can go and play in any environment.”
(How do you watch football on the bye week?) – “I catch it when I can, honestly. (NBA) 2K came out not too long ago, so that has been my focus as of recently. (laughter)”
(So you don’t even – it is whatever – you get away from it?) – “Yeah, you’ve got to kind of decompress, so that is what I kind of do.”
(This week, lot of turmoil going on over there on that side. I know it doesn’t matter here, but how do you prepare for a team that is going to come in like that?) – “If you don’t show up to play, then you can get beat on any given Sunday by any given team, so that is what this league is built upon. There are people going out there and doing their job to their full capability, so regardless of the record – how I see it, everyone is 0-0 when you start the game and you go out there and try to play to your best capability.”
(This is the longest you have gone without a win in your life isn’t it?) – “From a football standpoint, yeah for sure. Even when I was younger, I had been on some pretty successful teams. That is just kind of how I built myself in terms of how I kind of work and see that my capabilities and the capabilities of those around me, just putting that work in and being successful. When you are in a situation where we are, all you can do is show up to work. So being on those teams from a success standpoint kind of put me in a mindset to where things will handle themselves when you do the things that you need to take care of.”
(What did you feel when you got back on the field today with everybody coming back off the bye week? How did practice feel?) – “Practice felt really crisp. Obviously the weather didn’t really hold up for us on the outside, so we took it to the bubble and we were able to kind of hit the turf and focus on a lot of things in terms of our schematic standpoint, make sure that everybody was healthy. So, we just kind of did a walkthrough and from that point, I guess we will see how everything progresses through the week and get the game plan going from that standpoint.”
Monday, October 7, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(In terms of what just happened with the Redskins, how does that impact your preparation – their new head coach situation?) – “Bill Callahan is obviously a veteran coach. He’s been a head coach in this league. He has the o-line background. He’s a very good coach. For us, we’ll go about our business as we normally do. Obviously, he’s got a run-game background, so we’ll – we’ll always do our due diligence from a run-game standpoint. They’ve got good backs, they’ve got good receivers, they’ve got a good o-line. They’re good defensively. We’ll just go about our business the way we normally do.”
(How do you prepare with the uncertainty? They seem to have a different quarterback every week. How do you prepare for that?) – “Prepare for them all. We’ll watch them all. They’ve had a few different guys in there on the o-line, a few different receivers, tight ends. They’ve had some injuries like every other team in the league, so really you end up preparing for the different guys that could be in there. So we’ll prepare for them all.”
(You all mentioned you were going to do some self-assessment over the past week. What did you find?) – “A lot – offensively, defensively and in the kicking game – things we need to do a better job on. The first thing that comes to mind is tackling defensively. It’s something we spent some time on last week just in practice and then going through the evaluation. That’s something we can definitely do better. Breaking tackles offensively – blocking, defeating blocks, catching the ball, getting the ball out a little bit more defensively. So a lot of areas. We spent some time on that last week and we’ll continue to focus in on those this week as well.”
(How was it to have to go back and watch those first four games again?) – “It’s just part of the process. Really, we even went back as far as the preseason. Again, you go through it. Some is good, some is bad; but you just try to learn from it and get better, you try to coach it better, try to help the players understand what we’re looking for a little bit better. I think they understand that and they do a good job of taking coaching and trying to improve and get better and then trying to apply it on the practice field.”
(What did the bye week do for you and can you make any determination on what it might have done for your players?) – “I think it’s just a time for reflection. (It’s a) time to see – you look at everything we’ve done from a scheduling standpoint, from a practice standpoint, from a playing standpoint, from a coaching standpoint. You take a look at everything, you evaluate it all and you look at the things you can do better and you try to do better and try to raise the level of everything we do in the building. The bye week gives you an opportunity to look at all things and try to improve them.”
(What’s the most significant thing you feel you’re going to change moving forward?) – “There’s a lot of places where we can improve so just the basic fundamentals – tackling, catching the ball, blocking, communication. We just need to do all of those things better. I think what we’ve seen over the course of the first games is it’s a block here, a tackle here, a dropped ball here. If we can eliminate some of those basic, basic mistakes, I think we’ll be in a little bit better position so that’s kind of been the focus. It’s the focus every day but you get one missed block, one missed tackle, one dropped ball and those start to accumulate. That’s eight to 10 plays a game that could’ve gone a different way. If we make half of them, the game is a little bit different. So I’m trying to impart onto the team, onto the coaching staff – that every play counts, every play is important. I think they understand that, but when you watch it and you look at it and you go through a game or a half and sit there and say, ‘this could have gone differently.’ One or two plays or sometimes, some cases more than that. We just try to make sure they understand how important every play is.”
(G/T Jesse Davis and S Bobby McCain, will they play this week?) – “Both guys, I expect them to practice today. They’re both working their way back, both doing everything possible. They will do everything they can to be out there. I don’t like to put expectations on guys. I think they are doing everything they can to get back and hopefully they will be out there.”
(What about WR Allen Hurns? Is he still in the concussion protocol?) – “Still currently in the protocol, yes; but he’s definitely getting better. It was good to see him out there a little bit last week and he’s doing better; but he’s still in the protocol.”
(Piggybacking off of that, there was a really scary hit yesterday with Pittsburgh Steelers QB Mason Rudolph. Did you happen to see that and what are your thoughts on they have done so much to protect these quarterbacks and something like that still happens.) – “I mean I saw the play. It was a good collision there. That is part of the game. I don’t think there was anything malicious. I think it was guys playing fast and it happens. It is unfortunate and you never want to see it. I saw it up close and personal with Allen (Hurns). We try to protect the players as much as possible. We talk about it. We try to coach it. But it is a fast game and it’s an aggressive game. Sometimes you try to hit a strike zone and the strike zone moves and occasionally that happens. You never want to see it. It was a scary moment to watch it and then you just hope for the best for the player and hope he is okay.”
(I wanted to ask you about T Isaiah Prince. Based on what you saw from last week’s game – his first start – is that something where you say, ‘okay, with continued investment we can get more improvement from him?’) – “I think that is something we talk about and think about really every week. But it is up to the player. He has to come in, practice well and not get too high on getting his first start and playing fairly decently. And he has done that. He was excited to play and said he had so much fun playing. So he is motivated and that is a good thing. I think with a young player like that, you want to get them more snaps and get them more comfortable so you can develop them, especially on the offensive line. A guy with his size, his athletic ability, we want to get him in there and try to see if he can get better. But, that is up to the player and we have got some other guys that are playing well also, so we will see how it all unfolds over the course of the week.”
(If you guys should win this week, would it be just another victory or as you get later does that first victory become even more significant?) – “My focus is on practice today, getting this team up to speed on how we want to play the game. I think the rest of that kind of takes care of itself. If we do all of the right things, then the results, they take care of themselves. That is kind of my approach and my thought process with this team. Let’s have good meetings, let’s have good walkthroughs, let’s have a good practice, let’s not worry about the end of the game. Let’s worry about today.”
(Do you guys talk about that at any point, like on Sunday or right before a game? The value of a win and what the means to you guys.) – “I think when you start thinking about the end of a game, you just get lost. So it is one play at a time. That is one day at a time, one practice at a time, one really – it is really a minute to minute thing. So, no, I don’t focus on the end of games or anything like that. You have got to go through the process. I think you lose a lot within the process when you start thinking about the end or wins or losses. That’s not really where my focus is. I think if we go through the process and we do it the right way, the results turn out the way we want them. And sometimes they don’t. But you still have got to go through the process. I think if you are focused on anything other than that, then you are not putting your energy in the right places.”
(How was your bye weekend with your wife?) – “Good. We had a good time. (We had a) lot of good family time.”
