Skins Quotes 9/13/17: Gruden, Cousins, Sean McVay

September 13, 2017

Head Coach Jay Gruden

On injuries:
“Limited: [Josh] Doctson, hamstring; [D.J.] Swearinger, back. Full were the rest of the guys.”

On the origin of Doctson's injury:
“He's just been tight. Precautionary this time of week.”

On his approach to facing Rams Head Coach Sean McVay:
“Well, we have to approach it, study what they've been doing and understand that they have a very good offense. They're very efficient on offense when they're in positive down-and-distances. So we have to figure out ways to get them in third-and-long and then make them one-dimensional, like every week. It never changes. They have a very good running game with Todd Gurley. They've got different weapons on the outside that can hurt you. Jared [Goff] is playing efficient football right now, obviously, after one game. I think the amount of formations, the keepers, the play-pass, all that stuff is very, very good when you have a lead and you're in favorable down-and-distances. It's tough to stop. You've got to get after the quarterback. It's the only option.”

On if the Redskins are at a disadvantage because of how well McVay knows the Redskins' offense:
“Our offense? No. No. Not at all. It's the same thing for us. When you're one-dimensional and you're letting their five rushers rush, it's going to be tough because they have four or five or six or seven of them that can really get after the quarterback, similar to last week. Different fronts, but very, very good pass rushers with [Aaron] Donald and [Robert] Quinn – list goes on and on – Connor Barwin. We have to be able to be balanced, keep them off-balance somehow.”

On if he has faced a coach that knows him like McVay:
“Not really. Not like this. We played Cincinnati in the preseason a little bit, and in London last year. We knew them quite well. None of that matters. You don't know what they're going to run anytime. I know he's a good football coach. He'll have his team ready. That's all I know. We have to treat this like another game. We have to go out and try to figure out a way to get our first win on the road, which will be tough. I think our guys will bounce back and make a good game out of it.”

On if they will change their approach at all for the West Coast trip:
“We've talked to sleep specialists and all that, we're going to have to tinker with the schedule a little bit, try to get them some more sleep. For the most part, it's a business trip. It's a long trip, we understand that. Most important thing is to try to get them the rest that they need to be efficient on Sunday.”

If the long trip changes anything in terms of practice:
“No, we'll just move it back a little bit from time to time. Nothing changes.”

On if he is emphasizing third-down defense this week:
“Yeah, same as always. Rushing the passer. Got to rush the passer. You can play different coverages, there's going to be a hole in a zone if you play zone, man-to-man you're going to have to buckle down and play good, tight man-to-man. At the end of the day, you've got to rush the passer. You can't give the quarterback time to throw and set his feet that easily like we did. It's easy for pro quarterbacks to pick you apart and find an open receiver if they have time.”

On not being able to finish sacks:
“That's a tough deal, we had four of them, I guess. We had arms or hands on the guy and he spun out of all of them. He's a very strong quarterback. There's nothing you can do. We just talk about keeping your eyes up and trying to wrap him up if you can.”

On how QB Kirk Cousins can better handle situations like the one that resulted in an interception last week:
“I don't know, he's got just be able to try to see the throw if he can. It's hard, it's easier said than done when you have a guy barreling in front of you unblocked from time to time. But that's part of pro football. When they bring one more than you can block, you have to throw if off drift and find your guy. I think he saw a couple burgundy jerseys and thought one was running the other route and got a little confused there. We just have to keep trying to work with him and hopefully drill him in practice and get him better.”

On what separates other quarterbacks from Cousins in that situation:
“Maybe they've done it before, maybe they've seen that same type of blitz or people in their face, and have a better understanding of where the guys are going. Unfortunately for us, in fairness to Kirk, that was an option route for Jamison [Crowder], so he could be breaking out or in, he broke in. The ball sailed on him. He just threw it off the wrong foot and the ball sailed on him – which happens. He's not the only quarterback that's ever happened to.”

On what he would like to do better to help the team execute:
“Yeah, I think it's obvious. I think, when you're talking about pro football, it's about rushing the quarterback, getting after the quarterback, protecting the quarterback. We didn't do a good enough job in either instance. I think we had some opportunities to get the quarterback down, like we mentioned, but we failed to do so. We let Carson [Wentz] have time to throw it, and we didn't protect our quarterback very well in critical situations. And then ball security. We had four turnovers and that's not quite good enough. When you talk about situational football, things that you need to improve on, we always talk about third downs. We were 8-for-13 on defense and 3-for-10 on offense. That's not good enough, that's not our standard. Then you talk about ball security, we dropped four balls, four turnovers. That's not good enough. Then you talk about red zone, we were 0-for-2 in the red zone. So the three critical areas you have to be successful on in pro football, we failed miserably.”

On if Doctson's limited practice today could impact the number of snaps he could play this week:
“It doesn't help.”

On if he is spending more time with the defensive staff given his familiarity with McVay's offense:
“Yes, we have discussed numerous things – not with the players, with the staff. Not that it will help, but we have discussed it.”

On what gave him confidence to give McVay play-calling responsibilities in Washington:
“Well, he is organized and detailed, number one. He was with me and my brother in Tampa and he was with me in the UFL, so he knew what I like to run. Very smart, very detailed. He also had a good grasp on what they did here in previous years with Robert [Griffin III] and Kirk [Cousins]. So we tried to kind of mix and mingle our two systems together. He was a big part of that, so I felt good about him calling plays and we scripted together – well, not scripted, but we game planned together – and got our situational stuff down. So it was a steady, good flow that he had about him. I didn't have to step in a whole lot. I did from time-to-time, but he is a good play caller. We just kind of let him roll with it.”

On the team's mood and S D.J. Swearinger bringing the team together before practice:
“I think everybody is still smarting a little bit. We should be. I am, at least. But it's time to get over it. I think D.J. just wanted to give them a little kick in the rear, make sure we are working towards our first win and not trying to talk about what we didn't do or feeling sorry for ourselves about the last one that is already gone. I think that is the one thing you have to do after a loss. You have to correct the mistakes and then you have got to move forward. That is what we are trying to do here and I think that was the message.”

On how much the Rams' offense mirrors the Redskins' offense from years past:
“It's a different line coach. Aaron Kromer's the line coach. The run concepts are maybe a little bit different, but not too much. But everything else, we can call everything on tape. I'm sure they can call everything on tape that we're doing. It's just probably they changed the terminology up a little bit. Like I said, the whole key is staying in positive down-and-distances and staying balanced and getting your quarterback out of the pocket from time-to-time and mixing in the play-actions and then staying out of those dreadful third-and-longs.”

On if he's ever really surprised by teams now given the amount of film study in today's game:
“Teams have tendencies, but they also know that they have those tendencies, so they play off of those tendencies. Very few times can you call the exact play coming out unless you're just getting gutted by the same play over and over again and a coach is like, ‘Heck, I'm running it again. They haven't stopped it yet.' But very few offensive coaches will call the same play in the same situation over and over again. You prepare for those plays that they like. They have set plays that they like that they might go to in critical situations over the course of a year, but you hope your defense and your rules hold up versus anything they throw at you. And that's where the pass rush comes in. You need to have a good pass rush.”

QB Kirk Cousins

On the challenge of preparing for a team that knows his game so well:
“There is a familiarity there and that does present a challenge, as you'd imagine, with knowing what makes the offense go, not only the scheme but the personnel, and so we've got to be aware of that and plan accordingly. I think Sean [McVay] would tell you and we would say that ultimately it comes down to executing and if we can run our plays very detailed and be disciplined in the way we execute, usually that can overcome familiarity. But certainly if we don't execute well, it certainly gives them the opportunity to capitalize.”

On what Rams Head Coach Sean McVay would have told him to work on after last week:
“I'm sure anything that he would share would be what Jay [Gruden] and Coach Cav [Matt Cavanaugh] and Kevin [O'Connell] are telling me, but it's all correctable. It's all there to be fixed and it's disappointing that we let one get away at home, but there's nothing we can do to change it now. We can only move forward and try to make the most of each opportunity we have and in preparing for the next opportunity. We've got a great challenge coming on Sunday and we can get right back where we want to be with a great performance and a win, so that's where our focus is.”

On how he balances his reads between being personnel-based or defense-based:
“I'm always defense based. I think the coaches are always going to be personnel-based trying to get certain guys involved. When they draw up the game plan, they can create formations and motions and reads where certain guys may have a higher percentage chance of getting the football. But once it comes to game day, unless it's a complete 50-50 read, I'm just going off what the coverage dictates and the front and what the read tells me to do and then from there, what the post-snap read tells me to do. It can be everybody on any given day and from week to week I think it will change quite a bit.”

On how cognizant he is of keeping a run/pass balance:
“Yeah, I think that again goes back to just philosophy and what you're coached to do. In the game, we threw a few of those, what we call run alerts. The thought process was, ‘Hey, if we can get five yards, let's just take the five yards,' because if you're getting five yards on a run play, that's a pretty good run play. So if we can get five yards, let's take them. There are other times where you feel like maybe, ‘OK, we're doing that too much. We're getting four or five yards, but there's some good opportunities there in the run game, let's hand it off.' Then that goes back to having that discussion on the sideline and making sure you're doing what you're coached to do and I think that's something we want to, like you said, not get too out of control with getting away from running the football too much.”

On what McVay meant to his career:
“I mean, Sean meant a lot to my career. I signed a jersey for him when he left and it just said – and there's a lot of people I could say this to but certainly to him – I just said ‘I owe you my career,' and then signed it. I certainly appreciate the hard work he gave to our team and as a result, gave me an opportunity to be successful and it was just a smart hire by Jay [Gruden] to bring him in in the first place at his age. Very smart by Jay to give him the role that he gave him and the opportunities he gave him and, you know, that's one of Jay's strengths – his ability to identify potential in people and believe in them maybe when it's not the common thought everywhere else. It's not an obvious choice. Jay clearly made a really good decision there in bringing in Sean and Sean proved him right, and as a result he's a head coach now. So I guess when you make good decisions like that and have success, you could lose those people, but Sean's certainly a great coach.”

On why he feels that way about McVay:
“Well, I mean, he was our play caller for my two best seasons in the league. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. I think it's pretty self-evident why he's had a big impact on my career. He was also there calling plays when I was struggling and didn't give up on me and encouraged me through that process and believed in me. I've been reading Bill Walsh's book ‘The Score Takes Care of Itself' and Bill says in the book that four of the most powerful words you can say as a coach to a player is, ‘I believe in you.' And Sean said that to me over and over and over again even when there weren't many other people who did, so that certainly means a lot especially when you look back and see where we came from there.”

On the challenges that Aaron Donald and the Rams' defense present:
“Yeah, they always say, ‘It's not just about the X's and O's, it's about the Jimmy's and the Joes.' Sean's going to have great schemes. He does a great job as a coach and you need that, but when you have players like Aaron Donald and Trumaine Johnson, it definitely helps. Aaron, as we've all documented and talked about, is one of the best interior lineman, both against the run and the pass, in the NFL and he's going to be a great challenge for us. I do feel that every week when you look at the NFL schedule, you can name a player on the other side of the ball who's dominant – who's a game changing player –and Aaron's no different. They have a couple others as well. But that's the NFL and that's why this league is so tough and also so great is because there's just such a challenge every single week.”

On what about Donald's game makes him so good:
“I don't know that I've studied him enough to really give you a breakdown but I think that he seems to have really good leverage. He seems to be a very compact player. He seems to have really good get-off off the snap count. He's quick-twitch. He's sudden. He uses leverage and power. Football is a game of leverage and power and he knows how to use it and get every ounce of his power and drive where he needs it to create havoc in the backfield.”

On what's different about McVay than other coaches he's worked with:
“I think the difference may be more in personality in terms of the way they go about their business. I think at the end of the day, the X's and the O's and the way they look at football are pretty similar, but the way it's presented is always different based on your personality. Sean is high energy – a great communicator. He's a warm, friendly guy. Positive. So those are the kind of traits that I think were unique to him. He kind of had them all the time and he was wired. He was a guy that was high energy from early in the morning until late at night and it served him well. He's done a great job.”

On what enables McVay to walk into a locker room and ease the doubts of players:
“Well, I think the best way to ease doubts is to win football games. I think ultimately you can ease all the doubts you want to ease in OTAs and it doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't win come the regular season. Sean has presence and it's hard to teach presence. He has charisma. That's hard to teach, and it's hard to teach being a good communicator. You kind of either have it or you don't. So you can talk about his age, but he had presence when he was 20 years old and there's a lot of guys who are 65 who don't have any presence. That just is something you have or you don't and he has it, and I'm sure that was a big reason why when he goes in there and interviews, he impresses because he has something that doesn't grow on trees.”

On how much input he prefers to have in early play calling:
“I've really always had as much input as I want to have. I've never really had the door shut in my face or them laugh at me. Whenever I want to speak up, they listen and take it into account and factor it in and they appreciate the feedback – they'll ask for the feedback. But I'm also pretty comfortable with what they've done and trust them at the same time, so it's a back and forth but I let them do their job. I liked the play call. I think it was good, I think that you mix it up. You don't want do the same thing every week to start the game, keep defenses guessing and I think the play was there to be made. Again, we talked about execution at the start of this press conference and that's what it comes down to, right? I mean, you could draw plays and have a great scheme, but we have to go out and execute them and make plays happen and create opportunities. I really do trust the plan each week that we have it.”

On how McVay could help a young quarterback like Rams QB Jared Goff:
“It won't just be Sean, although I'm sure he'll have a major role. I think you've got to look at other people he's hired; Matt LaFleur and the other guys there also do a really good job coaching him up. I think the fact that they can say, ‘Look, Matt was with Matt Ryan last year – NFL MVP.' Sean has been with me the last couple of years and they can say, ‘Look, we've worked with other quarterbacks, we've helped them have success and move the football and there's nothing that they do that you can't do.' I think all that helps, so it's just a matter of coaching and teaching, which is what these guys got in the profession to do in the first place and I think they cherish that opportunity to help develop a young player. It helps when he has a lot of ability and he can throw the ball really well, and so that gives them the ability to draw up all the plays they want to draw up because he has an arm that can make all the throws.”

On the timing between quarterbacks and receivers:
“I think timing is a process. You never like, ‘Just check the box, we have that fixed now. We can move on.' You're always trying to tighten it up no matter how long you're together and keep it sharp. With the nature of NFL pass rush, there's a lot of anticipation that has to happen, a lot of being on the same page because you can't just sit there and see everything and then let the ball go. You have to kind of see it before it happens and then trust it and let it go and believe that it's going to happen the way it needs to once the ball is out of your hands. That takes time and work and that's why I've said for a long time, we're a work in progress. We're getting better. We're doing everything we can and I think that I'm encouraged because a lot of the mistakes you look at from Sunday, they're very correctable. They're very fixable. If they weren't, then you'd be sitting here pretty nervous, but I do feel like, including myself, that a lot of the stuff that we didn't do well enough can be fixed and corrected and need to be. So we've just got to get back out, keep working, never lose confidence and just prepare for the next one.”

On if there's anything specific he could do to help that process:
“I mean it could be anything from sending a text message to communicating why maybe there was a drop or maybe the ball was a little bit behind him or if he can take a different number of steps or if I can take a different number of steps in the pocket. There's all kinds of reasons that can lead to just feeling a little off or making it harder to track the ball. So you have to go back and talk about those things and communicate and be productive in meetings and on the practice field and spend time. All the stuff that we've talked about for a long time.”

Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay

On how QB Kirk Cousins helped his career:
“Well, I think when you look at his success – being around great players – you know anytime that you are able to be involved with one side of the ball that has a good amount of success like we were fortunate to do the last couple years and when you have got the quarterback position playing at such a high level, a lot of times coaches or coordinators end up getting credit for it. But I think it is more that I am lucky to be able to have worked with a player like Kirk just because of the way that he approaches the game. He is one of the few players that you're around [that] makes you accountable as the coach because you want to make sure you have answers for all the questions he has because he is going to do such a thorough job with his preparation and his approach. You feel accountable to those types of guys to make sure that you're doing everything you can to try to help those guys succeed. It was a great relationship and you guys know how highly I think of Kirk.”

On what he can take from his experience with Cousins and apply it to QB Jared Goff:
“I think just being able to work with the quarterback position. I think very highly of Colt McCoy too. So I think the experience – as far as learning how important that rapport is between your quarterback and your play caller, making sure you guys are on the same page, they kind of can almost know what call is coming before you say it. I think that rapport and that connection that you have is very important and that is what you're trying to continue to work to establish here with Jared and Sean Mannion. I think it is a credit too to our whole coaching staff. We have got [Offensive Coordinator] Matt LaFleur and [Quarterbacks Coach] Greg Olson that have done a great job of getting him ready to go. He had a good week last week and we know it is going to be an excellent challenge against a really tough defense this week.”

On his first impressions of Goff:
“I think the biggest thing I would say is when you get a chance to work with him and then you evaluate the games that he did play last year – like I have said over and over – you look and you see a natural thrower of the football. You see a tough player that will keep his eyes down the field and not watch the rush. As he continues to gain that experience, playing underneath the center, working the play-action game, the boots and different things like that, I think you see him getting more and more comfortable just like anyone else would. But even though you are playing out of the gun exclusively at Cal, you are still working progressions, seeing coverage, trying to throw with the timing and rhythm. It just might be a little bit different philosophical approach. He has played the quarterback positon at a high level. I think it has really been about – over the last handful of months – figuring out what he's comfortable with and then kind of what fits our players while you also still also do want to have an identity. I think that is something as we gain experience together, I think we will get a better feel for each other and he will continue to get more comfortable with that experience that is going to be accumulated.”

On how the league could have more success integrating college quarterbacks from that kind of system:
“You know, it's interesting. You get that question a lot because, at the end of the day, when you look at college football and you look at NFL football, they're both based on production. Certainly the schooling and all that stuff in college is very important, but coaches are paid to win football games. When you see the way college football is set up, these teams that are competing for national titles and doing a good job offensively, a lot of them are operating out of the spread and that's the best way they feel to move the football. I think the results speak for themselves. Now you do have a handful of teams that will operate under the center and do a couple different things that are a little bit more similar to what you see around the league. I think what is very important as far as just working that transition from college to the NFL is doing a great job with the evaluation of the person to see how you think those skills would translate. You know, how do they process information? Are they able to make quick, good decisions with the football? That's where you see guys that have played in – I guess spread if you will. You look at what some of the guys in his class alone, with Dak [Prescott] and Carson Wentz. Those guys made a pretty quick transition and they got a lot of experience last year.”

On his familiarity with the Redskins and if it benefits his team:
“I think Jay [Gruden] said it best earlier in the week. I think you do have an idea, but you don't know when they are going to do it, and that's where you still have to play a football game – it's reactionary. You want to try to put your guys in good spots, but you also want to be careful of not giving too much information where it doesn't allow them to play fast. You want to help guys out with some of the keys that you have, but it will be the same thing with Jay knowing exactly how we want to operate offensively. So I think it kind of goes both ways, but really as a coach, you are just trying to make sure we make good decisions and try to put our players in good spots to have success.”

On what he saw in Cousins that made him believe in him:
“Well, I think you see the traits and the characteristics show up on a daily basis. One of the things that I've always heard said is that if you see a guy play at a high level, then it's your job as a coach to try to bring it out in him consistently. I think just the way that when you get to know the human being too, mentally tough guy, clearly he's extremely talented throwing the football where he can speed his release up at the top, he's got a naturally quick release, he's special in terms of that. And then I think he's also a special human being in that, any time you spend time with Kirk, as you guys know, he's not a guy you want to bet against. He's a guy that you believe is going to figure it out eventually, and I think once he got his chance, he clearly showed why he's very capable, and he's only going to continue to get better. That's why he's a guy that he's really easy to believe in. And I think that's pretty consistent with any coach that's ever worked with him. You talk to any of these guys that are football guys, the thing that you'll hear consistently is that nobody is surprised that Kirk has played this well.”

On Cousins giving him a signed jersey that says he owed him his career:
“That jersey is up in a room that's kind of like a theater room in my house. That's probably as special as a gift as I've ever received from a player because of how much Kirk meant to me. I think it happened that a lot of the good things that have happened with us kind of coincided together and I think there was a bond that was shared between us. To be able to do that and for him to write that, certainly I know that's not true because he's done a lot of that on his own. But to be a part of it and to try to help him is what coaching's all about. And guys like Kirk are why you get into coaching.”

On if this game will be different from a regular game emotionally:
“Well, I think it's different because of getting to see the people, and it's weird, you know you're watching a lot of guys that you know and you're talking about some of the offensive players that have been instrumental in helping your career go the way that it's gone. The one thing that you do know is, at least you'd like to think so, is that there's a lot of emotions. It's certainly never something because of how important these wins and losses are that if you had your pick, you wouldn't want to have to go against people that you really care about where usually, with the exception of games like Cincinnati, there's a winner and there's a loser. I think you try to keep it as much about the game as possible, while there is still the human element and a lot of people that are important to you. But I'm hopeful that once this game kicks off, and once we get past the pregame warmups and stuff like that, you fall into your normal routine where you're calling plays and trying to make sure that you're in tune with what's going on in the game to make good decisions and see if you can come away with a good result.”

On if he's talked to Redskins Head Coach Jay Gruden since Week 1:
“Oh yeah, of course. I talked to Jay on Sunday after our game. Jay's really… he's been great to me and he's a close friend. We can keep it where we're talking and not giving competitive advantages but you still care about somebody that's been such a close friend. You want to see those guys do well and we keep in touch very regularly.”

On how different the Redskins' defense looks under Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky:
“Once you get into the flow of the season… Like during training camp, you have a good feel for what your defensive scheme is doing and things like that, but as the season progresses and you get more game plan specific, you don't have a whole lot of… I didn't really know as much what was going on on the defense with Joe [Barry] as the season went on, just because during periods that they were performing, you're trying to get some extra work in with Kirk or things like that. Different than that, I'm not watching their film. You're moving on, you're watching yourself and you're making sure that you're doing what you can and trying to make sure the offense is operating at a high level. To see really where our defense progressed last year, I could've told you right after training camp kind of what the things that Joe was emphasizing were. But as the season progressed, you get a little bit further away from it just by the natural rhythm of the season. But in terms of seeing this defense, I'll tell you one thing that you do see, is you see guys playing extremely hard up front, credit to Coach [Jim] Tomsula and Coach Manusky. You see the linebackers with K.O. [Coach Kirk Olivadotti], in the back end with some of the new additions they've made, those guys compete, they fly around, they do a good job of communicating. There's a handful of guys that jump off the screen at you that at you that we've got to be ready for.”

On how different it will be to game plan against Cousins:
“Yeah, I mean, it will be different, but I think at the end of the day, you don't know when they are going to do certain things. You might know what certain guys tendencies are and stuff like that, but you still have got to go play and react. We have got some great players on defense. They have some great players on offense. I think it is going to be a great matchup.”





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The questions and answers went exactly how I expected and would have predicted, for both sides.

"So how does your familiarity with the other team help your team ?"
"Not much at all"