Skins Quotes 8/15/19: Post-Game Jay Gruden

REDSKINS HEAD COACH JAY GRUDEN

On what he saw from QB Case Keenum and the first team offense:
"Yeah, I thought the tempo was OK there. The big offensive PI [pass interference] – need an explanation for that one. But overall, the tempo was still pretty good. Still the penalties, it's the same old tune right now and something we have to get cleaned up. They're calling these games pretty tight, so we have to make sure we do a better job of avoiding these penalties somehow."

On the offensive pass interference call on WR Kelvin Harmon:
"I don't know. All is know is I want Kelvin Harmon to do that every time the ball is in the air. That's why we drafted him because he is aggressive when the ball is in the air. If he can't do what he did in this game, then I don't know what he can do. I am going to continue to coach Kelvin Harmon to go up and go get the ball like he did tonight and good things will happen for him. We'll get the explanation hopefully tomorrow or the next day, but I applaud Kelvin for his effort going out and attacking the ball."

On the first team defense's performance:
"Yeah, those penalties? Yeah. I think they did good, man. I liked the way they rebounded from the penalties. Josh Norman tried to catch the ball and he got illegal contact. Jonathan [Allen], the whistle blew and he, you know, probably needed to use better judgement there. But to recover from those penalties – I think four on the first drive – and to get the pick-six by Montae [Nicholson] was big time. I liked to see them respond, and then the next two drives, they were pretty successful."

On the touchdown pass from QB Dwayne Haskins Jr. to WR Robert Davis:
"Yeah, I liked it. The best part I liked was Dwayne handling the protection. He did a great job. Challenged him, gave him some different looks and he addressed the protection to give himself just that extra beat of time where he could look down field, step into the throw and throw a perfect ball to Rob Davis. Rob did a great job tracking it and making the catch. But it starts upfront, you know, they're going to blitz you. They're going to blitz us week in and week out on third down and six to eight. The Bengals did, and we picked it up pretty well. Dwayne did a great job with the protection and standing in there. It's not easy to stand in there, stick your foot in the ground and throw a 55-yard pass with people coming at you. I was impressed by that."

On T Morgan Moses, RB Shaun Wilson and DL Tim Settle:
"Yeah, Shaun hurt his ankle there late on the punt return. Settle just has a sore knee; I think he'll be OK. And Morgan has a slight hamstring pull, but he'll be fine."

On WR Terry McLaurin not playing tonight:
"McLaurin, he went up for a ball last week, landed on his tailbone – the back area. It was a little sore. He probably could have gone today, but we kept him out."

On if the injury to McLaurin occurred before the Cleveland Browns game:
"No, the Cleveland game was a healthy scratch. This game was just a bit of a soreness. Nothing major at all. He's going to be fine."

On QB Dwayne Haskins Jr.'s performance:
"I mean, Dwayne showed flashes. There are a couple balls he rushed a bit. He missed a couple shots, he rushed a little bit, didn't put enough air under there. This is all a process for him. It's good to see him get out there and take hits here and there. Have him do the protections, get the running game going and calling the plays. The presentation that I'm interested in right now is how he handles himself, how he controls the players in the huddle with the leadership qualities that he has. It's fun to watch him right now. He's a work in progress, and he's going to continue getting better and better."

On LB Cole Holcomb not playing:
"He had a little bit of an AC-joint injury. That's one of those things that if you just keep pounding, it's just going to continue to be there. We want to make sure we get that thing full strength before he goes out there. Hopefully, he'll be ready for Atlanta [Falcons] next week."

On the challenge on the offensive pass interference call:
"I think I would have challenged them both again. The first one, offensive pass interference, the one on Cam [Sims], he was getting a bump and run. When you're pressed, you are allowed to release. Trying to get an inside release is legal. They didn't see it that way. The second one on Kelvin [Harmon], they called a push off on Kelvin. When it was in the air, I thought it was defensive pass interference which they did not believe that was. Like I said, that's something we'll have to talk about upstairs. I thought it was clear on the sideline. I saw it, so it was easy to see. I didn't have to have a lot of discussion with people upstairs on that one. Unfortunately, I was wrong. We just have to be very careful because they won't overturn it if it's not clear. The one to Kelvin – the last one – I didn't think was that clear, so we'll just have to wait and see. It's a tough deal."

On QB Colt McCoy:
"With Colt it's all dependent on his leg. Starting isn't even in the equation right now until he's healthy. Once I get the word that he is one hundred percent healthy, then we'll start talking about the competition and he'll have to get back in there. I know what Colt is and what he is all about. He knows the offense, but let's get him healthy."

On how Haskins Jr. handled the mechanics:
"Good, things to clean up. There are some things that we just got beat in protection. Their defensive end made a good play on him on the sack fumble. It was a good rush. He was early on the ball and our tackle Donald Penn and the cadence got kind of messed up a bit. But overall, there's a lot to like and a lot to clean up as it is every week."

On if Haskins Jr. is making similar mistakes to last week:
"These are different plays and different defenses, so you'll never make the same mistake twice. You might overthrow a ball since things happen, but for the most part, I don't think there's anything scheme-related that he messed up. So we've got to get him protected better, and we have to be in better down and distance for goodness sake. We had second and 20 again about 13 times. There's no quarterback that has a chance in those down and distances. So hopefully next week, we'll get him in there and get a good drive together and get some positive down and distances and friendly for the play caller."

On his comfort level with the quarterback situation:
"I'm good right now. I think we have a lot of time still to get these guys back and recover. We'll come back Sunday ready to roll – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. And then we still have another few days before our last preseason game. I like where we're at and where we're headed. We're in good shape. We just have to get some things shored up with the offensive line for sure. You know, get Jordan Reed back out there, get Terry [McLaurin] back out there. I think offensively we'll be OK."

On LB Montez Sweat playing his first game and playing with the first team:
"Well, it's a rotation. I think all those defensive ends, outside linebackers, they're outside linebackers in base and then they're defensive ends in the sub defense. So they'll continue to rotate – [Ryan] Kerrigan, Sweat, Ryan [Anderson], [Cassanova] McKinzy. That's the way you have to do it to keep them fresh. Same with the defensive line."

On Sweat's performance:
"I have to watch the film. I didn't totally watch him. I watched the big picture – offense and defense – but I saw a couple good get-offs. I think he probably needs to get in a little bit better shape. He missed some time there with his calf injury. It think that's one thing he'll probably have to get working on. I think for his first game, he did pretty good."

On WR Robert Davis:
"Robert's a hard worker. He's strong and physical. We liked what we saw last year before his injury. Then he came back and worked extremely hard to get himself ready for this year. He's competing his tail off with those other big guys [Kelvin] Harmon and obviously [Brian] Quick and Cam Sims. It's a heck of a battle."

On giving up a punt return touchdown for the second straight week:
"We have to look at the punt number one. How was it? Was there any hang time? Was it just a line drive to [Alex] Erickson, who is a heck of a punt returner. Then we have to get off blocks and we have to spread the field out and pursue and make somebody make a tackle. Tress [Way] was in position to make a tackle, but I told him if he tries to make a tackle and gets hurt, we're going to have a problem. So, he ran out of the way by my orders. We have to look at everything. The coaches do a great job out there. [Special Teams Coordinator] Nate [Kaczor] will do a good job of checking it out and getting them better."










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