Skins Quotes 9/9/19: Jay Gruden

September 9, 2019

Head Coach Jay Gruden

Opening statement:
“[DL] Johnathan Allen has a knee sprain, he'll be day-to-day. [RB] Derrius Guice had knee soreness post-game, he got an MRI we're getting it checked out now. [DL] Caleb Brantley has a foot aggravation, he'll be day-to-day – same foot and [TE] Jordan Reed, he's still progressing. As tolerated, we'll increase his workload this week and see how he does.”

On if Guice will miss any games:
“It's all MRI dependent.”

On if there is a possibility of Guice playing in Week 2:
“Oh, for sure.”

On when Guice got hurt:
“He got check out during the game.”

On if his injury changed any of the game plan:
“No he was cleared to come back in.”

On if it's abnormal Guice needed an MRI after the game even though he was cleared to return:
“Not at all. That happens. People play through injuries and then get checked out after the game. If something happens then you've got to get it check out.”

On if RB Adrian Peterson will be activated if Guice misses time:
“For sure, yeah. I have no problem with that. We'll find out what happens though. We're going to check out this MRI. We're hopeful and there's a chance they could both be up this week. We'll make that determination later.”

On if Guice woke up sore today or if he was sore after the game:
“He was sore on the bus after the game a little bit.”

On T Morgan Moses' reaction to Peterson being benched:
“Adrian [Peterson] is well liked in the locker room, he's well liked by the coaches. He's well liked by everybody, without a doubt. Like I said before, it wasn't an easy decision to make him inactive, without a doubt. However, we did need [RB Wendell] Smallwood to cover some punts. He did a great job on kickoff return, punt cover and we needed the extra linebacker also, who actually made a couple great plays on punt. Unfortunately, like I said, we couldn't get them both up at the same time. That could change next week depending on where our third back is, it could change the week after if we want to dress four backs. This week in general, I thought it was best for the football team to dress three backs – the extra linebacker and one of the backs being a special team player.”

On if Guice's injury will limit his workload and touches going forward:
“I think we'll determine that once we get the results and go from there. For sure, the whole point of having one lead down back, is making sure that guy can handle all the carries. If he can't handle all the carries, then you got to have two. That could alter your plans a little bit. We'll make adjustments as need be, fortunately we have AP [Adrian Peterson] in the building and hopefully Guice will be O.K. We'll make that tough decision when it needs to be made.”

On if Guice's injury affected the run game:
“We went three-and-out our first drive of the second half, they scored making it 20-14. Second drive, we missed a post route, dropped a slant and we're three-and-out. Next time we get the ball, its 21-20 and then obviously we had three-and-out again. Then next time we got the ball it's 29-20. We didn't have but nine plays there for a long time throughout the course of the game. It wasn't like we could establish the running game or anything at that point. Unfortunately that penalty – the clipping took us out of that one drive, the false start and dropped pass took us out of another drive and they played some good defense too. Unfortunately we couldn't get off the field on third down to really get the ball back and do what we wanted to do offensively in the second half.”

On if miscommunication led to the second touchdown by Eagles WR DeSean Jackson:
“Yeah, that was a little miscommunication and that's something that can't happen on gameday on the road. And that's something we really preach about and talked about and done a pretty good job up to this point. But it happened, and they took advantage of it. They had the perfect play on. If you're going to take advantage of a miscommunication, that's the perfect play on for it. Unfortunately it happened for us and it's been addressed from the coaching staff to the players on understanding the importance of communicating. I'm not going to put the fingers at the coaches or the players in that regards, we just understand that it can't happen again in pro football.”

On what the Eagles did differently on offense in the second half:
“First start by giving them a little bit of credit, they are a good football team and very veteran offensive football team with the offensive line that they have and the receivers they have, [TE] Zach Ertz. They're very good so give them credit. [Eagles Head] Coach [Doug] Pederson does a good job calling plays. But it comes down to situational ball, there's third downs that we have to get off the field on and we couldn't get it done. On third-and-10 they converted, they converted on third-and-15. We got out of some pass rush lanes that are unlike us. Enabled [Eagles QB] Carson [Wentz] to scramble and make some plays with this legs. We had the miscommunication on the coverage there one time. Unfortunately we just couldn't get off the field. We had to play tighter defense, played man-to-man a couple of times on third-and-five and our guys were too far off. They've got to come up and challenge the receivers from time to time. That's something we've got to correct and moving forward that we do a better job of challenging them and being more sound.”

On miscommunication with DeSean Jackson second touchdown:
“We just have to get the call in earlier. I think that's the biggest thing. There's something with the substitution and the call got in a little bit late and not everybody got it. One guy got a different call. It's happened before to others teams and I'm sure it'll happen again. Just hopefully not with us.”

On if making Adrian Peterson active or inactive will become a lingering problem:
“Obviously, it's an issue. He's a great player, had a 1,000 yards for us last year. We have 15 games left, there's a lot of the season left. I expect Adrian Peterson to play and play well when he does play. Could be this week. Adrian [Peterson] is ready to go. He's got a great attitude about it. I know he's not happy about it, but when his number is called he'll be ready to go and his number will be called.”

On if he wants Peterson to be apart of the team:
“Oh yeah, for sure. Who wouldn't want Adrian?”

On the struggles in the running game:
“There's a couple things. When a run hits and a run doesn't hit, it could be the back-side cut off, could be the tight end point of attack, could be a holding call, could be a clipping call. We had a chance to have first-and-10 at the 35, instead we had second-and-25 at our own 20. Those plays are killing us. We had a holding call earlier in the game, which stopped a nice run by Chris Thompson. The penalties are killing us in the running game. Our hands sometimes get outside the framework of the body and our guys have a little bit of a target and they're going to get called for that. We've got to clean that up. We ran a draw and they ran it right into a stunt. Tried a couple traps and they stunted on it. [They] had some good defensive plays. They have a good defensive line. And [Eagles S] Malcolm Jenkins is a pretty good run player when he gets in the box as well. The idea was try to get some runs going, obviously, but also try to get some play actions and take advantage of their aggressive style of defense. I think we did a pretty good job of that for the most part.”

On why the offensive line's technique draws flags:
“I don't know. We'll send them in and get them corrected. I think our guys just got to be – and it's not just all [Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line Coach] Bill [Callahan]'s guys. [WR] Trey Quinn had a holding call as well and our tight ends have had holding calls as well. So, it's not just Bill's guys, it's all of us. And they had some holding calls called on them as well. The referees are really looking for that and we've got to make sure we continue to preach about the hand usage and getting our hands off of them when the running back gets outside.”

On if he has talked to T Trent Williams:
“I have not talked to [T] Trent [Williams], no.”

On having WRs Terry McLaurin and Paul Richardson Jr. both as speed options on the outside:
“It's good. If a team wants to pack the box up and run some cover zero blitzes on us, you have to show you can beat the corners. I think Terry [McLaurin] did a great job of that. We missed him on the post route in the second half there which would have been a huge play. Got him on the post route against cover zero, which was a huge play. But he's also shown the ability to block and run some shallow crosses, which he caught a couple, and run other routes as well. Having both of them is good. Trey Quinn is doing a great job. [WR Kelvin] Harmon came and made some plays and we'll get [WR] Steven Sims [Jr.] going too.”

On if that's what he was expecting from McLaurin:
“Yeah, he's a good player and we've got to use more [of Kelvin] Harmon, got to get [Paul] Richardson [Jr.] going a little bit more down the field for sure. Obviously, if Jordan Reed comes back that might alter some things for us as well. We have the weapons to get the ball to, now we've just got to protect and do a good job of staying balanced and our running game has got to be better. And I have to stick with it a little more.”

On if WR Robert Davis is coming back after being released Saturday:
“We're going to look into that. We have to look into some of these injuries and see where we're at as far as who can be up for Sunday possibly. We have a couple days to figure that out and hopefully we'll get him back soon.”

On if he is hopeful Reed returns soon:
“I am very optimistic, yes. But you just never know. He's got to go through his workout today and wake up tomorrow and go through another workout and he's got his day off. Then Wednesday, we'll see where he's at. [We'll] get him some individual drills, maybe some team drills, keep progressing him as tolerated and we'll keep checking him out. The most important thing obviously is to make sure that he's symptom free and 100 percent.”

On the how much the team missed DL Jonathan Allen against the Eagles:
“I think depth, really. When [DL] Caleb [Brantley] went down too that's what hurt us. [DL Matt] Ioannidis and [DL Daron] Payne, you gotta give them credit. They battled and [DL Tim] Settle came in there, those three guys rotating with those amount of drives – the long drives that they had – they were pretty gassed, wore us down a little bit on the inside. That had a major impact, the depth and keeping those guys fresh is what we kind of rely on throughout the course of a game, course of a season, we were unable to do that yesterday.”

On letting Robert Davis go:
“We did it because [Steve] Sims [Jr.] is going to return kicks for us and we thought that was one big help. We had [S Troy] Apke being a flyer and [CB Greg] Stroman being a flyer and we needed help on the internal part, inside for the punt coverage.”




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As Brian Mitchell indicated the reference about special teams in re AP's status is a red herring.

In his 14 years playing ST in the NFL he never saw a coach potentially stall his offense leaving it exposed on game day because of ST.

He went on to say that in the past with Gibbs or Reid if the team was short due to injury on ST the coaches would go to a veteran player that played ST in the past and would ask him to help the team out and take some reps there.

The idea that Vallejo was so necessary on ST is BS.

In fact Vallejo had a major blocking in the back penalty on a return that cost the Redskins during the game.

All of this crap from Gruden now is simply his attempt to cover for a decision re AP that he made in anger over the composition of the final roster in an attempt to spit in the eye of the FO.

Now he needs AP again and is going to kiss his ass.

Who has any respect for this guy as a coach?

Hopefully he can join his brother in Las Vegas in 2020 with the Raiders.

And take Manusky with you.

I have hoped Gruden would grow into his role over time. I've tried to acknowledge some of the BS he has had to navigate (and there have been plenty of legitimate barriers to success that he's had to contend with) and put his sub-par results in context. But what I can't accept is poor leadership, ego, and selfishness.

When you lose me as a supporter, you've worked hard to do it.


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