Skins Quotes 9/26/19: Gruden, Manusky, Keenum

September 26, 2019

Head Coach Jay Gruden

On the Injury Report:
"Did not participate were [TE Jordan] Reed, [C Chase] Roullier and [G Brandon] Scherff. Limited was [WR] Terry McLaurin and full was everybody else."

On how QB Case Keenum looked in practice:
"He did fine. He took the reps and did a good job."

On if Keenum will start on Sunday:
"That's the plan right now. Unless he has a setback right now. [QB] Dwayne [Haskins] got to get some rep in there and [QB] Colt McCoy got a few with the scout team. It was good to see them all work."

On if Haskins got reps with the first team:
"Oh yeah, yeah."

On if WR Terry McLaurin was on the injury report yesterday:
"No. He had a little hamstring issue today."

On if McLaurin's injury is serious:
"I sure hope not."

On how McCoy looked out at practice:
He did O.K. I think it's going to be a few days or maybe weeks before he gets back in the flow here with his timing, his feet, fundamentals in the pocket. He's missed a lot of time. It's good to get him back out there and watch him zip it around and move around. I think he felt O.K. it's just a matter of getting comfortable with his feet and his legs.

On Haskins progress from preseason up until now:
"I feel pretty good. We'd have a plan for him if he did go in without a doubt. As we would with anybody, but he did fine. I think the most important thing for him is to make sure you continue to study protections and all that stuff, so you can protect yourself with all the blitz looks that teams give you on third down especially. Other than that, he's done a nice job."

On if Haskins playing changes the type of offense that the team would run:
"Not really, not really. It might not be as extravagant but it never really is that extravagant anyway, it's just football – plays. It's about execution anyways. I think we'll give him some things that he's comfortable with. That's the biggest thing is that he's comfortable with the plays we give him. [He] can spit them out and then execute."

On if McCoy will be inactive against the Giants:
"Unless we decided to dress three. We will see. Yeah, that's probably the likely scenario. Unless we have a setback, or something happens."

On who would play right guard if both Roullier and Scherff can't play on Sunday:
"You guys love these if questions, don't ya? Well, we have [C Tony] Bergstrom at center, Bergstrom can play right guard as well. We could dress [C] Wes [Martin]. So we have a lot of different options here. A lot of versatility on our offensive line, by-golly."

On if Haskins getting reps with the first team was because of Keenum's injury:
"No, he's gotten reps before too. As I said the first time, it's not the first time he's ever gotten them. You've just got to have your backup quarterback prepared. We did the same thing with our backup last year when [QB] Colt [McCoy] was at quarterback. We tried to him a few with the ones from time-to-time. It's no different with any team I would think."

Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky
On halftime adjustments vs. Chicago:
“I think it's a group effort that we've got to make sure we just pull together as a group. As a defense, we didn't like the way it turned out in the first half, but we saw some production in the second half and we did good. We've just got to keep on pressing and fighting every day.”
On defending difficult route concepts:
“Just during practice and stuff, trying to get the exact looks that we're trying to get and then keep on working them. We've got to make sure we communicate on the backend along with the safeties. Overall, it's just a [communication] standpoint that we've got to make sure that we keep on talking and doing the right thing.”
On adjustments to difficult route situations:
“Sometimes we do zone up. Just in that situation, we were in a man situation and that's how we felt, and that's what came out.”
On how coaches can get players to execute better:
“I think it comes with practice. Keep on practicing as much as you can on the plays that they're going to run. They can't show every look that they're going to have, but you try and give them the basis of what they're going to be doing on Sunday. For the most part, we had a couple of breakdowns, but that happens in the league – I mean, that's across the league, everybody has those breakdowns and people are taking advantage of those breakdowns when they do happen, so we've got to make sure we fix them.”

On poor defensive statistics:
“Yeah, they're not where we want them to be, but that's why it's a long season. We've got keep on plugging through, keep on fighting and there's 16 of them – there's not three of them, there's not four of them, there's 16. We've got to keep on pressing it and pressing it each day during practice and during the game.”
On use of 3-down linemen vs. Chicago:
“I think it was a decision to get our best players on the field at the time, and that's how we went into the game with Chicago.”
On whether they will continue to use 3-down linemen:
“Same thing. It depends on the opponent from week to week.”
On whether inexperienced coaches have hurt defense:
“They've been around certain things scheme-wise. I think the coaches are going out and coaching the best they can each and every week. With the players and stuff, with the new guys, the younger guys, whoever it might be, we've got to make sure we're playing each and every Sunday.”
On whether he still believes in the defensive group:
“Always, always. I mean the guys that we have, we've just got to make sure that we just continue to focus on what we're supposed to do out on the practice field, in the meetings and we'll be good.”
On whether fifth-round pick [LB] Cole Holcomb has surprised him:
“He's a good player. He was put in a position last week where we kind of changed it up a little bit when he wasn't out there. Overall, he's had some good games where he's executed and done some great things, and I expect good things from him this week.”

Quarterback Case Keenum

On how his foot is and what happened:
“It's feeling better today. Short week, you know how these things go. Pretty sore after the game, wanted it to calm down, get a little swelling out. Stabilize it. Just walking around, they put me in it for the day.”

On what the exact injury was:
“It was a foot sprain.”

On how it felt today in practice:
“It felt better today. That means good things because I think it'll just keep getting better. Those guys in the training room are doing a good job so we'll how it responds and just keep treating it up.”

On how ‘normal' he felt in practice:
“It felt good. Like you said, it's a short week. Obviously, had a few times where I held on to the ball too long and certain things happen, but we're moving on. We've got another great test this week.”

On what has seen from the run game that can be fixed:
“There are a lot of things. I think we can all do better. The run game is not just the offensive line and running backs. Wide receivers block a little better, I thought those guys did a good job on a lot of plays and you see it happen, you see it. But it's just being consistent with it. Same thing with offensive line, they can be a little better. Running backs can be a little better. Really, for me, only person I can control is me. I can do better. Operationally, getting us in the right run checks, making sure people are set, getting the operation of everything, I can be better too. So, I know we can all be a little bit better.”

On how they can bounce back from committing turnovers in Week 3:
“I definitely would like to change the turnovers that happened. That's what you do every game. You look at the good things you did and you look at the bad things and you fix the bad things and you move on. It's the most important part of my position is turnovers. I took responsibility for that after the game. It's all on me. They got a good [pass] rush, but I know that. I need to hold on to the ball in the pocket, it's my job. At the very worst, eat it and take a sack. Those are the things, I watched the film, studied it, watched it with the coaches and we fix that. I'm going to be better going forward.”

On if he is more eager to get back on the field after a game against the Bears:
“Yeah I'm always eager to get back on the field. It never has a good taste in your mouth after something like that. Especially doing it on national television is not fun. Good thing is, it's a short week. We'll get back on there quickly and turn this thing around.”

On if he's surprised by the attention was created by him missing Monday's walkthrough:
“I don't pay attention to anything. I was up here late. I didn't watch anything or even barely look at my phone so I don't know what attention was garnered where.”

On when exactly the foot injury took place:
“No, it was during the game.”

On if his foot was stepped on:
“No.”

On if he knew what happened:
“Yeah, it happened in the game. It happened on a sack.”

On what he has seen from the Giants defense:
“They do a lot of different stuff. They do a good job of trying to confuse quarterbacks and give different looks. We're going to have to do a really good job of ID-ing fronts for protection wise, run game stuff. On the back end, they show a lot of different coverages as well. It's a really good defense that mixes it up from game-to-game and series-to-series. Just from identification process, we have to really be on our Ps and Qs this week.”

On the differences he has seen in the Giants from Week 1 to Week 3:
“There are different game plans for different weeks. Obviously, different receivers that they play each week and you see that. We're going to have to get out there and see what they bring when we play them and adjust accordingly. I feel good about the game plan so far what's going on. Excited to get going.”

On his chemistry with WR Paul Richardson Jr.:
“I'm really excited about [WR] Paul [Richardson Jr.]. A little slow start, [WR] Terry [McLaurin] was hot and Paul is just ‘Steady-Eddy.' He's been there just constantly grinding. He's a great worker and I really enjoy working with him. I think he's just going to be a guy we constantly count on. You go back and watch some of his film of his blocking on some screens and run blocking, they were probably some of his best plays in the game on Monday night. And he made really, really big-time catches. Tough catches, contested catches too. I'm really excited to keep that connection going.”





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Richardson has been a pleasant surprise. He is being asked to do different things with McLaurin being the deep threat option to start the season and he is picking his spots to be productive and help the team.

Manusky really doesn't have the first clue. I actually feel sorry for him a bit.........until I realize how much he and especially Gruden are making to FAIL.

Most people in life don't make the money they do when they SUCCEED.