 }})
August 24, 2013
FedExField
Executive Vice President/Head Coach Mike Shanahan
Opening statement:
“Richard Crawford has an LCL [injury] – possibly an ACL – but he’ll be gone for the year according to our doctors. That was the injury we had for today, unfortunately. I was proud of our football team. I thought we played hard, especially with two days less preparation going from a Monday night, and they did that so it was a great team effort. Now, we have 24 hours off and have to finalize our camp.”
On outgaining the Bills 3-to-1 and how impressed he was:
“Well, like I said, I was impressed with our football team, especially with two days less preparation time. For them to come out and play as hard as they did and as well as they did, there was a bunch of positive things. I’ll look forward to looking over the film and trying to come up with the best 53 [man roster] for the Monday night game.”
On who will now be the punt returner:
“We’ll see. Obviously [running back] Chris [Thompson] did a pretty good job today when he went in there and we’ve got a couple options. I can’t tell you for sure at this time.”
On the performance of quarterbacks Rex Grossman and Pat White:
“I thought they both played very well. Anytime you rotate guys in there like we did, for them to play at the level they did, I was impressed with that.”
On running back Evan Royster:
“He’s hurt, he hurt himself on Tuesday – he sprained his ankle. He was taking a normal plant and missed a few days of practice in a row – three days to be exact. He wasn’t well enough to play today.”
On the performance running backs Roy Helu, Jr. and Keiland Williams:
“I was impressed with our offensive line and our backs. It’s a group effort anytime you run the football and our wide receivers blocked exceptionally well. So it’s a group effort anytime you run the ball and I thought we had a couple of play-action passes off of it as well that set up a couple passes, but it was a good day overall.”
On his thinking behind the quarterback rotation throughout the game:
“You never know how a game’s going to go, how many series you’re going to get in a football game so we started out three and three and made adjustments. But when you’re the second-team, third-team, or fourth-team quarterbacks, that’s what happens during the game you have to come off of the bench cold, you have to produce even though you’re not warmed up and we wanted to put both guys in that similar situation today. We wanted both to get a chance to play with the same players. We wanted to give Pat [White] a chance to play with the starters and Rex [Grossman] started the game, and I was pleased with both guys and how they played.”
On how it helps the run game having the offensive line and running backs be familiar with each other:
“I think you could see it today the continuity of everybody being on the same page – knowing what to do, what to expect going against different defenses and different secondary coverage. Your quarterback can feel comfortable with the system. [Quarterback] Rex [Grossman] is a vet so it doesn’t surprise that he played well and the way he did. But it was nice to see [quarterback] Pat [White] come in and play exceptionally well and those guys don’t get a lot of reps compared to a guy like [quarterback] Kirk Cousins and [quarterback] Robert [Griffin III] over the last couple of weeks so they were limited in reps but still played well.”
On linebacker Bryan Kehl and how he felt about his play:
“Pretty good, I’ll look at the film but you have to have guys that step up so it was nice to get [linebacker] Nick [Barnett] out there and Bryan as you mentioned I thought he played well too. Anytime you give up those stats you don’t know for sure, but you know everybody had to have played fairly well to end up with the stats that they had so it was good overall effort.”
On outside linebacker Darryl Tapp and on if his progress in such a short time has impressed him:
“I can’t say it surprises me, that’s one of the reasons we went out and got him. We thought he had the athletic ability to be an outside linebacker, I always liked the way he rushed the quarterback. He’s a very powerful guy, a smart guy, a very intelligent guy, and so he’s made the transition fairly quickly. You just hope these guys keep getting better but when a guy is that smart and he’s that dedicated you can tell he’s a great guy and gives everything that he has to this football team and this organization. He’s going to help you win.”
On the cornerback position with cornerback Richard Crawford out:
“Well obviously anytime a guy goes down, another guy gets the opportunity to show us he can do. And we had a lot of guys play today and I’m looking forward to taking a look at the film and see who really played well. And then we have next week, we’ll have the chance to evaluate a lot more players as I mentioned to pick the best 53.”
On quarterback Robert Griffin III warming up before the game:
“I didn’t see him, I was in the locker room.”
On how Griffin III has looked this week:
“He’s had a good week of preparation he was in a lot of team situations – offense vs. defense. He got a lot of reps this week - a majority of the reps. And there were no setbacks with his knee so that’s a good sign so hopefully next week he can get similar reps and be ready for the Monday night game.”
On if Griffin III will get the green light from Dr. Andrews if there is no setback:
“Well, we’ll see, if there’s no setback Dr. Andrews will evaluate him and I’m sure if there’s no setbacks he’ll 'OK’ him but I can’t say that for sure – Dr. Andrews will make that call.”
On ball security with running back Chris Thompson:
“That’s something you have to improve on. When he came over to the side, and we were fortunate enough to get the fumble recovery, I just emphasized to him no matter how good you are if you fumble you can’t play and he understands that. He’s getting used to the NFL and I was really impressed on his punt return after he did fumble the ball that he had no fear catching that punt return and almost broke it for a touchdown and got us good field position taking the ball out to the 30-yard-line. A lot of guys after they fumble, they’re concentrating so much on their mistake they can’t focus on catching the punt return so that was very impressive. So he’s a young guy with a lot of ability.”
On Helu, Jr. being back out there:
“You always hope guys come back. Roy had a good first year then he had that setback. I thought the first preseason game he played I thought he looked good, but today I thought he looked even better. You could tell he looked a lot more comfortable being out there the second time than the first time and that’s a good sign.”
On wide receiver Aldrick Robinson:
“Yeah, we played [wide receiver] Pierre [Garcon] in that first series as well as [running back] Alfred [Morris] and we did take them out and gave Aldrick an opportunity to show us what he could do the remainder of the first half and I thought he really took advantage of that opportunity he looked good.”
FedExField
Executive Vice President/Head Coach Mike Shanahan
Opening statement:
“Richard Crawford has an LCL [injury] – possibly an ACL – but he’ll be gone for the year according to our doctors. That was the injury we had for today, unfortunately. I was proud of our football team. I thought we played hard, especially with two days less preparation going from a Monday night, and they did that so it was a great team effort. Now, we have 24 hours off and have to finalize our camp.”
On outgaining the Bills 3-to-1 and how impressed he was:
“Well, like I said, I was impressed with our football team, especially with two days less preparation time. For them to come out and play as hard as they did and as well as they did, there was a bunch of positive things. I’ll look forward to looking over the film and trying to come up with the best 53 [man roster] for the Monday night game.”
On who will now be the punt returner:
“We’ll see. Obviously [running back] Chris [Thompson] did a pretty good job today when he went in there and we’ve got a couple options. I can’t tell you for sure at this time.”
On the performance of quarterbacks Rex Grossman and Pat White:
“I thought they both played very well. Anytime you rotate guys in there like we did, for them to play at the level they did, I was impressed with that.”
On running back Evan Royster:
“He’s hurt, he hurt himself on Tuesday – he sprained his ankle. He was taking a normal plant and missed a few days of practice in a row – three days to be exact. He wasn’t well enough to play today.”
On the performance running backs Roy Helu, Jr. and Keiland Williams:
“I was impressed with our offensive line and our backs. It’s a group effort anytime you run the football and our wide receivers blocked exceptionally well. So it’s a group effort anytime you run the ball and I thought we had a couple of play-action passes off of it as well that set up a couple passes, but it was a good day overall.”
On his thinking behind the quarterback rotation throughout the game:
“You never know how a game’s going to go, how many series you’re going to get in a football game so we started out three and three and made adjustments. But when you’re the second-team, third-team, or fourth-team quarterbacks, that’s what happens during the game you have to come off of the bench cold, you have to produce even though you’re not warmed up and we wanted to put both guys in that similar situation today. We wanted both to get a chance to play with the same players. We wanted to give Pat [White] a chance to play with the starters and Rex [Grossman] started the game, and I was pleased with both guys and how they played.”
On how it helps the run game having the offensive line and running backs be familiar with each other:
“I think you could see it today the continuity of everybody being on the same page – knowing what to do, what to expect going against different defenses and different secondary coverage. Your quarterback can feel comfortable with the system. [Quarterback] Rex [Grossman] is a vet so it doesn’t surprise that he played well and the way he did. But it was nice to see [quarterback] Pat [White] come in and play exceptionally well and those guys don’t get a lot of reps compared to a guy like [quarterback] Kirk Cousins and [quarterback] Robert [Griffin III] over the last couple of weeks so they were limited in reps but still played well.”
On linebacker Bryan Kehl and how he felt about his play:
“Pretty good, I’ll look at the film but you have to have guys that step up so it was nice to get [linebacker] Nick [Barnett] out there and Bryan as you mentioned I thought he played well too. Anytime you give up those stats you don’t know for sure, but you know everybody had to have played fairly well to end up with the stats that they had so it was good overall effort.”
On outside linebacker Darryl Tapp and on if his progress in such a short time has impressed him:
“I can’t say it surprises me, that’s one of the reasons we went out and got him. We thought he had the athletic ability to be an outside linebacker, I always liked the way he rushed the quarterback. He’s a very powerful guy, a smart guy, a very intelligent guy, and so he’s made the transition fairly quickly. You just hope these guys keep getting better but when a guy is that smart and he’s that dedicated you can tell he’s a great guy and gives everything that he has to this football team and this organization. He’s going to help you win.”
On the cornerback position with cornerback Richard Crawford out:
“Well obviously anytime a guy goes down, another guy gets the opportunity to show us he can do. And we had a lot of guys play today and I’m looking forward to taking a look at the film and see who really played well. And then we have next week, we’ll have the chance to evaluate a lot more players as I mentioned to pick the best 53.”
On quarterback Robert Griffin III warming up before the game:
“I didn’t see him, I was in the locker room.”
On how Griffin III has looked this week:
“He’s had a good week of preparation he was in a lot of team situations – offense vs. defense. He got a lot of reps this week - a majority of the reps. And there were no setbacks with his knee so that’s a good sign so hopefully next week he can get similar reps and be ready for the Monday night game.”
On if Griffin III will get the green light from Dr. Andrews if there is no setback:
“Well, we’ll see, if there’s no setback Dr. Andrews will evaluate him and I’m sure if there’s no setbacks he’ll 'OK’ him but I can’t say that for sure – Dr. Andrews will make that call.”
On ball security with running back Chris Thompson:
“That’s something you have to improve on. When he came over to the side, and we were fortunate enough to get the fumble recovery, I just emphasized to him no matter how good you are if you fumble you can’t play and he understands that. He’s getting used to the NFL and I was really impressed on his punt return after he did fumble the ball that he had no fear catching that punt return and almost broke it for a touchdown and got us good field position taking the ball out to the 30-yard-line. A lot of guys after they fumble, they’re concentrating so much on their mistake they can’t focus on catching the punt return so that was very impressive. So he’s a young guy with a lot of ability.”
On Helu, Jr. being back out there:
“You always hope guys come back. Roy had a good first year then he had that setback. I thought the first preseason game he played I thought he looked good, but today I thought he looked even better. You could tell he looked a lot more comfortable being out there the second time than the first time and that’s a good sign.”
On wide receiver Aldrick Robinson:
“Yeah, we played [wide receiver] Pierre [Garcon] in that first series as well as [running back] Alfred [Morris] and we did take them out and gave Aldrick an opportunity to show us what he could do the remainder of the first half and I thought he really took advantage of that opportunity he looked good.”
