Post-Game Skins Quotes 9/23/19: Jay Gruden

[Boone]

REDSKINS HEAD COACH JAY GRUDEN

On injuries:
“[Brandon] Scherff hurt his ankle, came back into the game and [Chase] Roullier hurt his knee a little bit but he came back into the game.”

On QB Case Keenum's performance:
“Well a combination of things, really. A couple bad decisions maybe – jumping over the pile on fourth and one. You have to always protect the ball than get half a yard. I think he got his arm hit on one. Then the safety read his eyes on another one, and I can't remember the other one. Obviously, we have to do a better job of protecting the football with this unit.”

On the defensive struggles:
“Well, we put them in a hole early. We gave them a 7-0 lead and threw the ball right to Ha Ha [Clinton-Dix]. I think we had another turnover and gave them a short field three times in the first half. But still, the sudden changes happen in pro football and we have to do a better job of getting off. Being on the sidelines in defense, I felt like there was some effort there, some physicality this week. There's still a couple things coverage-wise there in red zone that we have to get cleaned up – somebody not covering their guy or played in and out and somebody didn't play at the end, somebody played the out or two guys played the out. Whatever they did, we have to get cleaned up. But effort-wise, tenacity, I felt a little bit better but we have to be more productive.”

On the second half play calling:
“Well, we called the first run to Chris [Thompson] and he got nine yards. At second down and one, I called the same play again. We have one of those RPO-type [run-pass option] thing, and I thought there was a big hole there where he could've gotten a yard but he got stopped short somehow. And then on third and one, we called our short yardage play and AP [Adrian Peterson] couldn't get a yard and then we tried to sneak it on fourth and a foot and jumped over the pile and got slapped out of there.”

On motivating the team after third straight lost:
“We have to stick together and that's all we can do. We're in this together and nobody wants to be in the position that we're in. This is the National Football League; teams win and lose every week. We happen to have lost our first three, by three very good football teams. We have a lot of very good guys on offense that have never played together before until these past three games. We have some talent. We just have to coach them up better, play better, be more balanced and protect the football.”

On pressure on offense and Chicago Bears LB Khalil Mack:
“Yeah, not getting down 21 to nothing, that would help and not being third down long, that would help as well. We tried a couple of different things out first down. We had some play action shots called and we thought we had a good protection plan going. But we had a sack on one of them that we lost on a looping defensive tackle on another sack. We tried to keep tight ends in to bang him, we tried Chris Thompson bang him, we tried a little bit of everything. He is just a great player. Unfortunately, when he gets in a position that he was in tonight, being up in some third downs, you're going to see a special player shine and he did.”

On potentially starting QB Dwayne Haskins Jr.:
“No, not really. I think the most important thing is that we have some continuity. I can't change people every five minutes, and I have to give Case an opportunity playing with these new guys. This is his first time in this offense. Donald Penn, Ereck Flowers, their first time in this offense. Terry [McLaurin], Trey Quinn only played two games last year. I made this point before, we're not going to be perfect but we need to be better. I think that we can get better. Otherwise if I didn't think we had a chance to get better, then I would make a change. I feel like Case has the tools to become a very efficient quarterback in this offense to get us some victories here moving forward.”

On if he thinks three consecutive losses has an impact on the fans:
“It's brutal, it's brutal. We are giving everything we have. We're not producing, we're not playing good enough at home. We're not giving these guys a reason to use this home field advantage. That's the most disappointing thing because we have a great home field advantage when it's rocking and we're in the game. Third downs are a lot more difficult for the opposing team. Our players get more into the game. We just haven't been able to get any momentum in the last home games here. So, here in the fourth quarter late trying to make a comeback, but then we fumbled. Something has to be done, we have to do a better job at home.”

On the issues with the defense:
“I think communication isn't the issue, just somebody that got picked. We know are man-to-man, so I don't know what happened. I will have to look and see. We've had some people drop coverages before in man-to-man and those bunches of stacks and pick plays and play actions. No excuses, but we just have to figure out why. I don't know if that happens all the time. It's happened a couple of times. Indianapolis got us a couple times last year. Obviously tonight they showed up.”








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bulldog]

The Broncos, also 0-3, held Trubisky to 16 points and we made him look like a functional NFL qb last night.