 }})
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2009
- Messages
- 54,580
- Reaction score
- 15,387
- Points
- 2,743
- Location
- Greensboro, NC
- Military Branch
- Alma Mater
September 16, 2016
Head Coach Jay Gruden
On the injury report:
“Injury report: Kendall Reyes will be out with his groin; [Martrell] Spaight will be out – got a concussion. Questionable will be [Chris] Baker with his rib and elbow; [Josh] Doctson with his Achilles; Trent Williams with his glute; and Su’a Cravens with his hip flexor.”
On his level of concern for T Trent Williams:
“I don’t know yet. He’s a big man and usually he’ll play with just about anything. So, this is a new injury to him but we’ll have to wait and see tomorrow.”
On when Williams sustained the injury:
“Something happened yesterday a little bit. You know, he was in pass-pro and just had a little twinge back there.”
On if DL Cullen Jenkins will be ready to play on Sunday:
“Yeah, Jenkins will be ready to go. We have got Jenkins and [Anthony] Lanier.”
On the concern for LB Martrell Spaight:
“Yeah, there is a level of concern there. We don’t know to what extent yet. He’s still going through all the tests and all that stuff. He just had some issues that we had to get checked out. We don’t know when it occurred, it wasn’t in practice. So, it just came up. He had a little dizziness, I guess it was, so we just had to make sure we took care of him and make sure we did right and send him to all the right people.”
On if S Duke Ihenacho will be active Sunday:
“We’ll see. We haven’t made that determination yet with Spaight’s injury. We could dress another defensive back, so it could be him. We’ll make that decision here when we get done.”
On if he wants a specific amount of carries for the run game:
“I don’t think there’s ever a specific number. I think the whole intent is to maintain some drives and keep our defense fresh. Whether that’s 20 or 30 depends on the score of the game. Obviously you want to have a lead so that total will rise. If you’re playing from behind it will be diminished a little bit. It depends on how the game is going but we would like to be in the 20 to 30 range every week.”
On the extended huddle after practice:
“I talked for a little bit and then we had the champion of the world out here; Deontay Wilder came and spoke to the team. [He] gave us some good motivational words. It was fun. Great person, heck of an athlete. Played in some pain, broken hand, torn biceps, and still whipped some people. So, it was great to hear his point of view on competition, that’s for sure.”
On if he personally extended the invitation to Deontay Wilder:
“No, that was the great Tony Wyllie, actually, got that done. So, we’re happy to have him, man. He’s a big Redskins fan and we’ll welcome him any time. We’ve been fortunate, we got Katie Ledecky, we got Deontay Wilder, we got it going on here. Now we’ve just got to get some wins around here.”
Offensive Coordinator Sean McVay
On the Dallas defense:
“I think this is an excellent defense. They play with great effort. Coach [Rod] Marinelli always does a great job of having guys play with excellent effort up front. They’re very sound fundamentally. They do a great job on the back end, and I think Sean Lee is one of the better defensive players in this league. So, we have a lot of respect for this defense and we know it’s going to be a great challenge on Sunday.”
On what the Dallas defense did in the last meeting in Washington:
“I think they did a great job creating pressure with different rushes. They pressured a little bit more than they had in the previous games in certain situations, in some different downs and distances. And I thought Coach Marinelli did a great job mixing it up. I thought I didn’t do a very good job of putting our guys in positive situations to have success and that was something that you look back on and you hopefully learn as a coach, and moving forward we’re looking forward to a great challenge against them this week.”
On the importance of keeping the run or the threat of the run alive with a balanced offense:
“You mentioned it, being balanced is very important to us. When you stay in normal down-and-distances, you’re able to have your run-pass options, you can have some different things that come of those run-actions, you’re able to control the ball. So a lot of things go into it. I’ve got to do a better job mixing it up and staying patient and being balanced. We’ve got to do a better job collectively as a unit not hurting ourselves with penalties and negative plays that kind of take you out of those manageable down-and-distances. I think ideally you always want to find the best way to move the football. When you are able to stay in those normal down-and-distances, you have your run/pass options, that gives you the best chance to try to keep the defense off-balance. So that’s something that we’re always striving to do.”
On which member of the coaching staff takes the lead to remedy false start penalties:
“It starts with… fortunately we’ve got a situation where we’re all collectively on the same page. We all take the accountability as coaches that we’ve got to do a better job getting communicated to the players the expectation and understanding that it’s too important. Every play is too valuable to take negative-five plays. When you get minus-five yards on those false starts, it really hurts your ability to stay in those manageable down-and-distances, like we talked about. A lot of those ended up being the difference where you’re in a fourth-and-six, you get five yards, and if you don’t have that [false start], you’re maybe converting and continuing to move the chains on some series. All of us made a very strong effort to try to relay to those players how important that is and I thought they did a great job responding this week.”
On Pittsburgh’s approach in the red zone:
“Well, first off give credit to Pittsburgh’s defense. I thought they did a nice job. They present a couple different looks down there and we weren’t able to execute. I think ultimately when you’re able to look at the tape, there’s a bunch of different factors that kind of play into us going 1-for-4 down there. One game isn’t indicative of what we expect for the whole season, but you try to just look at it and say, 'OK, what can we learn from this? How can we better execute going forward?’ That’s something that we emphasized this week and hopefully we’ll see it translate against the Cowboys on Sunday.”
On if the offense had any “first-game jitters” last week:
“I think anytime that you look at it offensively, I think it starts with I look at myself like I can do a better job of figuring out ways to put guys in better situations. It sounds like a consistent theme is let’s just find ways not to beat ourselves. I think any time that you do have the pre-snap penalties like we had –a couple holdings we had that ended up being critical within the framework of some of those series – I think it hurts your ability to get into a rhythm and a flow. If that’s what you mean, it definitely did hurt. I didn’t feel like we were able to get into a rhythm offensively. You really look at it, we had 10 drives in that game – nine because really we had one play at the end of the half where we ran a draw to Chris Thompson – but overall, three of those nine series we didn’t have a self-inflicted wound and we were able to move the football pretty efficiently on those three. So that’s going to be a real consistent approach for us is understanding the importance of not doing that to ourselves with the penalties.”
On if avoiding sacks could also mean the offense is not extending plays:
“I think that each play is its own entity and the biggest thing is the situational understanding and awareness and how that dictates your response and your approach to that given situation. For example, if you’re in the tight red zone area and you know that you’ve already got points there, and you have a chance to extend a play to where it’s a touchdown or maybe if you take a sack but you still stay in reasonable field goal range, that might be a situation where you’re willing to extend it and be a little bit more inclined to not be afraid to try to extend the play. I think each situation dictates its own response and that’s why you talk to these guys about situational awareness and how that affects your decision-making.”
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Head Coach Jay Gruden
On the injury report:
“Injury report: Kendall Reyes will be out with his groin; [Martrell] Spaight will be out – got a concussion. Questionable will be [Chris] Baker with his rib and elbow; [Josh] Doctson with his Achilles; Trent Williams with his glute; and Su’a Cravens with his hip flexor.”
On his level of concern for T Trent Williams:
“I don’t know yet. He’s a big man and usually he’ll play with just about anything. So, this is a new injury to him but we’ll have to wait and see tomorrow.”
On when Williams sustained the injury:
“Something happened yesterday a little bit. You know, he was in pass-pro and just had a little twinge back there.”
On if DL Cullen Jenkins will be ready to play on Sunday:
“Yeah, Jenkins will be ready to go. We have got Jenkins and [Anthony] Lanier.”
On the concern for LB Martrell Spaight:
“Yeah, there is a level of concern there. We don’t know to what extent yet. He’s still going through all the tests and all that stuff. He just had some issues that we had to get checked out. We don’t know when it occurred, it wasn’t in practice. So, it just came up. He had a little dizziness, I guess it was, so we just had to make sure we took care of him and make sure we did right and send him to all the right people.”
On if S Duke Ihenacho will be active Sunday:
“We’ll see. We haven’t made that determination yet with Spaight’s injury. We could dress another defensive back, so it could be him. We’ll make that decision here when we get done.”
On if he wants a specific amount of carries for the run game:
“I don’t think there’s ever a specific number. I think the whole intent is to maintain some drives and keep our defense fresh. Whether that’s 20 or 30 depends on the score of the game. Obviously you want to have a lead so that total will rise. If you’re playing from behind it will be diminished a little bit. It depends on how the game is going but we would like to be in the 20 to 30 range every week.”
On the extended huddle after practice:
“I talked for a little bit and then we had the champion of the world out here; Deontay Wilder came and spoke to the team. [He] gave us some good motivational words. It was fun. Great person, heck of an athlete. Played in some pain, broken hand, torn biceps, and still whipped some people. So, it was great to hear his point of view on competition, that’s for sure.”
On if he personally extended the invitation to Deontay Wilder:
“No, that was the great Tony Wyllie, actually, got that done. So, we’re happy to have him, man. He’s a big Redskins fan and we’ll welcome him any time. We’ve been fortunate, we got Katie Ledecky, we got Deontay Wilder, we got it going on here. Now we’ve just got to get some wins around here.”
Offensive Coordinator Sean McVay
On the Dallas defense:
“I think this is an excellent defense. They play with great effort. Coach [Rod] Marinelli always does a great job of having guys play with excellent effort up front. They’re very sound fundamentally. They do a great job on the back end, and I think Sean Lee is one of the better defensive players in this league. So, we have a lot of respect for this defense and we know it’s going to be a great challenge on Sunday.”
On what the Dallas defense did in the last meeting in Washington:
“I think they did a great job creating pressure with different rushes. They pressured a little bit more than they had in the previous games in certain situations, in some different downs and distances. And I thought Coach Marinelli did a great job mixing it up. I thought I didn’t do a very good job of putting our guys in positive situations to have success and that was something that you look back on and you hopefully learn as a coach, and moving forward we’re looking forward to a great challenge against them this week.”
On the importance of keeping the run or the threat of the run alive with a balanced offense:
“You mentioned it, being balanced is very important to us. When you stay in normal down-and-distances, you’re able to have your run-pass options, you can have some different things that come of those run-actions, you’re able to control the ball. So a lot of things go into it. I’ve got to do a better job mixing it up and staying patient and being balanced. We’ve got to do a better job collectively as a unit not hurting ourselves with penalties and negative plays that kind of take you out of those manageable down-and-distances. I think ideally you always want to find the best way to move the football. When you are able to stay in those normal down-and-distances, you have your run/pass options, that gives you the best chance to try to keep the defense off-balance. So that’s something that we’re always striving to do.”
On which member of the coaching staff takes the lead to remedy false start penalties:
“It starts with… fortunately we’ve got a situation where we’re all collectively on the same page. We all take the accountability as coaches that we’ve got to do a better job getting communicated to the players the expectation and understanding that it’s too important. Every play is too valuable to take negative-five plays. When you get minus-five yards on those false starts, it really hurts your ability to stay in those manageable down-and-distances, like we talked about. A lot of those ended up being the difference where you’re in a fourth-and-six, you get five yards, and if you don’t have that [false start], you’re maybe converting and continuing to move the chains on some series. All of us made a very strong effort to try to relay to those players how important that is and I thought they did a great job responding this week.”
On Pittsburgh’s approach in the red zone:
“Well, first off give credit to Pittsburgh’s defense. I thought they did a nice job. They present a couple different looks down there and we weren’t able to execute. I think ultimately when you’re able to look at the tape, there’s a bunch of different factors that kind of play into us going 1-for-4 down there. One game isn’t indicative of what we expect for the whole season, but you try to just look at it and say, 'OK, what can we learn from this? How can we better execute going forward?’ That’s something that we emphasized this week and hopefully we’ll see it translate against the Cowboys on Sunday.”
On if the offense had any “first-game jitters” last week:
“I think anytime that you look at it offensively, I think it starts with I look at myself like I can do a better job of figuring out ways to put guys in better situations. It sounds like a consistent theme is let’s just find ways not to beat ourselves. I think any time that you do have the pre-snap penalties like we had –a couple holdings we had that ended up being critical within the framework of some of those series – I think it hurts your ability to get into a rhythm and a flow. If that’s what you mean, it definitely did hurt. I didn’t feel like we were able to get into a rhythm offensively. You really look at it, we had 10 drives in that game – nine because really we had one play at the end of the half where we ran a draw to Chris Thompson – but overall, three of those nine series we didn’t have a self-inflicted wound and we were able to move the football pretty efficiently on those three. So that’s going to be a real consistent approach for us is understanding the importance of not doing that to ourselves with the penalties.”
On if avoiding sacks could also mean the offense is not extending plays:
“I think that each play is its own entity and the biggest thing is the situational understanding and awareness and how that dictates your response and your approach to that given situation. For example, if you’re in the tight red zone area and you know that you’ve already got points there, and you have a chance to extend a play to where it’s a touchdown or maybe if you take a sack but you still stay in reasonable field goal range, that might be a situation where you’re willing to extend it and be a little bit more inclined to not be afraid to try to extend the play. I think each situation dictates its own response and that’s why you talk to these guys about situational awareness and how that affects your decision-making.”
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
