Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (10.14.24)
Opening Statement:
“Okay, obviously, watching the tape from yesterday. Like we talked about, frustrating, got to close out football games and a ton of things that we can do better, that I can do better. But we know where we are, we understand that, can’t hide from that, but not going to look in that rear view mirror. Just focused on moving forward, focused on a big one at home this week. With that, I’ll take any questions.”
Hey, Kevin, you want to do some injuries first? Do you have any updates on the guys from yesterday?
“I really don’t, Scott (Petrak). Jerome Ford, I think we’ll be week-to-week. We talked about Nick Harris. No update really on the other guys.”
Is Grant (Delpit) still in the (concussion) protocol?
“Yes.”
With the offensive struggles you guys have been having and the playoff hopes kind of shrinking, just why not try Jameis (Winston) as a potential spark that you’re looking for?
“Yeah, I think it’s just important that we continue to do everything we can to play good, sound football. I think there were moments of that, obviously, yesterday. I think Deshaun (Watson) gives us the best chance to win, continues to give us the best chance to win, and we need to play really good offensive football at his position and really at every position to be successful on Sunday.”
Just wondering, I don’t know, in some ways, did you guys go back to some basics in the second half? I mean, Deshaun went 11-for-12, it seemed like he got into a little bit of a rhythm. And what I’m kind of trying to get at here is, are you guys trying to maybe straddle two worlds in terms of what people call your offense and Ken’s (Dorsey) offense? And what can you do, if that’s the case, to sort of streamline that and fix it so everybody can get on the same page with everything?
“Yeah, as you know, Mary Kay (Cabot), I think really the big thing for us is just running our offense at a high efficiency, regardless of personnel, regardless really of play type, run pass. And I think there’s, again, there’s moments of that we really hurt ourselves in some critical third downs yesterday, and that causes you to settle for field goals or causes you to have to punt, those type of things. So, focus for us will be to get better and certainly always try and look at things that we can do better.”
Quick follow up, Kevin, if you don’t mind and that is, what do you see on some of those early deep misses from Deshaun. He was trying to explain it a little bit yesterday just in terms of press coverage versus soft coverage. But what are you seeing on what looks like some just miscommunications between him and the receiver?
“Is there a play in particular, Mary Kay (Cabot)?”
Well, like the Amari (Cooper) one down the left sideline. I mean, that’s one that comes to mind.
“Yeah, obviously a miscommunication, between those guys. It was a little bit different technique, but that will happen every once in a while.”
Hey, Kevin, you still believe obviously in Deshaun, he gives you the best chance to win. Do you feel like there’s any eroding confidence within the team behind Deshaun?
“Yeah, I think we need to play better on offense, Tom (Withers). I really think this is a — when you’re playing good on any side of the ball, it really is about 11 guys doing their job and coaches doing our job, putting those eleven guys in position. So that’s really where our focus is. That’s really where our team’s focus is.”
And piggybacking off Mary Kay (Cabot), did anything change in terms of the passing game in the second half? It seemed like Deshaun did a better job of setting his feet, taking that first read and hitting it if it was there.
“I wouldn’t say anything definitively changed or maybe specifically changed. I thought protection held up, by and large, gave us time to find the guys down the field.”
I understand the hardest thing when times are tough is to stay the course. But considering the volume of the issues on offense and the length of the issues on offense right now, just, could you just maybe expand a little bit of why you feel right now staying the course when so much is not going right is the actual best course of action?
“Yeah, I think it’s just my job, Daryl (Ruiter), to always find ways to be successful as a team. Obviously, offense, defense, and special teams, and we’ll just focus on getting better. I really think this is something where if we keep the focus on our entire offense, on getting better at every position, I think that’s when you start having offensive success, which is sustaining drives and obviously scoring points.”
And then just within the locker room, I know you were asked about the team eroding confidence or whatever, but just how hard is it to keep player frustrations in check and avoid any type of finger pointing and things like that when you’re going through a stretch like this?
“Yeah, we’re going through it. You’re 1-5. You can’t hide from that. You don’t love that feeling, but all we can do is get one this week. It’s all we can do.”
Hey, Kevin, you talk about everybody looking inward and looking at themselves. For you, as you guys have gone through this, what have you looked inward and said, “These areas I need to specifically improve on or maybe alter,” or something like that?
“Yeah, I think it’s important that we do that as coaches, Chris (Easterling). And that’s conversations we had this morning. Things that, you know, we got to put our guys in position to succeed any which way we can. Obviously, every player has strengths, and we need to work to those strengths.”
Second thing, kind of going back to the question about second half yesterday. Just how much, a couple of guys talked about the running game and what it did to help open up some things in the passing game. Deshaun mentioned the play action. How can you kind of build off of that going into Cincinnati?
“Yeah, like I said, we had some good moments. Obviously not enough, didn’t score enough points, but there are some things that I feel like the guys took from the practice field to the game field and they’re constantly trying to build off of those type of things as you move forward.”
We always ask you about the quarterbacks and play calling and all that, but you’ve never been 1-5 here. So how do you as a head coach, keep the morale of the guys up there?
“Yeah, it’s kind of like we talked a little about earlier, Jeff (Schudel), you own your record. You can’t hide from it and doesn’t mean we like it. But we also understand there are things that you can control and things that you can’t control. So, we’ll focus on the things that we can control. That’s how we prepare, how we practice and then ultimately trying to get one this week.”
I don’t want to give away game plan or anything like that, but when you are trying to clean things up, you guys are trying to better, what are some of the tangible things that you guys are focusing on? D’Onta Foreman mentioned some more physicality in the padded practice in terms of pass protection. So, when you are working to clean these things up offensively, what are those tangible things that you maybe can focus on?
“Well, I think it always comes back to, when you’re thinking tangibly, at least for me, technique. And it’s footwork, it’s hand placement, all those things. And obviously, like D’Onta said, with pass protection, with pads on, it’s a physicality. So, for us, our ability to get better with our technique as the season goes on is really, really important.”
I know this probably might sound similar to Tom (Withers), but obviously you have captains on the team, you have other leaders on the team. Throughout this start, have you consulted with them about the decision to stick with Deshaun as starting quarterback? And do you get the sense that they also believe that he gives you the best chance to win?
“Well, yeah, I mean, I consult with our players weekly, talk to our guys daily. I also make decisions that I feel are best for the football team. So, it’s not… there’s some decisions, of course, that you bring to the team and that you talk through, but when it comes to depth charts, starting lineups, that’s not something that, ultimately, the players get a lot of input in. Having said that, we have very, very good leadership on this football team. We have guys that care. We have guys that push each other, and we’re going to lean on those guys.”
Kevin, I know that we asked you this last week, but it seems to be that the prevailing narrative still seems to be that everyone thinks that Jimmy Haslam is forcing you to play Deshaun Watson. So I guess I just want to throw it out there again and ask, how is this decision made and is there any truth to that whatsoever?
“Well, as you know, Mary Kay (Cabot), I don’t get caught up in narratives, but we have a good dialogue with myself, Andrew (Berry), ownership, about all things that have to do with this team. They’ve been nothing but supportive, and any decision when it comes to football is my decision.”
What kind of a lift do you think it will be for Nick Chubb to come back for you guys this week?
“Yeah, Nick’s working very hard. Just spent some time with him just now. He’s going to take this thing day by day and see where we go. But this only comes with hard work.”
I just wanted to talk about the penalties down in the red zone there in the second half. Deshaun kind of paused a little bit, said, ‘I don’t really know how we’re going to fix this in practice’. How do you really see that? And how can you get these guys more disciplined because it seems like every week these penalties are kind of stinging you guys and putting you in bad position?
“Yeah, I mean, it’s frustrating because you want to beat the other team, you don’t want to beat yourself. And there’s too many moments there, especially on third down, we had two other conversions, not in the red zone, but we had two other conversions that were called back for holding penalties. We have to be better. We have to coach it better. We got to play better with better technique. And it’s all those, especially the ones….the pre snap that you really… it’s nothing that they’re doing.”
Entering this week, how is Ethan Pocic doing? And if Ethan can’t go, would the plan be for Michael Dunn to take over that starting center spot right now?
“It’s a good question, Ashley (Bastock). Ethan’s getting better. We’re going to have to see how that goes throughout this week and still need to sit with the coaches and determine what our plan is this week. We’ll see, that’ll really be day to day.”
And just watching it back, what Michael did, having to slide over in the game, in that spot, when he and Deshaun hadn’t worked together at all, just what did you think of the job he did in his first game back?
“Yeah, Mike did a nice job. Obviously played majority of guard throughout the week. He snaps for us every day but it’s not like he’s getting the bulk of those reps. So that’s just part of life in the NFL and certainly part of being a backup offensive lineman. Sometimes you’re the first guard in or the first tackle in or the first second-center, those type of things. Just understanding what your role is and where you may have to fill in.”
To follow up on the Nick Chubb one, do you think expectations have to be tempered given just everything that he’s coming back from if he does play for you this week?
“I’m not so concerned about that, Scott (Petrak), I mean, I understand the question. I think for me and for Nick and for this team, he just wants to do his job, whatever that may be, but we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves. Really just worried about the day-to-day with him.”
And then on that DeVonta Smith touchdown, is there anything Greg (Newsome) could have done on that and maybe the rest of the defense that there was nobody on that side of the field to stop that?
“Yeah, obviously they ran a similar play earlier. There’s things that we can do better all across the board. That’s something that, obviously, it’s a good play call by them versus that defense, but we can get that thing down for whatever the gain is, but not for such a big one.”