Head Coach Todd Monken (9.21.26)

Got a lot of good things going on. One thing, I don’t want to be negative, but what can you do to fix the rushing game? 65 yards, an average through two games. Is it the blocking up front, not getting a push for the backs, or what exactly is the problem, and what do you need to do to remedy that?

“Well, first off, it’s not a negative, it’s a fact. We are what the statistics bear out, and we have got to scheme it better, we have got to coach it better, we have got to call it better, and we certainly can block it better. We had a few other opportunities out there that we left on the field, but it’s not good enough. We certainly – I would say we also pivoted. I would say this, a week ago we were down, so we were throwing it a little bit more, but…and then this week, really, we pivoted because they were pressuring us, when we were under center, some of our play-action game and our run game. So, we pivoted and really went to get the ball out quick, try to get it in space. And luckily, we had some success with that, and that’s kind of where we went to.”

 

You talked a little bit yesterday about how well Deshaun (Watson) used his legs in that game. But when you went back and watched the film, what kind of an impact did that have on your offense, for him to be able to do that?

“Well, it has to be a weapon for him and us to use his legs. He is athletic. He has a good feeling for that. And he certainly…he’s asked for it. He said, ‘don’t be afraid to use my legs.’ And so that’s been a big part the first couple of weeks. And he made a number of plays with his legs, a couple of big third downs, won a design run, one a scramble, did a nice job on a naked where we didn’t get off on the snap count. He dumped it down to Harold (Fannin Jr.) for a first down. So, you can certainly see that there’s a lot to clean up, but that definitely showed up.”

 

After the game, Deshaun said that you guys kind of went back and forth last week, you and him. I don’t know what it’s about, so can you shed any light on that? Was it over the game plan? He said it was healthy, but there was some back and forth there between you and him.

“I don’t know what he means by that. I don’t know what back-and-forth means. What does he mean?”

 

I think you mentioned the scuffles at practice Wednesday, and the kind of heightened emotion there.

“Oh, I didn’t go back and forth with him. We’re certainly not going to scuffle; I can tell you that. But that’s part of coaching and playing. I don’t see that any week with any of the players, or me, or as the coach. I mean, I wasn’t referring to Deshaun and me. There are definitely certain things that in a given week that I’m going to say to him and he’s going to say to me, and what he saw during practice, and that’s healthy. Anytime you’re trying to get the football right, it’s healthy.”

 

When you looked at the defense, what did you see as maybe the biggest jump from week one to week two?

“Well, we just cleaned up a lot of things. Obviously, we were more aggressive, but we cleaned up a lot of things and the players played better. I think there was a little bit of shock that went into playing a really good football team to start the year. And I think guys made significant progress. Carson (Schwesinger) had missed a lot of training camp, and he played a lot better, he was defensive player of the game this week. And I thought Mason (Graham) played better, he knew he could play better. I thought a lot of guys played within the scheme, and I do think it’s a lot easier when the game’s still in the balance and we didn’t have such long drives. So, I just think that everybody did better. We coached better; we played better.”

 

I know we’ve asked about the two rookie receivers and the versatility that they provided throughout the summer, but now you’ve got two games and you’re starting to ramp up that offense. How have you seen Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion Jr., their skill sets, maybe open things up for you? And how have you seen that as you’re trying to evolve this offense and do more out there?

“Well, their skill sets are different, but their mentality is the same. That’s what makes both of those guys special, because their mindset and their competitiveness and their attention to detail separates them. Their skill set might be different, but their mindset is the same.”

 

And then on the other side of the ball, something we asked about all summer was the pass rush from the ends, the changes he had to make, different personnel. But Mason Graham on the interior has just been getting there so often in these first two games. So how have you seen him step up and maybe shoulder some of that responsibility in terms of the pass rush from the inside of the D-line?

“Well, first off, I think players that are as diligent as Mason is, and loves football, is going to continue to get better. He’s still a young player, and you can see that with our interior guys. And we talked about it today in the team meeting a little bit ago, when they slide away from you and you get one-on-one, it’s the ultimate sign of disrespect. I mean, you’ve got to win your one-on-one matchups. We’re built for our explosive interior players to be able to win those matchups. And we won more of them than we did the week before. And that’s going to continue because I know our guys will continue to work, and they’ll continue to improve.”

 

I just wanted to ask about the decision to challenge when you did, and the challenge that you guys lost. Just what was the thought process there with that?

“Well, between third-and-four and third-and-eight, to me, is pretty big. And between upstairs and myself, we didn’t think he got the third foot down on the first view, and then we got a second view and it’s like, well maybe he did. I don’t regret it. I mean the call sheet’s different from third-and-four to third-and-eight. You could argue, well, was it really worth it for a four-yard gain? Well, at that time of the game, it’s early in the game, getting off the field was important to me, and I just happened to be wrong.”

 

And then along those same lines, the fourth down and going for it, knowing that they would get the ball back in your guys’ territory, just what did you see there in that play call with the Quinshon (Judkins) run, when you guys had been struggling on the ground?

“Yeah, I’m going to go for it again when we have inches to go. In that situation, we probably would have run the sneak, but after botching that, that wasn’t an option. I’m going to be aggressive, I’m going to play to win the game, and I’m more disappointed in our execution of it and our decision, maybe in the type of play, but I’m going to be aggressive. I don’t want to give the ball back to them when it’s inches. We have to be able to sneak it, and we have to be able to get it when the opportunity arises.”

 

Question on offense and defense, Todd. Offensively, will you continue to use those modifications at practice to improve the operation?

“For sure. No, there was a difference, there really was. We had a couple, and some of those weren’t wristband calls that we can certainly shorten, and they were critical calls for Deshaun. But really, for the most part, our operation was better, and it was cleaner.”

 

And defensively, when you came out for the warmups after the delay, Tyson (Campbell) did warm up, but he didn’t play. What’s his state, and did he get injured on that breakup in the end zone, or does this go back to the ankle?

“Well, he’s got a number of things he’s dealing with. But if I know Tyson, he fought all game to continue to play, and if I know Tyson, he’s going to work as hard this week as he can to get back, and we’ll see as the week goes on where he’s at. But I like his chances to be able to play, based on how he’s wired.”

 

All right, coach, you got to be thrilled with the two rookies, KC and Denzel, but how do you get Jerry (Jeudy) involved? It seemed like, are they taking targets away from him, or with the other, that he could really be another big explosive possibility there?

“Well, it kind of falls into kind of what we talked about last week, is the moment that Jerry gets more targets, you’re all going to be asking me why Harold isn’t, or why isn’t KC, there’s only one football. And whether it’s, we certainly, the opportunities arose for all of those guys because we were struggling to run the football as effectively as we needed to. And when that rises and we’re better at that, then Quinshon’s going to have more carries, right, and that’s going to be less opportunities for the outside guys. And Jerry’s opportunities will come. It’s just like I said, a little bit by game plan and others, that the ball just didn’t find him.”

 

When we talked to Denzel Boston after the game, he was talking about how Deshaun (Watson) gave him an alert on the touchdown pass, and just kind of how those guys communicated that, and Deshaun changed the play. Just wondering, how beneficial is it to you to have somebody that can do that at the line so effectively? And then, how about the communication that’s growing between those guys?

“Well, we had it built into the play for a certain look, so they just communicated the play to change it. The one that we missed on, they communicated a fade ball in the red zone that they almost hit. I mean that was a change of route that we came close to hitting. I’m proud of their communication, I’m proud that our guys are dialed in the quarterback, because again, you’re never going to be as elite on offense if you don’t empower your quarterback. They’re the guys on the field.”

 

With Myles Harden, it looked like he had a pretty big bounce-back game from week one. What did you see out of him, especially on that interception?

“Well, he had a great week of practice, and Myles is a very prideful player. I mean you don’t get to where you’re at as a self-made player without being prideful and trying to clean up some of the little things from the week before. And I thought he responded well last week in practice, and you can see it on tape. And every week’s a little bit different, the matchup’s a little bit different each week. But I’m happy for him to get the interception, made another big play in the end zone. So, happy for him.”

 

Did you get a lot of reaction to your walk-off line last night?

“I wouldn’t say a lot of reaction. I mean, I did get a lot of text messages which was really cool. Some of it included that, but no, not really.”

 

You mentioned last night, just in that first half, the penalties that you guys had to work through. Obviously cleaned it up in the second half, so was that something you guys feel like you did specifically? Was that just a product of the game and what does that look like moving forward to week three to try to clean up those penalties?

“They’ll look at the same thing. And where we’ve struggled is when we’ve had lost-yardage plays or penalties. There’s been other things we’ve struggled at, but that’s, even in the second half, on the drive we didn’t score, we had a nice play to get a first down, and then we ran the ball and got a four-yard loss. And then we had a chance to hit Jerry Jeudy on the left side and he slipped. And then the other drives when we didn’t go backwards, we gave ourselves a chance, and first drive we get a nine-yard gain and then we hand off a sweep and we lose six, like, all right. And then we get a pretty good play on a power run in the red zone, and we get a holding call. Like, it just felt like we went backwards at times and that really put us behind the sticks. And that’s not, I mean, in order of what wins games, being explosive, don’t turn it over, lost-yardage plays, conversion downs, touchdowns in the red zone, and off-schedule plays by your quarterback, that’s what wins. And one of them is lost-yardage plays. And if you look at what we did better on defense is the third-down rates. We were better because we didn’t have such long yardage, and we were better on defense because they weren’t always third-and-one or third-and-two. And so those lost-yardage plays, that gives yourself a chance on defense, and it gives ourselves a chance on offense to eliminate those. And when we do that, we’ll be a lot cleaner.”

 

How much are you hoping that the quarterback position becomes consistent enough that you’re not asked who’s playing quarterback week to week? And do you think Watson could convince us that it’s a moot question?

“That is a serious question, you were right, Tony (Grossi), you were right. Do I love dealing with it every week? Of course not. You guys keep asking, which is a lot of fun, but the reality is, of course. Of course. And I’m happy for Deshaun, the way he’s played, and I expect improvement, and I expect continued improvement. I mean, there’s a lot of football left in him, he just hasn’t played in a while. And learning our system and trying to get him consistent with his drops and his reads is part of the process. He’s like every player. I see him as a young player. I know people don’t want to see it that way, and I haven’t been here, but I see him as still a very young player that is going to continue to grow.”

 

Todd, finishing out with two questions. Deshaun has said often that he hasn’t been able to show the full capability of your offense. Through two games, how much do you think you guys have shown, or put in, so far?

“Well, I think some of it is… well, some of it’s, he hasn’t played in a while, right, I mean that’s a part of it. Part of it is a new system. Part of it is we can certainly call it better. Part of it is the players, like I said, players around him calling it better. New system, he hasn’t played in a while. I would hope that we would continue to get better collectively. I would hope that’s the case. I mean, in anything that you’re doing, and there’s a lot of things we all need to clean up, coaching and playing, and that’s, you guys hear me say it all the time. I believe in all of our players. I believe whoever we put on the field gives us a chance to win, and that we can help them maximize their measurable skill set, that’s what we’re paid to do as coaches. And so, I’m anticipating that he’ll continue to improve. Just like the other thing is, while we were doing the quarterback competition, he split reps with the ones for a while, and that benefited Shedeur (Sanders), but it maybe didn’t benefit the guy that ended up being the starter. There’s no way around that. I mean, that’s obvious, that you want to get the guys reps with the guys you’re playing with. And I was happy for Deshaun. He was our offensive player of the game. He made a number of plays with his legs, played with confidence, he let it rip. You could see the difference from week one to week two, and I think we’re just going to continue to grow together.”

 

And then, in your wildest dreams or strangest bingo cards, did you ever have a first NFL coaching win go the way everything went down, including a delay that ended up being only nine minutes longer than it took to play the baseball game here yesterday?

“I don’t know. I’ve been doing this long enough to not really say that I would think that’s how it would go, or how the game would go, I don’t know that. I know that we did the best job we could during that break to keep our guys focused, to keep them motivated, to try and let them know we’re in the driver’s seat. I know they’re on the 28-yard line, I get that, but we’re up a touchdown, they still got to get in the end zone. This isn’t a field-goal game. And so, to me, I asked them, I said, ‘Where would you rather be? Rather be us or them? With our defense, they got to get in the end zone. Where would you rather be?’ And they’re like, ‘I’d rather be us.’ That’s exactly right. ‘Now go out there and do it, shut them down, let’s get on the plane and get back home.’ And I’m really proud of the guys, this isn’t about me, it never has been, wherever I’ve been, it’s about the players. It’s a players’ game, and we got a lot to clean up, coaching and playing, and we took a giant step from week one to week two. So that’ll be the message we come back Wednesday is, ‘so what, now what?’ Are we willing to take that same jump? Or is it now, all of a sudden, we’ve arrived, because it’s week to week. You guys saw the scores, you guys know how this goes, every team’s a different matchup, and we didn’t turn the ball over, which helped us. In that first game we turned it over two of the first four drives, so basically, so what, now what? What are we going to do this week to continue to improve? And we got the right guys to do it, that’s what I love about our group, because they’re going to be ready to go to work on Wednesday.”

 

 

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