Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (12.1.23)
Opening statement:
“Okay. Really good day today of work. I was pleased with what the guys – they’re locked in. I thought really, this entire week they’ve been very locked in and incredibly grateful to UCLA for allowing us to be here and Coach (Chip) Kelly and his crew, and they’ve just done a really impressive job here at this place and we’ve really taken advantage of it. And then I have to applaud our group. It’s very easy for me to say, ‘Hey, let’s go practice in L.A.’ and then from our operations, logistics, equipment, video, security, you name it – our crew has knocked it out of the park, so really appreciative of them. Got to walk through tomorrow here, and then we’ll kind of have our normal Saturday meetings before that game on Sunday. We’re looking forward to this opportunity. It’s a really good football team. They’re very well coached. I think they got good players, really across the board. So, it’s a huge challenge, and we have to be about our business to try to go get that win. With that, I’ll take any questions.”
How about Myles (Garrett) kind of making what looks like a stunning turnaround from not being able to lift his arm after the game, and now he’s going to play?
“Yeah, as you know, with Myles and I’d say a bunch of our guys, Mary Kay (Cabot), they fight their butts off to get to Sunday, and that’s what Myles did, and he always does. Nobody’s feeling 100% in the National Football League when you get to December, but he sets a great example for our football team, like a lot of our guys do. Amari Cooper this week, just a lot of guys that are battling to be out there on Sunday.”
With Dorian (Thompson-Robinson) being out for Sunday’s game. Just what have you seen from Joe (Flacco) this week as he’s taken right in the huddle and just played with you guys?
“I think Joe has a good grasp of our system, of what we’re trying to do. We have 48 hours here, so we’ll meet some more and make sure he has all the answers that he needs.”
He talked about yesterday, about just the excitement of getting that chance, if you were going to get that chance. Have you noticed that from him? That how enthusiastic he is to be back on a team?
“I don’t know that Joe’s ever been accused of being enthusiastic. Joe’s a pro. I’ve been around pros. He’s right up there. He does his job. He’s very, very intelligent. So, a lot of time in that meeting room with Joe and AVP (Alex Van Pelt) this week and making sure he’s comfortable and he can talk through it just because he’s been in so many different systems. He’s had so much experience in this league, so I think he leans on that experience, certainly in a situation like this.”
Since he has only been here ten days, whatever it is, does that experience really help in this scenario, just stepping in, being able to run an offense from the jump?
“Without a doubt. And I think there’s a bunch of different offensive systems in this game, and they all have threads that are common to some, and there’s just nuance to what we do and what everybody does. So, he’s worked very hard to put himself in position to go in that huddle and spit the play out and then operate at the line of scrimmage. He’s put in a lot of work in.”
Kevin, the defense has not given up a ton of big plays, but most of them, they haven’t been on the road. Is there anything to that or that just how it’s happened?
“I think home field advantage is real. We know that being on the lake with our fans, it’s hard to operate for an offense. The one thing I would tell you is maybe snap count becomes something that, when they’re at home, they can utilize to their advantage, whether they’re in the shotgun or under center. So that can, in theory, keep you off balance. But other than that, we enjoy the challenge of playing on the road, and that’s no different this week as well.”
On the flip side of that, it seems like turnover wise, you look a lot of your early turnover – on the road, you’ve had a lot of early turnovers that kind of put you into early deficits. Is that just….?
“It’s not the plan [laughing].”
No, I know it’s not the plan, but is that just something you chalk up to playing on the road?
“No. Well, I don’t know if home versus road matters. We talk a lot, Chris (Easterling), about playing clean. You got to play clean. And clean can be an assignment, it can be your alignment, it can be your technique. And a lot of times that football, when you’re not playing clean, it’s a center, quarterback exchange. We had a quarterback, running back exchange. Decisions from the quarterback position when we catch that ball, a technique thing, putting it away. So I think we hone in on those techniques, but we’re just trying to play clean ball.”
Do you plan to be super aggressive even though you want to play clean ball? I mean, take advantage of Joe’s big arm and you got to go out there and you’re probably going to have to score some points. Can you be aggressive with him this short time span?
“We just have to do whatever it takes to win, really. We know the challenge that we have, obviously, with Joe and with all of our players, you want to play the strengths of your players, but we’re just trying to do anything we can to win this one.”
How do you think Myles and Amari looked today after not practicing a whole lot?
“Yeah, I thought they looked good.”
What’s Kyren Williams added to their offense, I mean, what dimension does that open up?
“He’s just a good football player. I mean, he has big play potential. When it’s blocked well, he can really go. If it’s not blocked, he can make plays on his own. He’s an impressive player. He has our attention. And you just watch the tape from last week. He jumps off the tape.”
How do you speak the same language with Joe in such a short time frame?
“Yeah, I think he’s been in a lot of systems. I’ve been in a lot of systems. AVP has been in a lot of systems. So you very quickly can drill down on things that he’s called it, what we call it, what he’s comfortable with. So, it’s kind of like everybody speaks a version of the same language. But again, it’s the benefit of being out here. We spent a lot of time together this week getting him up to speed.”
Jim (Schwartz) said yesterday he has confidence that Greg (Newsome) is going to bounce back from giving up those plays against Denver. What is it about Greg that gives you guys that confidence?
“Yeah, I have a ton of confidence in Greg. He’s a good football player. He’s made a ton of plays for us in his career as a corner. At times, you’re going to get beat. That’s occupational hazard, but he’ll bounce back.”
Looking forward to getting Amari incorporated more downfield a little bit, perhaps, with Joe’s arm?
“Yeah, potentially. I mean, Amari is good anywhere he catches the football. Obviously, his yards per catch I know are high. He’s a player that can take a short route and turn into a big one. He can throw it deep to him. He comes down with the ball. So we’ll use many which way we can.”
And he’s got some natural timing already, Joe does with Elijah (Moore). Do you think that might come to fruition?
“I think that’s helpful, when Joe gets out here at practice and he’s throwing the guys. A lot of time he’s throwing routes for the first time to that guy on that specific route, you can’t rep everything prior to practice. So I think he’s work real hard at understanding our guys. And anytime you can have a bit of a book on a player like he does with Elijah, I think that’s beneficial.”
Do you get another lineman that can do fullback role if Nick Harris can’t play?
“Yeah. Well, we have multiple guys that can do that. You can put lineman back there. You can put tight ends back there.”
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