Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (9.9.24)
Opening Statement:
“Injury front, some guys dealing with some injuries. Mo (Maurice) Hurst has an ankle injury, Dave (David) Njoku, ankle, Tony Fields, ankle. Mohamoud Diabate is a hip. Those guys are all week toweek. I’ll have more information as we go through this week. Like we talked about yesterday, disappointed with the results yesterday. We need to better in a bunch of different areas. And that’s what today is about, looking at the tape, seeing the areas that we can be better, and there’s a lot of them. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re identifying those things. We’re going to get them corrected, and then we’re on to Jacksonville. But with that, I’ll take any questions.”
Deshaun (Watson) had a tough time kind of getting into any rhythm yesterday. What would you say was the biggest reason for that?
“Well, I would say just offensively, it’s never a one man show. To get in rhythm with the quarterback, you have to get in rhythm as an offense, and we didn’t do that well enough, whether it was — and it’s multifaceted and it includes me and includes our coaches. So, we’ll be better. We’ll make sure that we have an offense where we can move the ball, score some points, but definitely not a one man show.”
He did miss some throws that we normally see him complete though, Kevin. From a coaching standpoint, what are kind of the points of emphasis coming off what you saw in film?
“Yeah, there’s plenty to correct, Tom (Withers). You know, specifically to the quarterback, there’s going to be games and there’s going to be throws that you miss, but it’s making those plays that are there when they present themselves. And then we just have to do a better job protecting him, number one. Like I mentioned to you guys last night, we can’t allow our quarterback to get hit that many times.”
After the game, Deshaun said he would have been allowed to go back home considering the loss he had over the weekend. Is that true and were you prepared at any point to play the game without him?
“Yeah, I’ll let Deshaun speak to that stuff because that’s personal to him and what’s going on. Obviously, with all of our players, we want to support them in any way. You know, Deshaun and I talked obviously with the news of his loss, but he was always determined to play in this game.”
My other question is, as far as running the ball, I know you’ve made changes and of course, Nick Chubb isn’t in there, but you were able to run the ball last year without him. Running often is a mentality. Are you concerned at all the team has lost its mentality to run?
“No, and I think the mentality for us, Tony (Grossi), is to be an explosive offense, whether that’s through the air or through the ground. We have a lot of faith in our guys. Obviously, we didn’t throw it well enough yesterday. We didn’t run it well enough yesterday. So those are things that we’ll make sure we get corrected.”
In terms of David being week to week, what do you think the outlook is going to be like for you at tight end? I know you have a couple guys on the practice squad. You have to look outside and what would it be like if you have to be without David for a little bit?
“Yeah, working through all those types of things today and tomorrow, Mary Kay (Cabot), but we have options, and we’ll work through them.”
And just a quick follow up, I mean, in terms of just his blocking ability, I mean, you’re really losing a guy that is strong in two big areas. So how much might that impact you?
“I think we’ll see how this week goes. But Dave, as you know, provides great value to this team in a bunch of different areas. But if we are without him, then we’ll make sure that we have a plan.”
Kind of along those lines, just clarifying on David’s ankle, we heard reports of a high ankle sprain. Would that be accurate to say?
“Yeah, as you know, I don’t get into the different types of injuries, but he’s dealing with an ankle injury.”
Secondly, just, you know, the linebacking core, you know, with Tony and Mohamoud, you know, those are two guys that’d be week to week. You’ve played a lot of guys because you’ve had to with injury. How much does that maybe help this team, you know, kind of with the shuffling that you’re dealing with, going to deal with there so early in this season?
“Yeah, that’s part of our job as coaches, is to get multiple guys ready to play, Chris (Easterling). Like you mentioned, there’s injuries, it seems, every game and there’s some shuffling that goes on. Sometimes that happens in game, sometimes it can happen week to week. So, all things that we’ll work on and we’ll get whoever we need to get ready, get them ready to play.”
When I was watching the pregame before they were in pads, it looked like Jameis Winston and DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson) were out there, but Deshaun was on the sideline with maybe his girlfriend and his family. What was going on there?
“Sorry, Jeff (Schudel), I’m not sure what exactly – when that was. I did not see that, so I’m not sure. A lot of guys have their families down on the field. You say hi to them before the game. I said hi to my family.”
When we talk about the protection, did Deshaun hold the ball too long on some of those plays?
“When it relates to protection, and we’ve kind of talked about this before, and you guys know this, it takes everybody. It takes the play caller, it takes guys getting open, the protection, the quarterback, the tight ends and the running backs are involved in protection. So certainly, there’s times that I wish I had done a better job for that offense. I wish, obviously, you want to protect longer, you want the quarterback to get the ball out of his hands. All those things are true. We just look at it each play, what can we learn from those plays. So, are there plays that Deshaun wants back? Of course. Are there plays that we need to do better for them? Absolutely.”
And I know we’ve touched on this before, but he’s gone through a lot, or been through a lot in the last however many years, hasn’t played a ton. What do you think his confidence level is right now?
“Yeah, I mean, Deshaun’s played at a very, very high level. He’s won at every level of football. He does not lack for confidence.”
Another Deshaun question for you. Just collectively, I know you said it’s all encompassing; coaching, supporting cast, everything. But just what can be done really to help Deshaun get that internal clock and that natural feeling, the pressure that we saw him do so well dealing with in his career, and also too, like, you know, anticipating and throwing guys open and stuff like that. What just, I guess, can be done to kind of get Deshaun back to being Deshaun?
“Well, I think it really goes back, Daryl (Ruiter), to we just have to go play our best as we can on offense, and it’s everybody. It’s coaching, it’s players up and down the roster. We own what happened yesterday. Obviously, we’re not thrilled with those results, but we’re going to learn from it and we’ll better this week.”
And then the pre-snap penalties, especially the offensive line, it’s something that kind of popped up during the joint practices. We talked about it. You know, you felt like you had everything tightened up there. Just why did that kind of pop up yesterday and what can you do to make sure that doesn’tcontinue, because obviously, as you talked about after the game, it just put you behind the chains all day.
“Yeah, as you know, those pre-snap penalties are really self-inflicted wounds that we absolutely will get corrected.”
The defense overall, I mean, it just seemed like the issues getting pressure on Dak (Prescott), he was getting the ball out so quickly. What were they doing to kind of neutralize your guys pass rush and especially get away from Myles’ (Garrett) pressure in particular it seemed like?
“Yeah, Dallas, you know, it’s a good offense. They also, like everybody does when they play us, they always have a plan to get the ball out quick. And by and large, we played some really good defense in that game. I know there were a couple drives there that we want back, and we can play better. We absolutely can play better. We can take the ball away, all those types of things. But we just got to focus on doing our job and making those plays when they come our way.”
And then is there any update on Jack (Conklin) or Jed (Wills Jr.) and how they’re doing this week if they might be available?
“Yeah, no update. Really get through today and tomorrow, and then I can update you guys on the Wednesday.”
I wanted to ask, after the game Deshaun said that physically, you know, the adrenaline was still rushing, and he’d have a better sense of how he was feeling this morning. Is he dealing with anything that would limit his practice reps or his availability?
“Tired, like all of our guys, but he’s good.”
Gotcha, and then just kind of an overall scheme question, it seemed like yesterday after, you know, as the game went on, you kind of went less shotgun and more under center. I guess, how much of that was just trying to influence the pass rush and kind of quell it with some play action and stuff like that?
“Yeah, just, you know, you have to be ahead of the chains to get into more of your offense and just too often we were in – not down and distances that were advantageous to the offense. We were in some really tough spots where it’s first and 15, it’s second and long where we couldn’t get into everything. So, I think in the second half we maybe had a few more chains that were good for the offense.”
Just wondering after watching that game and then watching the film, do you have every reason to believe that Deshaun’s arm actually is okay and that he’s going to be able to go out there early on this season and be effective and successful coming off of this surgery?
“I do, Mary Kay (Cabot) and let me say, with the results yesterday, that’s on all of us. We did not play well enough as a team. We certainly didn’t play well enough on the offensive side of the ball. We gave up a punt return for a touchdown. There are things on defense I know we can do better. So, I understand as the head coach and certainly as a quarterback, you get a lot of the attention, if you will, but this is the greatest team sport there is and we’re focused on getting better as a team this week.”
Hey coach, first thing, I know we talked about Jack (Conklin) and Jed (Wills) leading up to this next week, but we know he was listed as — Jack specifically, was listed as questionable coming into Sunday. And he kind of talked about maybe testing things out pregame. Was he close at all to potentially playing yesterday or was that not really something that was on your mind when you got to the stadium yesterday?
“Well, no. I mean, we listed him as questionable. He’s continuing to work very hard and get close. Sunday was not there yet, but he’s working very hard.”
And then secondly, I just, I was kind of curious on this because when we talked to Mike Vrabel during training camp, he kind of mentioned he wasn’t going to be really around on game day, but I noticed, obviously he was part of everything you guys were doing yesterday. So just, what maybe changed there and what was he kind of working with you guys on throughout the game?
“Yeah, no real change other than when Vrabes is available, he’ll be out there on the game field with us, out there on the practice field with us. But he’s a big resource for me really throughout the week and definitely during the game as well.”
Number one, why did Dawand Jones leave for two plays? Was that equipment or was that an injury?
“I think got sore, was an injury, but very quickly resulted.. he was back.”
The other thing is, it seemed like the one series that Deshaun had some rhythm, you went tempo and he went right down the field. We expected more of that with the (Ken) Dorsey influence. Hindsight, why didn’t you get more into that?
“Yeah, I think there were definitely some opportunities for us to do that. We got into tempo on that first drive where we were moving the ball with great field position and then obviously stalled and had to kick a field goal. But that’s something that it’s in our arsenal, can get to it early, can get to it late, but it’s something that is part of what we do.”
Kevin, can you assess the way that James Hudson played? And then separately, how the interior of the offensive line played?
“Yeah, I would just talk about the entire offensive line. Jeff (Schudel) I would tell you, there were some things definitely that we did well. We were in some tough spots, that’s obvious in the down and distances, but they battled, but we expect across the board to better.
MJ (Martin Emerson) said he had ankle and had to leave and come back. Do you know if he’s okay?
“He should be okay. Yes.”
And what do you see on that punt return? You mentioned it a couple times. What was the breakdown there? And overall, just, how do you think the special teams performed?
“Yeah, we can definitely play better. We have high standards for how we play, and I know that play in particular wasn’t up to our standard. And really every position, we can do better there.”