Offensive Coordinator Alex Van Pelt (9.28.23)
Alex, can you give us a little idea, if you can, about how Deshaun (Watson) may have hurt his shoulder and what the outlook is for maybe him practicing today or where that’s at?
“I think it came, I’m not exactly sure, one of the runs that he had took a hit on the safety. But we’ll see today, see how he feels when we get out there, but we’re confident he’ll be able to go Sunday. We’ll see how he’s feeling today when we get out.”
Was it that 10-yard run, you think, right before the Jerome (Ford) TD?
“Believe so, yeah. Not exactly sure, to be honest with you. I know he got hit on it.”
From what you’ve seen of Deshaun so far, I mean, there’s no way he’s staying out of this game, right?
“I wouldn’t expect that. No.”
DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson), putting him in Sunday. Was that a byproduct of Deshaun’s shoulder, or was that, hey, we had this thing wrapped up in hand, let’s give DTR some work?
“Try to get him in there, get him some work in a game that we felt like were in control of at that point and had nothing to do with that.”
When the trainers had to come up for Deshaun earlier in the game and he ended up staying in. But do you immediately go to DTR and start coaching him up in that situation?
“Yeah, that’s really as a backup, you know, as soon as that guy goes down, I said, ‘Where’s my helmet? I got to get my helmet.’ Your mouth starts to get a little dry, you think you’re going in. So, it was a good test run for him, but yeah, as soon as that happens, it’s the beauty of the backup. You’re expected to come in and really just – you don’t have time to warm up. You got to go and get hot quick. So, it was a good little dry run for him to have that experience and then to get him in the game later was awesome.”
Alex, how much of a work in progress is it to kind of figure out how you want to use Kareem (Hunt) and Jerome and even Pierre (Strong Jr.)? Just kind of how you want to divide up those touches?
“Yeah, I think it’ll flow each week to see how we’re going. As Kareem gets in better shape, I’d assume he’d get more touches moving forward, but I really just want to keep a fresh back in at all times, whether it’s first, second, or third down.”
Jerome ran a nice little route when he scored the touchdown, but that part of his game, how much higher do you think his ceiling is there in the pass game? And how excited are you guys to kind of experiment with that?
“Yeah, he’s a weapon out of the backfield as well in the pass game, for sure. He’s been impressive since he’s been here, running routes out of the backfield and catching the ball. So that’s an area where he’ll continue to grow.”
What are your thoughts on Deshaun’s game from Sunday? Why did it go better this time?
“That’s a tough one. I wish I could know that exactly. I’d bottle it to sell it, but yeah, he just played confident. I thought we had a great plan going in. I thought he had owned the plan across the board, knew exactly what we were trying to get done and made great decisions throughout the whole game. To have six incompletions and two of those be throwaways, that’s a really good day. So that’s the blueprint moving forward. It’s not always going to go that smoothly, we know that. But that was a really strong day of decision-making, accuracy, everything that comes with quarterback play.”
Elijah (Moore) had nine targets on Sunday. Just kind of how have you seen him handle kind of bouncing back and forth between more of either receiver role, running back role and how you guys are using him?
“Yeah, we ask a lot out of Elijah because we know he can handle it. That’s the thing. So as we keep growing with him, we’ll keep finding ways to get the ball in his hands. He’s a very good runner after the catch, whether it’s handing it to him in the backfield, throwing him a short route, bubbles, whatever that is, we’re going to try to get him as many touches as we can throughout the course of a game.”
After the game, Watson said he felt more composed, he controlled his emotions, he wasn’t over-celebrating good plays and all. As a coach, can you change that or is that up to him to fix?
“I can help. I can definitely help. I didn’t do a great job in Pittsburgh, and that’s something I learned from. But moving forward, I think he has that understanding, you can’t play the position like a linebacker, all the time. You know, holding your emotions and just really resetting and moving on to the next play, the next series. That’s something we all learn from in that.”
Deshaun and Amari (Cooper) talked about the communication that they have on the field and how Amari has been able to kind of talk him through some things. As a coach, how important is that to have a guy that can kind of read the field for him and help him as the game plays out?
“A veteran receiver like Amari is awesome. Came to us very early in that game and said, ‘Hey, I think I can get by these guys outside.’ And he was right. So, some of the routes that we had that were shorter, we adjusted and went to the deeper version of the routes and it really paid off for us. But you’re always going to listen to a guy like Amari. He’s got a ton of experience. He’s not going to tell you something just to get the ball. He knows how important it is to give us real looks and real thoughts and he does. And then we obviously have a lot of respect for him. And if he says it, we’ll give it a shot for sure.”
What would you have done differently in Pittsburgh to keep Deshaun a little bit more centered?
“I could have probably reset him a few more times as opposed to just letting him be upset and angry at times. So, I put that on myself as much as anything. That relationship that we have to have on game day has to be very calm and just going from play to play after each series and just talking through things and getting them ready for the next series. I could have definitely done better.”
What have you seen from the (Baltimore) Ravens defense dealing with all the injuries, have they had to make a bunch of adjustments there?
“Yeah, I mean they’re beat up with the injury bug, you know, that’s just the way it goes in this league. They’re good. They’ve been doing what they do for a long time within their scheme. They’re tough to get ready for. There’s just a lot, it’s a lot of defense they put on the field – fronts, coverages, pressures, everything. So anytime you get ready for a Baltimore defense, you’re going to spend the extra hours getting ready because again, they present you with a lot of different looks and they’re very sound in their scheme and they understand what they’re doing regardless of if the starters are in there or not.”
It seems like you guys were force feeding Elijah Moore a little bit Sunday. Do you guys think it’s just a matter of time before he pops with all his explosive ability?
“Oh yeah, for sure I do. I mean he is dynamic with the ball in his hand. He’s going to make guys miss at times and he’s got the speed to run away. So, matter of time before he pops a big one.”
Even without Marlon (Humphrey), are those guys in the back end as physical as they usually are with the receivers?
“They are. 21 (Brandon Stephens) plays really physical on the left side. The guys on the right, they’re kind of rotating in and out, but it’s a physical defense. That’s one thing we’ve talked about, play a lot of man coverage at times so we have to be able to beat man when they give us those opportunities outside. But they will definitely get up in your face at the line of scrimmage and make it tough for you to release.”
What are you seeing out of (Jadeveon) Clowney? How does he fit with that scheme over there?
“Good. He’s a dynamic guy. He’s explosive and quick and long. There’s a lot of things that he can be disruptive on, but he looks like the same guy.”
(Kyle) Hamilton blitzed a lot from that nickel position. I know he didn’t practice yesterday, but is that something, that was a one-game thing you think for them? He didn’t show it I think before that.
“Yeah, I don’t think. I think they’re kind of feeling through their injuries as well. I mean he was playing safety earlier in the season, then with the injury moved down into the nickel spot. And I think they feel like he’s a good blitzer, and he is, so they’re probably just playing to his strengths.”
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