Head Coach Doug Marrone
Monday, October 13, 2014
Q: Injuries?
A: The only injury coming out of the game was Ty Powell with the ankle and with Aaron Williams it’s the neck and the wrist. We’ll just have to see how he progresses during the week.
Opening Statement
A: Obviously a couple things watching the tape. The first thing is just like I said yesterday. You go minus three turnovers and it’s an eight percent chance of winning. Since 2001, no one has really beaten them when they’ve been plus three or better. We knew that going in. We talked about ball security all week and what we needed to do. The first interception, we get beat in a protection and we lose the flat control by the beaten, who [Jamie] Collins probably had man-to-man. Then he falls back in and makes the play. The second one, we get beat. Cordy [Glenn] gets beat and we’ve got to hold onto to ball versus man-to-man a little bit longer. We knew that. Then, obviously, the ball got away from the body on CJ. [Spiller] and he wound up fumbling. At the same point, on third downs is the best we’ve been. We worked hard on that versus man. I thought we did a very good job. We weren’t in great situations and we were able to convert. I thought the red zone was something that’s been a concern of ours and we were three-for-three. That was a good thing, but the major concern, which was addressed in the team meeting, we talked about the run game. It’s not one individual. It’s easy when it’s one individual. You just pull one out and put somebody else in, but it’s up front, it’s hitting the holes, it’s trusting the scheme, the perimeter. We’ve got to go back and get this thing going again because you put so much on emphasis on the other stuff, you improve and then, all of the sudden, you take something that was you’re strength, that I believed was our strength, and it goes down. That’s what you can’t have. That’s what happens when you become inconsistent. Defensively, we went into the game and we needed to stop the run. We did a good job of that. 50 yards. 1.9 [yards per carry]. I thought, with the turnovers early, there were a bunch of three-and-outs early on in the game. The defense was keeping us in it. In the second half we started doing better offensively. Three out of four drives we gave up touchdowns. They were big drives too that are not who we are. 80 yards, 56 yards, 80 and then 94. There were big plays during that. Third-down, which we were second in the league, they were 80 percent in the second half, so it’s tough to get a team off the field. We were switching up things, switching up our coverages. Give them credit. The quarterback was hot and made all the throws, went to the right guys. Whether it be matchups or separation, he found those guys, which is a credit to them. I thought, on special teams, we’ve been doing a heck of a job winning the battle of field position. We lost it yesterday. We had two penalties. We had two plus-50 punts that Colton’s [Schmidt] been doing a good job on. Touchbacks and I think we were at the 23-yard line and they were 35-yard line [average field position]. Really we’ve got to just go back, get ourselves back on track and work hard, from me to the coaches to the players. That’s really what I spoke to them about today in the team meeting.
Q: Is C.J. Spiller failing to trust in the running game?
A: There’s a couple things. It starts up front. If you’re two heavy on someone, meaning you’re taking too much of someone and I have to block this linebacker and I’m working on this double team, there’s a point in time where I have to come off so the running back feels secure going into the hole, knowing that he’s going to come off on him. Okay? Then the other time is if their safety is in there and to know that someone is going to come in and take him and take it up in there. A lot of times – and I’ve talked to the players about this – this is the third week in a row now. This isn’t like the first time. I think what happens is that you start pressing and start trying to make plays that aren’t there. That’s what we can’t do, from C.J. to Fred [Jackson] to [Boobie] Dixon. Up front, we’ve got to do a better job of finishing, getting on those players, not having a lot of color show where it’s showing. That just means we’ve got to be quicker going to the second level and doing things like that. These things are correctable, but we’ve got to put the work in to correct.
Q: Do the low amount of snaps that C.J.. got show the dissatisfaction with the job that he’s done so far?
A: Well, again, it’s not the one person. There are different things that we like to do with the backs. I would say that the amount of snaps was because we got behind in the passing game and we wanted the receivers out on the field and we wanted Fred back there in the protection. Fred played a lot. That’s on tape. People know we do that. More so that and the frustration overall of everything that we’re doing in the run game is probably why there were a reduced amount of snaps.
Q: Are you comfortable with how C.J. fits in to your offensive scheme and what you’re getting from him?
A: Well, we can fit it in to the scheme. That’s not a problem. The problem is everything else that’s going on around plays into this. Again, I’m not trying to deflect criticism. Are there things that C.J. can do better? Yes, as well as everyone else. We go in trying to get him the ball on the perimeter at times. Sometimes teams will let you do that. Everyone is aware, when he’s on the field, of what’s going on trying to get him in space with the ball. It starts with us. I wouldn’t sit here and say, ‘It’s all on him.’ We’ve got to do a better job, as coaches, of finding a way to get him the ball in space.
Q: How frustrated is Mike Williams with his role on the team?
A: When that stuff happened and it went down on Saturday, Mike was disappointed, as any player would be. But I thought he handled it very professionally in my conversations with him, which went on through the weekend. In his support for the team during the game, I didn’t see anything about that. I just heard about it coming down, because I’ve been in meetings all day, about his agent calling. Mike hasn’t communicated anything like that to me and I’ve zero problems with him. The decision wasn’t Chris Hogan or Mike Williams. Those are two different types of players. Chris is more of an inside guy. He had to help us on the outside yesterday and Chris plays a bigger role in special. The question was, like I said before, really was the three tight end package that we had that we worked on and that we put the work in during the week. Kyle [Williams] was able to come up. If you had to put a percentage on what the main reason was, it was the three tight ends up. That was the main reason and then, after that, it’s a trickle down effect to special teams, covering yourself. Who’s not 110 percent where you might have to use some other players.
Q: What’s wrong with Mike Williams on the outside and Robert Woods in the slot?
A: There’s nothing wrong with that. I think it’s play-specific. You know you’re going to have Sammy [Watkins] out there and then it’s a matter of what you want to do from a strategic standpoint of attacking, how you want to take the top off of the defense and things like that. That’s where Marquise [Goodwin] comes in with his speed. We’ve used that in the past with other players that have been here. Also, we’re trying to work Sammy around more. You see that. We’re trying to get Sammy inside now. This way, when people try to matchup you up like some people are going to start to do, we’re able to move him around a little bit more.
Q: Can you clarify what happened on that 4th-and-2 play where it looks like Kyle Orton was waving off the special teams unit?
A: Sure. It was fourth-and-two, I told the offense, ‘We’re going for it.’ It’ didn’t get communicated to the special teams during that time. Danny [Crossman] already had the special teams ready to go, so basically it was just communication. He knew that we were going to go for it when we called the play and then the special teams group started to come on the field and we had them back. That was that clarification.
Q: What do you have to do to get all of the penalties under control?
A: We’ve got to do a better job situationally of what we want to have happen and occur. Obviously, we know the rules. We can’t penalties out of frustration or lack of focus. Really I think that’s all you can really say. We have officials during practice. We throw flags during practice. We talk to the players about what’s going to be called and what’s not going to be called. The only thing you can do is, if something’s flagrant you’re going to have to pull someone out. That’s where we have to do a good job as coaches with the players. It’s frustrating because of the timing of the penalties that we’ve had. We’re working on clearing that up and hopefully we can get that done.
Q: Are you getting frustrated with the inconsistency of the way games are being officiated?
A: I can’t speak for the games, unless you’re referring to the ones that we’re involved in. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I’m not going to sit here and say there’s not some level of frustration. There is, you know? We work through the protocol of the league to try to get that done. It doesn’t make you feel any better when you get it back the next day. We’ve talked to our players about those things. We try to school them up on exactly what they’re seeing and what they’re looking at, hoping that you reduce those penalties. At the same time, I do respect how hard it is to go out there and do that. I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Hey, anyone can go out there and call a game and a officiate a game, because that’s not true. All I look for is consistency, though. That’s my big thing. If you miss a call, I can understand it, but if you’re going to make one then make sure it’s right.
Q: Some penalties are obvious, like Duke Williams’ pass interference.
A: Yeah, that one was frustrating. He needs to turn around and play that ball.
Q: How much does having a false start and being moved back to first and fifteen alter a drive?
A: Absolutely. When you go to first and fifteen, what do you have to call to get to second and six or second and eight. If you take a shot and now it’s second and 15, it’s gets tougher and tougher. You’ve got to do a good job of self-scouting of what you’re doing in those situations, which is the last thing you want to do because you don’t want to be in it. It does change the mentality of the play call of what you’re trying to do situationally. Sometimes teams guess right and sometimes they guess wrong.
Q: It’s pretty obvious that you have an overall dissatisfaction with the running game.
A: Sure. Yeah. Absolutely.
Q: Might a change be on the way? Might Kraig Urbik get a shot? Might Chris Hairston get a shot?
A: I think we’re going to take a good look at what’s going on. I don’t want to jump the gun. We, as a staff, we’re going to go back and look at this thing to make sure what we are doing successful, why are we having the breakdowns, where are the breakdowns occurring. It’s not going to jump to where it ways when we had it rolling, so we’ve got to figure out what’s going on and get it and, at the same time, not lose site of how we’re trying get better in the red zone, how we’re trying to get better on third down. What causes inconsistency is when you focus on something and you’re doing a good job there and then, all of the sudden, over here is not getting done. That’s on us. We’ve got to do a good job of that as coaches first, before we expect that from the players.
Q: Are you far enough into the season where you can tell who is really struggling? Do you still see signs from players that they can turn things around?
A: There’s no doubt about that. We’re not at the halfway point. We’re 3-3. We’ve got a game coming up at home, which is a big game because it’s the next one and we just lost. They’re all big. The same thing. You have to keep getting better, progressively, during the season, not matter what team you are. We need to continue to do that and keep pushing the players. Duke Williams played a lot yesterday. He played more than he’s ever played before. Are there mistakes that were made? Yeah. There were some good things and there were mistakes, but we feel, to answer your question, that he’s going to learn from that experience and be a better player when he goes out there.
Q: Will Bryce Brown get a chance with the running back situation?
A: I think everything is on the table. Again, I’m not committed to anything right now, so I’m going to look at everything.
Q: What do you see Mike Williams’ role going forward. Will there be a weekly decision between a fifth wide receiver and a third tight end?
A: All depends on the game plan. I mean how we want to attack a team and go.
Q: Why was Stephon Gilmore giving such a big cushion to set the Patriots up for that field goal at the end of the first half?
A: We worked on both situations. In other words, we thought that they would still kick the field goal at 40 from what we had at pregame, meaning that we thought they were already in range. Our thought process was that they were going to take a shot down there, vertically down to the end zone. We played for the shot in the end zone and we didn’t think that the five yards was going to make a difference in the field goal attempt from our information, based on how he was hitting them and where it was. We were at 42 for our field goal.
Q: Are you concerned that disappointment from this loss may carry over to next week?
A: From my conversations today, I’m not concerned about it, meaning that I think we understand the opportunity that we had. We understand, walking out of this building today, why we didn’t win the game, which I think is important. We understand the opportunity we have to get better and we understand that when you say, ‘Divisional opponent. New England.’ We treat it, at least from my perspective how I addressed the team was we treat all of our divisional opponents the same way. You have to beat them. It’s the same thing. I told the players, ‘When you’re minus or they’re plus three, you can’t beat that team right now.’
Q: Was there consideration dressing Mike Williams over Jordan Gay?
A: That came up. That came up. That was a discussion that I had with Doug [Whaley] and even obviously with Danny [Crossman]. I just felt that when we played them last year and the amount of kickoff returns they had – and granted it was LeGarrette Blount – I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice, in my mind, and give them the opportunity to return some balls because field positions was going to play a major role in my mind going into that game.
Q: Did you think Kyle Orton stayed away from Revis?
A: We really didn’t have an emphasis on it. I think, at times, the read took us to different things. We had some things in there for Sammy. We got to it more in the second half; probably a little bit later than we should have, when you look back at it. We probably should have gone a little bit more early. Early on, we were running the routes and the reads were taking us off of him.
Quarterback Kyle Orton
Monday, October 13, 2014
Q: Is having two rookies on the offensive line a challenge?
A: I think they’re getting better every week. It’s tough to learn on the run. It’s tough for any rookie to play on this level. I think they’re working hard to get better. Like I said, as a whole, we just need to get better on offense.
Q: What do you want the identity of this offense to be?
A: I think we’ve got a lot of playmakers. There’s a number of ways to get them the ball. Running the ball. Our screen game is improving every week. We’ve got guys at the wide receiver position, as well. Give them the ball with some space and give them room to run.
Q: What did you think about the way they covered Sammy?
A: He was running good routes. I don’t think this is an offense where we pick one guy and we get him the ball. We try to throw the ball to the open guy and go through our reads. Obviously, Sammy is an important part of our offense, so we’ve got to find ways to get him involved earlier in the game.
LB Brandon Spikes
Monday, October 13, 2014
Q: You made New England one-dimensional, but maybe that’s not the best thing when you’re going against Tom Brady.
A: Of course. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get it done. I think we had a great week of practice and we just had a few mental errors. You could tell that the defense wasn’t on the same page a few times and he burnt us.
Q: Was that as disappointing of a regular season game that you’ve been apart of?
A: Absolutely. I think I talked a lot of trash in the offseason and we weren’t able to back it up and that’s what hurts the most. I pride myself in being a man of my word. Just let the city down and it’s just unfortunate. It’s over with. We’ve got to put it in the past and learn from it and get better. We just can’t make the same mistakes. It’s a long season. I think the best teams have got to get over a few bumps in the road to get better. I don’t want to say you’re happy about a loss, but hopefully we learn from this. We have a young team and this will motivate guys.
Defensive Tackle Kyle Williams
Monday, October 13, 2014
Q: How are you feeling today?
A: No worse for the wear. We watched all of our film a couple times and we are on to Minnesota, so full steam ahead.
Q: What do you guys need to do differently on defense?
A: Not anything changed from what I said yesterday post-game. We made a lot of mistakes in the second half; some mental mistakes and some alignment things and some different things going on. As we know over the years, when you make mistakes against that team and that quarterback, that’s what he thrives on and that’s where he makes his plays and that’s what happened
DE Jerry Hughes
Monday, October 10, 2014
Q: What’d you say to that official after the unsportsmanlike penalty?
A: Oh, gosh. I don’t know. My coach called me off to the sidelines, so I think I was more discussing that with him than the official.
Q: Do you feel like you’re playing as good as you ever have?
A: I’m just trying to go back there and create havoc, get to the ball. Just try to find ways to get turnovers so we can win the game. That’s what we’re all shooting for on defense; to just create turnovers and win the football game.
DT Marcell Dareus
Monday, October 10, 2014
Q: How disappointing was the loss?
A: It’s a loss. Everybody feels a little down, but at the same time, we’ve got to work towards the next team.
Q: How disappointing was it during the second half when Brady got going?
A: Brady’s a good player and he’s going to find the mismatches. He’s going to do the best he can to try to stretch it out and use it to the best of his ability. He’s a great player.
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