Head Coach Brian Daboll
Q: When you look back at (running back) Tyrone (Tracy) and how he played yesterday, do you see anything that says, 'yeah, this guy was not always a running back, I can see that now'? He said he knew there were legitimate questions about his ability to run inside zone and things like that. Some guys run away from that. He said, 'no, I get it because I was a receiver, and I had to work on it'. Do you see maybe the fruits of the labor from that work?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'll just speak from since he's been here when we drafted him and rookie mini-camp, OTAs, training camp. He's a smart player. I think (Running Backs Coach) Joel Thomas has done a really good job with him. As much time on task as you can get for any player, particularly a young player, I think you improve at it. He's improved since he's been here. He played well yesterday, but the 10 guys around him played well too. There were good holes, did a good job of pressing the line of scrimmage, making decisive cuts, putting his foot in the ground on that third and two, one and a half to make a big play there. But he's done a nice job for us since he's been here of just continually improving, which is what we want all our players to do.
Q: Just to piggyback off that, you mentioned the 10 guys around him. The numbers against Dallas in the run game were bad. What was your tact with the offensive line? Did you challenge them on that? Did you throw that number in their face? Because obviously the number yesterday was a number you can live with every week.
BRIAN DABOLL: It takes all 11 people to be successful offensively. Execution on the offensive side of the ball is obviously at a premium. So, you can have 10 people doing it right. And one guy getting beat, or maybe not on the same page and you have a breakdown, but yesterday … they don't need all that all. They need the truth in terms of 'here's are the plays that we ran, here were the breakdowns. This is what we need to improve on'. Whether it was perimeter blocking or inline blocking, running back reads, all those types of things. And you try to get better. One week has really nothing to do with the next week. So, we just went to work and identified some things that we wanted to try to get to and work on in practice and guys did a good job.
Q: When you have an offensive line, particularly in pass protection, that's been playing well consistently. How does that impact pretty much everything else? Like for as far as for (quarterback) Daniel (Jones), for you as a play caller and the rest of the offense?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, significantly. It starts up front. Those five guys seeing the game through the same set of eyes. Without those guys, you're not getting plays downfield or an efficient passing game and pass protection or the screen game. And same thing with the run game, that's where it starts, but you need everybody on offense doing their job. But again, I've said this before, this is a veteran group. They mesh well together. They meet a lot. They're smart. If they make a mistake on something, usually by the next play or the next game, it's corrected. They know how to handle themselves in the classroom to get ready for a game. And then the communication part of it during the game is important. And I'll lean on those guys, just like I ask some of the receivers about routes and things like that. I'll go to those guys once the game gets into a flow and ask them what do they want to block? Sometimes it's outside, sometimes it's inside, sometimes it's pin and pull, sometimes it's gap. But they got a pretty good feel and they're good communicators. They're a good group to work with.
Q: You mentioned the screen game. Why do you think that has become so effective and how much does that add to the offense?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, it's just another element. As many elements as you can have offensively, I think it puts stress on a defense, whether that's the RPO game, the quarterback run game, inside, outside, play action game, screen game. You want to try to be as multiple as you can to attack different things defensively. They're not going to always hit, but that helps pass rush. It can keep you on track at times. Obviously, it was a big, the back-to-back screens there we had were huge to start the game, particularly the way it started. We went backwards. But yeah, it's just one part of the offense. Sometimes we use it more, sometimes less, but I think the more things you can do well to attack a defense, to make them play honest, to have them defend the whole field, whether it's the width of the field or the vertical part of the field, it's certainly important.
Q: You obviously mentioned Tyrone Tracy played well. How fair is it to suggest that he'll earn himself more playing time with the way he performed given the bigger role?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I think for any of those guys that played and didn't maybe have as much playing time, their job is to go out there and compete and play at a high level. And that's what we expect. We've talked about that I think last week leading up to the game, if certain people can't play, that next man up mentality. So again, we'll do what we need to do each week. But yeah, he had a nice game.
Q: Would you be more apt to maybe splitting the time between him (Tyrone Tracy) and (Devin) Singletary when Devin (Singletary) does come back?
BRIAN DABOLL: I think we just take it day by day, week by week, see what we're doing and what the game plan is for the opponent that we're about to play. But we expect all our players to be ready and perform when their number's called.
Q: And where are you at with (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers)? I guess he can't officially clear until he gets out for a practice. That would be a step.
BRIAN DABOLL: We got back, as I'm sure you did, pretty early. So, again, I'll meet with the doctors after we have our team meeting. We'll see where we're at.
Q: You expect them on the field Wednesday in some way, shape or form?
BRIAN DABOLL: I got to talk to the medical staff here and see where we're at.
Q: Were there any other injuries out yesterday's game? I didn't seem to see any.
BRIAN DABOLL: Again, I got to talk to our staff. We'll have our meeting after our team meeting and see where everybody's at.
Q: The defense had played exceptionally well, but then when it came to the end of the halves, it seemed like Seattle was making plays. The late field goal at the end of the first half. The 95-yard touchdown at the end of the second. And then the 32-yard run. Did you guys change things up or what happened?
BRIAN DABOLL: No, they made a couple of nice plays. One play where we're tight on coverage, we got a penalty, but they caught it. Another screen there that hit. I thought our guys did a good job. Obviously, there's certain things that we need to tighten up really in all three phases, but nothing in particular.
Q: You look at the record, it's 2-3. You probably should have beat Washington. You gave Dallas a pretty good game. Are you sitting there telling the guys, 'Hey, we have a shot this year.'
BRIAN DABOLL: Our focus is on what we need to do each week. So, put everything you got into it, which our coaches, our players have done each week, and we'll have a big challenge ahead of us this week.
Q: Anything you make of your three best games so far coming on the road? And the idea of maybe the team galvanizing. Obviously when you guys have played at home, the crowd's been a little more hostile. Anything to this team owning their road identity?
BRIAN DABOLL: I think it's just playing well. Making plays when they come our way. So, it was about as hostile an environment as you can be in. What I'm proud of is not to have false starts and pre-snap penalties offensively. We worked hard at that throughout the week. Our focus has been high. It's been high every week. Don't always get the results you want. But, playing well is the most important thing.
Q: What did you make last week of (Defensive Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs Coach) Jerome Henderson, you've known him for a long time, his coaching style, challenging (cornerback) Deonte Banks publicly? What'd you make of that? What'd you make of the way Deonte (Banks) responded in that game?
BRIAN DABOLL: Jerome (Henderson) is a good football coach. He's been doing this for a long time. Player in the league and coach. I think he has a good relationship with all his players. I thought Tae (Deonte Banks) did some good things yesterday. Again, there's plenty of things that we can all clean up. But it was a good step to get that ball out there on (Seattle Seahawks wide receiver) DK (Metcalf) after they were driving down on a big play and get his hands on some balls to break them up. I thought (it was) a tough challenge there against DK (Metcalf) the entire game. But, young players still keep on improving them.
Q: Do you think we're crazy to correlate the two? Or that's a coincidence he had a big game after that happened or is there something to it?
BRIAN DABOLL: I don't want to speak for you guys. So, whatever you think. Tae (Deonte Banks) is in a good spot. He keeps working hard. We're going to need to keep improving all of our young players that have played.
