Head Coach Scott Linehan
August 24, 2008
(Opening remarks)
“I will just kind of hit the injury update, first really nothing new. We will see kind of how the week goes for retuning players, but I think a lot of the players that were not available for this last game will be much improved and we will see about their availability in this game as the week goes on. (WR) Drew Bennett had a grade-two strain of his hip-flexor and his right groin and that will make him kind of day-to-day. We will see how he feels as the week goes on. (WR) Dante Hall has a minor high ankle sprain to his left ankle, which sounds kind of not as bad as the one he had last year but it is a high ankle sprain so we will have to treat that and see how he goes, evaluate him on a daily basis but it wasn’t that bad. A couple other guys, I guess (WR) Reche Caldwell came out with a knee hyperextension but it looks like he is ok for the most part. (CB) Darius Vinnett had a MRI on his knee and it was just a slight sprain. All the other guys, we will just kind of have to evaluate as the week goes on, as far as the availability and their progress as far as their injuries are concerned. Generally on the game, very pleased in a lot of ways with just our approach and how we have gone on about our business really all through training camp, felt we played our best game of the preseason last night. At this point, I feel like we are making progress, got a long ways to go but the general attitude and the approach of the team has been outstanding and that is what we wanted to get out of our preseason. As we say in coaching all the time, ‘as long as you are improving on a daily basis, you are accomplishing what you set out’ and I think we have really done that exactly how you want it to work out. It has not been perfect but we are improving and that is the most encouraging part about what is going on right now.”
(On how the offensive line play yesterday against Baltimore)
“I thought they played outstanding. I think they really played three solid games. I don’t think the first game was their best but it wasn’t our best game as a team either. But they have improved from there. I thought we really made our greatest strides at offensive line when we went to Tennessee and our two days of practice. It wasn’t the carry over you wanted to see on the game but since then I have seen the group really come together and really play well as far as a unit and that’s what really an o-line is. Good o-lines you see in this league, really play well together. If you are going to find a negative in the game, we had some procedure penalties but other than that to go against a team like that and giveup no sacks was an outstanding effort. On top of our ability to, at times, run the ball very well, so I think the offensive line as a group has really preformed well all preseason.
(On how (T) Adam Goldberg has been playing so far in the preseason)
“I think he has played very well and has played very well all through preseason. But he went in there and his test was just like if you had called upon him during the regular season, you got to go in there and play a really challenging position in this league and he really held up and played extremely well which is very encouraging.”
(On if (T) Orlando Pace will play against Kansas City)
“We haven’t decided what our playing is going to be at all. We are really going to focus on tomorrow’s practice and what we do on Tuesday and as we get closer to Kansas City game we will make some decisions as far as playing time for all of our players.”
(On how (DE) Chris Long has played so far)
“Well, he is playing very hard; his effort is exactly what we are looking for. The production will come. With him, he is not going to allow himself to fail, so regardless of where he is at right now as a young rookie figuring it out he is going to continue to get better. He has a great attitude. He knows he has a lot to learn. But he has such a great approach that what you are seeing right now is a guy that is getting comfortable in a system and knowing that once he does get comfortable he is going to make great strides. Most of the rookies at this point are going through those kind of growing pains so to speak and Chris is no different. We certainly have a lot of expectations for him and but we are also patient knowing that a lot of it is baby steps right now. This is an important week for him, we played him a little more than the rest of the unit yesterday and he got the snaps that we felt we needed for this game and I think this is an important week as well as the week prior to our opening game for his progress. But he has been outstanding in his whole approach and the production and things like that will come.”
(On how DL Adam Carriker has played so far)
“Very well, I have a background with him now as a player for us here, but my biggest concern is how he came back from that injury. I thought he played very well for us a year ago and he has answered those questions to this point and I think he is playing really consistent football. He is one of those guys that may or may not show up statistically with outstanding stats but he eats up those blockers and those linebackers can run sideline to sideline and he does his job. That’s a big job for a defensive linemen and he does a great job of that.”
(On what factors allowed QB Marc Bulger to improve this game)
“Our timing was better. Certainly the protection is crucial. If you can’t protect the quarterback and he’s feeling the pressure, he has to move and have to alter this throwing motion or his ability to stay in the pocket. All of those things factor into it. To answer that question, probably up front and, well, they have played and kept him clean, especially this last game. His trust in that and his ability to stand in there and just keep playing, he looked much more comfortable in the pocket than he has in the first two games. I just felt he just went out and let it rip last night, which is the way he has to be. That’s the Marc we’re all accustomed to and used to. He’s going to have great days and he’s going to have days that he’s going to have to come out of a quarter where he’s not playing as well. We’ve gone through a lot of things here in this preseason and are great learning tools for this particular year, too. I just think his rhythm was really good and I give a lot of it to obviously our ability to throw and catch and the timing being better, but I give a lot of credit to the offensive line to give him the time he needs to get that done.”
(On the impact of WRs Donnie Avery and Keenan Burton)
“It didn’t surprise me, because I saw some flashes of really good football. I saw some flashes of some rookie mistakes. What I was the most pleased with was the speed they played at. They played fast. They kind of changed the game in a lot of ways when they starting making plays and were out on the field together, because they really stood out to me as far as making a difference with the speed of the game. The only reason that hasn’t been happening before is because we haven’t had them out there. It was really Donnie’s first shot and Keenan’s been hampered a little bit with some leg issues. It really was fun. I enjoyed it. I know they sparked us in a lot of ways and that’s what youth does sometimes.”
(On why the young receivers made such a larger impact this game than before)
“You have to give him the shot to get out there. There’s a lot of reasons you would wait on young players and play them, but these guys are guys we are counting on and we knew we’d count on them as rookies. Like I said, the only reason they haven’t probably had more reps to this point has been nagging injuries. To be able to play them more than they have before was really good, because you can really look at and see how they would perform in a regular game because they were basically playing with the ‘1’ unit most of the time. It was nice for them to be able to come through and make plays. Keenan making that nice catch for Marc, that just adds to the confidence of the team. They moved those chains quick. That’s what’s big about skill players with great speed. They have to make those plays. I wasn’t surprised, but I was really happy to see them go out and play at the speed they played at, because a lot of times they slow down instead of speed up.”
(On WR Donnie Avery’s confidence in his first game action)
“He looked kind of nervous on a couple of plays. The bright spot was he just kept playing. He got better as he continued to play in the game and didn’t let himself get down. He’s very, very hard on himself, which is a great trait of his. In fact, I think I told everybody that was the one negative they said about him. The guy is sometimes is a little hard on himself and maybe works too hard, puts too much time in the weight room or those kind of things, you love to hear as negatives about a player, but I saw it as a real positive last night in that he just kept playing. It didn’t affect his play in the next series. He had a very good approach and attitude about it and knew he’d made mistakes, but he knew he couldn’t harp on them. That was good to see.”
(On the battle for starting strong side linebacker)
“I think he’s put himself in a pretty good position for that. The interesting thing about Chris Draft is he could start for us at ‘Sam’ (linebacker) or he could backup for us at ‘Will’ (linebacker) or start for us at ‘Will’ (linebacker) if we needed, if something happened there, or whatever. The great thing about Chris is he’s ready to play whatever role that we would ask him to play and he’s good at all three positions. ‘Q’ (LB Quinton Culberson) has really played very well for us here in preseason and I thought he probably had his best game. He played his most solid as far as being assignment perfect and those kinds of things. He still has a couple of mistakes here and there, but he’s always around the ball. I think we just have a great situation, where I think we have four starting linebackers, Draft being the most versatile of all three in a lot of ways. We’re not naming a starter at this point, but I think ‘Q’ is making a pretty good statement at this point for playing time at that position.”
(On the performance of QB Brock Berlin)
“I think he’s played very well. I think last night was a very good indication of how he’s practiced and how he’s played. In really two of the last three games, he’s probably been one of the highlighted players of the game. Just coming out last night and performing the way he did in the third quarter was a great example of what Brock can do. He’s just been consistent and that’s what we want to get out of all of our players. Brock’s been one of the guys that’s come out and played winning football for us pretty much each week. I think he’s playing very well.”
(On what factors allowed QB Marc Bulger to improve this game)
“Our timing was better. Certainly the protection is crucial. If you can’t protect the quarterback and he’s feeling the pressure, he has to move and have to alter this throwing motion or his ability to stay in the pocket. All of those things factor into it. To answer that question, probably up front and, well, they have played and kept him clean, especially this last game. His trust in that and his ability to stand in there and just keep playing, he looked much more comfortable in the pocket than he has in the first two games. I just felt he just went out and let it rip last night, which is the way he has to be. That’s the Marc we’re all accustomed to and used to. He’s going to have great days and he’s going to have days that he’s going to have to come out of a quarter where he’s not playing as well. We’ve gone through a lot of things here in this preseason and are great learning tools for this particular year, too. I just think his rhythm was really good and I give a lot of it to obviously our ability to throw and catch and the timing being better, but I give a lot of credit to the offensive line to give him the time he needs to get that done.”
(On the impact of WRs Donnie Avery and Keenan Burton)
“It didn’t surprise me, because I saw some flashes of really good football. I saw some flashes of some rookie mistakes. What I was the most pleased with was the speed they played at. They played fast. They kind of changed the game in a lot of ways when they starting making plays and were out on the field together, because they really stood out to me as far as making a difference with the speed of the game. The only reason that hasn’t been happening before is because we haven’t had them out there. It was really Donnie’s first shot and Keenan’s been hampered a little bit with some leg issues. It really was fun. I enjoyed it. I know they sparked us in a lot of ways and that’s what youth does sometimes.”
(On why the young receivers made such a larger impact this game than before)
“You have to give him the shot to get out there. There’s a lot of reasons you would wait on young players and play them, but these guys are guys we are counting on and we knew we’d count on them as rookies. Like I said, the only reason they haven’t probably had more reps to this point has been nagging injuries. To be able to play them more than they have before was really good, because you can really look at and see how they would perform in a regular game because they were basically playing with the ‘1’ unit most of the time. It was nice for them to be able to come through and make plays. Keenan making that nice catch for Marc, that just adds to the confidence of the team. They moved those chains quick. That’s what’s big about skill players with great speed. They have to make those plays. I wasn’t surprised, but I was really happy to see them go out and play at the speed they played at, because a lot of times they slow down instead of speed up.”
(On WR Donnie Avery’s confidence in his first game action)
“He looked kind of nervous on a couple of plays. The bright spot was he just kept playing. He got better as he continued to play in the game and didn’t let himself get down. He’s very, very hard on himself, which is a great trait of his. In fact, I think I told everybody that was the one negative they said about him. The guy is sometimes is a little hard on himself and maybe works too hard, puts too much time in the weight room or those kind of things, you love to hear as negatives about a player, but I saw it as a real positive last night in that he just kept playing. It didn’t affect his play in the next series. He had a very good approach and attitude about it and knew he’d made mistakes, but he knew he couldn’t harp on them. That was good to see.”
(On the battle for starting strong side linebacker)
“I think he’s put himself in a pretty good position for that. The interesting thing about Chris Draft is he could start for us at ‘Sam’ (linebacker) or he could backup for us at ‘Will’ (linebacker) or start for us at ‘Will’ (linebacker) if we needed, if something happened there, or whatever. The great thing about Chris is he’s ready to play whatever role that we would ask him to play and he’s good at all three positions. ‘Q’ (LB Quinton Culberson) has really played very well for us here in preseason and I thought he probably had his best game. He played his most solid as far as being assignment perfect and those kinds of things. He still has a couple of mistakes here and there, but he’s always around the ball. I think we just have a great situation, where I think we have four starting linebackers, Draft being the most versatile of all three in a lot of ways. We’re not naming a starter at this point, but I think ‘Q’ is making a pretty good statement at this point for playing time at that position.”
(On the performance of QB Brock Berlin)
“I think he’s played very well. I think last night was a very good indication of how he’s practiced and how he’s played. In really two of the last three games, he’s probably been one of the highlighted players of the game. Just coming out last night and performing the way he did in the third quarter was a great example of what Brock can do. He’s just been consistent and that’s what we want to get out of all of our players. Brock’s been one of the guys that’s come out and played winning football for us pretty much each week. I think he’s playing very well.”
(On the status of the 3rd team quarterback battle)
“It’s still in competition. We haven’t decided what we’re doing there. I think (QB) Bruce (Gradkowski) has still done some really good things and would like to see both of them get a really good shot again here Thursday night.”
(On if they changed the offense for this game or just executed better in comparison to the previous game)
“Just that we executed better. If you look back on the week before when we missed (TE) Randy (McMichael) by inches; there’s a lot of things that can go right or go wrong based on just the proximity of where you put the ball or run the route and I just think we were that much better this week. We still had to fight through some early adversity and they did it and got better and we basically finished better. We got the ball in the end zone when the week before we didn’t; It was real similar type of a situation. The one thing we have been able to do is sustain some drives. We’ve had a lot of multi-play drives and to do that you’ve got to play pretty mistake free football and I was real happy with just the progress we made as far as doing the little things just a little bit better this week.”
(On if he is happy with how RB Antonio Pittman has played so far)
“Yeah. You guys remember, we picked him up off the waiver wire and he’d been through a totally different system and basically made an investment in our future at that point because he was starting at ground zero again. He came in and, by the team we did play him against New Orleans, his old team, he was starting to do some things; he had a nice game down there. We made an investment in him and he’s taken off and run with it. I think he’s worked extremely hard. He got a great break for him in that he got a lot of quality snaps here this preseason with (RB) Steven (Jackson) not being in camp and it benefits us now. At the time you’re a little concerned about it because you don’t have your top running back in camp, but in the meantime we’ve got him really a lot of quality snaps. So all that timing stuff you’re asking about that all came with real quality work and hard work by him. He’s gotten bigger and stronger and he was one of the first guys back in here at the end of the season last year, in January and working already. He’s really got his mind set on making an impact for our team.”
(On if he is concerned about special teams)
“No. Special teams comes, a lot of those guys that are going to be playing on those teams haven’t, because of injuries and things aren’t out there. Generally, I feel very good about our kicking situation. I think our kickers are kicking the ball very, very well. I think we had the protection problem which probably sounds cliché, but I’m glad it happened now because that is a tough stunt that they ran and hopefully we will get that again and to know that that’s something that we aren’t quite there yet on. Those are all great lessons for us right now. Yeah, you’re concerned when you get a blocked kick or you don’t cover the way we plan on covering and those things, but as long as we keep working on the process as far as how we’re working and we’ve changed some things up, we will get the results we want. But, it doesn’t hurt to have some reminders and again I’d rather have them now than a few weeks from now. We still got some things we’ve got to iron out, but we’ve been working very hard and I think we’re going to have some really good young special teams players that are really help us this year too.”
(On what happened during special teams stunt)
“They just ran a little inside stunt. It was a very tough stunt. If you get a little overly aggressive on releasing and you’ve really got to do a good job on zoning that off and we just got beat, the inside center and personal protector have a tough job out there and they can’t allow a guy to come free, they at least have to make him fight around it. But they ran a nice little stunt with the inside guys right through there.”
(On how Scott Linehan sees rookie wide receivers role this year)
“To be determined; it’s unlimited at this point. I think the sky is the limit for those young guys as long as they improve and work hard. They’ve got the ability to get more and more playing time. At this point, we’re just excited about the prospects of them playing and adding some dimensions to our offense that we were looking for. Right now we’re just pleased that they had a good outing and now they’ve got to show that they can back it up with another one and another one and that’s where we’re at with those guys.”
(On what Scott Linehan can say about the way the defense has performed so far)
“Really, other than the drive at the start of last night’s second half, it’s been outstanding. We’ve had three and outs, we’ve gone in on tough field position situations really last night the field position was not in our favor and I would say we did not win the field position battle, we won the game. That says a lot about how the defense played because they had to go out and get some stops. We’ve put our defense out there in some tough situations here in preseason and they’ve come through, either forced the field goal or even non-scores when the team was in a scoring position and that’s what really good defenses do. So, we’re building on that. I just really like the attitude of our defense. They’re going out there with; it doesn’t matter whether the other team’s to go 99 or they’re starting in the red zone. They just go out and they play. It’s been real encouraging; especially the last two weeks. Our ability to stop them in the red zone and then get off the field on third down, in the last two games, has been outstanding. If we can play at a level like that we’ll pretty darn good on defense; I’m pretty sure of it.”
(On his thoughts on the improvement of DE Leonard Little)
“I think so. I think you guys have seen a little bit of the old 91 before his injury. He has that look in his eye and he’s really playing at a high level. That just helps bring the whole group; I think that front seven is going to be real solid for us.”
(On the limited number of snaps QB Trent Green has taken this preseason)
“He didn’t get any last night and he’s had limited up until then. It’s just hard. You’ve got four quarterbacks. You’ve got that big battle for the third spot. It’s hard to get any guys any good amount of time that they need and we’re trying to get our starter ready. He probably gets the short end of the stick on that, but we’d like him to possibly get some snaps even this week. That would be really beneficial for him as for getting him ready. He’s had an outstanding training camp for us and the practices he’s been involved in; he’s had a lot of work there. He’s done very well, but it’s really hard to get four guys ready when you’re really working on your starter and you’re working on your third quarterback battle. We take a lot of things for granted with Trent as you all could understand. There’s a lot of things he can do and we’re real fortunate to have him and I’d like to get him some extra work, possibly this week.”
(On if they left QB Marc Bulger in the entire half because he needed to practice the two-minute drill)
“Yes and we discussed it, but we thought Marc needs the two-minute drill. It was a great drive, I think it was 11 plays, might have been 12. Our end of half performance on offense, I’ve been really happy with, we’ve had two four-minute drills now where we’ve finished the game with the ball. And we’ve had three two-minute drills now where we’ve finished with either points or a shot at points; we probably should have come away with points on all three before the half. That was work that I thought Marc really needed and really did a nice job on that drill. He had to go over 90 yards, I think, to get the score.”
(On if RB Steven Jackson will be ready in time for Kansas City)
“The tough part is we’ve got a limited week. We’re not going to be able to go out there and get out in full pads like a whole week of practice, enough to really get him as ready as you’d like for the game, but he will take snaps with, not only the first unit, but the second unit and the third unit, just to catch up on plays. Yeah, we do have a plan, just like we did when he got in. He’s had three straight days of working extra with his pads on and going out and running plays and doing all that while the other players aren’t out there. We’ve just got to keep accelerating and buying time whenever we can get time. And he’ll get a really good workout if he doesn’t play much or at all, I don’t know we haven’t decided, on Thursday, but get a great workout all week. He’s on a little different plan than the rest of the guys.”
(On if RB Steven Jackson worked out today)
“Yeah, he did stuff today too.”