Question 1: What does the film show about the offensive line’s performance, and where do you want to see improvement?
Answer: Uh, there’s some good bursts there in the first half where I thought it’s pushing on the left side, they played really well. I think the consistency to finish drives, you, the longer drives. I thought later in the football game we kind of waned out a little bit. And the guys bloated up a little bit in the third quarter and showed that they could do that a little better job. So just the biggest piece I think is the consistency part. We just got to be a little more consistent on how we fit his tribes.
Question 2: Coach DeBoer said Ty Simpson needs to trust his reads and throw confidently. How are you working to build that confidence?
Answer: Yeah, good question. Ty, he’d be the first one to tell you, you know, the progression is a big thing for any quarterback. So, I think when you get down in a football game, there sometimes can be the 'I want to make the big throw every time', and there are sometimes there are certainly, I know he wished to just stay with his first read and just stay within the progression and so for him, I think, you just got to keep instilling that and practice, like, don’t pass on your number one, take that, just keep moving. That’s what we’ll do. We’ll keep working that with him.
Question 3: How did the offensive line perform in pass protection during the game? What did you think about the pass protection on Saturday?
Answer: I thought, you know, KP, I thought had a pretty good day. There was a couple late pressures, but I mean, he was holding up for a long time. Interior pressures were a couple times. We had a few problems, which is always the hardest for the quarterback to deal with interior pressures fast. So, they showed up later in the fourth on that, but I think they did a good job with some of the twist games that they presented and overall, you know, three sacks is not where you want to be. And, I think we had 40 some attempts, so that’s not where you want to live either, but I thought it was okay. I think there’s certainly some ID things that I can continue to be better at.
Question 4: Why did the team move away from the run game after a strong first drive? It kind of seemed like you got away from the run a little bit. What led to that decision?
Answer: Well, I think some of it, probably the later part is, you know, the run game can be a softening process at times and you hope that you can play it to lead or get into that late third and fourth quarter and really put the hammer down on the run game and you know, obviously we didn’t get that opportunity, late in the football game. We were playing from behind there for a little bit, so that’s certainly is part of it. I think that, you know, some of the run hits and adjustments that they made at some point, you know, we had to try to overcome that, and they did. We had some nice third quarter run hits, but we got to keep keep the lead and stay ahead of the change, the biggest part for us was honestly, just staying on the field, the third downs, you know, being able to stay out there and sustain the run game and have that nice first drive like we had with some good first down runs. So, we got to have some more efficiency and first and second down to keep the run game alive.
Question 5: Ty Simpson’s head game that after that first drive, he saw complacency in the offense. Do you see complacency after that first touchdown drive?
Answer: Well, I think, you know, hindsight’s 2020, we'll be asked, our players and coaches to do is when we see that, address it. And so, I did think that there were sometimes there where we didn’t look as as strong as we did in the first quarter and so those are things that we're addressing in practice and certainly some things that have showed up to guys know that the preparation part will show up in a game. So for us, we just got to keep focusing on being strong throughout a practice, being strong throughout a game and I think you could see that, yeah, we didn’t have as good a second, third drive as we did the first.
Question 6: Obviously [you] tried to simulate quarterback pressure as much as you can in practice. So, there’s no substitution for that in the game. What did you see from Ty in handling that pressure and how much stuff can a quarterback take from fall camp first game to the next game where you have like a game to kind of assess how we manage that?
Answer: Yeah, you know, the toughest part, I think, for quarterbacks in general, is not letting one pressure or bad protection bleed into the next play, and certainly that can be the case. So I think there was times where the protection was adequate, where Ty got a little bit antsy, and he had a couple drives where, later, I thought he did a good job of not dropping his eyes, so I think the biggest part for him is, you, trying to simulate some of those pressures in practice and create those hospital environments for him in the backfield that he’s got to be able to keep his eyes down the field, poise. I know it’s something that he’s excited to try to work on.
Question 7: At receiver, when you evaluate what you saw was the effort there? Are they creating enough separation? Is it just at the finishing pace? Are you seeing what you want across those three sort of thresholds?
Answer: Well, how I look at it is I just start with Germie Bernard, and that’s what it’s supposed to look like. And if you’re watching the game, I mean, the guy’s running in and blocking their player, that’s running down the middle of the field and smoking that dude, and then he’s running down the sideline, catching, you know, play action pass, and his, desire and passion for the game, you just see how he plays, whether it’s to run block or a pass play, and you know, we just set that as a gold standard, if it’s not what Germ’s doing, then it’s not good enough. And I know we got some young guys that talk a lot here. Derek Meadows was stretching the field a couple times. You know, those are guys that will continue showing up, and then Rico Scott I thought played really, really hard. I know, like his catapult numbers as always were through the number, like, just really, really high in his player load, just how hard he plays. So, I think those guys, you, are doing a really good job flying around, and I think that room understands, you know, what it takes to win a football game. I know Isaiah got banged up a little bit early on, so it was a little tougher for him to get out there and play like he normally does. But they know what it’s supposed to look like.
Question 8: Did Jam Miller’s absence influence the running game strategy, and how did other running backs perform? Obviously, you guys did have a couple of weeks to prepare for that, and a lot of different guys were used in the backfield, including, for example, Kevin Reiley, who got some good reps out there.
Answer: Uh, no, I think that Kev showed up and he showed a good burst, and that’s something we were excited to see was who was what game reps were going to show up from what running back and you always went out, I think we had right around 20 running back touches in the run game, and we’d love that number to be higher, like 25 to 30 again, I think to fourth quarter and how it played out and having to play from behind at that point, certainly, you, hammered that a little bit. But we got to be able to run the ball in any situation, you know, down two scores or not.
Question 9: How do you get more receivers involved in the passing game beyond Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard? How do you get more guys involved consistently in the passing game outside of those two?
Answer: Yeah, I think part of it’s reps, you know, get other guys in the game, make sure everybody’s staying fresh, you know. Germ’s gonna stay out there as long as we got enough Gatorade in him. I mean, he’s gonna be rolling the whole time. So, you know, Ryan, as far as him, you know, certainly one of our better playmakers. So you try and highlight him with the ball, and then, from there, sometimes the ball just doesn’t find guys, depending on the coages, you know, and I think that, you, throughout time, our offense has shown that the ability to get the ball to the whether it’s T, X, the Z, or the H, typically balances out, depending on what defenses are trying to take away.
Answer: Uh, there’s some good bursts there in the first half where I thought it’s pushing on the left side, they played really well. I think the consistency to finish drives, you, the longer drives. I thought later in the football game we kind of waned out a little bit. And the guys bloated up a little bit in the third quarter and showed that they could do that a little better job. So just the biggest piece I think is the consistency part. We just got to be a little more consistent on how we fit his tribes.
Question 2: Coach DeBoer said Ty Simpson needs to trust his reads and throw confidently. How are you working to build that confidence?
Answer: Yeah, good question. Ty, he’d be the first one to tell you, you know, the progression is a big thing for any quarterback. So, I think when you get down in a football game, there sometimes can be the 'I want to make the big throw every time', and there are sometimes there are certainly, I know he wished to just stay with his first read and just stay within the progression and so for him, I think, you just got to keep instilling that and practice, like, don’t pass on your number one, take that, just keep moving. That’s what we’ll do. We’ll keep working that with him.
Question 3: How did the offensive line perform in pass protection during the game? What did you think about the pass protection on Saturday?
Answer: I thought, you know, KP, I thought had a pretty good day. There was a couple late pressures, but I mean, he was holding up for a long time. Interior pressures were a couple times. We had a few problems, which is always the hardest for the quarterback to deal with interior pressures fast. So, they showed up later in the fourth on that, but I think they did a good job with some of the twist games that they presented and overall, you know, three sacks is not where you want to be. And, I think we had 40 some attempts, so that’s not where you want to live either, but I thought it was okay. I think there’s certainly some ID things that I can continue to be better at.
Question 4: Why did the team move away from the run game after a strong first drive? It kind of seemed like you got away from the run a little bit. What led to that decision?
Answer: Well, I think some of it, probably the later part is, you know, the run game can be a softening process at times and you hope that you can play it to lead or get into that late third and fourth quarter and really put the hammer down on the run game and you know, obviously we didn’t get that opportunity, late in the football game. We were playing from behind there for a little bit, so that’s certainly is part of it. I think that, you know, some of the run hits and adjustments that they made at some point, you know, we had to try to overcome that, and they did. We had some nice third quarter run hits, but we got to keep keep the lead and stay ahead of the change, the biggest part for us was honestly, just staying on the field, the third downs, you know, being able to stay out there and sustain the run game and have that nice first drive like we had with some good first down runs. So, we got to have some more efficiency and first and second down to keep the run game alive.
Question 5: Ty Simpson’s head game that after that first drive, he saw complacency in the offense. Do you see complacency after that first touchdown drive?
Answer: Well, I think, you know, hindsight’s 2020, we'll be asked, our players and coaches to do is when we see that, address it. And so, I did think that there were sometimes there where we didn’t look as as strong as we did in the first quarter and so those are things that we're addressing in practice and certainly some things that have showed up to guys know that the preparation part will show up in a game. So for us, we just got to keep focusing on being strong throughout a practice, being strong throughout a game and I think you could see that, yeah, we didn’t have as good a second, third drive as we did the first.
Question 6: Obviously [you] tried to simulate quarterback pressure as much as you can in practice. So, there’s no substitution for that in the game. What did you see from Ty in handling that pressure and how much stuff can a quarterback take from fall camp first game to the next game where you have like a game to kind of assess how we manage that?
Answer: Yeah, you know, the toughest part, I think, for quarterbacks in general, is not letting one pressure or bad protection bleed into the next play, and certainly that can be the case. So I think there was times where the protection was adequate, where Ty got a little bit antsy, and he had a couple drives where, later, I thought he did a good job of not dropping his eyes, so I think the biggest part for him is, you, trying to simulate some of those pressures in practice and create those hospital environments for him in the backfield that he’s got to be able to keep his eyes down the field, poise. I know it’s something that he’s excited to try to work on.
Question 7: At receiver, when you evaluate what you saw was the effort there? Are they creating enough separation? Is it just at the finishing pace? Are you seeing what you want across those three sort of thresholds?
Answer: Well, how I look at it is I just start with Germie Bernard, and that’s what it’s supposed to look like. And if you’re watching the game, I mean, the guy’s running in and blocking their player, that’s running down the middle of the field and smoking that dude, and then he’s running down the sideline, catching, you know, play action pass, and his, desire and passion for the game, you just see how he plays, whether it’s to run block or a pass play, and you know, we just set that as a gold standard, if it’s not what Germ’s doing, then it’s not good enough. And I know we got some young guys that talk a lot here. Derek Meadows was stretching the field a couple times. You know, those are guys that will continue showing up, and then Rico Scott I thought played really, really hard. I know, like his catapult numbers as always were through the number, like, just really, really high in his player load, just how hard he plays. So, I think those guys, you, are doing a really good job flying around, and I think that room understands, you know, what it takes to win a football game. I know Isaiah got banged up a little bit early on, so it was a little tougher for him to get out there and play like he normally does. But they know what it’s supposed to look like.
Question 8: Did Jam Miller’s absence influence the running game strategy, and how did other running backs perform? Obviously, you guys did have a couple of weeks to prepare for that, and a lot of different guys were used in the backfield, including, for example, Kevin Reiley, who got some good reps out there.
Answer: Uh, no, I think that Kev showed up and he showed a good burst, and that’s something we were excited to see was who was what game reps were going to show up from what running back and you always went out, I think we had right around 20 running back touches in the run game, and we’d love that number to be higher, like 25 to 30 again, I think to fourth quarter and how it played out and having to play from behind at that point, certainly, you, hammered that a little bit. But we got to be able to run the ball in any situation, you know, down two scores or not.
Question 9: How do you get more receivers involved in the passing game beyond Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard? How do you get more guys involved consistently in the passing game outside of those two?
Answer: Yeah, I think part of it’s reps, you know, get other guys in the game, make sure everybody’s staying fresh, you know. Germ’s gonna stay out there as long as we got enough Gatorade in him. I mean, he’s gonna be rolling the whole time. So, you know, Ryan, as far as him, you know, certainly one of our better playmakers. So you try and highlight him with the ball, and then, from there, sometimes the ball just doesn’t find guys, depending on the coages, you know, and I think that, you, throughout time, our offense has shown that the ability to get the ball to the whether it’s T, X, the Z, or the H, typically balances out, depending on what defenses are trying to take away.
