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Sept. 13, 2004
Al Groh
0Press Conference
You’ve placed a strong emphasis on the run and it turned out really well. Has it exceeded your expectations?
I didn’t have a number expectation on it, but I don’t know if I had an expectation on it. I had a hope for it. I guess that’s the best way to say it. I didn’t really have a ‘Hey, this is what it’s going to be.’ I had a hope for it. I think all of us did. And, that hope will only become a reality over the course of four months. But, it’s off to a good start.
Your players have rushed for 585 yards, a long of 25, which I think sort of speaks that you’re not padding with a lot of long runs. You’re just getting that consistent five or six yards. Do you feel that?
Yeah. I do. Really, when you analyze your running game, you have to analyze it two ways, and the same thing for your run defense. Average yards per play is certainly the most important. If you rush for 300 yards and you average for 3.6, that might not make you as effective as if you rush for 150 yards and you rush for 5.5. But, average per rush is an indicator of your proficiency of run or run defense, but also, not something that’s calculated, but the efficiency of your running game: that is, how many times, what percentage of your runs either gain, say, four yards or more, or accomplish the situation. So, if it’s third and one, and you gain one and a half; that’s an efficient run.
Do you set the bar like that when you evaluate it?
We haven’t for this year, but what you’re saying is an indicator of that. If you look at that, there’s a pretty good average per attempt without any extraordinarily long runs. I would say that that efficiency number is up there pretty good.
You haven’t thrown a lot to WR Deyon Williams, but when you have, he seems to have been open. He’s been getting good separation. Is his development what you’d hoped it would be?
There has been good separation there. He did a good job on the play the other day. But, some of it has been an issue of how the running game helps your passing attack. If the majority of the defenders are all packed inside, then the defense, by its alignment, creates space. In some of these circumstances, the defense has really created the space for us.
Back to the running game, how much of the success is about how the offensive line played on Saturday?
Oh, I think the majority of it. That’s always the case. Very good performance by most of them.
A lot of your guys talked during training camp about how physical this camp was relatively speaking. Is that a big factor in, early on, you being able to achieve that kind of ruggedness against teams?
I think you get good at what you practice. That’s why we did it. I joked about this with the players a couple of times during training camp. One of the players said to me, ‘I bet some of the guys who were here for the other three training camps didn’t think it was going to get any more physical.’ And, so this certainly isn’t a 360 or 180 or even a 90-degree turn. Okay, those other camps were all pretty physical. This one, I’d say we just put an exclamation point on it. I felt our team now had the wherewithal to be the most physical that it had been. Therefore, we practiced doing that. I’d say the same thing if we were a basketball team, and we had a lot of three-point shooters this year, it wouldn’t be like we didn’t practice three-point plays before, but we’d just practice more. We had a chance to be physical. I think we have a chance to be a more physical team this year, so we practiced being physical as much as we practiced our plays. It gave them confidence in their ability to do such, and probably gave them a sense of direction in terms of how we wanted to be.
In addition to being the most physical, what can you say about the added versatility that your offense has now, especially with Jason Snelling at fullback and Marques Hagans at quarterback and all the tailbacks, tight ends?
Well, we’ve shown we have more versatility in the running game, but we haven’t demonstrated that we have as much versatility in the passing game. We’ve been pretty versatile in the passing game. We’ve had a lot of games when we could say the same thing about the receivers, completing 33, 35 passes a game. You could say the same thing about the receivers. Gee, how many teams had five receivers who caught five passes or more in a game? That’s just on the other side of the street right now. We have more versatility, in terms of personnel, running the ball. We have those kinds of players on the team. In the past, it’s been more versatility in terms of who was catching the ball. Probably, somewhere along the line, it’ll be necessary for us to balance that out, where we have a few less guys averaging as many carries per game and a few more guys averaging a few more catches.
Speaking of versatility, North Carolina head coach John Bunting said that you basically whipped him with the same three running plays. How much of your offense have you been able to keep under wraps to this point?
John was right in that assessment. We featured three runs in the game. But, running backs coach Anthony Poindexter was telling me that he was talking to a friend of his who plays for Indianapolis. His friend told him they ran the same play 34 times last Thursday night. So, that we had our production mainly on three plays, that’s not necessarily unusual when you have a good rushing day. Indianapolis had a fairly decent rushing day, and they did it on one play.
How much have you been able to keep under wraps to this point with a 30-point win and a 32-point win?
More of our specialty things, but we’ve run our core plays. You know this is who we are. We’ve run our core plays, and they’ll be there every week. They dress them up and make them look a little differently, but I don’t think I’m revealing anything to anybody who wouldn’t figure out after watching about 15 or 20 plays worth of the tape.
As a player, does LB Kai Parham remind you of any linebackers you’ve worked with?
I think his body type and his style of play reminds me of Ted Johnson, who we had as a rookie and second-year player in New England. He’s still up there. He’s in about his 12th year now. Actually, I think, when we got Teddy, he was in the low 240’s. He’s playing around 255 now. Kai’s in the high 240’s. Both of them are real bangers.
Was he a defensive end in high school?
Actually, during the course of his career, he played fullback; he played tight end. I think he played tight end as a junior, fullback as a senior. He played outside on the edge for a while. He played inside linebacker. Although all the recruiting pundits had him as a defensive end, we always saw him as what he is, a big strong inside linebacker.
You talked about LB Darryl Blackstock making the transition from being a rush end and LB Ahmad Brooks being able to wait and see where the play was going and run after it. What did Kai Parham have to work most on making the transition?
Well, just like those other guys, even though his style is a little bit different. His circumstances in high school were similar in that where he wanted to go, he could pretty much get to. And, so block protection technique, for players in those circumstances, is always a major thing to be learned, really whether they’re outside or inside linebackers. Now, there’s a few more guys who are competitive at keeping them from where they want to go. And, so they really have to learn how to deal with blockers a little bit more than had previously.
On the flip side of how your offense has been playing, you’ve only had four punts. Do you feel that P Sean Johnson still needs a lot of work?
Well, that circumstance is as if the season hasn’t started yet. So, we’ve been practicing, but we really haven’t played yet. The four punts that we’ve had have all been plus-territory punts. That creates a little bit different scenario. So, as far as really putting the punt team under duress and putting the punter under duress, we’ve really yet to begin.
How big of a percentage of Sean Johnson’s job is it to do those plus-50 yard punts?
Big percentage. Okay, I’ll say it to you this way. How important is it for a golfer to hit it on the green? That’s where you score. If a guy is a 40-yard punter and is consistently accurate inside the 20-yard line, he is of greater value than a guy who is a 47-yard punter and consistently kicks it into the endzone.
I understand it’s early in the season. But, understanding that, is this one of the more complete teams that you’ve been with?
I would withhold any assessment on that until we find ourselves in a whole lot more adverse situations. We haven’t been in a two-minute situation yet. We haven’t had to play from behind yet. Our punter hasn’t been under duress yet. I’m resolute in believing that it’s far too early to draw conclusions about most teams. For example, I bet if we went back and found the first three or four week rankings of teams over last three or four years, you’d probably be amazed at the amount of teams that were up there pretty early who disappeared by the end of the year, because false conclusions were drawn about them. Either because of false hype going into the season or certain level of competition or what they were yet to face for a lot of reasons. As I’ve maintained, you’re playing as hard as you can play in September and October to try to get to November 1st and still be in the race. That’s what you’re trying to do. You have to play as hard as you can play to try to get to November 1st and still be in the race. Then, you have to play harder and better than you have before. That’s how the season gets put together.
Do you have a sense of perspective that the players probably lack as far as that? Do you go so far as to show them last year’s polls and maybe show them who was up there on September 13 and from that, the fact that those teams weren’t there in November?
I don’t know that that’s necessary or pertinent at this point. But, it may be at some other point. If I get a sense that maybe some perspective needs to be established. But, I don’t get a sense of that right now.
You have a couple of units like the offensive line and the defensive front three that have been around for a long time, and you know what to expect. Is the jury still out on the cornerbacks?
Yeah, I think that two-and-a-half of the three are really playing extensively for the first time.
What have you liked, what haven’t you liked so far?
I thought we’ve erred on some deep balls that you can’t afford to err on in close games.
Have you liked anything?Yeah, I’ve liked quite a bit of things, but I think the first statement is the prevailing one.
You were impressed with Akron QB Charlie Frye a couple of years ago. How has he developed as a quarterback?
Very good, I think he’s a Matt Schaub, (Charlie) Whitehurst, Philip Rivers-type quarterback. He’s certainly performing that way right now. He’s 75%, which is a high percentage. I mean those two guys blew the lights out last year at around 70%. This is a higher percentage than what they threw at. He’s another big, tall quarterback. He can see the field. He’s very versatile in how he plays. They move him out of the pocket quite a bit. He moves within the pocket to avoid well. He’s got a versatile arm. He can throw at all different levels. He doesn’t have to be set to throw the ball. That’s a significant thing to develop in quarterbacks, to observe in quarterbacks-the versatility of their delivery. He’s very versatile in doing that, and he’s accurate in making all the throws.
Do you remember the 2002 game vs. Akron as being a little too close for comfort even though it was a 19-point game?
I thought we had to work for everything that we got, that’s for sure.
Do you think the players will remember that?
I would imagine a lot of them would. We were kind of a scrappy team then, and we were evolving as a team, but we’d only won one game at that point, with that group. So, we really weren’t an especially proficient team at that point. We’re a lot further along now than we were then.
Does it help your team’s preparation for Charlie Frye in that you dealt with North Carolina QB Darian Durant last week, another guy who’s got that savvy, in-and-out of the pocket style?
Well, it helps us in that for three weeks in a row now we’re dealing with team with a spreadout offense, who throws the ball all over the field. This is not the same type of scrambler as the other two, but this is a mobile quarterback. So, there’s carry-over in that. This is a big arm quarterback who can get the ball all over the field. There is good carry-over. Some of the specifics are a little bit different, but there is good carry-over, certainly in concept.
We’ve mentioned assistant coach Mark D’Onofrio a couple of times on special teams. I’m not sure his background was on special teams. Why did you choose him to do special teams? What difference does he bring to the way you do things?
Well, Mark’s real background in it was really playing it. He played it when he was in Green Bay. So, he’s got practical experience with what actually goes on out there. At Rutgers, while he wasn’t the special teams coordinator, everybody on the staff there helped with different elements of it, so he was involved in the special teams operation. But, beyond that, I would say not extensive background.
You’ve kind of indicated that he’s done some things differently. Does he have any kind of different approach?
Well, our approach is the same. Our organization is much the same. Our personnel is pretty similar, at least with the returning players. We’ve evolved with a couple of things within our system that has helped us so far. Mark’s very industrious, very bright, very detailed, very organized. As a person and his ability to relate with players and to comfortably fit with the philosophy of this organization, he’s a fellow that we had on our short list for quite a while, to have with us. And, we just needed the type of opening that would create that possibility. That is, if we had needed an offensive line coach, that might have just precluded our putting Mark in that slot. We’ve wanted for a while to get him with us. For many reasons, it’s turned out just as we thought it would be, which is as a terrific addition to our staff. But, we still have a very enthusiastic ex-special teams coach, Corwin Brown, who on his way back from his own win yesterday, called me very excitedly to find out that we had returned two kicks the day before. He wanted to know all about the returns, and who was it, and how we did it. He was as excited as if he was running up and down the sidelines, which is exactly what he used to do.
Of course, good players make the special teams, right?
Always, the more speed you have on the team, the better chance you have. That was evident on the amount of players that were on the opponents’ side of the 50-yard line making blocks. That stems primarily from a wanting to get there, but then also having the speed to carry you to that place.
TE Patrick Estes got to see extensive playing time Saturday. How big a factor is he in the running game and the success of it since he doesn’t catch a lot anymore?
Very much, he’s pure power at the point, as you would expect a tight end at 6’7”, 282 to be. And, as his game has evolved as his size has developed, he’s got a real good understanding of who he is as a player. And, he knows he’s not Tony Gonzalez, and he’s not trying to be. He’s trying to be power at the point; that’s his ticket.