Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Doug Pederson: “One piece, one player, one game at a time.”

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Press Pass | Doug Pederson: “One piece, one player, one game at a time.” · Press Pass

0:01
Speaker 1: Um, it's like I told the guys a second ago
0:03
Speaker 1: that this game tonight sort of uh kind of symbolizes
0:07
Speaker 1: our season. You know. Um, there were some struggles, there
0:12
Speaker 1: was some highs and lows, you know, but in the end,
0:15
Speaker 1: we had the victory. And you know, I'm so proud
0:19
Speaker 1: of the guys for the way they have just all
0:20
Speaker 1: season long, just hung together and and you know, through
0:24
Speaker 1: the face of adversity at times and even through some
0:27
Speaker 1: of the high moments, you know, just we just stayed
0:30
Speaker 1: the same, just stayed the same. We just kept kept
0:33
Speaker 1: trusting in each other, kept you know, building on on
0:35
Speaker 1: what we do. And um, the guys just improved every
0:39
Speaker 1: single week and and it it showed. I mean it
0:42
Speaker 1: just you know, it's it's not gonna be easy. These
0:44
Speaker 1: games are never easy. And and I don't care, you
0:47
Speaker 1: know what the score is. I just want more points
0:49
Speaker 1: than the opponent. And um, that's a great football team.
0:53
Speaker 1: You know, My hats off to Mike. He had his
0:56
Speaker 1: guys ready to go, and and you know it's always
0:59
Speaker 1: a physical game with them, and um, but just so
1:03
Speaker 1: happy and proud, happy for for Mr Kahan obviously, Um,
1:07
Speaker 1: it's been a while, you know that he's had nine
1:10
Speaker 1: wins and UM, just so happy that we were able
1:13
Speaker 1: to to do that for him today as well. Can
1:15
Speaker 1: you describe ray Sean strip sack and Josh Allen's touchdown?
1:18
Speaker 1: How that play developed for you guys? I mean, you know,
1:22
Speaker 1: as a coach, I mean you're excited, but as a coach,
1:25
Speaker 1: you go, okay, it's got to go to replay. UM,
1:28
Speaker 1: and and then when it when it was confirmed, it's
1:30
Speaker 1: just it's the break we needed. I mean again, it's
1:33
Speaker 1: just how the defense. I think defense and special teams
1:36
Speaker 1: won this football game for us. And UM, and that's okay,
1:40
Speaker 1: it's okay, and uh we found a way. Um, that
1:43
Speaker 1: was a great play. We needed it. We needed to
1:45
Speaker 1: find a way. Guys did it. Um, hats off to
1:49
Speaker 1: the defense and our special teams, Agnew and the guys
1:51
Speaker 1: did do a heck of a job. A coach, congrats.
1:55
Speaker 1: How far has this team come this season to be
1:57
Speaker 1: able to play and win a game like this one?
2:01
Speaker 1: And we've come so far, you know, I mean, you know,
2:04
Speaker 1: just think about back in April and May when we
2:07
Speaker 1: first got together. You know, you're trying to teach a
2:09
Speaker 1: winning culture. You're trying to flip you know, a script,
2:12
Speaker 1: so to speak, and and uh, you're just not sure
2:16
Speaker 1: until you start playing games just how that's gonna look.
2:19
Speaker 1: And you know, listen, these guys they trusted me. I
2:23
Speaker 1: trusted them. Um you know, they never never wavered. And
2:29
Speaker 1: and to get a game like this, you know down
2:31
Speaker 1: the strap, I mean it's just it's pretty incredible, you know,
2:35
Speaker 1: to to win nine nine games in our first year together. Um,
2:39
Speaker 1: it's pretty uh, pretty impressive for for the guys in
2:42
Speaker 1: the locker room. And what did you think about the
2:44
Speaker 1: environment and the fans here at the Bank tonight? I mean,
2:47
Speaker 1: it was it was electric. It was what we were
2:49
Speaker 1: hoping for and and the crowd delivered. It was loud,
2:53
Speaker 1: they stayed to the end. I mean, I'm very proud
2:55
Speaker 1: of our fans. Um, we're gonna need him again, you know,
2:58
Speaker 1: in a week or so, and uh, um, just just
3:02
Speaker 1: a great, great way to cap off the regular season. Um,
3:06
Speaker 1: you know, as we head into the postseason and um,
3:08
Speaker 1: you know we're gonna need him again, so let's let's
3:10
Speaker 1: gear up and get ready. It was awesome though, coach, congratulations. Obviously,
3:15
Speaker 1: the Dallas games show what home Field could bandage with
3:19
Speaker 1: your twelfth man and boy did it come up big today.
3:21
Speaker 1: The louder it became. You know, when you took this job,
3:25
Speaker 1: you know, this is a town waiting. Knew we erupt
3:27
Speaker 1: here with some success and we saw that with the
3:30
Speaker 1: twelfth Man. Seattle is known for about boy Jacksonville's waiting
3:33
Speaker 1: new erupt here. Does that really make you feel pretty
3:36
Speaker 1: enthusiastic about what lives? I add, Yeah, I mean that's
3:39
Speaker 1: just it, you know. I mean, listen, we understand too
3:42
Speaker 1: that you know, we've got to do our jobs and
3:44
Speaker 1: we've got to win football games and ready to get
3:45
Speaker 1: crowds like that. You gotta win on the field. And
3:48
Speaker 1: and that's what our guys have done here in the
3:49
Speaker 1: second half of the season. They put themselves in this position.
3:52
Speaker 1: We we talked about playing meeting meaningful games in the
3:55
Speaker 1: month of December and January, and so here we are
3:59
Speaker 1: and and the more success we have, the fans will
4:03
Speaker 1: show up. And they did that and so very proud
4:07
Speaker 1: of our fans. Um. Again, it was a great atmosphere,
4:11
Speaker 1: just uh, you know, electric and um loud, everything we expected.
4:23
Speaker 1: I think what was needed was trust. Um, I think
4:27
Speaker 1: trust was broken with this team. You know when I
4:29
Speaker 1: when I took the job, and so I had to
4:31
Speaker 1: regain their trust as a coach. And you know, it's
4:35
Speaker 1: not a it's not an overnight I said this way
4:37
Speaker 1: back then. It's not an overnight fix. It's gonna take it.
4:39
Speaker 1: It's gonna take a process, it's gonna take a journey.
4:41
Speaker 1: And I think they saw right away that you know
4:45
Speaker 1: that they can trust in me, I can trust in them.
4:47
Speaker 1: And and you know, it's one of the things I'm
4:49
Speaker 1: always gonna do is I'm gonna shoot them straight and
4:51
Speaker 1: be honest with them. The transparency is key, the communication
4:55
Speaker 1: is key. And I think we just built over time
4:58
Speaker 1: that that trust factor and it began to show, um,
5:02
Speaker 1: you know, throughout the course of the year. And I
5:05
Speaker 1: think that's why you know, we hung together. Um you know,
5:09
Speaker 1: in the middle part of our year. That month of October,
5:12
Speaker 1: you know, you have five straight losses. It could it
5:14
Speaker 1: could go sideways in a hurry, and and it didn't,
5:17
Speaker 1: and we just had to, you know, dig a little deeper.
5:22
Speaker 1: And um, you know, it's not about coaching harder, or
5:25
Speaker 1: playing harder, or practicing harder. Is none of that. It's
5:28
Speaker 1: just you just gotta tighten a few things up. You
5:30
Speaker 1: just gotta play a little bit better, um, you know,
5:34
Speaker 1: and and and eliminate the mistakes. We did that and
5:36
Speaker 1: and um, you know, uh, here we are. I mean
5:57
Speaker 1: it's I think it means everything. You know to these
6:00
Speaker 1: guys that have been here. You know, they were at
6:02
Speaker 1: an ultimate low coming off last season obviously, and and um,
6:06
Speaker 1: now they're they're right now, they're an ultimate high with
6:08
Speaker 1: with more football to play. And so it's you know,
6:11
Speaker 1: and that's really the the roller coaster of emotions that
6:14
Speaker 1: a football season can can bring. But you know, these guys,
6:19
Speaker 1: the guys that have been here, Um, you can see
6:22
Speaker 1: it in their faces, just how how excited and proud
6:26
Speaker 1: and and um, it's not relief, but it's it's um,
6:32
Speaker 1: it's enthusiasm, and it's it's it means everything to them.
6:36
Speaker 1: They take it to heart and and um, it's something
6:38
Speaker 1: that we can we can continue to build upon. By
6:42
Speaker 1: by any we're not where we need to be or
6:44
Speaker 1: want to be. But at the same time, you know,
6:47
Speaker 1: we're building it, and we're building it one you know,
6:50
Speaker 1: kind of one piece, one player, one game at a time.
6:53
Speaker 1: And this was a really good start for us this year. Okay, Doug,
6:57
Speaker 1: you talked about the Josh Down touchdown. But just how
7:01
Speaker 1: important was that early Tyson Campbell interception and how much
7:04
Speaker 1: has he grown sort of over the course of the year.
7:06
Speaker 1: Tyson's Tyson's improved so much through the course of the year.
7:09
Speaker 1: And he's a he's a tough, tough player to throw
7:13
Speaker 1: at and against, and he's so long and athletic and
7:16
Speaker 1: to make plays like that, I mean, that's that's what
7:18
Speaker 1: you know, that's what great corners in this league do.
7:21
Speaker 1: And and he's been he's such a humble kid and
7:24
Speaker 1: it just wants to learn and get better and the
7:25
Speaker 1: way he practices every day. Um, just a great uh,
7:30
Speaker 1: a great play, and then it really helped us to uh,
7:32
Speaker 1: you know, at least get three points on the board
7:35
Speaker 1: at that time. Bruce Hope, Florida Star newspaper coach, you're
7:39
Speaker 1: obviously a super Bowl winning champion. You know what it
7:42
Speaker 1: takes to win at the highest level in this sport.
7:45
Speaker 1: At what point this season did you start to see
7:48
Speaker 1: your team take that turn or take that proverbial leap,
7:51
Speaker 1: And what in particular did you see that allowed you
7:54
Speaker 1: to know that those changes were happening and you were
7:56
Speaker 1: starting to really make that step forward. You know, it
8:00
Speaker 1: was somewhere in the middle of our middle part of
8:02
Speaker 1: the year. It could have been somewhere in that you know,
8:06
Speaker 1: that Denver Vegas sort of you know, Kansas City sort
8:10
Speaker 1: of stretch of three games right in their middle of
8:12
Speaker 1: our middle part of our season where you know, that's
8:15
Speaker 1: that's where things could have really gotten out of hand
8:17
Speaker 1: for us. Um and and listen, we just we just
8:21
Speaker 1: continued to stay disciplined and what we did, um, and
8:24
Speaker 1: what we were doing, UM, we continue to just build
8:29
Speaker 1: uh And listen, we knew we knew that it was
8:32
Speaker 1: gonna be about what we did. You know, I mean,
8:35
Speaker 1: when we turned the ball over, that's us. When we
8:38
Speaker 1: don't make tackles, that's us. When you know we we
8:40
Speaker 1: miss field goals, actually that's us, right, It's it's it's
8:43
Speaker 1: about us, and it's always gonna be about us. And
8:45
Speaker 1: and I think that's when we realized that, hey, we've
8:48
Speaker 1: got a pretty good football team if we could just
8:50
Speaker 1: eliminate those mistakes we got into the by Um. You know,
8:54
Speaker 1: obviously you think about the go back to the Raider game.
8:56
Speaker 1: We're down, you know, down seventeen points in that game,
8:58
Speaker 1: and there was no lynch and really at that moment,
9:01
Speaker 1: I think is when we realized that that this football
9:05
Speaker 1: team is a special team. We could make a we
9:07
Speaker 1: can make a run at the end of the year
9:08
Speaker 1: and see what happens. So is it more rewarding to
9:11
Speaker 1: win this considering the whole you guys dug yourself in.
9:15
Speaker 1: Is it more special for you and the players to
9:17
Speaker 1: to claw out of that hole to win it like this?
9:21
Speaker 1: You know, they're all it's hard to win in this
9:25
Speaker 1: league period. Um. It takes a lot going your your way,
9:30
Speaker 1: you know, and you cherish every every moment you have
9:34
Speaker 1: because you never know. I mean, we we saw it
9:36
Speaker 1: this past week. I mean we saw you never know
9:37
Speaker 1: when it could be your last coaching day, playing day.
9:41
Speaker 1: It's been a it's been a tough week for our
9:43
Speaker 1: team and and you know, the rest of the league
9:46
Speaker 1: for um, you know what we've what we've seen, what
9:49
Speaker 1: we've witnessed, and obviously the blessing that you know we're getting,
9:52
Speaker 1: you know, um every single day with Damar So every
9:56
Speaker 1: win is special. Um. It doesn't take away from you know,
10:02
Speaker 1: what our team did this year. You know, UM, I'm
10:06
Speaker 1: just proud of these guys obviously to be in this
10:09
Speaker 1: position to be in the a f C South champion
10:13
Speaker 1: and and just to know the journey that it took
10:16
Speaker 1: us to get here. You know, Um, guys, stay humble,
10:21
Speaker 1: you know, and and look, it's it's just it's just
10:24
Speaker 1: a step in the direction that we want to go.
10:27
Speaker 1: And and you know, I wanted to be sustainable. I
10:31
Speaker 1: just don't want to be like, Okay, you were the
10:34
Speaker 1: champs and you know, not in twenty three. I mean
10:36
Speaker 1: you want to be competing for you know, this division
10:39
Speaker 1: every year. And um, but it makes it, it makes
10:43
Speaker 1: it special just because of the way, um, you know,
10:47
Speaker 1: these guys battled and kind of what they've been through
10:49
Speaker 1: in the last two years. Doug did did as a
10:54
Speaker 1: play caller did as the game progressed into the second quarter?
10:59
Speaker 1: Did you feel, all right, this is gonna be a
11:01
Speaker 1: low scoring game. Did you kind of change? Did you
11:04
Speaker 1: get more conservative as a play caller as the game
11:06
Speaker 1: went along? Now, you know, not necessarily conservative, as much
11:10
Speaker 1: as just trying to find things that would work. Um.
11:15
Speaker 1: They did a great job with their front They changed
11:17
Speaker 1: some things up from week fourteen, and and they pressured
11:20
Speaker 1: us a little more off the edge. We didn't handle
11:22
Speaker 1: it very well as an offense quite frankly, something we've
11:25
Speaker 1: got to clean up or we're gonna continue to see it, um,
11:29
Speaker 1: you know. And we still tried to take shots down
11:31
Speaker 1: the field. We just some leakage in protection, um, you know,
11:36
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. And you know, we an overthrow
11:39
Speaker 1: in the end zone today. I mean, there's all kinds
11:41
Speaker 1: of things in the offense just wasn't on point tonight.
11:44
Speaker 1: But sometimes that's okay, right, But as a play caller,
11:48
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're just you just trusted in your guys.
11:51
Speaker 1: It's somewhere somebody's gonna make a play, um. And for us,
11:55
Speaker 1: fortunately it was on the defensive side tonight, right making
11:58
Speaker 1: a play. Special teams logan you know, kicked his tail
12:01
Speaker 1: off as a punter. Um. But now we just you know,
12:06
Speaker 1: we'd try to stay stay aggressive as we could, trying
12:09
Speaker 1: to find things that that worked. Coach Derrick Henry is
12:16
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry, do you coach the defense to say, just
12:19
Speaker 1: to hang in there and you know you'll get a
12:21
Speaker 1: play at the end of the day. You coached the
12:23
Speaker 1: kind of defensive game plan that kind of went out
12:25
Speaker 1: today that they kind of had him most of the game,
12:26
Speaker 1: and then just finishing the game. Derek's a great back. Um,
12:32
Speaker 1: he's he's big, he's powerful, he's fast, and and you know,
12:37
Speaker 1: we knew this was gonna be one of those games
12:38
Speaker 1: where you know you kind of have to big your
12:40
Speaker 1: bring your your big boy pads as we call it,
12:43
Speaker 1: and you know you're gonna have to bow up because
12:46
Speaker 1: I mean, he's he's gonna get five six seven yards
12:49
Speaker 1: every time. And um, you know, credit to the defense,
12:53
Speaker 1: I mean, you know kept him I think two three
12:56
Speaker 1: and a half or three points six or so yards
12:59
Speaker 1: I mean, and just you know, you have to commit
13:03
Speaker 1: to living guys, you know, against a good back like that.
13:07
Speaker 1: And and our guys did a nice job. We had
13:08
Speaker 1: an extra d lineman in there, you know, in our
13:10
Speaker 1: game plan this week, and um, you know you're always
13:15
Speaker 1: gonna be fighting to the end. Um because that run
13:19
Speaker 1: game that they have can can keep you in a
13:21
Speaker 1: lot of ball games. Doug, you get an opportunity now
13:24
Speaker 1: to exhale a little bit. And you know you had
13:27
Speaker 1: one day short. Now tomorrow you can turn that into
13:30
Speaker 1: an extra day. And I'm sorry, I apologize. I don't
13:33
Speaker 1: remember if in Philly you had a Saturday Sunday playoff
13:36
Speaker 1: type of situation, but you knew who your opponent would be.
13:39
Speaker 1: When you wake up in the morning, you still don't
13:41
Speaker 1: know who it's going to be. What's that going to
13:43
Speaker 1: be like? The kind of monitor the one o'clock, four
13:46
Speaker 1: o'clock games trying to figure out what it's gonna be
13:49
Speaker 1: like for you. Yeah, I mean, you know, when I
13:52
Speaker 1: was in Philly, um, we always played for the division
13:55
Speaker 1: on Sunday, so we kind of knew at the end
13:57
Speaker 1: of that day what was gonna happen. This is a
13:59
Speaker 1: little unique because it was on it's on Saturday, and
14:03
Speaker 1: you know, we have a good idea of who it
14:05
Speaker 1: might be. But really, until tomorrow is finished, um, you know,
14:09
Speaker 1: we really won't know. But but I think history, um,
14:15
Speaker 1: history says that the a f C South winner usually
14:18
Speaker 1: plays on Saturday. So we should have at least seven days,
14:21
Speaker 1: you know, to prepare, which I think is a good thing. Um.
14:24
Speaker 1: And so we'll treat tomorrow like a Monday, you know. UM,
14:27
Speaker 1: let the guys come in, sleep in, and if they
14:29
Speaker 1: want to go to church, they can go to church
14:31
Speaker 1: and then come in here um to our afternoon and
14:34
Speaker 1: and and get ready for potential Saturday game. Thank you,
14:38
Speaker 1: all right? Thanks guys,