Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Doug Pederson: "We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

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Press Pass | Doug Pederson: "We’ve got our work cut out for us.” · Press Pass

0:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I'm forward now cam Um. Yeah,
0:06
Speaker 1: Cam Is it's unfortunate, Um knee injury. Um probably lost
0:13
Speaker 1: for the year. Good chance, No a cl was good
0:17
Speaker 1: meniscus Um and uh, you know I hate it for
0:24
Speaker 1: him because he's he's played extremely well this season. Um,
0:27
Speaker 1: but yeah, he's he's gonna miss some time now. That's
0:31
Speaker 1: Walters say in there. Correct, Yep, he's fine, he's good. Sure.
0:39
Speaker 1: Yesterday you know, I kind of claimed both spots just Um,
0:43
Speaker 1: he's always prepared number one, and he went in there
0:46
Speaker 1: and did some some adverse you know, conditions against those uh,
0:50
Speaker 1: those two edge rushers, and and did a nice job.
0:52
Speaker 1: You know. So we got a lot of confidence with Walker,
0:55
Speaker 1: um and look forward to you know, getting him in
0:58
Speaker 1: there and getting them going. May we chatting or back
1:03
Speaker 1: and later. Yeah, I mean listen, we we we just
1:07
Speaker 1: kind of in the preliminary stages of of the roster
1:09
Speaker 1: right now this week, and we've got we've got some
1:12
Speaker 1: decisions to make as far as if we want to
1:14
Speaker 1: activate somebody off the practice squad or sign somebody off
1:17
Speaker 1: you know, outside the building. So we're just we're going
1:19
Speaker 1: to process of doing that right now. Is anybody else uh,
1:23
Speaker 1: everybody else will fully do you wanna play? Um? Fully
1:33
Speaker 1: will be day to day this week on a short
1:36
Speaker 1: week with the ankle. You know, we just gotta see
1:38
Speaker 1: how he is, you know, today, tomorrow and obviously Wednesday,
1:41
Speaker 1: so we'll see how that is day to day. Trabon
1:44
Speaker 1: the same way, optimistic, but day to day with him,
1:48
Speaker 1: Chat will be fine. He got a little sore you know,
1:51
Speaker 1: in the football game, and so it's it limited him
1:54
Speaker 1: just a little bit, but he'll be fine. Um, fran
1:57
Speaker 1: Cisco is good, Travis will be good. Yeah, all the
2:00
Speaker 1: other guys just just nagging little things. But but they
2:03
Speaker 1: should all be they should I'll be ready go. What's
2:05
Speaker 1: the challenge of preparing a team on a short week,
2:07
Speaker 1: especially you're going against a group ring maybe not sure
2:10
Speaker 1: that their quarterback will be Yeah, I mean it's um,
2:13
Speaker 1: you know, obviously it's a challenge, you know. Um number
2:15
Speaker 1: one thing is to to get healthy, you know, and
2:18
Speaker 1: and get as get as many guys um ready to
2:21
Speaker 1: go as possible, you know, for for a short week
2:23
Speaker 1: and Thursday game. But guys are you know obviously excited
2:27
Speaker 1: from the game yesterday and and uh, I got a
2:29
Speaker 1: lot of energy today. So that's a good start. But um,
2:33
Speaker 1: you know it's this is more one of this is
2:35
Speaker 1: one of those This is one of those weeks where
2:37
Speaker 1: it's more mental, you know, as far as understanding the
2:39
Speaker 1: game planning and knowing your role and your job and
2:42
Speaker 1: and um, and then you let the physical you know,
2:45
Speaker 1: happen on Thursday night. But do you think of the
2:47
Speaker 1: job that Walker Little did, flip flopping from right to
2:50
Speaker 1: left and tacking on Michael Parsons in a few times
2:53
Speaker 1: and one on one situations without health. I mean I
2:55
Speaker 1: thought he did a great job. You know, that's part
2:57
Speaker 1: of that role of being that swing tackle, being able
3:00
Speaker 1: to play both sides. And um, you know, he just
3:04
Speaker 1: he didn't have he didn't have time to think about it.
3:06
Speaker 1: You know, he was in there, and uh, I thought
3:08
Speaker 1: he did a good job. And and now he would
3:10
Speaker 1: get two days of preparation really three days, and and
3:14
Speaker 1: go play on Thursday night. You said last week you
3:16
Speaker 1: didn't want to think too far forward as far as
3:18
Speaker 1: the playoffs go. Is there any part of you now
3:20
Speaker 1: that even thanks for a second, that you might be
3:22
Speaker 1: a team of destiny? You know, I'm not thinking past
3:27
Speaker 1: Thursday quite honestly. Um, you know, Listen, this is a
3:31
Speaker 1: we got a good football team that we're going up
3:33
Speaker 1: against Thursday night. But anything is possible. I understand that,
3:37
Speaker 1: you know. And what we've done the last couple of weeks.
3:40
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's two games, you know. Um,
3:43
Speaker 1: still got a big, big road ahead, two division games ahead. Um,
3:49
Speaker 1: but if we continue to improve on what we've done
3:53
Speaker 1: here in the last month of the season, then I
3:57
Speaker 1: think I think it's possible. You know. But again, um,
4:00
Speaker 1: we got a really good football team Thursday night that uh,
4:04
Speaker 1: defensively one of the one of the better defenses in
4:06
Speaker 1: the league, and and uh, you know a quarterback yesterday
4:09
Speaker 1: through for over three yards. So um, yeah, we got
4:13
Speaker 1: we gotta work it out for us. You've you said
4:16
Speaker 1: several times that you were gonna make Trevor throw through
4:19
Speaker 1: the stakes and the issue and all that other stuff.
4:21
Speaker 1: Why did that philosophy, you know, as opposed to maybe
4:24
Speaker 1: pull him back. It's you know, maybe simplifying things. Where
4:28
Speaker 1: did you know what's your I guess you're the reason
4:31
Speaker 1: you go the other way. Well, the reason I go
4:35
Speaker 1: the other way, um is I never want to pull
4:40
Speaker 1: back as I never want to pull back. Um, I
4:42
Speaker 1: want to keep going forward. And I think the only
4:44
Speaker 1: way to go forward is to kind of learn through,
4:46
Speaker 1: you know, some of the mistakes and and some of
4:48
Speaker 1: the adversity you know, as a player. And and it's
4:52
Speaker 1: our job, it's just it's coaches, is to coach him
4:54
Speaker 1: through those things, to show him and and show him,
4:57
Speaker 1: you know, not only the mistake, but where we can
4:59
Speaker 1: improve and how he can improve and understand it. And um,
5:02
Speaker 1: I'm always going to be aggressive that way with with
5:04
Speaker 1: the quarterback and especially Trevor. And you know, I think
5:07
Speaker 1: it's really he's really benefited from from that. You know,
5:10
Speaker 1: you look at first half of the season to this
5:13
Speaker 1: last few football games and and what he's been able
5:16
Speaker 1: to do. I think it's because we've been able to
5:19
Speaker 1: kind of encourage him moving forward and not worry about
5:22
Speaker 1: one play. You know, let's move on. There's seventy plays
5:26
Speaker 1: in a football game. You got sixty nine others that
5:29
Speaker 1: you can make an impact on or and some things
5:32
Speaker 1: like that. So yeah, I've just always been been aggressive
5:36
Speaker 1: that way. Um, you know, whether it's you know, say
5:39
Speaker 1: t J fumbling the ball, put it right back in
5:41
Speaker 1: his hands, you know, and let him, let him have
5:44
Speaker 1: confidence and uh and then not only him personally, but
5:48
Speaker 1: us as a staff and play callers, you know, um,
5:53
Speaker 1: showing the confidence that we have in in those guys
5:56
Speaker 1: to continue to you know, make place for us. That's
6:00
Speaker 1: like you red quarterback to the one of the locker room.
6:02
Speaker 1: The way that Trevor has, like you mentioned yesterday, he
6:05
Speaker 1: has that bumble way in the game, and the defense
6:07
Speaker 1: is life, we got you. We're gonna get the right
6:09
Speaker 1: back to you so you can go to year again.
6:11
Speaker 1: I mean, I I don't think it's out of the question,
6:14
Speaker 1: you know. Um, I think it's you know, Trevor is
6:17
Speaker 1: the type of guy that that you know, that stuff
6:19
Speaker 1: obviously bothers him and and and he's gonna he's gonna
6:22
Speaker 1: learn from it and and move on. But I think
6:25
Speaker 1: that's a it's just a credit of where we are.
6:28
Speaker 1: I think it's a football team right now. Um, confidence
6:31
Speaker 1: that both sides really all three phases. But you know,
6:34
Speaker 1: offense defense are playing with If if offense turns the
6:38
Speaker 1: ball over, defense is like, hey, we'll we'll get either
6:41
Speaker 1: get a stop or get the ball back at some point.
6:43
Speaker 1: And the same way, if you know, defense allows a touchdown,
6:47
Speaker 1: offense is like, hey, we gotta go. We gotta go score.
6:50
Speaker 1: So it's the complementary aspect of the game. But for
6:54
Speaker 1: Trevor um as the leader. You know, guys, guys, uh
6:59
Speaker 1: really like how obviously how he's playing, how he's leading,
7:02
Speaker 1: his toughness. Um, and you know that that goes a
7:07
Speaker 1: long way, you know with the guys in the locker
7:09
Speaker 1: roommer and you got to playing maybe some of your
7:12
Speaker 1: best football during that rough stretch in October. You kept
7:14
Speaker 1: saying you want to line this team up to play
7:16
Speaker 1: their best ball late in the season in December. What
7:19
Speaker 1: kind of can you put your finger on exactly what's
7:21
Speaker 1: changed to kind of lead to this point. I just
7:26
Speaker 1: think we're just we're just learning. We're just learning each
7:31
Speaker 1: and every week, learning from our mistakes, learning from the positives. Um.
7:37
Speaker 1: You know, we're not coaching any different, you know, maybe
7:41
Speaker 1: maybe running some similar concepts you know, offensively defensively that
7:45
Speaker 1: we did maybe early in the season. Where guys now
7:47
Speaker 1: have you know, time on task and um, you know,
7:53
Speaker 1: we're just growing as a football team. And and the
7:55
Speaker 1: more time we spend together, you know, the tighter you become.
7:59
Speaker 1: And and uh, I think, uh, you know, the the
8:06
Speaker 1: more you overcome some of the adverse situations. I just
8:09
Speaker 1: think it's just part of the growth process of where
8:11
Speaker 1: we where we've come from, and how we've learned from it,
8:13
Speaker 1: and how do you balance as a coach like it
8:15
Speaker 1: what you've seen in some of these comeback wins as
8:17
Speaker 1: of late, and won the team to get off to
8:19
Speaker 1: a faster start as long as we win the game.
8:23
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, we want to start fast, but we
8:27
Speaker 1: also say finished faster. And in these games it might
8:31
Speaker 1: be a slow start, but we finished fast, you know. Um,
8:35
Speaker 1: And and again, the bottom line is winning the game, right,
8:39
Speaker 1: I mean, every every team out there wants to win
8:41
Speaker 1: the game. But it doesn't matter. It could be you know,
8:46
Speaker 1: for fifty nine minutes, it could be ugly and then
8:51
Speaker 1: one minute it looks great and you win the game.
8:54
Speaker 1: So you know, bottom line is win the game. But um,
8:58
Speaker 1: at the same time, we know we gotta we gotta
9:00
Speaker 1: either get off the field on defense or and and
9:03
Speaker 1: or stay on the field you know, offensively and either
9:05
Speaker 1: not turn it over or or score. Ye. You know,
9:10
Speaker 1: compared to the past, they're just a smarter team. What
9:12
Speaker 1: can you say about the guy's situational wareness this year? Especially,
9:15
Speaker 1: I mean Evan going out bounds stuff. I think that's
9:18
Speaker 1: one of the one of the biggest things that this
9:20
Speaker 1: team has really learned and and we've talked a lot
9:24
Speaker 1: about it as a staff with the players, is situational
9:27
Speaker 1: awareness and situational football. We want to be one of
9:29
Speaker 1: the top situational teams in the league. And um, we've
9:34
Speaker 1: covered We've covered a lot of ground. Our offense has
9:36
Speaker 1: been in two minute situations almost the entire year, you know,
9:40
Speaker 1: where we've had to either come back and tie or
9:42
Speaker 1: win a game. And you know, um, now you're seeing
9:46
Speaker 1: us win those games right in those situations. And so
9:50
Speaker 1: for guys like Evan to do what he did, kiss
9:52
Speaker 1: the pass and be basically tackled and spin himself out
9:56
Speaker 1: of bounds. You know, yes, I had to burn it
9:59
Speaker 1: to I'm out, but it was also replayed and it
10:02
Speaker 1: was it was the right call and gave us the
10:04
Speaker 1: time out back, which was very beneficial to us. And
10:07
Speaker 1: you know, and you're seeing that's the growth of the
10:11
Speaker 1: team right from the first half of the year til now.
10:13
Speaker 1: And that's the that's the part that um that I
10:18
Speaker 1: appreciate with the team. It's just how much they've grown
10:21
Speaker 1: in that area. What's the biggest challenge and getting through
10:26
Speaker 1: the ship like this, I mean, the biggest challenge is
10:32
Speaker 1: just getting as many guys healthy, you know. And and
10:36
Speaker 1: because you're on the practice field today, you're on the
10:38
Speaker 1: practice field tomorrow, which are typically rest days you know
10:41
Speaker 1: for your players, and and um, you know you've came up.
10:45
Speaker 1: You've just come off of a game where there's seventy
10:47
Speaker 1: plus plays and and and physical football game, you know.
10:52
Speaker 1: And and we're right back, you know, we're right back
10:55
Speaker 1: in the classroom, we're right back on the practice field.
10:57
Speaker 1: So you know, the message to the team is number one,
11:01
Speaker 1: let's let's get healthy this week. Let's let's spend as
11:04
Speaker 1: much time as we can, you know, in the building,
11:06
Speaker 1: in the training room, whatever you gotta do in the
11:08
Speaker 1: cold tubs, hot tubs, whatever it is. And and get
11:12
Speaker 1: your bodies bodies right. And then just understanding the game plan.
11:16
Speaker 1: You know, we've got to be smart and you know,
11:18
Speaker 1: maybe not throw a bunch of new stuff at the
11:20
Speaker 1: players where they can you know, just go play stuff
11:24
Speaker 1: that we have done, you know since training camp and
11:27
Speaker 1: uh just uh you know, use that to hopefully to
11:31
Speaker 1: your advantage. Would disadvantage to be playing Thursday night games
11:37
Speaker 1: this late in the year, the most earlier season, you know,
11:40
Speaker 1: when you're like you're fighting for a playoff spot like this,
11:42
Speaker 1: So clearly those two teams are at a much more
11:45
Speaker 1: disadvantage than some of the other teams they thought too
11:48
Speaker 1: maybe certainly, or well that's not happening. Um, but now
11:56
Speaker 1: you know when you look at your schedule though, to you,
11:58
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're playing meaningful game, if you have
12:00
Speaker 1: a if you're positioning yourself for the postseason. You know,
12:04
Speaker 1: in some cases having a late Thursday game, you get
12:08
Speaker 1: you get ten days sort of rest after it, right,
12:10
Speaker 1: and and you now you really start getting some guys
12:13
Speaker 1: healthy and back and as long as you can make
12:15
Speaker 1: it through the Thursday, you know, the Thursday game without
12:19
Speaker 1: losing another player or two. So you know, um, you
12:23
Speaker 1: can look at it as a benefit to you know,
12:24
Speaker 1: to your team and and uh, you know that's how
12:27
Speaker 1: I look at this one. You know, an opportunity to
12:29
Speaker 1: go on the road and play, and you know, and
12:32
Speaker 1: and really with the emotional wins we've had these last
12:35
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, you don't have time to think. You
12:37
Speaker 1: just got you just gotta put everybody together and go
12:40
Speaker 1: play and and then uh, you know, it's great for
12:43
Speaker 1: us because we've got Christmas coming up after this and
12:46
Speaker 1: get a chance to spend time with uh, you know
12:48
Speaker 1: family this weekend. A lot of baggage, especially like a
12:53
Speaker 1: lot of those streets and stuff you took over here
12:55
Speaker 1: is in an over rewarding for you and the players
12:58
Speaker 1: maybe plush a lot of that, and the narrative surrounding
13:02
Speaker 1: the creation shows well, that's our job. Our job is
13:05
Speaker 1: is to change culture. Our job is to you know,
13:08
Speaker 1: promote a winning culture and a winning atmosphere. And um,
13:14
Speaker 1: you know it's it's obviously it doesn't it doesn't come overnight.
13:18
Speaker 1: It's not a quick fix, as you guys know. And
13:21
Speaker 1: you know, I think, I think what the players and
13:22
Speaker 1: the team have done this year in four games, um
13:26
Speaker 1: to go to and too you know, when trailing seventeen
13:30
Speaker 1: points is huge. It it shows us and shows them
13:33
Speaker 1: that that that we're flipping this culture and this narrative
13:37
Speaker 1: and um, you can't worry about the past obviously, but
13:40
Speaker 1: but we can learn from it. Um. And and it's
13:45
Speaker 1: it's really good to see that the guys have they've
13:47
Speaker 1: bought into that, you know, and and they really haven't
13:50
Speaker 1: even the guys that have been here, you know, multiple years. Um,
13:55
Speaker 1: I think are in a different place mentally than they were,
13:58
Speaker 1: you know, just a few years ago. So that's a
14:00
Speaker 1: that's a really good thing that's going on from you.
14:06
Speaker 1: I've used that one before, but that's something they've heard
14:09
Speaker 1: along the way and their careers. When you lived up
14:12
Speaker 1: the two thousand seventeen situation in Philly, different situation and
14:16
Speaker 1: the home stretch you had to switch quarterbacks, so that
14:19
Speaker 1: that's different. But in terms of what the locker room
14:22
Speaker 1: is like, is there any similarities for you? There a
14:26
Speaker 1: lot of similarities, a lot of similarities. Um, you know,
14:31
Speaker 1: you take I even thought about this, you know, last night,
14:34
Speaker 1: not really knowing you know, Cam's injury or the extent
14:37
Speaker 1: of it, you know, after the game, but just knowing
14:39
Speaker 1: there's a there's a veteran player, there's a leader your
14:41
Speaker 1: football team. You know, much like our quarterback back in
14:44
Speaker 1: seventeen who who missed the remainder of the season with
14:47
Speaker 1: three games to go and you know we still were
14:49
Speaker 1: able to you know, find a way to win and
14:52
Speaker 1: and to make ourselves into the postseason. Back then, you know,
14:56
Speaker 1: you draw some of those same conclusions, right you one
14:58
Speaker 1: of your top players is is down and it's gonna
15:01
Speaker 1: be missed. But it's that next band up mentality, the
15:04
Speaker 1: leadership of the locker room is gonna take over. You've
15:06
Speaker 1: got three games left on your schedule. Everything is still
15:09
Speaker 1: right in front of us, and and we just gotta
15:11
Speaker 1: embrace that. And um, you know, players gotta lean on
15:15
Speaker 1: each other. You gotta keep encouraging each other. You know,
15:18
Speaker 1: we're in that home stretch of the season and um,
15:21
Speaker 1: you know it's uh, it's um, you know, situations that
15:26
Speaker 1: we want to be in. You know, you want to
15:27
Speaker 1: be in these these meaningful games where there's a little
15:30
Speaker 1: bit of sense of urgency and um, you know, go
15:33
Speaker 1: see what happens. What are you talking about that that
15:36
Speaker 1: Thursday that really is a must win game for your team.
15:38
Speaker 1: You mentioned kind of on the back end you get
15:40
Speaker 1: a longer break, but you have to get the job
15:42
Speaker 1: done first on Thursday. You have to you know, you
15:44
Speaker 1: have to get it done Thursday. I mean, this is
15:46
Speaker 1: a good football team, one of the you know teams
15:48
Speaker 1: that's still competing to for postseason and and everything. They
15:52
Speaker 1: have a lot to play for. We have a lot
15:54
Speaker 1: to play for. Um, you know, it should be a
15:57
Speaker 1: good football game. And so those are those are the
15:59
Speaker 1: message just that I gotta keep putting out in front
16:01
Speaker 1: of the team, you know, and let them understand it.
16:04
Speaker 1: This is what meaningful football games look like, you know,
16:06
Speaker 1: against really good teams. And um, you know, we just
16:09
Speaker 1: gotta prepare ourselves that way and get ready to go
16:14
Speaker 1: to see a rookie cornerback plant like he has. He
16:17
Speaker 1: heeds the reason why you know they took him so
16:19
Speaker 1: high obviously, and um you know you see his length,
16:25
Speaker 1: you see his speed on tape, and and um you
16:28
Speaker 1: know just um gonna he is and will be a
16:32
Speaker 1: really good corner in this league. And um you know
16:36
Speaker 1: it's again you see why, you know, you see why
16:39
Speaker 1: the Jets took him. All right, thank you