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Sam Darnold Discusses Preparing For Week 8 vs. Bears · Seahawks Press Pass

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  Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously got a big challenge ahead of us this week.
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  Speaker 1: Really good football team, really well coached, you know, really
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  Speaker 1: good defense as well. Fly around, make plays. And again,
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  Speaker 1: really looking forward to the challenge.
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  Speaker 2: Can I throw you off here? Best Halloween candy ever made.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to be honest. Jeff did not do a
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  Speaker 1: good enough job preparing me for that question out there.
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  Speaker 1: So best Halloween candy ever made. I mean, Depends what,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you could go a bunch of different routes.
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  Speaker 1: I think, you know, you think of two things, right?
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  Speaker 1: You think of, you can go sour candy. You can
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  Speaker 1: also go with the chocolate, the savory kind of candy.
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  Speaker 1: So I think I'd go chocolate and just keep it
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  Speaker 1: really simple with a Snickers. I don't think you can
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  Speaker 1: really go wrong there. So safest, safest option would be
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  Speaker 1: a Snickers. And that's how I'm going to, that's how
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to roll on that one.
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  Speaker 2: What were your thoughts when you heard Quinn Nelson was
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  Speaker 2: coming here? I mean, obviously, you know, Hall of Fame
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  Speaker 2: caliber guy, player, joining your offensive line.
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  Speaker 1: That's a great question, by the way. I really appreciate that.
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  Speaker 1: You're welcome. That was good. No, obviously, Q coming in here,
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  Speaker 1: you know, he has a lot, just a lot of experience.
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  Speaker 1: You know, really, really talented football player, obviously. So, you know,
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  Speaker 1: he adds a lot of experience to this group. And
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  Speaker 1: just with our guys, too, like, you know, sometimes with
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  Speaker 1: things like this can be, tough on a group, tough
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  Speaker 1: on a team, maybe coming in and shaking things up,
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  Speaker 1: but Q has been doing a great job of just
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  Speaker 1: learning everything. I think our offensive line in general has
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  Speaker 1: done a great job of welcoming him with open arms
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  Speaker 1: and they've been handling the situation with grace.
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  Speaker 3: Third down conversions against Kansas City were the best of
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  Speaker 3: the year. Chicago, one of the best at preventing teams
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  Speaker 3: from converting on third. What did you see on Sunday
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  Speaker 3: night that you know can transfer over to Monday?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think for myself, just playing fast,
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  Speaker 1: being able to understand what we're doing in terms of
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  Speaker 1: scheme and how we're trying to attack them and what
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  Speaker 1: gives us problems in our scheme and how they could
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  Speaker 1: present a potential issue for us on every single play.
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  Speaker 1: And being able to diagnose that today with the coaches,
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  Speaker 1: be able to communicate that with the skill guys in
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  Speaker 1: the offensive line and go from there.
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  Speaker 4: Sam, with Quentin coming in, Charles out, and Gray flipping sides,
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  Speaker 4: it's three or five spots on the line now different
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  Speaker 4: than what they were on Sunday. Do you have to
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  Speaker 4: put in any extra time to kind of make sure
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  Speaker 4: things are set up this week? How do you kind
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  Speaker 4: of approach things to try to make sure you're all good?
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  Speaker 1: No, I'm not thinking about it at all. I know
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  Speaker 1: those guys by the time Monday night comes, they'll be
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  Speaker 1: ready to go.
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  Speaker 5: It used to be that folks focused a lot on
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  Speaker 5: third down offense, and now a lot of the best
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  Speaker 5: offenses seem to avoid third down entirely. So what's your
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  Speaker 5: checklist for what makes a healthy offense in the NFL?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think just moving the ball forward. I think
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  Speaker 1: that's the best recipe, and I'm not saying that sarcastically
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  Speaker 1: or any type of way, but it's true. It's like
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  Speaker 1: the offenses that just continue to move the ball forward
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  Speaker 1: and You know, you're not ever really seeking out explosive plays.
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  Speaker 1: You know, they just kind of happen throughout the game,
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  Speaker 1: especially when you keep moving that ball forward. You're converting
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  Speaker 1: first downs, and you're going first, second, first down, staying
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  Speaker 1: out of those third downs. And if they are third downs,
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  Speaker 1: they're third and short, third and manageable. So that's kind
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  Speaker 1: of the recipe, you know, to playing really good football. And, again,
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  Speaker 1: we were able to convert some of those third downs
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  Speaker 1: on Sunday night, the other night. But I think for us, like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's just continuing to be, push ourselves, right,
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  Speaker 1: to be more efficient on those first and second downs
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  Speaker 1: so we can just stay out of third downs completely.
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  Speaker 6: It sounds like you guys kind of narrowed down the
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  Speaker 6: focus offensively over the mini-bye. That's what Cooper Cup told
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  Speaker 6: us yesterday. What do you feel like that did for you,
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  Speaker 6: excuse me, against Kansas City?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, again, it just narrows our focus.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's a really clear, concise game plan. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean we're not doing a lot. You know, we're
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  Speaker 1: still doing a lot offensively, motion shifts, all those kind
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  Speaker 1: of things, changing up cadences, changing up really– concepts as well.
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  Speaker 1: We still have a lot of concepts in the run
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  Speaker 1: and pass game. It's doing things that we know and love.
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  Speaker 1: That's the formulation for what worked against Kansas City.
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  Speaker 5: People talk about the changing of cadences. Usually people associate
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  Speaker 5: that with keeping guys from jumping the snap or something
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  Speaker 5: like that. What else does it do for an offense
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  Speaker 5: or hurt a defense to change cadences?
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of things it can do. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: going to go into every single thing. But again, I
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  Speaker 1: think I might've said it after the game, but it
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  Speaker 1: just keeps the defense kind of on their heels and
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  Speaker 1: they're not necessarily able to attack, you know, like Mike
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  Speaker 1: talks about it with his defense, you know, they want
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  Speaker 1: to stay on the attack and they want to put
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  Speaker 1: offenses in an uncomfortable position. And I think it just
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  Speaker 1: allows us to have another thing that's in our control,
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  Speaker 1: but the defense doesn't know what we're doing.
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  Speaker 6: Does that help you guys out with, with the ability
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  Speaker 6: or inability for the defense to be, to, to, pull
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  Speaker 6: off all the disguising that they want to do as well.
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  Speaker 3: Totally. Yeah, totally.
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  Speaker 1: It all goes hand in hand.
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  Speaker 4: Just going back to doing what you guys know and love,
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  Speaker 4: is that unique? How many times in a career during
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  Speaker 4: a season do you have to round up the wagons.
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  Speaker 3: And do that?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I think, you know, it happens every year. You know,
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  Speaker 1: it's part of finding an identity. That's what people mean
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  Speaker 1: when they say you find an identity as an offense
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  Speaker 1: or as a defense. You know, you just– do the
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  Speaker 1: things that you know and love, like I said, and
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  Speaker 1: you find different ways to kind of get to those plays,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll leave it at that, yeah.
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  Speaker 4: At what point in a season does it happen only
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  Speaker 4: when things aren't going well, or when do you do this?
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  Speaker 1: No, I mean, I think, you know, a lot of
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  Speaker 1: things sometimes are masked in the NFL, like, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you could have a week where you put up a
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  Speaker 1: ton of numbers, but you're really not playing as consistently
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  Speaker 1: or as efficiently as you'd like to in terms of
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  Speaker 1: details and how guys are maybe playing on every single snap.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's some weeks where, you know, you don't
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  Speaker 1: put up a lot of points. Like for us last week,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I felt like we were moving the ball
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  Speaker 1: and we were doing so many great things on offense,
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  Speaker 1: but there's just one area, the red zone, right, where
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  Speaker 1: we kind of struggled and couldn't really put the ball
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  Speaker 1: in the end zone the way that we wanted. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we ended up really only scoring 20 points,
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  Speaker 1: you know? And so, especially with the way our defense
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  Speaker 1: was playing, like they give us so many ops to
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  Speaker 1: go down there and score. It's, you know, you'd like
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  Speaker 1: to come away with more. So for us, it's just
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  Speaker 1: being able to narrow in our focus and be able
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  Speaker 1: to focus one play at a time. And we trust
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  Speaker 1: and understand that the coaches are going to give us
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  Speaker 1: a great opportunity to go out there and play fast. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, with that, we can go out there, you know,
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  Speaker 1: treat it one day at a time, one play at
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  Speaker 1: a time in practice and have that translate to the game.
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  Speaker 5: The lay of games are up across the league. How
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  Speaker 5: much of that do you think kind of traces back
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  Speaker 5: to having multiple play calls that are checking to at
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  Speaker 5: the line, motions, language? Do you think that that's a
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  Speaker 5: factor in why that's happening?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really not sure. I think that could be
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  Speaker 1: a reason. I know there's pretty much every player going
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  Speaker 1: to the line of scrimmage with two plays called, if
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  Speaker 1: not three with potentially an alert to get to. So
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  Speaker 1: that could be a reason. Again, For me, the delay
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  Speaker 1: of game was unacceptable Sunday night. But, yeah, it's– I
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  Speaker 1: don't know. That could be a good thing for you
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  Speaker 1: to dive into and figure out.
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  Speaker 5: Is that different than for– like the amount of play
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  Speaker 5: calls you go to the line with, is that different
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  Speaker 5: than when you were a rookie? Has it changed in
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  Speaker 5: that timeframe?
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  Speaker 1: I'm really not sure. That could be an off-season project
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  Speaker 1: for me to try to figure that one out.
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  Speaker 2: You played against– Jeffrey Simmons last year, you practiced against
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  Speaker 2: him this year. I mean, obviously the Bears add him.
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  Speaker 2: What does he do to a defense.
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  Speaker 3: Or for a defense?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a really good football player, man. He's, he's powerful.
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  Speaker 1: He's fast. He does all the things that you want
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  Speaker 1: an interior D lineman to do. And, you know, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: Tennessee did it, you know, maybe Chicago does as well,
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  Speaker 1: but they can put them out wide as well and, and,
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  Speaker 1: you know, try to get a matchup with the tackle
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  Speaker 1: tied into her back. So it's a, you know, he
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  Speaker 1: definitely creates a lot of problems up front.
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  Speaker 6: Big picture with Shahid, and I know he's dealing with
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  Speaker 6: the injury right now, but in New Orleans, he was
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  Speaker 6: a pretty prolific deep threat. You guys had the one
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  Speaker 6: in the NFC Championship game, the one in Denver a
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  Speaker 6: couple weeks ago. Beyond that, why do you feel like
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  Speaker 6: you haven't connected more on those?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, for us, it's for me specifically,
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  Speaker 1: it's about going through my reads, going through my process,
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  Speaker 1: and trusting, you know, that it's going to happen at
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  Speaker 1: some point. You know, it's but I think for him, too, like,
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  Speaker 1: he does such a good job with the intermediate routes
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  Speaker 1: and the shorter routes as well, being able to catch
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  Speaker 1: and knife and get up the field in a hurry,
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  Speaker 1: which also presents a problem to the defense. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I think it could be a coincidence, but at the
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  Speaker 1: same time, like, even that deep ball in Denver, like,
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  Speaker 1: I should have put the ball out there a little
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  Speaker 1: bit further for him to go catch, and he even
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  Speaker 1: had a chance at a go that I overthrew in
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  Speaker 1: Denver as well. So there's some opportunities there that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I've missed as a quarterback.
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  Speaker 5: Mike McDonald's kind of talked about his post-game routine, and
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  Speaker 5: sometimes he doesn't watch the film. Sometimes he does, like,
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  Speaker 5: waits the next day. What's your routine after a game?
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  Speaker 5: Does it change, win or loss?
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  Speaker 1: No, I wouldn't say it changes. I think for me, like,
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  Speaker 1: if it's an away game, I like to watch the
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  Speaker 1: game on the plane just because, really, I'm not doing
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  Speaker 1: anything else. And then after a game at home, I'll
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  Speaker 1: probably just hang out with my family, chill for the night,
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  Speaker 1: go to bed, and then watch the film in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: That's really the only difference.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks, guys.