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Press Pass | Press Taylor on run game, prep for Raiders defense · Press Pass

0:00
Speaker 1: Every game is gonna be its own game, its own
0:02
Speaker 1: situations as it goes. UM, We're fortunate to be able
0:05
Speaker 1: to continue to run the ball, and obviously Travis is
0:09
Speaker 1: benefiting from the offensive line, the receivers that Titans doing
0:11
Speaker 1: their job as well, Trevor getting us in the right place,
0:13
Speaker 1: Coach continuing to stick through some runs and keeping ourselves
0:16
Speaker 1: unfavorable situations where you can still run the ball. UM.
0:20
Speaker 1: So yeah, that certainly builds confidence every time you see
0:22
Speaker 1: Travis produce. He's a younger player, unknown what kind of
0:26
Speaker 1: production he'll have at this level, but you know, so far,
0:29
Speaker 1: so good, and we just want to continue to keep
0:30
Speaker 1: him on that path of growing as as the total
0:33
Speaker 1: complete Back when and see a play unfold that that
0:36
Speaker 1: he turned into a big plaze, that hard about to
0:39
Speaker 1: be a fan and you kind of see him back
0:42
Speaker 1: through the first level, you kind of start to sit
0:44
Speaker 1: on the edge of your seat and see what he's
0:45
Speaker 1: gonna do. And then we're trying to figure out where
0:47
Speaker 1: the ball is gonna be so we can communicate to
0:48
Speaker 1: Coach where it is, but you never really know. He
0:50
Speaker 1: starts to break through the first line, there's a chance
0:52
Speaker 1: this thing goes for Um, so he's definitely that type
0:55
Speaker 1: of player that's excited, and you knew that coming out
0:57
Speaker 1: of college as well. Right this week, he says, what
1:01
Speaker 1: was your an initial reaction when you got you guys
1:03
Speaker 1: are getting encountered next year. Yeah, I mean you're certainly excited. Um. Now,
1:08
Speaker 1: with the same understanding, we have a game this week,
1:10
Speaker 1: We have a whole season ahead of us this week
1:12
Speaker 1: that you know, um, adding people for the future doesn't
1:15
Speaker 1: help us in this moment, and we're trying to do
1:16
Speaker 1: everything we can to put our players in positions E
1:18
Speaker 1: see right now this game Sunday, have the best possible
1:21
Speaker 1: practice on Thursday to put us in position for that,
1:24
Speaker 1: and then I think at some point you'll kind of
1:26
Speaker 1: be able to clear your head and realize, Okay, they've
1:29
Speaker 1: done a great job of adding continuing to try to
1:31
Speaker 1: add talent to our team as we move forward. So
1:32
Speaker 1: that's that's exciting to think about the future, But right
1:35
Speaker 1: now we're focused on today in this moment, in this game.
1:37
Speaker 1: Is red zone efficiency something that is easy to correct
1:41
Speaker 1: or improve mid seasons? Um, well, I think it's just
1:44
Speaker 1: amount of execution. We we kind of have an identity.
1:47
Speaker 1: We we feel like we have an identity of who
1:48
Speaker 1: we want to be down there now. I think our
1:50
Speaker 1: biggest issue has been turning the football over the red zone.
1:52
Speaker 1: That's just taking points off the board, whether that's seven three,
1:56
Speaker 1: and really our our turnovers are come on first and
1:57
Speaker 1: second down, which is disappointing. You feel like you're gonna
2:00
Speaker 1: get touchdowns in those situations, specially you know we have
2:03
Speaker 1: a couple inside the five um, so that's certainly you
2:05
Speaker 1: can never turn the football over, especially their worst case
2:08
Speaker 1: scenario we stall out kick three, we get three points,
2:11
Speaker 1: and it changes the complexion of a game. So that's
2:14
Speaker 1: that's just something that I think as that improves, it
2:17
Speaker 1: improves your red zone efficiency obviously, whether it's field goals, touchdowns.
2:21
Speaker 1: Obviously our number one goals touchdowns, but I think that's
2:24
Speaker 1: certainly part of it. So I do feel like that
2:26
Speaker 1: can improve, just putting a premium protecting the football. And
2:28
Speaker 1: when it comes to some of the interceptions that have
2:30
Speaker 1: been in the red zone, do you feel like that's
2:32
Speaker 1: just a young quarterback things feeling like Trevor like he
2:34
Speaker 1: has to get that score on this play rather than
2:37
Speaker 1: sometimes saying i'll throw it out the back, We'll go
2:39
Speaker 1: to second down or third down and live to play
2:42
Speaker 1: another play kind of deal. Certainly certainly understanding its first
2:45
Speaker 1: and goal. Right here at second goal, we're inside the five.
2:48
Speaker 1: We've got multiple cracks at this thing. We're trying to
2:50
Speaker 1: pop one real quick that we think was an advantageous
2:52
Speaker 1: call for us in that situation, trying to get Christian
2:55
Speaker 1: on the edge of their nickel. Did a great job
2:56
Speaker 1: defending it down, gets extended, then it's got to kind
2:59
Speaker 1: of go to an US or nobody mindset. For Trevor,
3:01
Speaker 1: you know, he felt like he had Marvin in the
3:03
Speaker 1: back of the end zone. Give him a shot. But
3:04
Speaker 1: if it misses and he's going the third or the
3:06
Speaker 1: stands um you know, understanding too, you're throwing to the
3:10
Speaker 1: back half of the end zone. It cannot be affected
3:12
Speaker 1: by guy in the front half of the end zone.
3:13
Speaker 1: So that's just continuing to see those situations, learn from
3:17
Speaker 1: those situations, not repeat those situations for him and everybody
3:20
Speaker 1: our entire offense in general. We're learning from every single
3:23
Speaker 1: play that happens, and we want to we want to
3:24
Speaker 1: work to correct those mistakes and never repeat those mistakes.
3:27
Speaker 1: It seems like this team doesn't have an issue obviously,
3:29
Speaker 1: taking shots down field. It's just sort of the consistency
3:33
Speaker 1: of executing that. So what what do you guys sort
3:35
Speaker 1: of need to do um to sort of get on
3:38
Speaker 1: the same page quarterback, receiver, tighten and all those. It
3:41
Speaker 1: always just kind of comes out of the situation within
3:43
Speaker 1: a game. You know, is the situation in the game
3:45
Speaker 1: dictating pushing the ball down the field? Is there a
3:47
Speaker 1: favorable matchup at receiver DV offensive line? You know, sometimes
3:52
Speaker 1: you want to keep yourselves out of bad situations in
3:54
Speaker 1: the protection world. Do we have time to launch this
3:56
Speaker 1: thing down the field if that's what the situation calls for.
3:58
Speaker 1: Are we in a situation where defense just has been
4:02
Speaker 1: on the field for a while, we need to continue
4:03
Speaker 1: to maintain well. Throwing a low percentage ball down the
4:06
Speaker 1: field doesn't really fit us best in that situation. So
4:08
Speaker 1: there's a number of factors that lead to pushing the
4:10
Speaker 1: ball down the field. Certainly that's something we want to
4:13
Speaker 1: add or we want to continue to develop as an
4:15
Speaker 1: offensive being able to create those explosives. We've done a
4:17
Speaker 1: good job of finding ways to do those. But you know,
4:19
Speaker 1: you want a defense to honor every inch of the
4:21
Speaker 1: field at any given time and so being able to
4:23
Speaker 1: push the ball down the field certainly an aspect of that,
4:26
Speaker 1: even dictated by the coverages you guys are seeing, you know,
4:28
Speaker 1: the cover two and he's thanks to that in nature,
4:31
Speaker 1: has I've been an issue? I guess well, I think
4:33
Speaker 1: there's certainly a trend in the league going towards more
4:36
Speaker 1: shell coverages. And you know, the kind of big Fanjio
4:39
Speaker 1: influence is kind of spread across the league of these
4:41
Speaker 1: variations of of shell, um safety's deep limit, the big play,
4:45
Speaker 1: keep things in front, force offenses to execute for twelve
4:49
Speaker 1: thirteen play drives and you know, penalty sets you back,
4:52
Speaker 1: a sax set you back. In completion could set you back.
4:55
Speaker 1: So there's certainly an emphasis of that. It feels like
4:57
Speaker 1: across the league in terms of where the defenses are heading,
5:00
Speaker 1: and obviously things are cyclical. UM, more shell coverage dictates
5:04
Speaker 1: more people, less people in the box, more advantageous looks
5:08
Speaker 1: to run the football. UM. But as you know, and
5:11
Speaker 1: then then you're kind of grinding through some drives right there,
5:14
Speaker 1: that makes it tough. So I think I think you're
5:16
Speaker 1: seeing that across the league, and you're seeing creative ways
5:18
Speaker 1: to try to get the ball over the top of
5:19
Speaker 1: the defense, or get guys on the move and run
5:21
Speaker 1: through the defense and create explosives. In the past game,
5:25
Speaker 1: the writer's defensive preparing. Well, you turn on the tape
5:28
Speaker 1: and the two defensive ends, that's the very first thing
5:31
Speaker 1: you notice. Those two guys can cause problems. They have
5:33
Speaker 1: for a while in their career now, so certainly people
5:36
Speaker 1: are very aware of them. When you watch the way
5:38
Speaker 1: offenses attack them. There's extra guys on the edges to help, UM,
5:43
Speaker 1: help the matchups with the tackles and the defensive ends. Um,
5:46
Speaker 1: they've done a good job same idea of limiting explosive plays.
5:48
Speaker 1: They play a variety of looks. Obviously there in the
5:51
Speaker 1: first year in this defensive system with these guys. There
5:54
Speaker 1: are some guys that have played for this coordinator before,
5:57
Speaker 1: UM that are kind of here and understand it well.
5:59
Speaker 1: But they is then a lot of different looks. They
6:01
Speaker 1: do a pretty good job of keeping things in front
6:03
Speaker 1: and then trying to just let these pastors just kind
6:05
Speaker 1: of get after you a little bit. I was gonna
6:08
Speaker 1: bring that up a second ago, but you know, the
6:11
Speaker 1: quarterback rating in some quarterback metrics and scoring league is
6:16
Speaker 1: down overall, and the defensive hasn't have adjusted. Is that
6:20
Speaker 1: the major adjustment you're seeing every many week, week to
6:22
Speaker 1: week is that's kind of what it feels like. Um,
6:26
Speaker 1: And it makes sense, you know, try to force people
6:29
Speaker 1: to execute at a high level throughout long drives. UM. Now,
6:33
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if that's right, statistical or anything.
6:35
Speaker 1: I'm purely just going off what my gut tells me
6:38
Speaker 1: watching tape and stuff like that. Of you know, as
6:40
Speaker 1: we prepare for these defenses, you're always looking for We'll
6:42
Speaker 1: watch the explosive tape we start on Monday. One of
6:45
Speaker 1: the things when you have a couple of minutes, you
6:47
Speaker 1: just kind of bust through the explosives. How do people
6:48
Speaker 1: push the ball down the field and the defense, Well,
6:50
Speaker 1: it feels like it's not as often they just dropped
6:52
Speaker 1: back and throw it on the head. That doesn't happen
6:54
Speaker 1: as often. Now, there's certain situations where that does. And
6:58
Speaker 1: you try to look at how can we create those
7:00
Speaker 1: situations for us match up with our personnel vers their
7:02
Speaker 1: personnel protection. And there's a number of factors situation in
7:06
Speaker 1: the game. Um. So there's a number of factors that
7:09
Speaker 1: I think lead to that I couldn't tell you statistically
7:12
Speaker 1: what it is or anything like that. She's kind of
7:13
Speaker 1: going off our study and our preparation through the season.
7:15
Speaker 1: That's what it's felt like. He talked about explosives a
7:18
Speaker 1: little bit, and he talked about Travisy team a little
7:20
Speaker 1: bit earlier. But how helpful is it when you have
7:22
Speaker 1: a player like him at running back that can get
7:24
Speaker 1: you that explosive play at any given moment. Yeah, that's huge.
7:27
Speaker 1: It's not all right, we gotta call this ball to
7:29
Speaker 1: know we're gonna throw out fifteen years down the field.
7:31
Speaker 1: Our run game can create that um and it's Travis
7:34
Speaker 1: obviously with his skill set. But I really think that
7:37
Speaker 1: explosives and this kind of came from my experience last
7:40
Speaker 1: year and any two with Jonathan Taylor and Heheme Hines
7:42
Speaker 1: and those guys hitting runs was good runs turning to
7:45
Speaker 1: great runs when the when the perimeter players were blocking,
7:47
Speaker 1: and I think you've seen that. You may not have
7:49
Speaker 1: seen the production in the past game with some of
7:51
Speaker 1: those guys, but the things that Christian and Za and
7:54
Speaker 1: Marvin and Tim and our tight ends are doing on
7:56
Speaker 1: the perimeter and in the run game, it has been
7:59
Speaker 1: critical to our run success as well. So you know,
8:02
Speaker 1: we we wouldn't be able to hit some of these
8:03
Speaker 1: explosive runs without those guys doing essentially in the receiver world,
8:07
Speaker 1: a dirty job right there and getting it done at
8:09
Speaker 1: a high level. So those guys have been awesome in
8:11
Speaker 1: your opinion? How much room for growth is they're still
8:13
Speaker 1: in Travis's game all. I mean, I wouldn't say he's
8:16
Speaker 1: anywhere close to where he's going to be. You know,
8:17
Speaker 1: as he continues to learn what defenses are doing, why
8:21
Speaker 1: we're calling runs for certain fronts, um the tracks on runs,
8:24
Speaker 1: how people are going to try to take us off,
8:26
Speaker 1: combinations and pollers and different things like that. I think
8:30
Speaker 1: as he matures just in his football knowledge and understanding
8:33
Speaker 1: offense and scheme and how we're trying to attack, I
8:35
Speaker 1: mean that there is I wouldn't put a ceiling on him.
8:38
Speaker 1: Talked about the Raiders defensive ends, but specifically Max Crosby.
8:42
Speaker 1: What sort of makes him um such a challenge. He
8:45
Speaker 1: is relentless, He doesn't come out of the game. I
8:48
Speaker 1: mean we always kind of look and see like, is
8:49
Speaker 1: there a certain do they have a substitution pattern? Second
8:52
Speaker 1: second drive of the game, you get back up d
8:54
Speaker 1: Lineman sometimes some teams do that. It feels like you
8:56
Speaker 1: can't find a lot of clips he's off the field,
8:59
Speaker 1: which is a problem. Um, he's just relentless, you know,
9:02
Speaker 1: whether it's ducking undergut or ducking underneath guys, swimming over guys,
9:07
Speaker 1: changing his rush pattern in terms of he's got a
9:09
Speaker 1: deadly spin move. We've all seen that a number of times.
9:11
Speaker 1: And he's just relentless in terms of pursuing the quarterback.
9:14
Speaker 1: So if you're in the pocket, the drive gets extended,
9:16
Speaker 1: you get flushed out of the pocket. You pushed through
9:18
Speaker 1: and escape Heat nine still running like he's gonna do
9:21
Speaker 1: everything you can, chase down the field, get after the quarterback,
9:24
Speaker 1: finish the play. Um, So that's you certainly notice that effort.
9:28
Speaker 1: And then when you see the spin move, you see
9:29
Speaker 1: the swim, you see him duck underneath pollars, things like
9:33
Speaker 1: that that he's kind of got it all and he
9:35
Speaker 1: plays hard every single snap. Those clothes out game kind
9:38
Speaker 1: of drive so far this season. The kind of best
9:41
Speaker 1: one was two weeks ago, and those situations, a lot
9:43
Speaker 1: of them in the ended in turnovers. How do you
9:45
Speaker 1: balance that aggressiveness with the play calling in the quarterback
9:48
Speaker 1: needing to knows he has to march the ball down
9:50
Speaker 1: the field, but also protect the football to make sure
9:52
Speaker 1: that you can get and range for what could be
9:54
Speaker 1: a game tying or there's been certain situation. I mean,
9:57
Speaker 1: there's been times where we've driven on the fourth order
10:00
Speaker 1: and we scored and we needed to score um. But
10:02
Speaker 1: then regardless of the situation, whether there's a minute when
10:05
Speaker 1: we get the ball back, a minute forty when we
10:07
Speaker 1: get the ball back, whatever it is, we gotta be
10:08
Speaker 1: able to execute those situations. There's a couple of them.
10:11
Speaker 1: We've come up inches short as we got in those situations,
10:14
Speaker 1: but I think that's just continuing to put a young
10:16
Speaker 1: quarterback in those situations. Talk through those situations. We do
10:20
Speaker 1: a great job. I believe there's certain nights or certain
10:23
Speaker 1: days where we have certain meetings that are just situational football.
10:26
Speaker 1: Let's just sit, let's watch what's gone around the league,
10:28
Speaker 1: Let's talk what would you do here? All right? Understand
10:30
Speaker 1: we have this many time outs, how many guards do
10:32
Speaker 1: we need? Just talking through those things with a young
10:34
Speaker 1: quarterback is beneficial in the long run. You know, we
10:37
Speaker 1: have things that we've been in a lot of end
10:39
Speaker 1: of game situations that have been great for him to
10:40
Speaker 1: learn from, have been great for us as an offense
10:42
Speaker 1: as a team to experience. But we need to learn
10:45
Speaker 1: from those things and apply those moving forward to be
10:47
Speaker 1: able to execute in those high leverage situations like you're
10:49
Speaker 1: talking about. You know, Doug always talks about the second
10:53
Speaker 1: year in a system red quarterback. How much of the
10:54
Speaker 1: first year just figuring out what Trevor can respond too
10:57
Speaker 1: well and what you need from you guys in preparation
11:00
Speaker 1: so you can kind of adapt that going into your too,
11:02
Speaker 1: or maybe keep some of the things that work and
11:04
Speaker 1: get rid of things that he doesn't. Kind of like, yeah, that,
11:07
Speaker 1: I mean that goes. That's week to week we're we're
11:09
Speaker 1: trying to figure out we put in plays that we
11:11
Speaker 1: feel like put our guys in good position to attack
11:13
Speaker 1: the defense, but we're always in communication with him, where
11:16
Speaker 1: do you like? Why do you like this? Why do
11:17
Speaker 1: you not? What are you comfortable with? So then the
11:19
Speaker 1: next week we come back, all right, we put this in.
11:22
Speaker 1: This wasn't something we felt we did a good job
11:24
Speaker 1: as an offense. Do we need to change is why
11:26
Speaker 1: was that? Do we need to teach it differently? Do
11:28
Speaker 1: we need to show it differently? You're you're in a
11:30
Speaker 1: give and take every single day. I mean, we put
11:32
Speaker 1: in a plan, we install it. There's sometimes where it's like,
11:35
Speaker 1: I don't know if I see that yet. All right,
11:37
Speaker 1: let's wrap it in practice, let's get it on tape.
11:39
Speaker 1: If you still don't like it, we'll take it out.
11:40
Speaker 1: We're not gonna call anything our guys aren't comfortable with
11:43
Speaker 1: um and don't believe on a Sunday, because whether it's
11:46
Speaker 1: first and tent on the thirty play of the game
11:48
Speaker 1: or fourth and tent and the last play of the game,
11:51
Speaker 1: we want our guys to believe and understand why we're
11:54
Speaker 1: doing what we're doing and know that they can execute
11:56
Speaker 1: it at a high level. As an offense to kind
11:59
Speaker 1: of stay out, there's second and long, third and long
12:01
Speaker 1: situations that came up last week. Yeah, I mean it's
12:04
Speaker 1: certainly tough. You know, if you want to if you
12:06
Speaker 1: want to throw the ball on first down, you risk
12:08
Speaker 1: obviously throwing an infletion. Well, then all of a sudden,
12:10
Speaker 1: we're in second ten, And that's that's understanding. As a quarterback,
12:13
Speaker 1: every single snap is situational. First and ten. Let's put
12:16
Speaker 1: the ball in play, let's get moving forward. We may
12:19
Speaker 1: call a shot down the field, they defend a shot
12:21
Speaker 1: down the field. Can we just find the next completion?
12:23
Speaker 1: Can we do the next best thing? With football? There
12:25
Speaker 1: are situations we called the first and ten pass guy
12:28
Speaker 1: went open, Trevor scramble for four, or in second and six.
12:31
Speaker 1: We consider ourselves in that situation on track we can
12:34
Speaker 1: call whatever we need to call um to get ourselves
12:37
Speaker 1: closer getting that first down and ultimately in the end
12:38
Speaker 1: the So it's just understanding every single situation is situational
12:43
Speaker 1: football and executing that way that puts the team in
12:46
Speaker 1: the best position, our players in the best position, and
12:48
Speaker 1: always protecting the football. You've got axcivated for the first
12:51
Speaker 1: time this year, do you do you see it explained
12:53
Speaker 1: the role for him as we get forward. Yeah, you know,
12:55
Speaker 1: we're going to continue to develop him, work with him. Um,
12:59
Speaker 1: just continue as we go through the week of putting
13:01
Speaker 1: him in, seeing what he's comfortable with on his plate,
13:03
Speaker 1: and then you know, he's a snap away from being
13:05
Speaker 1: out there and it being on his shoulders, and we'll certainly,
13:08
Speaker 1: like we've done with all our backs, look for certain
13:10
Speaker 1: situations where all right, this is his play. He does
13:13
Speaker 1: this really well. Now, right now. With where we're going
13:16
Speaker 1: with Travis and the things Travis has done really well,
13:19
Speaker 1: sometimes it's hard to say, Okay, we're gonna put another
13:21
Speaker 1: guy in for a carry that potentially was one Travis
13:23
Speaker 1: took for four. You know, we believe all our backs
13:25
Speaker 1: have a skill set that they can contribute. Um. And
13:27
Speaker 1: you're just trying to find out the right way to
13:30
Speaker 1: use everybody in any even time to put him the
13:32
Speaker 1: best possible position. When a guy is going to be
13:34
Speaker 1: a healthy scratch, and what's your timetable and let him know, uh,
13:39
Speaker 1: you know, and and does does his practice does his
13:43
Speaker 1: Houston practice? Uh? Change? If the coaching staff and the
13:48
Speaker 1: player pretty much know he's going to be act active
13:50
Speaker 1: or not active, yes, um. But for the timeline, it's
13:55
Speaker 1: really a case by case basis. There's plenty of times
13:57
Speaker 1: where we've got a guy that we're working through an injury.
14:00
Speaker 1: We need to see how he practiced on Wednesday. Well,
14:01
Speaker 1: maybe he can't go on Wednesday, but he's gonna go Thursday.
14:03
Speaker 1: We want it. So sometimes there are situations where we
14:07
Speaker 1: as a coaching staff may know or if this guy goes,
14:10
Speaker 1: that guy's down. If that guy can't go, he'll go up,
14:12
Speaker 1: and so you try to massage that without really telling
14:16
Speaker 1: a guy, hey you're down, you're up. You know. We
14:18
Speaker 1: try to do our best to communicate as early as
14:20
Speaker 1: possible in the week, this is what's going on. If
14:22
Speaker 1: this guy's down, you're gonna be up. If so, as coaches,
14:25
Speaker 1: we can game plan, we can put personnels in certain plays.
14:28
Speaker 1: We make sure guys get reps that they need, whether
14:30
Speaker 1: it's walk through, practice, live, um, whatever that may be.
14:33
Speaker 1: So we do our best, I think, to communicate that
14:35
Speaker 1: as early as possible, or just communicate to these guys, hey,
14:39
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a Friday, Saturday, Sunday decision. You
14:42
Speaker 1: need to get yourself ready to go. It's us as
14:44
Speaker 1: coaches making sure those guys are prepared as if they're
14:47
Speaker 1: gonna play. And we try to do that with everybody,
14:49
Speaker 1: whether it's practice squad. You never know what's gonna happen.
14:51
Speaker 1: Guy rolls an ankle on Friday, next guy's gotta be
14:54
Speaker 1: ready to go. So we've tried to make that point
14:56
Speaker 1: of emphasis to our players. You're sitting at a meeting,
14:59
Speaker 1: we're talking to Christian Kirk. You need to be locked
15:01
Speaker 1: in all of a sudden, you need to be able
15:03
Speaker 1: to play this spot. In this play on, you find
15:05
Speaker 1: out Sunday morning, the expectations you're ready to roll. Good cool,
15:11
Speaker 1: Thanks guys,