JimmiJo
October-27th-2008, 11:10 AM
ES Coverage: Zorn Next Day Presser
10/27/08
:helmet:
Damnit man, it's good to be back in Ashburn Virginia for a next day presser. My name is JimmiJo and I will be your host for today's event.
I got off the plane at Reagan National and drove straight here. Blade had us up at 3:30AM to get him to the airport and his 6AM flight. I then had the pleasure of sitting in the rental car lot for two hours until they opened.
You haven't lived until you have sat two hours in a rental car parking lot in Detroit Michigan.
Have you ever wondered how much content a small child's stomach can actually hold? well, if you're like me and you have, you should have been on this morning's flight when a four-year old emptied his on his shirt and father as we descended into Reagan.
Smells like that have a real stick-to-it-ness.
So, what about our team at the halfway point? Given the general tone of the comments I think it fair to say that there is a little concern about our ability to put teams away. After eight weeks this team has a great record, but no dominating victories. With better teams on the horizon I think it is fair to be a bit concerned.
In fairness this team is playing well on both sides of the ball and have only one real issue to try and correct; scoring. They need to score more touchdowns. If this team scores on just one of the drives that resulted in a field goal yesterday they cover the spread.
So, enough of what I have to say. We wait now for what the coach to tell us what he thinks. We are about 20 minutes out. Since it has been a while let me go through the rules.
Feel free to post comments or intelligent questions (unintelligent questions are accepted provided they are funny) and I will do my best to ask. I have to warn you up front, the media room is much fuller than this time last year.
London Fletcher Quotes
"You know obviously at the halfway point we have six victories, weve won six games and for the most part weve been in every game down to the end. Some of it weve brought upon ourselves. You feel good about the fact that we've won 6 games, but we understand we're still a work in progress and have a lot of work to do. Still 8 more games left to be played.
"Well I think defensively obviously we need to get better in the red zone, continue to improve in that area. We need to create more turnovers. If we can create more turnovers and give our offense more opportunities then these close ballgames that we're having, it wont be the case. Right now the offense, weve been able to run the ball a lot and eat up a lot of clock. The games are being shortened. But if we can give more possessions to the offense, create separation, give them short fields and not allow a team to score, that will help us with not having so many close games at the end if we can create more takeaways."
Santana Moss Quotes
On the season so far:
"Our main focus is to win games. Regardless of how (we win games), every game we play is a hard, well fought game. If you win, people don't (necessarily) give you credit. If you lose by a little, they just say you lost, so they don't say you lost by a little bit. As long as you keep winning, that's all that we are worried about."
On Redskins' quarterback Jason Campbell:
"(Playing well under pressure) is something that Jason has been doing for a while now. The coaches are coaching him really well. We see similar plays in practice, so when we get on the field it is second nature for Jason. I don't think being pressured is something he even thinks about - he sees it coming and he reacts. As a quarterback, he knows it's not going to be easy back there. He knows there are going to be guys coming at his head every play and he knows he has to do something to get the play off."
1:15PM
Jason Campbell is supposed to come in shortly.
:helmet:
Audio
To listen to comments from Coach Zorn click HERE (http://skinscast.com/redskins/lions/ZORN102708.WMA)
To listen to comments from Carlos Rogers click HERE (http://skinscast.com/redskins/lions/ROGERS102708.WMA)
To listen to comments from Jason Campbell click HERE (http://skinscast.com/redskins/lions/CAMPBELL102708.WMA)
:helmet:
Impressions
Zorn
After getting amped-up watching youtube videos this morning, I was disappointed that there was not one podium-pounding moment in today’s presser. Still, I continue to be impressed with Coach Zorn’s frankness.
I was able to get a few questions in with Coach. Mostly what I was looking for was his impressions of the team so far, his assessment of the offense’s lack of touchdowns, and overall his impressions after being an NFL head coach after half a year.
Zorn said that while he is pleased in the overall with the team’s performance, he said there are areas of improvement such as technique and assignments. Zorn bemoaned missed opportunities such as on the failed shovel pass for the two point conversion. He also mentioned Antwaan Randle El being wide open down the middle of the field on one of Jason Campbell’s sacks.
Zorn does think that the team needs to score more touchdowns. Specifically he answered that he wants to score a TD every time the offense gets the ball. More realistically he admitted that the lack of TD production keeps landing the Redskins in close games at the end.
When I asked him his impressions after half a season based on his expectations, the only clear answer he gave was that it is a lot busier than maybe he thought.
Zorn said that the team is tired. He spoke about a little lack of enthusiasm after the win and attributed to the team being tired. He pointed out that the team has played 13 games so far including preseason. When asked by a reporter if it could be that the team was a little miffed by the overall performance, Zorn conceded that it was probably both.
Jason Campbell
I almost got my podium-pounding moment from Jason Campbell. I mentioned that a lot of players last night seemed disappointed by the game and that players were saying they wanted to come in and “dominate” and didn’t feel like that happened (in fairness I should say that it was defensive players who actually said this). I asked if this was because the team feels like it hasn’t played its best yet. Campbell seemed to take umbrage at the notion that any players think they are going to dominate opponents.
“I think (our players) need to stop listening to what people say when they start talking about domination because this is the National Football League, it’s not high school, it’s not college,” Campbell said. “Each and every week any given team can beat you on any given Sunday. It’s all about going out and getting a ‘W.’ Whether you win by 1-point or whether you win by 10 or 15, it still shows up as the same ‘W,’ no matter how you did it. We just have to continue to understand that winning in the NFL is not easy.”
I asked Campbell to assess the offense at this point in the season and he said that he believes they are ahead of schedule in learning the west coast offense. He cited the success the team is having in moving the ball and mentioned that they do want to score more touchdowns.
Carlos Rogers
I mentioned that a lot of people are saying that Carlos is having his best year and how would he assess his play to date.
“I think I’m playing pretty good,” he said. “There’s a lot I can get better on as far as catching the ball. I’m being faced up against the best receiver each and every week and I just want to leave the guys with the least yards I can and the least catches I can. If turnovers come they come, but I will be happy about taking that big receiver out.”
Ok gang, I am out. I had a great weekend covering the team. I will be with you soon.
:helmet:
10/27/08
:helmet:
Damnit man, it's good to be back in Ashburn Virginia for a next day presser. My name is JimmiJo and I will be your host for today's event.
I got off the plane at Reagan National and drove straight here. Blade had us up at 3:30AM to get him to the airport and his 6AM flight. I then had the pleasure of sitting in the rental car lot for two hours until they opened.
You haven't lived until you have sat two hours in a rental car parking lot in Detroit Michigan.
Have you ever wondered how much content a small child's stomach can actually hold? well, if you're like me and you have, you should have been on this morning's flight when a four-year old emptied his on his shirt and father as we descended into Reagan.
Smells like that have a real stick-to-it-ness.
So, what about our team at the halfway point? Given the general tone of the comments I think it fair to say that there is a little concern about our ability to put teams away. After eight weeks this team has a great record, but no dominating victories. With better teams on the horizon I think it is fair to be a bit concerned.
In fairness this team is playing well on both sides of the ball and have only one real issue to try and correct; scoring. They need to score more touchdowns. If this team scores on just one of the drives that resulted in a field goal yesterday they cover the spread.
So, enough of what I have to say. We wait now for what the coach to tell us what he thinks. We are about 20 minutes out. Since it has been a while let me go through the rules.
Feel free to post comments or intelligent questions (unintelligent questions are accepted provided they are funny) and I will do my best to ask. I have to warn you up front, the media room is much fuller than this time last year.
London Fletcher Quotes
"You know obviously at the halfway point we have six victories, weve won six games and for the most part weve been in every game down to the end. Some of it weve brought upon ourselves. You feel good about the fact that we've won 6 games, but we understand we're still a work in progress and have a lot of work to do. Still 8 more games left to be played.
"Well I think defensively obviously we need to get better in the red zone, continue to improve in that area. We need to create more turnovers. If we can create more turnovers and give our offense more opportunities then these close ballgames that we're having, it wont be the case. Right now the offense, weve been able to run the ball a lot and eat up a lot of clock. The games are being shortened. But if we can give more possessions to the offense, create separation, give them short fields and not allow a team to score, that will help us with not having so many close games at the end if we can create more takeaways."
Santana Moss Quotes
On the season so far:
"Our main focus is to win games. Regardless of how (we win games), every game we play is a hard, well fought game. If you win, people don't (necessarily) give you credit. If you lose by a little, they just say you lost, so they don't say you lost by a little bit. As long as you keep winning, that's all that we are worried about."
On Redskins' quarterback Jason Campbell:
"(Playing well under pressure) is something that Jason has been doing for a while now. The coaches are coaching him really well. We see similar plays in practice, so when we get on the field it is second nature for Jason. I don't think being pressured is something he even thinks about - he sees it coming and he reacts. As a quarterback, he knows it's not going to be easy back there. He knows there are going to be guys coming at his head every play and he knows he has to do something to get the play off."
1:15PM
Jason Campbell is supposed to come in shortly.
:helmet:
Audio
To listen to comments from Coach Zorn click HERE (http://skinscast.com/redskins/lions/ZORN102708.WMA)
To listen to comments from Carlos Rogers click HERE (http://skinscast.com/redskins/lions/ROGERS102708.WMA)
To listen to comments from Jason Campbell click HERE (http://skinscast.com/redskins/lions/CAMPBELL102708.WMA)
:helmet:
Impressions
Zorn
After getting amped-up watching youtube videos this morning, I was disappointed that there was not one podium-pounding moment in today’s presser. Still, I continue to be impressed with Coach Zorn’s frankness.
I was able to get a few questions in with Coach. Mostly what I was looking for was his impressions of the team so far, his assessment of the offense’s lack of touchdowns, and overall his impressions after being an NFL head coach after half a year.
Zorn said that while he is pleased in the overall with the team’s performance, he said there are areas of improvement such as technique and assignments. Zorn bemoaned missed opportunities such as on the failed shovel pass for the two point conversion. He also mentioned Antwaan Randle El being wide open down the middle of the field on one of Jason Campbell’s sacks.
Zorn does think that the team needs to score more touchdowns. Specifically he answered that he wants to score a TD every time the offense gets the ball. More realistically he admitted that the lack of TD production keeps landing the Redskins in close games at the end.
When I asked him his impressions after half a season based on his expectations, the only clear answer he gave was that it is a lot busier than maybe he thought.
Zorn said that the team is tired. He spoke about a little lack of enthusiasm after the win and attributed to the team being tired. He pointed out that the team has played 13 games so far including preseason. When asked by a reporter if it could be that the team was a little miffed by the overall performance, Zorn conceded that it was probably both.
Jason Campbell
I almost got my podium-pounding moment from Jason Campbell. I mentioned that a lot of players last night seemed disappointed by the game and that players were saying they wanted to come in and “dominate” and didn’t feel like that happened (in fairness I should say that it was defensive players who actually said this). I asked if this was because the team feels like it hasn’t played its best yet. Campbell seemed to take umbrage at the notion that any players think they are going to dominate opponents.
“I think (our players) need to stop listening to what people say when they start talking about domination because this is the National Football League, it’s not high school, it’s not college,” Campbell said. “Each and every week any given team can beat you on any given Sunday. It’s all about going out and getting a ‘W.’ Whether you win by 1-point or whether you win by 10 or 15, it still shows up as the same ‘W,’ no matter how you did it. We just have to continue to understand that winning in the NFL is not easy.”
I asked Campbell to assess the offense at this point in the season and he said that he believes they are ahead of schedule in learning the west coast offense. He cited the success the team is having in moving the ball and mentioned that they do want to score more touchdowns.
Carlos Rogers
I mentioned that a lot of people are saying that Carlos is having his best year and how would he assess his play to date.
“I think I’m playing pretty good,” he said. “There’s a lot I can get better on as far as catching the ball. I’m being faced up against the best receiver each and every week and I just want to leave the guys with the least yards I can and the least catches I can. If turnovers come they come, but I will be happy about taking that big receiver out.”
Ok gang, I am out. I had a great weekend covering the team. I will be with you soon.
:helmet: