Mark The Homer
November-12th-2009, 04:16 PM
November 12, 2009
Redskins Park
Head Coach Jim Zorn
On the team’s injury situation:
“We kept Clinton at home just to get rest that was kind of the doctor’s orders. So he did that and did not practice today. Ladell Betts tried to go early and really couldn’t really finish. His ankle is still getting better. Stephon Heyer, although he did some things this morning, he couldn’t do as much this afternoon so he was limited and Mike Williams is out with his ankle.”
On if there will be a roster move to add a running back given Ladell Betts’ and Clinton Portis’ status:
“I don’t know about that. We got Quinton Ganther. He’s got to help us. I suspect he (Ladell Betts) is going to go. He was actually looking like he was going to be able to go [today] and we pulled back on him.”
On if an Injured Reserve decision is nearing for punter Hunter Smith:
“We are going to try to punt him tomorrow and just try to go full go and see what he can do and see if his leg can hold up. If it does great, if it can’t then we’ll decide what we need to do then.”
On if Injured Reserve is a possibility for Hunter Smith:
“It is a possibility if he continues to re-aggravate this thing. That’s why I am trying to give it as much [time] as I can but tomorrow is kind of an important day.”
On if Chad Rinehart will be starting at right guard on Sunday:
“That is an ongoing battle. We are trying to get him more involved. Our ranks are running thin. We’re definitely going to get him involved and he has a chance to start this week. Will [Montgomery] has a chance to start again. At right tackle, we had to use [D’Anthony] Batiste today in place of [Stephon] Heyer. All of those guys are trying to rally and we will know more towards the end of the week.
On if Chad Rinehart has practiced well since losing the starting spot:
“I thought Will [Montgomery] was doing a heck of a job in there and now Rinehart is starting to come back on. These guys are being real competitive. I think Buges (Joe Bugel) is doing a very good job observing these guys everyday. That is what we tell them every single day, it’s not so much competition but it’s being a pro. These guys are working hard doing that. He’s starting to get better and better as we have gone through the last couple of weeks.”
On if tackling has been reinforced this week at practice after secondary coach Jerry Gray said in hindsight they should have practiced it more during the bye week:
“Well, only because we missed tackles [against Atlanta]. Hindsight is 20-20. Absolutely, we could have done some drill work there thinking that these guys were going to miss some tackles in the game. I wouldn’t go into a game thinking that it was going to happen and we have been working on it all year anyway. I think the statement is good. That’s why we got good coaches I think, just paying attention to details.”
On the concern about Stephon Heyer’s injury, and if D’Anthony Batiste would start in his place if he isn’t healthy enough to play this Sunday:
“I think that anytime a guy can’t practice – I think Ladell and Stephon [Heyer] are both concerns – and fortunately we’ve got treatment, and we’ve got another day of practice, and then two days to get those guys ready to go. I’m always optimistic about that.”
[B]On the possibility of promoting practice squad safety Lendy Holmes to the active roster considering the injury to Chris Horton:
“Yeah, that’s a good possibility, and I’d wait until the last minute to be able to make that decision. He’s been practicing hard all week, and I’m going to get together with Greg and see what the numbers are. I think he’s also been practicing as a special teams player, so that’s a possibility.”
[B]On facing rookie head coach Josh McDaniels, whose team is currently 6-2:
“He’s doing a great job. We all know that it’s hard to win. He’s got it going and we’re going to try and do the best we can and play Redskin football on Sunday.”
On how he’s currently dealing with the players and keeping them focused considering the team’s disappointing record:
“I have all good things to say about what our players have done because they’ve stayed together, and they’ve hung together. We’ve had some very key players go down, and those guys have been around and they’ve been an encouragement to the other guys. The other guys haven’t lost heart, and I think we can tell that just by how hard we’re working out at practice because they could just be going through the motions. They’ve done well. We’re not out of it yet. We’ve dug a deep hole, but we’re not out of it yet. When there’s a glimmer of hope, we’re going to continue to work, and that’s what we have before us at the present time.”
On how different the Broncos schemes are now that Mike Shanahan is gone:
“Well, they’re playing inspired football, and they’re doing a great job. On defense – I know Mike Nolan fairly well, all the way through when he was in Baltimore and San Francisco, he’s had some great defenses, and he’s got that little edge going. He’s got Dawkins there trying to help him out too, and he’s got Champ Bailey – those guys are really good players. Their linebacker group and their defensive line group are playing really well together - they’ve got it really going on defense. I think naturally everybody would like for the offense – our offense we’d like to be better – so that’s where they’re continuing to try to improve as well.”
[B]On if the 3-4 defense is challenging to play against:
“Yeah, it’s always a challenge. The way they play it, they play it really well, and they can put one of their linebackers down, much like Dallas does and bring him as a rush end – it makes it quite versatile. That’s what they do, they use it to the max.”
On if he is pleased with defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth’s performance thus far:
“Absolutely. I think we’ve played him even a little bit more than what was expected, and he’s done well when he’s been in there. He plays hard, and he’s a guy that continues to push to win. He’s ticked off if we don’t win. He’s been a tremendous player, and I think the other teammates around him – I think he’s rallied around them because he sees how hard they play – but certainly they’ve also rallied around him.”
Redskins Secondary Coach Jerry Gray
On the tackling in the secondary last week:
“It wasn’t good. The thing we have to do is, you have to bring your hands. We were there in position, but we didn’t bring our hands to really wrap-up. We had seen that against New Orleans. The running back was pretty good. Any time you get a running back that you don’t wrap up on, that runs with a low center of gravity, he’s going to stay up. You can’t butt a good running back down and that is pretty much what he did last week.”
On whether LaRon Landry plays better at strong safety or free safety:
“You have to put him in the position where it is good for us. Like you said, when we lost Sean [Taylor] we got a chance to put him back to free [safety]. He is our best free. He is a guy that can go from sideline to sideline and it just happens that he could be our best strong [safety] too. So you can’t have two of him. The thing is you have to put him in what’s good for us - right now it’s free safety.”
On why LaRon Landry has not had any interceptions this year:
“I’m trying to see how many passes have come over the middle of the defense. There aren’t many. When you have LaRon [Landry] in the middle of the defense, all the balls are outside the numbers. I don’t see any balls being caught over the middle on our defense. To me, he’s doing a good job. He’s more like a Sam linebacker, where you really don’t hear about him unless they get outside on the edge. No balls have been thrown over the middle of our defense. As far as tackling, I think he is going to be a lot better. The thing you have to do is you have to take a little better angle. The one thing he isn’t going to do is shy away from contact. The thing we have to do is we have to keep him understanding that - there is an old wrestling technique you use when you’re getting a guy down in open space – just get him down. Grab him and get him down. He may run over you, but don’t let him go for the touchdown.”
On how you tell someone to take better angles:
“The thing you have to do is just go inside out. Everybody has an angle that you can take. When a running back is on the sideline use that as your strength. When you get head up, any great running back should be able to beat you head up, because he has two ways to go. If your inside out, he’s got one way go – use the sideline to push him out of bounds if need be. That’s the thing that we have to be a little better at, using the angle that we are capable of having because anytime your head up you are pretty much in trouble.”
On if Reed Doughty will start:
“Yes. Reed is going to start. He will have a chance to start, and he’s a good starter. Reed has done a great job for us. If you look at him he’s a reliable safety. He makes good tackles. Hopefully on some of those tackles last week, if he had been in there the guy would have been down. That’s the thing we have to do. Sometimes when you are blessed to have two good strong safeties, one guy’s got to sit on the bench. With [Chris] Horton hurt, Reed got the nod.”
On what he sees from the Denver Broncos now that Josh McDaniels is the head coach:
“You look at them and they look a lot more like New England . They have got really good wide receivers and their running back is doing a pretty good job, and Kyle Orton is managing the game for them. That is the very reason why those guys are 6-2. He [Orton] has done a great job when they were 6-0. I looked at all the games up until they lost the last two games and what happened is there have been turnovers. When you have big turnovers it doesn’t matter if you win or not if you lose the turnover battle you are going to lose those games. That is really what happened to Denver the last couple of games.”
On the reasons for the improvement of the pass rush:
“Number one you’ve got Albert [Haynesworth]. Albert has done a great job of making them double-team the three-technique. When you have a really good three-technique there are three other one-on-ones around him because you can’t double team the end, the three-technique, the other tackle, and the other end. He has basically done a lot of stuff for us by just being on the football field. Then when you draft Orakpo, the guy is relentless. This young guy, I think will have double-digit sacks every year in the league. A lot of guys don’t understand how big, strong, and powerful he really is and when he gets a chance to rush on those offensive tackles he is going to win those battles. Then Andre Carter is having a great year. You take a look at those guys when you come in. You put Albert, put Orakpo, and then you put Andre Carter together that is a great recipe for a pass rush.”
[B]On whether Orakpo is playing more naturally on the defensive line as the season progresses:
“Yes, to me if you look at the young man he has only played eight games in the NFL. They understand he is still a rookie, but he doesn’t play like a rookie when you pass rush him and I think that is really what we have got to do.”
On what makes Orakpo different from other rookies:
“You see the moves that a young guy generally does not have and he has that. It is more instinctive, what he had at Texas and when he is pass rushing he is doing that. Then you put the extra effort and the relentless attitude he has about working. Just in the Atlanta game the guy came up with two sacks. You have to understand he is going to be a really good player in this league.”
On whether Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall reminds him of other receivers in the NFC East:
“It used to be T.O. [Terrell Owens]. Big guy who is fast, strong, and he can do a lot of things with his body and come up make the tough catch. We have seen him make the game saving catch against Dallas where he jumped over [Terrance] Newman’s head and made the catch. He made a great catch in the New England game on pretty much the same side of the field. He will be going up against DeAngelo [Hall]. It will give him the chance to compete against our best and I think he is their best right now.”
On what the defense must do to improve the tackling:
“You look back and try to think what did we not do, what did we do. The only thing we came up with was really after the open week we probably should have done a lot more tackling drills because the guys were off. You didn’t play and it wasn’t like you had a Sunday where you carried over to the next week. Really we haven’t had one of those games where we had made a lot of bad tackles or we missed a lot. That is something that we put in the back of our mind that we have to do a better job as coaches and when you are off an open week come back and do a lot of tackling drills because trust me, one week does make a difference.”
On whether he is satisfied with Laron Landry’s progress in taking better angles to the ball:
“Yes I am. The thing is, the angles don’t show up until the guys get in the open. Most of the time the running backs haven’t been in the open on us. This time [Michael] Turner was and it showed up. Like I said, I think it is more contributed to being off a week. Then not actually practicing it for a whole week and then not going through full contact. The next thing you know when you are going up against one of the better running backs who has good balance you are not going to knock him off his feet. Most of the running backs would have been down, but you are not going to knock him off his feet, not with a hit.”
On how the teams is going to handle possibly not achieving there preseason goals:
“I think there is still a lot of goals out there. You can go 10-6 and get into the playoffs and that is pretty much what everybody wants to do is get to the playoffs. The Philadelphia Eagles were 9-7 [9-6-1] and got to the NFC Championship Game. It can happen, but the big thing is we can’t sit around and wait for it to happen. We have got to go and take it. We start with Denver they are a really good team. We played Pittsburgh when we were a good team last year. Pittsburgh came in here, did a great job, won that tough game and that is something we have got to do.”
On whether Reed Doughty will blitz frequently from the left side of the defense:
“We have got Kareem Moore who is going to be doing some stuff. Reed may not necessarily be at strong safety by himself. We can put Laron over there, we can put Kareem at free, or we could put Fred at free. To me, we have the best of both worlds and not just being pigeon holed saying that it is only going to be Reed. If those guys are going to create problems we have to make an adjustment and put our best guys on the football field.”
Redskins Park
Head Coach Jim Zorn
On the team’s injury situation:
“We kept Clinton at home just to get rest that was kind of the doctor’s orders. So he did that and did not practice today. Ladell Betts tried to go early and really couldn’t really finish. His ankle is still getting better. Stephon Heyer, although he did some things this morning, he couldn’t do as much this afternoon so he was limited and Mike Williams is out with his ankle.”
On if there will be a roster move to add a running back given Ladell Betts’ and Clinton Portis’ status:
“I don’t know about that. We got Quinton Ganther. He’s got to help us. I suspect he (Ladell Betts) is going to go. He was actually looking like he was going to be able to go [today] and we pulled back on him.”
On if an Injured Reserve decision is nearing for punter Hunter Smith:
“We are going to try to punt him tomorrow and just try to go full go and see what he can do and see if his leg can hold up. If it does great, if it can’t then we’ll decide what we need to do then.”
On if Injured Reserve is a possibility for Hunter Smith:
“It is a possibility if he continues to re-aggravate this thing. That’s why I am trying to give it as much [time] as I can but tomorrow is kind of an important day.”
On if Chad Rinehart will be starting at right guard on Sunday:
“That is an ongoing battle. We are trying to get him more involved. Our ranks are running thin. We’re definitely going to get him involved and he has a chance to start this week. Will [Montgomery] has a chance to start again. At right tackle, we had to use [D’Anthony] Batiste today in place of [Stephon] Heyer. All of those guys are trying to rally and we will know more towards the end of the week.
On if Chad Rinehart has practiced well since losing the starting spot:
“I thought Will [Montgomery] was doing a heck of a job in there and now Rinehart is starting to come back on. These guys are being real competitive. I think Buges (Joe Bugel) is doing a very good job observing these guys everyday. That is what we tell them every single day, it’s not so much competition but it’s being a pro. These guys are working hard doing that. He’s starting to get better and better as we have gone through the last couple of weeks.”
On if tackling has been reinforced this week at practice after secondary coach Jerry Gray said in hindsight they should have practiced it more during the bye week:
“Well, only because we missed tackles [against Atlanta]. Hindsight is 20-20. Absolutely, we could have done some drill work there thinking that these guys were going to miss some tackles in the game. I wouldn’t go into a game thinking that it was going to happen and we have been working on it all year anyway. I think the statement is good. That’s why we got good coaches I think, just paying attention to details.”
On the concern about Stephon Heyer’s injury, and if D’Anthony Batiste would start in his place if he isn’t healthy enough to play this Sunday:
“I think that anytime a guy can’t practice – I think Ladell and Stephon [Heyer] are both concerns – and fortunately we’ve got treatment, and we’ve got another day of practice, and then two days to get those guys ready to go. I’m always optimistic about that.”
[B]On the possibility of promoting practice squad safety Lendy Holmes to the active roster considering the injury to Chris Horton:
“Yeah, that’s a good possibility, and I’d wait until the last minute to be able to make that decision. He’s been practicing hard all week, and I’m going to get together with Greg and see what the numbers are. I think he’s also been practicing as a special teams player, so that’s a possibility.”
[B]On facing rookie head coach Josh McDaniels, whose team is currently 6-2:
“He’s doing a great job. We all know that it’s hard to win. He’s got it going and we’re going to try and do the best we can and play Redskin football on Sunday.”
On how he’s currently dealing with the players and keeping them focused considering the team’s disappointing record:
“I have all good things to say about what our players have done because they’ve stayed together, and they’ve hung together. We’ve had some very key players go down, and those guys have been around and they’ve been an encouragement to the other guys. The other guys haven’t lost heart, and I think we can tell that just by how hard we’re working out at practice because they could just be going through the motions. They’ve done well. We’re not out of it yet. We’ve dug a deep hole, but we’re not out of it yet. When there’s a glimmer of hope, we’re going to continue to work, and that’s what we have before us at the present time.”
On how different the Broncos schemes are now that Mike Shanahan is gone:
“Well, they’re playing inspired football, and they’re doing a great job. On defense – I know Mike Nolan fairly well, all the way through when he was in Baltimore and San Francisco, he’s had some great defenses, and he’s got that little edge going. He’s got Dawkins there trying to help him out too, and he’s got Champ Bailey – those guys are really good players. Their linebacker group and their defensive line group are playing really well together - they’ve got it really going on defense. I think naturally everybody would like for the offense – our offense we’d like to be better – so that’s where they’re continuing to try to improve as well.”
[B]On if the 3-4 defense is challenging to play against:
“Yeah, it’s always a challenge. The way they play it, they play it really well, and they can put one of their linebackers down, much like Dallas does and bring him as a rush end – it makes it quite versatile. That’s what they do, they use it to the max.”
On if he is pleased with defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth’s performance thus far:
“Absolutely. I think we’ve played him even a little bit more than what was expected, and he’s done well when he’s been in there. He plays hard, and he’s a guy that continues to push to win. He’s ticked off if we don’t win. He’s been a tremendous player, and I think the other teammates around him – I think he’s rallied around them because he sees how hard they play – but certainly they’ve also rallied around him.”
Redskins Secondary Coach Jerry Gray
On the tackling in the secondary last week:
“It wasn’t good. The thing we have to do is, you have to bring your hands. We were there in position, but we didn’t bring our hands to really wrap-up. We had seen that against New Orleans. The running back was pretty good. Any time you get a running back that you don’t wrap up on, that runs with a low center of gravity, he’s going to stay up. You can’t butt a good running back down and that is pretty much what he did last week.”
On whether LaRon Landry plays better at strong safety or free safety:
“You have to put him in the position where it is good for us. Like you said, when we lost Sean [Taylor] we got a chance to put him back to free [safety]. He is our best free. He is a guy that can go from sideline to sideline and it just happens that he could be our best strong [safety] too. So you can’t have two of him. The thing is you have to put him in what’s good for us - right now it’s free safety.”
On why LaRon Landry has not had any interceptions this year:
“I’m trying to see how many passes have come over the middle of the defense. There aren’t many. When you have LaRon [Landry] in the middle of the defense, all the balls are outside the numbers. I don’t see any balls being caught over the middle on our defense. To me, he’s doing a good job. He’s more like a Sam linebacker, where you really don’t hear about him unless they get outside on the edge. No balls have been thrown over the middle of our defense. As far as tackling, I think he is going to be a lot better. The thing you have to do is you have to take a little better angle. The one thing he isn’t going to do is shy away from contact. The thing we have to do is we have to keep him understanding that - there is an old wrestling technique you use when you’re getting a guy down in open space – just get him down. Grab him and get him down. He may run over you, but don’t let him go for the touchdown.”
On how you tell someone to take better angles:
“The thing you have to do is just go inside out. Everybody has an angle that you can take. When a running back is on the sideline use that as your strength. When you get head up, any great running back should be able to beat you head up, because he has two ways to go. If your inside out, he’s got one way go – use the sideline to push him out of bounds if need be. That’s the thing that we have to be a little better at, using the angle that we are capable of having because anytime your head up you are pretty much in trouble.”
On if Reed Doughty will start:
“Yes. Reed is going to start. He will have a chance to start, and he’s a good starter. Reed has done a great job for us. If you look at him he’s a reliable safety. He makes good tackles. Hopefully on some of those tackles last week, if he had been in there the guy would have been down. That’s the thing we have to do. Sometimes when you are blessed to have two good strong safeties, one guy’s got to sit on the bench. With [Chris] Horton hurt, Reed got the nod.”
On what he sees from the Denver Broncos now that Josh McDaniels is the head coach:
“You look at them and they look a lot more like New England . They have got really good wide receivers and their running back is doing a pretty good job, and Kyle Orton is managing the game for them. That is the very reason why those guys are 6-2. He [Orton] has done a great job when they were 6-0. I looked at all the games up until they lost the last two games and what happened is there have been turnovers. When you have big turnovers it doesn’t matter if you win or not if you lose the turnover battle you are going to lose those games. That is really what happened to Denver the last couple of games.”
On the reasons for the improvement of the pass rush:
“Number one you’ve got Albert [Haynesworth]. Albert has done a great job of making them double-team the three-technique. When you have a really good three-technique there are three other one-on-ones around him because you can’t double team the end, the three-technique, the other tackle, and the other end. He has basically done a lot of stuff for us by just being on the football field. Then when you draft Orakpo, the guy is relentless. This young guy, I think will have double-digit sacks every year in the league. A lot of guys don’t understand how big, strong, and powerful he really is and when he gets a chance to rush on those offensive tackles he is going to win those battles. Then Andre Carter is having a great year. You take a look at those guys when you come in. You put Albert, put Orakpo, and then you put Andre Carter together that is a great recipe for a pass rush.”
[B]On whether Orakpo is playing more naturally on the defensive line as the season progresses:
“Yes, to me if you look at the young man he has only played eight games in the NFL. They understand he is still a rookie, but he doesn’t play like a rookie when you pass rush him and I think that is really what we have got to do.”
On what makes Orakpo different from other rookies:
“You see the moves that a young guy generally does not have and he has that. It is more instinctive, what he had at Texas and when he is pass rushing he is doing that. Then you put the extra effort and the relentless attitude he has about working. Just in the Atlanta game the guy came up with two sacks. You have to understand he is going to be a really good player in this league.”
On whether Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall reminds him of other receivers in the NFC East:
“It used to be T.O. [Terrell Owens]. Big guy who is fast, strong, and he can do a lot of things with his body and come up make the tough catch. We have seen him make the game saving catch against Dallas where he jumped over [Terrance] Newman’s head and made the catch. He made a great catch in the New England game on pretty much the same side of the field. He will be going up against DeAngelo [Hall]. It will give him the chance to compete against our best and I think he is their best right now.”
On what the defense must do to improve the tackling:
“You look back and try to think what did we not do, what did we do. The only thing we came up with was really after the open week we probably should have done a lot more tackling drills because the guys were off. You didn’t play and it wasn’t like you had a Sunday where you carried over to the next week. Really we haven’t had one of those games where we had made a lot of bad tackles or we missed a lot. That is something that we put in the back of our mind that we have to do a better job as coaches and when you are off an open week come back and do a lot of tackling drills because trust me, one week does make a difference.”
On whether he is satisfied with Laron Landry’s progress in taking better angles to the ball:
“Yes I am. The thing is, the angles don’t show up until the guys get in the open. Most of the time the running backs haven’t been in the open on us. This time [Michael] Turner was and it showed up. Like I said, I think it is more contributed to being off a week. Then not actually practicing it for a whole week and then not going through full contact. The next thing you know when you are going up against one of the better running backs who has good balance you are not going to knock him off his feet. Most of the running backs would have been down, but you are not going to knock him off his feet, not with a hit.”
On how the teams is going to handle possibly not achieving there preseason goals:
“I think there is still a lot of goals out there. You can go 10-6 and get into the playoffs and that is pretty much what everybody wants to do is get to the playoffs. The Philadelphia Eagles were 9-7 [9-6-1] and got to the NFC Championship Game. It can happen, but the big thing is we can’t sit around and wait for it to happen. We have got to go and take it. We start with Denver they are a really good team. We played Pittsburgh when we were a good team last year. Pittsburgh came in here, did a great job, won that tough game and that is something we have got to do.”
On whether Reed Doughty will blitz frequently from the left side of the defense:
“We have got Kareem Moore who is going to be doing some stuff. Reed may not necessarily be at strong safety by himself. We can put Laron over there, we can put Kareem at free, or we could put Fred at free. To me, we have the best of both worlds and not just being pigeon holed saying that it is only going to be Reed. If those guys are going to create problems we have to make an adjustment and put our best guys on the football field.”