News

On what Seattle does schematically: “It helps us to have the same defensive front scheme that we just had last week on a short week. So they’re a four down team and we’ll see a similar front that we just saw against Detroit. They do run to the ball real well, they’re very fast to the ball. It was fun to watch them a little bit at the end of last year in preparation for this game and see the progress they made. A good friend of mine, Gus Bradley, that I worked with in Seattle, and I saw progress there. Similar front four scheme, more of a single safety middle type coverage team.”

On how loud CenturyLink Field gets and if it can get close to that in an exhibition game: “I’m hoping it does. I would love it to be, we have been working on silent cadence in practice for that reason. Spending my year up there in 2009 I did find out some information and how they develop that stadium and the echo they created and it is deafening and it’s hard to concentrate in there and that’s one reason why, what was it the Giants, had 15 false starts in one game. I mean its deafening so I’m hoping that we do get that effect because that would be good for our ball club.”

On impressions of Terrelle Pryor show on Saturday: “It was pleasing to see, he made a good step in the right direction. As its been noted, he made good improvements from the huddle to the line of scrimmage and just on the ball procedure and then I saw on one of his quotes he was able to see the defense more and have a little better pre-snap read and that’s a good step for a young player. Certainly his athleticism showed up with the two runs and the boot on the right. So it was a good step in the right direction, still got a long ways to go, he is still learning a lot but he is very coachable, so it was good to see that he had a chance to have some success and build some confidence.”

On developing a scheme with Pryor to work him into a game a few times: “There is a possibility. As DA [Head Coach Dennis Allen] mentioned and I am a believer in too, it comes down to who are you going to suit up on the 46 on game day and if your team allows for it, sometimes it’s because of injury and sometimes it is because of necessity you can suit up three QBs, it does create some good chess game matches with the defensive coordinator.”

On progress with offense: “Good, again. I mean to have 46 actual snaps and 247 yards in the first half. We moved the ball well, it took too long to score on the goal line again, but we did make progress and we did score it by a great effort by Darren McFadden, his effort was fine. We did not execute well up front to score on the goal line and we have to do a better job there. I liked our second two-minute situation, the only glaring mistake I saw from Carson was the interception on the screen. I should have helped him out with that play call and he could have run the ball on the ground and just avoided the situation, but other than that we made good progress. We’re running the ball efficiently, not great, but efficiently. I liked his completion percentage, he had 65 percent completion with a couple drops. There was good progress there and it’s always going to take time as I mentioned last time we talked. The red zone takes a little more time and we hurt ourselves last week on that first drive with the penalty and false start inside the 14-yard line but I was pleased with the progress.”

On how impressed he is with Rod Streater: “I am surprised how much moxie he has got for a rookie. I kind of knew early on… there was a situation in camp about  week two where I lost my vocal chords on the kid, and later in that practice he comes back and makes a big play and I pulled him aside and said that’s exactly what you need to do. If you make a mistake don’t let someone yelling at you, somebody booing at you or somebody critiquing you on the sideline affect how you do the next down and for a rookie he shows a lot of moxie. He is still learning how to release versus press coverage and fortunately for us we have got a couple of good corners to work on every day. That’s a part of his game that most rookies have to work on is getting off the bump coverage, but he has also handled a lot. He has played two positions for us and for a rookie that’s not usually the case for a receiver. So he has played both the “X” and the “F” and that’s been a pleasant surprise from a rookie receiver.”

On Juron Criner’s progress from OTAs through training camp: “That to me is a common thing with young guys, especially receivers. In OTAs, when you’re in startup mode with a brand new offense, you don’t teach a whole lot. You just teach the core stuff and get a feel for the core stuff. Once we go to training camp though, we’ve got to expand our book. So a lot of information came his way so there was a little more thinking going on. In the last seven days here, you can see how his game has improved. He’s not thinking as much so he’s executing at a higher level.”

On whether the offense has been set back with Denarius Moore’s injury: “It’s been a huge setback, in my opinion. Denarius, I was very excited to start working with in the OTAs, watching all the games last year on tape. To miss the timing of that guy with our quarterbacks has been tough. It has given the opportunity for these young guys to grow and that, in the long haul, if Denarius comes back healthy, might have been a blessing for us.”

On Criner thinking every ball is his: “I think it’s a trait that a guy has or he doesn’t’ have. I call it a 50/50 trait. When a ball is in the air, it’s either yours or the DBs, it’s a 50/50 chance of coming down, he’s got that trait of catching that 50/50 ball.”

On the lessons that rookies have to learn when they’re on the road in hostile environments: “Concentration for one because there’s always momentum changes in a game and to hear the crowd pull in favor of the home team when they have their momentum going, how does a young guy respond when he goes back on the field in a backup situation, 1^st and 10 from their own 4? Does he handle the situation? That’s why I’m hoping we do get the crowd noise, so that we do get that effect in the game. It’s inevitable, there’s going to be an ebb and flow of a game, how does that young guy handle that situation when it arises? That’s what we need is to have those kinds of distractions and see if we can still keep our focus.”

On how much he intends to play the starters: “That will be up to Coach Allen, what he wants to do.”

On the competition at running back: “There’s still competing now, but Taiwan [Jones] had a good game.  I was obviously pleased with a couple of unscripted runs, if you will, where we had a breakdown up front and he still made positive yards for us. He did get set back by missing those two weeks from a mental standpoint, when it comes to protections and route assignments. As far as running the ball, he did a fine job in the game.”

On the versatility of Marcel Reece and Owen Schmitt: “That’s a fun piece of the puzzle. You can put [Marcel] in many different positions and they have to respect him outside. It’s a good chess piece to have. We haven’t necessarily experimented with him and Owen on the field at the same time but it can be done.”

On having Schmitt wide left against Detroit: “That’s part of the deal. We’ve got to execute the play, but there’s times when we expand the formation like that and go to a one-back set, it does create better lanes in the run game. Every now and then we have to keep the tendency on us by throwing the ball.”