Q: What does
Coach Allen: “Latavius is a big, powerful back that really also has exceptional speed. When he gets out into the open, he has an opportunity to take the ball the distance. I thought he ran the ball hard in the game [last] night. I thought he did a pretty good job, for the most part, of making the right reads and putting the ball where it needs to go in the run game. I was pleased, really, with all of those running backs –
Q: Have you noticed a big difference in how Murray runs? I think Greg Olson said that last year he wasn’t running comfortably in the limited time that you guys were able to be with him before he got hurt. Is he running smoother than last year?
Coach Allen: “Yeah, absolutely. It’s obvious that when you go back in the mental picture of what you saw from him last year and what we’ve seen to this point this year, it’s obvious that he was not healthy last year. I think now that he’s back to being healthy, I think we’re seeing a little bit more the type of back that we felt we were going to get when we drafted him. I think, to this point in camp and really through the first preseason game, he’s done well.”
Q: When you go back and look at the tape of
Coach Allen: “I think you saw a guy that is a rookie that was playing in his first game. I did see some things where … A couple of times we activated him on rushes and he was able to cause some disruption. But then there were some times where, a little bit in the run game and a little bit in the pass game, he is just a little bit late in reacting to his responsibility. I think that’s a guy that is playing in his first NFL game. Again, we don’t do a lot of game planning. We’ll begin a lot more game planning when we get into the third preseason game. But for the first couple of games, there is not a lot of game planning that goes in. I want to watch these guys go out and play football and execute a little more of our base offense, base defense and just see him fly around and play the game. So, I don’t want them doing a whole lot of thinking. I want them just really basically reacting to what they see and go play football.”
Q: How do you think the cornerbacks held up? What did you think of their play as a group?
Coach Allen: “Well, I think overall I think it was positive. I think they had 270-something yards of offense, I believe it was, total offense, which is not a lot of offense. So I think overall it was positive. Obviously, when the first drive – the thing you look at is a couple of those throws to Cordarrelle Patterson, there’s some tight-window throws and contested catches and that’s what you want to see because I feel like if you continue to contest those plays, you’re going to get your fair share of them.”
Q: Considering the issues you had in the field-goal game last year, did you consider using
Coach Allen: “Well, we actually were considering in the third quarter there using ‘Sea-Bass’ [Janikowski], and then we kind of get knocked out where it would have been, I think it would have been a 59-yard field-goal attempt, and Marquette really needs to work on his green punting, too. So I chose to go ahead and punt Marquette there. When it got in the fourth quarter, I didn’t want to take the risk of having ‘Sea-Bass’ in there with really, basically, the third field-goal protection team and risk the chance of somebody breaking through and getting on his plant foot or something and him potentially getting injured. That’s one of the reasons why we signed a kicker when [Michael] Palardy had appendicitis. We wanted to have somebody in here so we didn’t have to worry about kicking ‘Sea-Bass’ for the full game.”
Q: Were there any other injuries that came out of yesterday’s game, other than
Coach Allen: “No, the only other thing was
Q: Which of the younger defensive players jumped out on film?
Coach Allen: “I thought there were a couple guys that kind of jumped out and did some good things. I thought
Q: When you looked at
Coach Allen: “You know, I did not think that – I was pleased with what I saw out of Matt Schaub. I mean, two of the third-down throws, you know, he tries the back-shoulder throw down the middle to
Q: Will you give
Coach Allen: “Yeah, it’s not really part of the plan right now. We’ll obviously evaluate everything as we move along, but the plan is to work Matt Schaub as the starting quarterback and I think he’s done a good job in doing that.”