Offensive Coordinator Ben McAdoo
October 22, 2015
Q: What do you attribute, obviously you started very well the first drive, probably two drives actually, and then it sort of went downhill from there.
A: Really the first half last week we had over 40 plays, maybe 42 plays, we had the ball for over 19 minutes, close to 200 yards, first drive went well, and what happens is you turn it over three times. That’s something that can’t happen. We have to take care of the ball and it was fundamentals, everything is correctable, and we have to move forward and we have to learn from it, and get better this week.
Q: This is a two part. Is it fair to say Philadelphia in the second half rolled their coverage more towards Odell [Beckham Jr.]? Is that fair statement?
A: Well the game changed so they changed the way they were playing. They played more two deep coverages, played some man to man underneath, and we didn’t execute very well.
Q: I guess the second part of that is if and when teams make it a point to put more emphasis on Odell, is it requisite for other guys to step up and make more plays or is it requisite for him to still make himself available and get open, whatever the coverage is?
A: Odell didn’t press in the second half, he let the game come to him like we asked our receivers to do, we just weren’t executing period. It wasn’t Odell, we had a bad half of football that we need to fix, and it’s fixable.
Q: Is there a point though where you feel like you need to get the ball to him regardless? When you go through almost the entire 3rd quarter, I know you didn’t have the ball a ton, but he doesn’t have a touch at that point?
A: Well we weren’t executing period and that’s the key. We have to execute, we have to run the ball better, we have to throw it better, we have to complete it better, we have to protect better, and when you do that the offense flows and you have a chance to get everybody involved. That’s what we need to do and if he’s getting doubled we can’t force the ball into double coverage, we have to let everyone else make plays, and step up and take advantage of their opportunities. You have to play the one on ones.
Q: How much better can you be come Sunday though, a short week, and Monday, still completely in need of improvement.
A: If we take advantage of our opportunities and fix our mistakes from last week we could have been better last week but should of, would of, could of, but we didn’t get it done. The opportunities were there and we were disappointed, we flushed that, we’ve moved on, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity on Sunday.
Q: Odell has had significantly more targets in the first half than the second half, is that a trend you’re comfortable with?
A: Is that a trend I’m comfortable with? We want to target Odell as much as possible. He’s a play maker, a heck of a player in this league, we’re not going to go in and say we want to target him a certain number of times each game. Although we definitely don’t want him to disappear in the second half and that’s no fault of his own, that’s no fault of Eli [Manning], we have to play the one on ones.
Q: What do you attribute that difference to?
A: Could be a bunch of different things.
Q: Such as?
A: Such as a bunch of different things. It could be coverages, could be one on ones, could be the type of game it is in the second half, could be a variety of things.
Q: Is it something you look at, do you even look at that number when you say, and “Okay the number of his targets go down in the second half”?
A: I’m aware during the course of the game who is getting the touches, yes. That’s something we keep track of.
Q: Why do you find it necessary? If you say you don’t want to force it and you don’t want to do, why do is it so important to you?
A: During the course of the game you want to know the run to pass ratio, who’s getting touches in the backfield, who’s getting touches outside the numbers, and inside the number in the pass game.
Q: Is he the kind of player, I don’t want to say no matter the coverage, but generally speaking, you want to give him a chance to make a play?
A: Absolutely. He had some opportunities to make plays, even in the second half we had an opportunity to make a play down the field and it didn’t, we didn’t execute.
Q: The out of bounds one?
A: Yes, that was one.
Q: Just going back to the tracking of touches in games, do you go into the game with targets in mind for certain guys?
A: It depends on your run/pass ratio and the number of plays you have in the game. It depends, percentage wise on the number of plays in the game, the number of run/pass ratio, and then also the situational football, how much situational football you have as opposed to first downs and second downs.
Q: I’m just curious how you use the data in game. Do you just track it have it afterwards or do you see something develop in the game and say, “Oh we have to get this guy more touches because he doesn’t have enough”?
A: Yeah, you see if have something in the game where he’s not touching the ball you want to put him in position where the ball may gravitate that way, but you never want to force it. That’s how turnovers happen.
Q: You ran a lot of two tight end sets early, you did it with a lot of effectiveness, driving down the field on that first drive. You did it for almost that entire first drive, how come we didn’t see it as much as the game went on?
A: You didn’t see much after that first series. You didn’t really see much of anything after that first series. We didn’t execute very well, we didn’t execute long enough to play the way we wanted to play.
Q: Is it important that you put your finger on why? I mean can it be a collective brain cramp? Can it be a lack of effort? Can it be something that you need to find out why that happened?
A: I don’t see it as a lack of effort. I mean when you turn the ball over three times you put yourself—you put a sour taste in your mouth when you need to fight through that sour taste, you come out in the second half and the game changes. We need to be able to execute better in the second half.
Q: Can you explain just from a technical standpoint what happened on the interception return for a touchdown? Who was supposed to go where?
A: It’s fundamentals. We need to, we need to listen to our feet their and go on to number two.
Q: So Eli needs to look off that…
A: Yeah that was his first read in the progression and it wasn’t there so he needs to go to number two.
Q: When you look at Andre Williams, the number is a big disparity between his yards per carry and the other two guys. What do you attribute that to and is it more of a situational thing or is it maybe something he’s doing?
A: Each play tells its own story. There are sometimes where he may get a dirty look, there’s sometimes where he maybe could’ve read something a little bit better, there’s sometimes there are times when he doesn’t have a good play. We’d like to see more production from Andre, we believe in Andre and like to think he’d take advantage of his opportunities moving forward.
Q: Does his style of play require more touches, more rhythm?
A: We have three backs, you can even make an argument that we have four backs who can contribute and deserve touches. It’s tough to go in saying you’re going to run one guy in a game when they all deserve to be involved. So he has to take advantage of his opportunities when he’s in there. You don’t get any practice reps on Sundays.
Q: Do you believe that guys can get in a rhythm running the ball and get better as they go along?
A: Some. Some guys may.
Q: Is he that type? Andre I mean.
A:You can make an argument that way. Some guys get better but we have three guys who deserve touches at this point and they’re all going to get their touches.
Q: You said four guys, is there any plan to get one more involved?
A: We’ll see how the week goes. It’s still early.
Q: When you preparing for Dallas, [inaudible].What does Hardy do for your game plan, obviously without revealing what your game is?
A: He’s a tremendous talent. He can change the game in one play, he jumps off the football, is strong and long and plays with a nasty streak. So we got to make sure he’s accounted for.
Q: Do they change what they do with him on the field?
A: The way they played the last game before the bye, they played a little bit different style of football. We may see that, we may not, but the New England game was a little out of character for them the way they typically play.
Q: Could Eli have significantly less time to get rid of the ball in this game compared to the first several?
A: We had a short week so we buzzed through the game and it was about getting ready for Dallas this week. So we didn’t go back and time any releases. The data is available but I don’t have that off the top of my head.
Q: Stylistically, how was the Patriots game out of character for them?
A: They played different personnel groups on defense.
Call it what you want: happy feet, staring down the rush, etc. Middle of the second drive is when their DL turned it up a notch. Eli noticed and continued noticing from there on out.
I believe Philly realized OBJ, Randle and Co. could not get behind them and took away the short timing. Eli knew it and stopped pulling the trigger. He rarely hit the plant foot and fired after that second possession.