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Wednesday Transcript: Offensive Coordinator Ben McAdoo

Eric from BBI : Admin : 12/23/2015 5:11 pm
Offensive Coordinator Ben McAdoo

December 23, 2015

Q: How do you handle this week contingency-wise not knowing what you’ve got with Odell?

A: We put a plan together to attack Minnesota’s defense, they are a good sound defense, well coached, they play hard, have some depth, and if we have Odell, we’ll have a plan for it. If not, we’ll move forward that way as well.

Q: So you have two plans?

A: We have one plan, but we have contingency plans based off of our personnel.

Q: You haven’t heard one way or another if he’s going to be available yet?

A: I have not, no.

Q: What’s your take on—a lot’s obviously going on in that game, you have a lot to do with calling plays, you have a player who is having a problem there. How did you handle it and what went into your thinking in handling that game?

A: Well, I’ll give you my take on it. We work in a professional environment and when something gets personal that way, it affects the entire offense. Obviously it affected Odell’s performance and affected the offensive performance and became a distraction. Unfortunate and it can’t happen, we can’t let a personal battle take away from our professional environment, and it shined a negative light on the organization, and we can’t let that happen. With that being said, three and a half hours on a Sunday afternoon, Odell made some bad decisions and got caught up in that personal battle. He made some bad decisions, (in) a three and a half hour window. You can’t, in my opinion, attack a young man’s character. He’s still a high-character young man, we’re going to have his back, he’s a member of the Giant family, our family, and it’s unfortunate that it happened, but we’ve got to learn from it, we’ve got to move on, and it’s a big game this week.

Q: Did you have any direct communication with him during the game about what was going on or said?

A: Yeah, I had a couple quick—I mean you have quick conversations during a game and then one at halftime, but each time I approached him, he was being coached and responding to coaching and went on the field and some things happened there that were unfortunate.

Q: Did you think of taking him off the field at any point?

A: There were conversations being made during the course of the game, yes.

Q: What went into him not coming off the field?

A: That’s in-game communication and it’s going to stay in-house.

Q: You think he will grow from this?

A: Absolutely. Like I said, he’s a high-character young man who during a three hour, three and a half hour window on Sunday he let it snowball on him, made some bad decisions, and couldn’t pull himself out of it, and that’s unfortunate that it happened the way it did, but towards the end of the game, started playing better and refocused, reenergized himself and made a play that was big for us on fourth down at the end of the game.

Q: You said he was responding to coaching, is he a different guy on the sideline, then all of a sudden he goes on the field and he’s…

A: Yeah, each time I approached him and each time I took a look over in between series—you know when you’re calling the game, you have a hard time, you don’t watch one player, there are certain things you have to do. You have to call the game before you call the game and your eyes go to certain spots based on what you’re doing. During the course of the game, when we were off the field, I was working with Eli on the sideline and either working and coming over either speaking with Odell or checking in on him from afar and he was responding to coaching, talking about the game, seemed to settle down and was focused on trying to get the ball in his hands.

Q: What do you do, as an offensive coordinator, to make sure that this doesn’t happen again or doesn’t escalate as the game progresses to the point where now you’re without one of your best players?

A: We were all aware going into the game it was going to be a high-octane situation. We were aware of that going in. We had discussions multiple times and something happened there in pregame, something happened early in the game, and snowballed on all of us.

Q: Just looking back on Eli’s interception late in the end zone, what was going on? Did Hakeem Nicks slip? Was that part of it or was it just an ill-advised throw?

A: The ball was out of his hand before he slipped. What happened was as Eli’s eyes went to the right, he had to extend the play so he moved, he had to throw the ball away a little bit earlier. He was trying actually to throw the ball away and there was some contact there at the end that made it look like he was throwing the ball up for grabs and that wasn’t the case and then Nicks slipped and it was an error that could’ve been avoided if we just came out of the pocket, scrambled early, had a chance to extend the play on the perimeter or just throw it away earlier. Listen to his timeclock there and try not to do too much from the pocket.

Q: So basically he was trying to throw it out of the end zone and just didn’t get enough on it because it looked like someone was bearing down on him?

A: Yeah, he was trying to throw the ball away and didn’t have a chance to put enough juice on it.

Q: You lost your fullback, he’s on injured reserve now, where do you move from there?

A: We have plenty of big people that can block, so we’re going to use all hands on deck like we always do and we’ll have a plan for it.

Q: You open to using big people like offensive linemen or more toward tight ends probably?

A: We’re going to use all hands on deck this week.

Q: Tom seemed to give him some credit for the improvement in the run game the last couple of weeks, specifically mentioned his work as a lead blocker the last couple of weeks. Had that been better than you had seen prior?

A: Yes, he’s taken a step forward. It’s an unfortunate injury.

Q: Will Tye been a pleasant surprise?

A: He’s doing some things well, he’s progressing. He’s definitely, seems like he’s turning into one of Eli’s favorite targets in the offense. He can finish better in the run game and we’ll need to do that this week.
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