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Tuesday Media Transcript: Head Coach Ben McAdoo

Eric from BBI : Admin : 11/10/2016 5:05 pm
Head Coach Ben McAdoo

November 10, 2016

Welcome back everybody. We're excited to play Monday night in front of the home crowd; I thought the fans did a tremendous job last week, they were loud when the Eagles had the ball and it was a tremendous advantage for us and we look forward to them being behind us this week.

Defensively for Cincinnati, it's a veteran group. They have a history of success. Their front four has very good rush ability and tremendous length. They're led by Atkins and Dunlap up front. Their linebackers, they're a salty, physical group; they play downhill and they can lay the wood when they get there. Their secondary is aggressive and very multiple.

Offensively, they have an elite group of skill players: A.J. Green, Tyler Eifert, Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard. They're creative and multiple with how they distribute the ball to them. Andy Dalton is playing at a high level and takes great care of the football, that'll be a challenge for us. Four of their five offensive linemen have played a lot of snaps together and they're acclimating the fifth guy in there.

Special teams wise, their unit focuses on extracting the ball. They have 26 fumbles caused since 2003. Their trio of veteran specialists there with Mike Nugent, Kevin Huber and Clark Harris and two premier kick blockers in Margus Hunt and Carlos Dunlap, again, a lot of length there.

Q: What is the status of Victor Cruz?

A: He did not work today.

Q: Will he come out tomorrow?

A: We'll see tomorrow.

Q: How is he feeling at this point?

A: He was out today.

Q: Regardless of the injury, do you plan to cut back on his usage a little bit in the second half of the season?

A: We'll see. We'll take it week-by-week.

Q: It was written that he had a reduced role even before getting hurt the other day. Do you agree with that assessment?

A: Again, we talked about using all 46 of our players as much as we can during the bye week and try to spread the reps around.

Q: Did you guys do anything on the field yesterday with Victor?

A: He didn't work today. He's working off the field and on the field a little bit with the training staff.

Q: Is rushing the football still an important part of this offense and do you think you'll continue to improve on that?

A: We're working at running the football. We spent a lot of time on today. It's an area of importance for us, an area of emphasis and we're going to keep plugging away at it.

Q: What does Eifert bring to their red zone offense. Their productivity increased when they returned.

A: He's a big target with some range. He has sneaky speed, he can chew up some ground with his stride length. But, again, big targets that are smart and get football, in the red and green zone, are an advantage for the offense.

Q: Landon Collins earned himself another NFC defensive player of the week award. What can you say about that?

A: He's making a lot of production. He's all over the field, he's playing fast, he's playing aggressive, he's tackling well and he's doing a nice job with his ball skills.

Q: How much similarity did you see with a guy like A.J. Green compared to someone you played in Week 1, Dez Bryant?

A: They're different players. A.J. is very talented, covers a lot of ground, plays the game fast. Great ball skills, hand-eye coordination; I think all the great ones do. He's made a lot of nice plays over the years.

Q: What makes him different?

A: He's a player that has tremendous length. A very big catch radius and can do it with two hands and one hand.

Q: How do you think Eli Apple responded after Sunday’s game?

A: He's bounced back.

Q: What's your plan with Larry Donnell going forward?

A: We'll take it week-by-week. We're not necessarily going to talk play-time before the game. We're going to take it week-by-week. Everyone has an opportunity to contribute in the game.

Q: How did he deal with having such a reduced role last week?

A: That would be a better question for Larry.

Q: Do the Bengals do a lot of stunts and twists up front, maybe more so than what you've seen?

A: Depends on what their plan is. They've done a lot of double A-gap, mug stuff in the past. Maybe not so much recently, and they mix their stunts and twists in there with pressure. But they like to straight rush four, too, and they have a lot of length doing that but they can push the pocket back and have those guys get their paws open and try to bat some balls down.

Q: What kind of challenge will Brett Jones face when has to go against Geno Atkins?

A: I think every guard faces a big challenge when they go against Geno. He's got a tremendously quick first step. He's built low to the ground, that's an advantage for him and he's very disruptive.

Q: Learning to finish games, which you've been doing. The last few games have all been by seven points or less. Is there something about this squad that you see that's unique?

A: I think we believe that we're going to win the close ones in the end, that's what we work towards. At the same in point in time, we had some opportunities in the ball game to blow it open last week and when we get those opportunities, we need to take advantage of them.

Q: What adjustments do you have to make when guarding a big, strong, multi-threat tight end like Tyler Eifert?

A: I'm going to choose my words carefully here. We have to be aware, we have to know where he is. They can use him all over the formation. They use a lot of shifts and motions that try to disguise where he’s going to be and disguise tendencies as much as possible. We'll know where he is and we'll have a plan for him.

Q: Why is it that tight ends have been an issue for you guys?

A: I think when you play good tight ends, I think they cause problems. My history coaching the position, it causes problems for people. They're tough matchups for safeties because of the size and a tough matchup for linebackers because of the speed and the quickness. A lot of times, corners don't have the strength to contain them. Especially when you go against great, great ones, it poses matchup problems.

Q: How big of an asset has Keenan Robinson been in that regard?

A: Keenan has been a good player for us. He's jumped in with both feet, he's really bought into what we're doing here, become a nice part of the locker room. He's played some good ball for us.

Q: Why do you think Paul Perkins was so effective in the 4th quarter?

A: As opposed to?

Q: Earlier in the game he was getting zeros and ones and minus’?

A: Well, it takes all 11 on offense to have a productive play. Sometimes he blocked what was there, other times he may have missed a read. He may have missed a read or two but again, with reps, he'll get better.

Q: You don't think it had anything to do with him getting stronger as the game went or just a matter of technique?

A: I think he got more comfortable as the game went on.

Q: When you look at Brett Jones, he doesn't have ideal size for a guard. How much can technique compensate for that?

A: I think technique plays a big part into it. He's going to be very prepared, that's who he is, that's how he goes about his business. He's a student of the game and puts a lot of time and effort into the preparation part of things and that showed up on Sunday.

Q: Can Perkins carry a full load?

A: You need to have a variety of ball carriers. Having just one ball carrier going into the game and saying one back is going to play 68 snaps, I don't think that's feasible. I think you need to have a variety of guys who are ready to play and make sure you have the reps distributed that way.

Q: How difficult is your offense protection wise for a rookie?

A: To learn the protection?

Q: Yeah...

A: I think all offenses in this league, that's probably the biggest hurdle for a rookie to overcome is to try to learn the protection and be able to play. Not just learn them, but when the ball is snapped, to be able to play fast. Not just where your number one is, but where your two and your scan shows up.

Q: How much is he still learning that?

A: He's still learning. He's made some progress but he's still learning.

Q: How come your defense has been so good in the red zone?

A: That's a good question. You can go back and look at the tape, like we did over the bye week. Been very productive, making a lot of plays, a lot of great effort by the players that way. I think we're calling it aggressive down there and the players respond to it.

Q: Have you talked to Darian Thompson at all since he was placed on IR?

A: I wished him the best getting healthy.

Q: You only have three safeties at this point, is Mykkele Thompson a potential to return?

A: Everything is fair game at this point.

Q: Where does he stand in this process?

A: He's making progress.

Q: What goes into that decision for you guys and when do you feel like you have to make the decision? You basically have two that could return, Mykkele and Shane Vereen.

A: When they're ready physically, we'll make the decision if we feel it's the right guy at the right time.

Q: Neither of them are ready physically at this point?

A: When someone is ready physically and we deem them the right guy, we'll make the decision.

Q: In that red zone D, are you guys winning physical battles at the line?

A: Yeah, the run game is a big part of it. When you hold the team, when you take away the run, just like anywhere else on the field, it limits what the offense can do schematically.

Q: Understanding that you appreciate Giants tradition so much, how special is the Ring of Honor for you and for some of your players who know Tom Coughlin and Justin Tuck and could that provide more motivation on Monday?

A: I'm not sure about that. I know I'll be excited to see those two guys, wish them the best and congratulate them. We look forward to it.

Q: Ernie Accorsi said he met with you last week, what was that conversation like?

A: I had an opportunity to pick his brain about a couple of different things. It was a great conversation; I look forward to doing it moving forward, too.
This Ben McAdoo is a real 'football guy'  
OdellBeckhamJr : 11/10/2016 8:35 pm : link
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