Friday Media Transcript: Head Coach Ben McAdoo

Head Coach Ben McAdoo

October 6, 2017

Q: What happened to John Jerry?

A: Just the back of his hamstring tightened up on him a little bit yesterday at practice.

Q: Did he finish practice?

A: Yes.

Q: How’s Odell (Beckham) doing?

A: Odell’s doing well. We didn’t know if it was a hamstring or cramping or what it was, but it seems to be cramping at this point.

Q: As far as his comments, that’s not troubling to you at all that an opposing player says they know what you guys are running?

A: Like I said yesterday and Mike Sullivan talked about it yesterday, it’s part of scouting, it’s part of gamesmanship.

Q: But you don’t feel like anything you’re doing is too predictable?

A: Again, we are focused more on ourselves. That’s a non-issue.

Q: If you were predictable, that would be an issue. Self-scouting hasn’t shown that is what you’re saying?

A: It’s not something that I am concerned with at this point, no. We have things to counteract it.

Q: What has been your message to the team this week?

A: Well yeah, we talked about adversity introduces a man to himself and that’s where we find ourselves right now. It’s a people game, it’s a game of character. We’ve practiced well the last couple of weeks, better than the first two weeks, and we put ourselves in position to win games in the end. Fell short the last couple weeks and we worked a lot on the fundamental part of the game in practice this week. Doing simple better. Simplifying things, playing faster, tackling better, blocking better, catching better, and we hope to cash in on it on Sunday.

Q: What happened to Avery Moss?

A: Shoulder.

Q: Did you notice sloppiness in the practices the first two weeks?

A: I didn’t say that. I just said we practiced better the last two weeks.

Q: So what has made it better?

A: Our attention to detail. I think we ramped up the effort, the accountability from players to coaches and coaches to players, holding each other accountable has been a big part of it. And the intensity has gone up, for sure.

Q: Moss hasn’t played so was it something that came up in practice yesterday?

A: Yeah, it was in practice.

Q: Is (Cap) Capi a defensive end? Linebacker? What’s his actual position?

A: Yes. He can play either, or.

Q: How much confidence do you have in Brett Jones at center?

A: A ton of confidence. Brett, he’s a pro. He prepares very well. He can play guard, he can play center for us. Has a high IQ and a high football IQ and has some toughness.

Q: How optimistic are you that JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) will play?

A: Again, we will take a look at him in practice tomorrow and see how it goes.

Q: Do you think that the accountability was lacking the first two weeks?

A: I just think it’s a heightened sense of a lot of things. It’s important that you don’t go out and you don’t press. We want to make sure there is clear communication, straight talk is important. I think a lot of things improved over the last couple weeks. The games that went down to the wire, we found a way to win a couple of those games early last year, but I don’t feel our team is really too different than it was through the first four games of last year. The difference is we found a way to win a couple games that were tight early in the season last year. We haven’t done that yet, so that doesn’t mean we are lesser of a football team at this point. But that’s where we are, that’s where we find ourselves.

Q: How important is this game to you guys at this point?

A: Again, it’s the only game that we get to play this week, so it’s important. That’s why you worked. They’re all important. It’s one of 16, but we’ve had a good week of practice and hope to go cash in on it.

Q: Some offensive line analysts have been breaking down some of the fundamental breakdowns you guys have been having. How do you explain their comments?

A: Yeah, I am not sure what you’re referring to.

Q: Shaun O’Hara was saying guys aren’t executing combination blocks and their footwork is off and those types of things.

A: We had two new guards playing on different sides last week. We’ve had some things fundamentally that we’re working on to correct and improve and we took a step to get better this week.

Q: When you have a kicker with a small body of work like (Aldrick) Rosas, what is your confidence level with him and have you watched to see how he would react this week at practice?

A: He had a good week of practice. Made a lot of kicks, have a lot of confidence in him. He’s a young kicker that continues to get better each and every day. Look forward to seeing him kick this weekend.