Offensive Coordinator Ben McAdoo
November 12, 2015
Q: Do you find offenses that play against the Patriots start trying to get out of what they do because they want to match them?
A: It’s a good question. I would say there are probably some teams that like to do that. I think you have to be comfortable in your own skin, your own version. You have to do what you need to do situationally to win. You put a lot of time and effort into situations and you see that creep up in the tape. But you need to do what you do best and work on what you need to work on each week and find a way to improve.
Q: The balance of you want to control the ball and keep them off the field, but you want to take shots, you like taking shots and scoring quickly also. Do you find yourself tormented at times?
A: We want to play balanced. We want to play balanced football, we want to run a little bit, we want to throw a little bit, and, again, situationally we have to do the smart thing to win the down and move the chains and keep the ball in our hands. When we get into the green zone, we have to execute, we have to try technique and trust our training, not chase anything that isn’t there. You have to be smart with the ball. We understand that they’re good on offense, but we need to play good team football, good smart team football, and we need to do our job on offense.
Q: Is there a feeling because they come in defensively usually with a unique game plan for their opponent that there are a lot of in-game adjustments that you have to make depending on how they want to attack you?
A: Yeah, well, we need to come out and play our game, be comfortable in our own skin that way, see how the game unfolds. They have some good players over there, they have a good scheme, and they’ll have something new for us, there’s no doubt. We’ll have to be ready to adjust and improvise as the game goes on.
Q: Odell was saying it’s not uncommon to look at the film and feel like you’re almost like a punt gunner when you go out to line up because there are two guys over you. Are they a team that tries to take the best player out of the game?
A: They seem to give some talented players some extra attention. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that on Sunday. We’ll see how it unfolds. I imagine they’ll change it up as the game goes on and, based on their tendencies, try to change up who they’re paying attention to.
Q: What do you tell Odell if that’s the case and that’s what they do?
A: Just come out and play our game and we can’t chase anything, we have to let the game come to us. We have to have some patience with it and he’ll have an opportunity during the course of the game at some point and if you play with poise and take advantage of the opportunity when your number is called, that’s all you can do.
Q: How much does attention to you have to pay to Chandler Jones as an outstanding pass rusher?
A: He’s a talented player. They have a bunch of unique, talented guys. They have some big-bodied guys, they have some physical players, they have a lot of length over there and a variety of guys who can cover on the backend and also upfront, so we need to be ready to deal with those guys. They’ll drop them off, they just won’t rush all the time, so that’s when they try to keep you imbalanced and challenging you in gaps and we have to be smart with that.
Q: … I know you guys wanted to run the clock out last week and you at least came close to running it out.
A: We didn’t end the game in the victory formation and that’s something that we need to do and we expect to do and we’re working to do. But the line took over late in the game and we felt they laid heavy on their defensive line. We had a lot of plays in the game and I felt we could’ve, if we would’ve executed a little bit better, we could’ve had some more but it gave us an opportunity to run it in the second half and we had a variety of guys run the ball and do it fairly well. One penalty in the game obviously helped us, but it was good to see him lay heavy on that defensive line and move the ball there with four minutes and change left.
Q: Obviously you’re disappointed Will Beatty can’t make it back, but the way Ereck Flowers has played, it is like a curse has become a blessing a little bit there?
A: Ereck’s a young player who’s continuing to grow. He needs to focus on his technique like a lot of guys do at this point. The season can get long for the young guys and they need to focus on their technique, on our execution, and winning each day. That’s something that he’s doing right now and we’re working with him to do and improve at. We’ll miss William and as soon as he gets healthy and gets back, we’ll take him back.
Q: Ereck Flowers though certainly allowed you to miss him less than you probably first anticipated?
A: We’re glad we have Ereck. Ereck’s a talented young player who’s doing a nice job for us and we expect him to, over the last half of the season, continue to improve.
Q: What has been the biggest, in your estimation, growth for that line as you’ve gotten along here?
A: We have a variety of guys playing different positions that haven’t played together. So eight weeks into it, nine weeks into it, going in here to the last part of the season to the stretch run after the bye week, they’re starting to get to know each other a little bit, starting to play together a little bit. That position upfront, those five guys have to be one up front and it takes time to get that done.
Q: Odell hasn’t had one of those “wow” catches this year but if you look at the numbers, is he quietly having a big year?
A: He’s being productive. Yeah, he’s having a productive year. He’s getting a ton of targets, a lot of opportunities. I talk to Odell and I talk to Eli, you know we’re throwing him the ball a bunch, but I’d like to see that completion percentage go up. It’s not high enough. It’s going to be hard and challenging to get him the ball as the season goes on and each and every week is going to be a challenge. He’s going to get a lot of attention and rightfully so. We’re going to have to cash in and be detailed with it and focus on the details and get our completion percentage up.
Q: I know you talk about taking what the defense gives you and that target number was high last week. Are you okay with the opportunities there?
A: Yes. He wasn’t chasing. Eli wasn’t chasing. The ball should’ve—where he went, he made the right reads. We just have to—we weren’t our best in the passing game. We didn’t have our best stuff last week and it was nice to go out and run the ball in the end and win the game when you don’t have your best stuff in passing. That’s hard to do in this League. That’s a credit to the guys staying the course and fighting through it.
Q: How impressive was Rashad Jennings in the fourth quarter last week?
A: He came in, had a few nice runs, got a hot hand there, and ran with some toughness and some physicality and the guys were doing a nice job blocking for him. We were one first down away from taking the knee, which we needed to do.
Q: I know it’s four years or more ago. Do you look at what Eli has done successfully against the Patriots in the past?
A: I don’t, no. I think that Eli’s history versus New England speaks for itself. I wasn’t a part of it. Actually, I was a part of it at one point so. That’s something that I’m sure Eli, you can talk to him about.
Q: You mentioned you wanted the completion percentage to go up. Is that specifically Eli to Odell or overall?
A: Overall and specifically to Odell.
Q: Just as far as targets versus completions?
A: Yeah, we’re going to target Odell a bunch and it’s up to me, it’s up to Eli, it’s up to Odell, it’s up to the guys blocking for him. We have to get that completion percentage up. If you’re going to get a lot of targets, then we need to complete a lot of balls.
Q: How much different does your offense look this year because of the presence of Shane Vereen?
A: Shane’s been a nice addition. He gives us a nice compliment out of the backfield in the pass game. He and Rashad and Orleans and even Andre had a nice catch on a pop over the ball last week. He’s been a nice addition.
Q: How do you assess your young tight ends? It looks like Larry Donnell is probably going to miss another game.
A: It’s not too big for them. They came out and they played physical last week. We had one that got away from us there in the endzone and we had to come up with a ball. They block well, they handled the environment on the road in those elements and those conditions. It definitely wasn’t a cool day. They executed and we look forward for them to take another step this week. They’re not done yet.
Q: When did you start calling the plays and what did you do to prepare for that?
A: When did I start calling plays?
Q: Yeah, in your career.
A: I’ve been training to start calling plays for about 10 years. So when did I actually call my first play?
Q: Sure.
A: Last year.
Q: And you were trained in…
A: Yes.
Q: And you just started where?
A: In Green Bay. We developed the whole offense into a position to call plays and you train guys to call plays. It’s a pedigree type thing, it’s a development type thing, and that’s where I learned.
Where does the question come from?
Q: Well lots of teams don’t do that. They don’t have pedigrees like what I think you described.
A: Yes.
Q: I was kind of curious.
A: It’s a systematic philosophy.
No, you find what works and you keep doing it until the opponent adjusts. This philosophy drives me nuts.
No, you find what works and you keep doing it until the opponent adjusts. This philosophy drives me nuts.
....which leads to balanced football, in most cases.
No, you find what works and you keep doing it until the opponent adjusts. This philosophy drives me nuts.
Keeping the Pats from scoring a shit-ton is important, yes? Then passing too much doesn't help our time of possession. So there will be times when we run and you will say, "Why are we running so much?" Because we want to keep the ball away from Brady while we are also trying to score points.
Quote:
"We want to play balanced. We want to play balanced football, we want to run a little bit, we want to throw a little bit..."
No, you find what works and you keep doing it until the opponent adjusts. This philosophy drives me nuts.
Except that is wrong.
Keeping the Pats from scoring a shit-ton is important, yes? Then passing too much doesn't help our time of possession. So there will be times when we run and you will say, "Why are we running so much?" Because we want to keep the ball away from Brady while we are also trying to score points.
Sorry but this is such an old school philosophy and not really true in today's NFL. If you run a west cost style offense where you're completing short passes around 65-70% then that's just as good (if not better) than having a "balanced offense." If being balanced leads to fewer plays on a drive and/or more 3 and outs (which is has in the past few seasons for us) then being balanced will end up giving the Pats offense even more opportunities.
Maybe just being polite or maybe more.
Quote:
"We want to play balanced. We want to play balanced football, we want to run a little bit, we want to throw a little bit..."
No, you find what works and you keep doing it until the opponent adjusts. This philosophy drives me nuts.
Except that is wrong.
Keeping the Pats from scoring a shit-ton is important, yes? Then passing too much doesn't help our time of possession. So there will be times when we run and you will say, "Why are we running so much?" Because we want to keep the ball away from Brady while we are also trying to score points.
But if the running game isn't working, should they continue banging their heads into a wall for the sake of balance? If the run's working, by all means stick to it. But to run or pass just to be balanced is absurd. If you're completing passes the clock runs just as much as if you're running.
As McAdoo said, they didn't have their best stuff against Tampa and thankfully the running game took over.
So what's the problem?
As McAdoo said, they didn't have their best stuff against Tampa and thankfully the running game took over.
So what's the problem?
The problem is the rigid mindset that our coaches seem to have. This thinking of "oh my, we've run the ball 15 times and only passed 5 times, so we need to pass more to balance things out." It's an arbitrary metric when there really doesn't need to be one. It should be based on the situation and what's been working. Ideally yes, you could run the ball on every down, keep the clock moving and score consistently. But the Giants shouldn't be afraid to pass or keep passing if the situation warrants it. The Patriots have no qualms about running the ball 50 times or passing the ball 50 times; they react to what their opponent is doing and which personnel they have available. It's just old-school narrow-mindedness when there doesn't need to be any in this situation.
Indy and the Jets both gave them some games. If not for a comeback against the Jets and a boneheaded special teams play for the ages by Indy this team might not be undefeated, but good teams find ways to win close games, and this New England team might be as good or better than the 2006/2007 Patriots.
Nonetheless, there is game tape on how to stop them. The Indy game is probably the most interesting because that team is dumpster fire with bad defense and they took em to the brink.
And do you really want that type of pass-to-run ratio in a game?
I want to see our big offensive line punish people too like they did with Tampa last week. They really beat up on them. There is something to be said for being a physical football team.
Most weeks, balance isn't the outcome that brings that in the current NFL (and I don't mean that in terms of throwing the ball vs running the ball; sometimes teams abandon successful run games to throw the ball and cost themselves games too -- Dallas, in some ways, did that against the Giants the last time they played), so I can understand why people don't want to hear about that being the goal.
Let's not pretend that was some great rush offense performance worth striving for or getting off to.
Q: Obviously you’re disappointed Will Beatty can’t make it back, but the way Ereck Flowers has played, it is like a curse has become a blessing a little bit there?
A: Ereck’s a young player who’s continuing to grow. He needs to focus on his technique like a lot of guys do at this point. The season can get long for the young guys and they need to focus on their technique, on our execution, and winning each day. That’s something that he’s doing right now and we’re working with him to do and improve at. We’ll miss William and as soon as he gets healthy and gets back, we’ll take him back.
Q: Ereck Flowers though certainly allowed you to miss him less than you probably first anticipated?
A: We’re glad we have Ereck. Ereck’s a talented young player who’s doing a nice job for us and we expect him to, over the last half of the season, continue to improve.
Let's not pretend that was some great rush offense performance worth striving for or getting off to.
This OL needs to get better at run blocking, it's true. But you want to see signs, and getting them reps is what's going to make them better. At this stage of what the Giants are, they just need to be effective enough running the ball, and they were in that game. Two out of the last 3 weeks you've gotten 100 or more on the ground. Could have had that in NO, but the game didn't call for that.
Q: Obviously you’re disappointed Will Beatty can’t make it back, but the way Ereck Flowers has played, it is like a curse has become a blessing a little bit there?
A: Ereck’s a young player who’s continuing to grow. He needs to focus on his technique like a lot of guys do at this point. The season can get long for the young guys and they need to focus on their technique, on our execution, and winning each day. That’s something that he’s doing right now and we’re working with him to do and improve at. We’ll miss William and as soon as he gets healthy and gets back, we’ll take him back.
Q: Ereck Flowers though certainly allowed you to miss him less than you probably first anticipated?
A: We’re glad we have Ereck. Ereck’s a talented young player who’s doing a nice job for us and we expect him to, over the last half of the season, continue to improve.
He's been solid, especially in the context of a rookie, but it's not like he's been brilliant. His praise seemed genuine and measured.
Seems ever since Coughlin started calling it a green zone we have struggled even more there