Offensive Coordinator Ben McAdoo
December 30, 2015
Q: We’ve been asking players and Tom about what he says is his situation, how does his offensive coordinator and someone on his staff deal with distractions of what could happen with him and you?
A: Really, coming off of a short week, we’re focused on Philadelphia. Haven’t had any time or not spending any time talking or thinking about that, we’re all about the Eagles. Short week, we have to bounce back this week. Have a defense that is pretty good and creates a lot of challenges that we need to prepare for.
Q: You expect changes from them considering their coaching situation?
A: No, I don’t think it will impact them on the defensive side of the ball. Bill [Davis] has been around, they have a good scheme, they had success versus us earlier in the year, turned the ball over too much the first time we played them. We’ve got to take care of the ball better, even going back to last week, we have to take care of the ball better and that’s an emphasis for us this week.
Q: After the season ends, we usually don’t talk to the offensive coordinator the following week. Your future, in this job your goal is, I would assume, possibly to be a head coach in this league at some point, whether here or elsewhere. How much do you feel like you’ve made strides in these past couple years to reach that goal of yours?
A: That’s a long way away. This year, again, we’re focused on Philadelphia. I’m not thinking about my future. That would be selfish. There are a lot of people in the building that are all working together and trying to get a win this week and for me to think about myself and the future, as far as that goes, I think would be selfish and short-sided.
Q: You look back on last week’s game and it’s easy to say Odell wasn’t there, so that’s why everything fell apart. Is that the way…
A: I mean that would be the easy thing to say. That wasn’t the case. Obviously, Odell is an outstanding player, brings a lot of energy to the game and guys feed off of his play and his energy, but at the same point and time, we went into the game knowing that with the way their defense was playing, you have to give them a lot of credit with the way their defense was playing, the level they were playing at and what they were playing for, that we had to play well. It goes back to the ball, the game is about the ball and we need to take care of the ball better. We came out, we didn’t handle it well. We had six drops, dropped a snap, made some errors decision-making wise that turned the ball over and had some poor throws in there as well. We didn’t take care of the ball, we fell in a hole, we didn’t bounce back out of the hole and it snowballed on us. That’s in the past. We had a good meeting this morning. We ripped the rearview mirror off the windshield this morning, and we’re looking straight ahead. Got a big week this week against a division opponent who is going to be hungry. They’re going to come in here with the changes that were made down there. You can be sure that they’re going to be hungry and playing for their future.
Q: Do you sit down and talk with Odell about the changes you need to make or anything different to make sure that what happened two weeks ago doesn’t happen again?
A: No, not today.
Q: When what happened last week happens and you talk about things snowballing, is there anything you as a play caller can do to adjust to help?
A: If there was, I would’ve done it and that’s something you work through. I felt at times this year we had a chance to pull out of some things and we did. When things weren’t going well, we bounced back sometimes right away, sometimes a little bit later, later than you’d like. That’s one thing that we look at when we go back and look at the game, what can you do differently to help put players in a position to be successful and when things aren’t going well, to give them an opportunity to be successful. We didn’t get that done early enough on Sunday night—I didn’t get it done.
Q: Obviously when you played them the first time, save the first drive, same sort of thing basically happened. You guys really didn’t move the ball after that…
A: We did move the ball. We moved the ball fairly well after that, we just turned the ball over way too much. We were in their territory a couple times and turned it over. Before the half, we got stale and the pocket got hot and it was tough sledding after that. We had a chance, we had a screen come out, and you are referring to Philadelphia? [Yeah.] Yeah, we had a screen come out, we had a ball in their territory another time, so we were moving the ball fairly well against them. We just didn’t hold on to it.
Q: Eli and the offensive line are not coming off their best game, but do you feel that you and Eli now are completely where you should be on the same page with the offense and when do you think the turning point came? How long does that take?
A: I thought towards the latter part of last year, maybe the last six games, we started clicking and being on the same page and you didn’t have to have a conversation about a conversation. This year, we picked up where we left off. Is it always clean? Is it always easy? In this league, absolutely not. We’re all still working and every week is a new week, every defense is a new defense and creates a new challenge, and this week is going to be a battle. Looking forward to it.
Q: Is that three quarters of a season about what it would usually take to get something really ingrained?
A: I think it depends on your history, the system’s history and the quarterback’s history. I would say a quarterback as smart and as bright as Eli and as experienced as Eli, it may happen a little bit quicker.
Q: But for him, it took that long because this system is so new to him and you were asking him to do new things?
A: No. It takes two to tango and you have to get everyone on board, speaking the same language and whether the players, the coaches, getting everybody going in the same direction, it takes time.
Q: Back to Odell for one second. You said you didn’t speak to him today but have you spoken to him in the past 10 days about that…
A: I spoke to him today getting ready for Philadelphia.
Q: Right. I’m talking about in the big picture of maybe ways he’s going to be refereed differently, that they’re going to be looking out for these kinds of things?
A: I would believe that everyone understands that there are a lot of cameras on Odell because of the impact that he can have on a game and the type of star figure that he has. It doesn’t matter what medium you’re in, he attracts a lot of attention and there are going to be a lot of cameras on him and everything he does is going to be dissected and that is as evident as ever.
Q: He’s a young star coming off a suspension, you think he’s mentally, physically ready for a big game or not so sure?
A: No question. I have no question he’ll be ready.
Q: He walks a fine line with his enthusiasm and this situation boiled over. How do you coach him to make sure that it stays on the right side there and not jeopardize the other side?
A: I like his energy, love his passion. I like them salty. I’m speaking the truth, I like that physicality, I like that in player, a guy who does walk the line and is physical and combative and wants to contest everything that happens. I think that’s what makes him who he is. We’ve just got to keep the flags in the officials’ pockets.