Tackle Nate Solder
August 24, 2018
Postgame at Jets
Re: the running game tonight
A: We had the blitz on the backside and got a tackle in the backfield right off the bat in the first couple of plays. We are overcoming that, throwing the ball in long yardage, we made some big plays, so we stuck with that. There’s a lot of factors to it, we have to keep working on that, improving on that, because that’s a big factor on offense.
Q: There’s proof that the older running backs get, the less productive they are. What have you seen from Jonathan Stewart beyond the box score, which says he hasn’t been good in preseason?
A: He’s a guy that works hard, he does everything he’s told. He’s a great teammate. I don’t know enough about analyzing his play.
Q: How much of it was what the Jets were doing, it looked like they were crowding the box a lot and bringing a lot of pressure, how much of that was a result of catching you guys a little on your heels?
A: I wouldn’t have used that term, but I think that they do have a good run stopping defense. That shouldn’t stop us from being at least efficient in the run game. You never want to lose yards in the run game. If you are gaining a few here or there, keeping it mixed up, that’s fine. When you are losing yards, no matter what the defense is doing, you are doing something wrong. We have to work at that.
Q: Do you ever think about who is getting the ball on a run play?
A: You block the play and do the best you can to scale up how the defensive guys play, and we have to keep working at that.
Q: Do you look at the numbers, which haven’t been good and have concern about that?
A: My concern is to do the best I can with everything. I screwed some things up, so I need to improve those and everything else falls behind each individual taking care of their job.
Q: When you look at the last two games, 30 points against the Lions, 22 tonight, you haven’t had Odell on the field and you‘ve only had Saquon for one game, are you sitting there going, “we can do some stuff”?
A: I think with any preseason game, you don’t want to project anything too far out. You do some good things, you are working more of a game scenario, you work together with your teammates. You figure out communication needs and things like that. You don’t want to talk about stats or points. I think about improving and getting better as a team.
