Special Teams Coordinator Thomas McGaughey -- November 29, 2019
Q: Why yesterday with Zak (DeOssie)?
A: He just wasn’t out there. The thing about Zak is, we’ll handle that situation as it comes. It is what it is.
Q: Have the injuries contributed to his inconsistency do you think?
A: I’m not going to talk about injuries, he’s just been inconsistent. If you’re out there as a pro you’ve got to do your job.
Q: Why shut him down though?
A: Who said he was shut down?
Q: It’s reported you guys are putting him on IR.
A: That’s something you’d have to talk to the head coach about. I don’t know, we’re just working.
Q: What have you seen from (Colin) Holba, the guy you brought in?
A: He’s a veteran guy who’s done it before. He’s been in a game, he’s been on the practice squad, he’s worked. He knows what he’s doing.
Q: Is Aldrick (Rosas) your kicker for Sunday?
A: Absolutely.
Q: What’s the balance of sticking with the young guy through struggles, like Aldrick, but also you need results on Sundays?
A: It’s tough. It’s always hard because this is a results business, so you want to have the results. In the process, when you have a guy like Aldrick, who’s been a Pro Bowler, who’s had success in this league, you just got to keep working. And you’re right, there’s a fine line. He knows it’s a results business and you’ve got to get it done.
Q: Why does it seem like that position, maybe more than others, can be up, down, up, down, throughout his career?
A: When you look at kickers around the league, and people are talking about the numbers are down, it’s experience. There are not a lot of double-digit guys in the league anymore as far as experience and there’s a lot of young guys. With young guys, young players make mistakes. A lot of times you’ve got to work your way through those rough patches and just keep going.
Q: Do you blame the snaps for his misses?
A: I don’t blame anything on anybody. Again, if the ball is up you’ve got to kick it.
Q: You think it has been?
A: It’s been inconsistent. It’s like what we talked about, the thing you have to have is consistency between those three guys. It’s like I told you guys a couple weeks ago, better snap, better hold, better kick. It’s an old adage in football and you have to have those three things working in that order.
Q: Can you explain the end of the game punt safe?
A: We just moved up Antoine Bethea to the corner and dropped back Jackrabbit. Jackrabbit has returned punts in this league for years and had success. He probably should have fielded the ball in a perfect situation. DeAndre Baker should have blocked [Cordarrelle] Patterson more, he didn’t get anything on him. We’re talking about Jackrabbit possibly getting in his way or blocking Cordarrelle and the same thing with Baker. If we get a little bit of him the ball goes into the end zone. It’s just a matter of execution and we didn’t execute.
Q: Why not when they sub in you just sub in your whole punt team so it tightens up the execution?
A: It’s just a decision we made. Players have to do their jobs. Regardless of how we would have switched it, we would have put our gray team in and it’s basically the same exact people minus the returner, just a different returner. It’s just a matter of getting hands on people and stopping them from being able to get to the ball.
Q: Why Da’Mari Scott for punt returner?
A: He’s a talented kid, very talented.
Q: It didn’t seem like he did it a lot in college, I know he did it a little bit with you guys in the offseason. Just curious what he has shown you.
A: He’s very talented, he has very good open field run skills. He’s a talented kid, trust me on that.
