Coach Mac's Monday Media Conference
Review of game…
Everybody saw it yesterday. It was a 7-3 ballgame at halftime, it would have been much to our advantage to have it be a 7-7 ballgame at halftime. In a span of about five minutes there in the 3rd quarter, with field position, poor punts, poor punt coverage, turnover, and basically three plays – a pass interference, a touchdown pass, and then the next offensive snap was a touchdown pass, the 7-3 ballgame went to a 28-3 game pretty quick. That altered us for the way we were approaching the game. I don’t think it put us completely out of the ballgame because we continued to come back in it, but that span of time when you give yourself that poor field position and you do not (stop them), even though they had the ball on our 27 and 22-yardline, that type of sudden-change situation has to be part of the mentality for a defense that 3 points is ALL they come out with.
On halftime…
We had talked about and were very well aware of what we had been able to overcome in the first half and what we were able to accomplish in the first half. We knew that we needed to start the second half very quickly. Then to come out and have that penalty that put us back and lead to that sequence of events... You look back on that football game and that was a big game for us and we needed to win to it. We all understood how important it was to us. I don’t care how important it was to the Steelers, they are not my concern. My concern is this football team and we had pointed very hard towards the game plan on this game and our mindset going into it. I thought the week of practice we had and the preparation, but when you get into it, you got to make the plays when they come up. I know I’ll be asked about some of the officiating calls that were made, but it shouldn’t come down to that at all. That was an occurrence in the ball game, it was not something that tipped the ball game. What tipped the ball game was that time in the third quarter. We had control over it. No matter what else goes on, they still had the ball but we don’t have to let them score a touchdown. As good as the two punts were last week that put the ball on the on the 7 yard line, that is as bad as those two punts were in that game yesterday. Every time you go out you have to perform.
On their defense….
They didn’t have eight people in the box. They have stopped the run all year with seven people in the box. They’re playing quite a bit of Cover 2 and to take shots down the field on that is something that is not conducive. That is why some of those middle routes were open. When they started their zone blitzing on third down, they had us in third and long and could bring zone blitzes, which they did. They were bringing it from the weak side. As we hit them later on in the game, you saw Anquan came through with some big plays when you hit him. Early on in the game they were able to stop the run. That front seven, they play the run basically with their seven people up there.
On the passing game…
We’re not going to be conservative. You got one or two choices, you can either run it or throw it. But what you can’t do is get patterned or scared into doing one thing over the other. You have to be aggressive with what you are going to do. The last two weeks we have been able to run the football very well in different situations. Some of our success in running the football has come when we have been running it in non-predictable run situations. That is the way your offense has to work all the time. We knew they’ve made some changes. It wasn’t like they changed out a veteran for a rookie when they replaced their corner but we knew their secondary is where they had expressed having issues. The strength of their team is their front seven defensively but that doesn’t mean you completely abandon the run.
On the offensive line’s play…
I think we had some people that played but as a group, when you don’t win you go from hero to zero real quick. I don’t think it was a step back but it was an unsuccessful day because we didn’t win and that was a game we needed to win. It was something not any of us envisioned happening to us. We weren’t as successful as an offense yesterday but we weren’t as successful as a team either. It is not just one group or one unit, we didn’t rush for 165 yards yesterday which we had done so in comparison to that it wasn’t good. They had some pressure on us but some of those pressures came from people other than the offensive linemen being responsible for guys coming in. We have a very good offensive line but we didn’t win as a football team – offense, defense, special teams or coaching staff. We all are going to take the brunt of it until we win again, which has got to come quick.
On Wide Receivers…
Anquan Boldin is a special player and he will only get better but we need some other people to step up and get better too. Anquan will be the first to tell you that he is not a finished product but he has got everything you want. I absolutely love having him on my football team. We just need to start getting production out of other people also in the receiving end of it because that is big. We used Freddie (Jones) a little yesterday on a tight end screen and we can use him but we need somebody else. You can’t just do it with one or two guys. It’s not a one or two man show in this league. It has got to be a team.
On Bryan Gilmore…
We’ve reached stages with Bryan where we though he was coming on and then he would get injured. Then he has to start over and it is just consistency of being out there and practicing. He did a decent job a couple of weeks ago and has caught some nice ones over the middle but we need to get him open. But it’s like anything else in this league, they are not just going to let you take off and get past them. You have to do some other things first. I think it’s just a matter of consistency with Bryan.
On Pete Kendall….
Pete has a stinger in his neck. He is going down to get it looked at but we don’t have any results on that. I do think he is going to be okay but it is an issue. We’ll look at everything very carefully but he suffered a stinger yesterday and that is what brought him out.
On Adrian Wilson…
Adrian had x-rays at the stadium in his right hand. He has a possible bone chip in it and they are going to take some more x-rays here and if it is anything it will just require a light cast.
On Tim Duncan…
I’m concerned because just like any other position on the football team, like anything else you have to have confidence. So that is an issue.
On Bill Gramatica…
He kicked a little bit today. His back was still sore. They have not given me a real time frame on him. It’s when he kicks and he doesn’t experience soreness in his back, then we can move forward on what we are doing.
On Emmitt Smith…
I don’t have a real time frame on Emmitt either but he will be able to do more aggressive strength exercises this week but he still does not have the strength in that shoulder or arm that he needs.
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Review of game…
Everybody saw it yesterday. It was a 7-3 ballgame at halftime, it would have been much to our advantage to have it be a 7-7 ballgame at halftime. In a span of about five minutes there in the 3rd quarter, with field position, poor punts, poor punt coverage, turnover, and basically three plays – a pass interference, a touchdown pass, and then the next offensive snap was a touchdown pass, the 7-3 ballgame went to a 28-3 game pretty quick. That altered us for the way we were approaching the game. I don’t think it put us completely out of the ballgame because we continued to come back in it, but that span of time when you give yourself that poor field position and you do not (stop them), even though they had the ball on our 27 and 22-yardline, that type of sudden-change situation has to be part of the mentality for a defense that 3 points is ALL they come out with.
On halftime…
We had talked about and were very well aware of what we had been able to overcome in the first half and what we were able to accomplish in the first half. We knew that we needed to start the second half very quickly. Then to come out and have that penalty that put us back and lead to that sequence of events... You look back on that football game and that was a big game for us and we needed to win to it. We all understood how important it was to us. I don’t care how important it was to the Steelers, they are not my concern. My concern is this football team and we had pointed very hard towards the game plan on this game and our mindset going into it. I thought the week of practice we had and the preparation, but when you get into it, you got to make the plays when they come up. I know I’ll be asked about some of the officiating calls that were made, but it shouldn’t come down to that at all. That was an occurrence in the ball game, it was not something that tipped the ball game. What tipped the ball game was that time in the third quarter. We had control over it. No matter what else goes on, they still had the ball but we don’t have to let them score a touchdown. As good as the two punts were last week that put the ball on the on the 7 yard line, that is as bad as those two punts were in that game yesterday. Every time you go out you have to perform.
On their defense….
They didn’t have eight people in the box. They have stopped the run all year with seven people in the box. They’re playing quite a bit of Cover 2 and to take shots down the field on that is something that is not conducive. That is why some of those middle routes were open. When they started their zone blitzing on third down, they had us in third and long and could bring zone blitzes, which they did. They were bringing it from the weak side. As we hit them later on in the game, you saw Anquan came through with some big plays when you hit him. Early on in the game they were able to stop the run. That front seven, they play the run basically with their seven people up there.
On the passing game…
We’re not going to be conservative. You got one or two choices, you can either run it or throw it. But what you can’t do is get patterned or scared into doing one thing over the other. You have to be aggressive with what you are going to do. The last two weeks we have been able to run the football very well in different situations. Some of our success in running the football has come when we have been running it in non-predictable run situations. That is the way your offense has to work all the time. We knew they’ve made some changes. It wasn’t like they changed out a veteran for a rookie when they replaced their corner but we knew their secondary is where they had expressed having issues. The strength of their team is their front seven defensively but that doesn’t mean you completely abandon the run.
On the offensive line’s play…
I think we had some people that played but as a group, when you don’t win you go from hero to zero real quick. I don’t think it was a step back but it was an unsuccessful day because we didn’t win and that was a game we needed to win. It was something not any of us envisioned happening to us. We weren’t as successful as an offense yesterday but we weren’t as successful as a team either. It is not just one group or one unit, we didn’t rush for 165 yards yesterday which we had done so in comparison to that it wasn’t good. They had some pressure on us but some of those pressures came from people other than the offensive linemen being responsible for guys coming in. We have a very good offensive line but we didn’t win as a football team – offense, defense, special teams or coaching staff. We all are going to take the brunt of it until we win again, which has got to come quick.
On Wide Receivers…
Anquan Boldin is a special player and he will only get better but we need some other people to step up and get better too. Anquan will be the first to tell you that he is not a finished product but he has got everything you want. I absolutely love having him on my football team. We just need to start getting production out of other people also in the receiving end of it because that is big. We used Freddie (Jones) a little yesterday on a tight end screen and we can use him but we need somebody else. You can’t just do it with one or two guys. It’s not a one or two man show in this league. It has got to be a team.
On Bryan Gilmore…
We’ve reached stages with Bryan where we though he was coming on and then he would get injured. Then he has to start over and it is just consistency of being out there and practicing. He did a decent job a couple of weeks ago and has caught some nice ones over the middle but we need to get him open. But it’s like anything else in this league, they are not just going to let you take off and get past them. You have to do some other things first. I think it’s just a matter of consistency with Bryan.
On Pete Kendall….
Pete has a stinger in his neck. He is going down to get it looked at but we don’t have any results on that. I do think he is going to be okay but it is an issue. We’ll look at everything very carefully but he suffered a stinger yesterday and that is what brought him out.
On Adrian Wilson…
Adrian had x-rays at the stadium in his right hand. He has a possible bone chip in it and they are going to take some more x-rays here and if it is anything it will just require a light cast.
On Tim Duncan…
I’m concerned because just like any other position on the football team, like anything else you have to have confidence. So that is an issue.
On Bill Gramatica…
He kicked a little bit today. His back was still sore. They have not given me a real time frame on him. It’s when he kicks and he doesn’t experience soreness in his back, then we can move forward on what we are doing.
On Emmitt Smith…
I don’t have a real time frame on Emmitt either but he will be able to do more aggressive strength exercises this week but he still does not have the strength in that shoulder or arm that he needs.
