Can you summarize what it was like playing against the Bills last week?
The game against the Bills was intense and hard-fought. The Bills have a very high-powered offense that is always looking to strike. Their Leader Josh Allen is a do-it guy with a cannon for an arm. We were able to keep pressure on him throughout most of the game and our guys did succeed in bringing him down in the backfield once. In many situations getting 4 INTs off of a guy would take him out of his game, but the intensity of their team remained.
Over your career, what makes a team better at not turning the ball over as the season goes along? What kind of things you need to emphasize? How much of it is coaching? How much of it is a mental part? Physical part?
Managing turnovers has been a primary focus for our team. As we are now starting the back half of our season, we have accepted some of the looks we just aren't getting from our guys. Not forcing the ball in different situations has helped us manage our Turnover ratio. We expect to see that average decrease throughout the closing of the season.
How quickly can you tell if a young player is a football player if he thinks about it because it seems like at the Combine they’re all saying the right thing and it’s the job. How quickly does it take?
The answer to this question is somewhat on a sliding scale. Matchup make Fights. Over the years I started to identify how well a younger guy could do in situations. Some Rookies/Sophomore guys come in and just succeed across the field in all situations. Those stars are usually easy to identify across the league, but sometimes certain players only really shine in certain situations. That can take time to identify, unfortunately. There have been situations where some of our less athletic corners had an amazing game that we were primarily in Zone defense. Learning the difference between whether a player is GREAT all around or just great in a particular system is a key skill as a Head Coach.
