Transcript, Eric Mangini, 12/17 - Thu, Dec 17 2009 at 3:39 pm
(Opening statement)- “Good morning everybody. How are you guys doing? Good morning Alexis (Martin, Browns Kids Club Jr. Reporter for a Day). How are you doing? Yesterday’s practice, I thought that we got a good jump on what we’re trying to accomplish in terms of not just the scheme but also the way that we need to stop the core players and also our attack, things like that. I do think there are some things that have to be cleaned up. I’d say especially defensively, continuing along the line that we’ve had with the communication, because there has been quite a bit of shifting, more shifting than motioning from their (Kansas City’s) offense, which will change the call from one thing to the other. It happens pretty quickly, so getting a feel for that is something that we’re going to have to continue to work on here today. Moving to third down, we’ve made a lot of progress, I think, offensively in terms of our third down conversion rate. This is a really good team on third down defensively. That’s going to be a challenge for us. I like the group of pass rushers they have. I know the sack numbers haven’t been as high as probably they have hoped it to be. One thing they do really well though is when they do get to the quarterback they usually get the ball out. There are quite a few hits on the quarterback that don’t translate into sacks, but they do apply quite a bit of pressure. A lot of that, some of it comes from designed pressure, some of it comes from games and some of it comes from just sheer effort and intensity, the way they rush, which is pretty consistent with the defenses he (Clancy Pendergast) coached in Arizona as well.”
(On what the team needs to do in the final games to prove it is making progress)- “I’ve seen quite a bit of it. One of the things that I really liked against San Diego was down the way we were down, coming back, putting ourselves in a position to at least challenge there at the end of the game with the onside kick. If we had gotten the two point conversion we wouldn’t have been kicking the field goal there. We would have been going to tie the game. That’s a really important lesson against a very good team. I thought that the way that we played against Pittsburgh, where it was complementary football, and I know you’ve heard that word a ton of times here, but it really was. We did a nice job in the kicking game establishing field position, downing punts inside the 10. Offensively, being able to move the ball, run the ball, use up the clock, things like that. Defensively as well, the coordinated pass rush, where we saw sacks from a lot of different people based on the scheme and that’s something that’s traditionally part of what we do defensively. I want to see the complementary football and then the other lessons that we’ve learned throughout the season continue to be applied to the next game and the two games after that.”
(On if he is looking to see what Brady Quinn can do in a game without poor weather conditions)- “I’m not sure what we’re going to get in Kansas City. I wasn’t really looking at it in terms of that. The weather’s going to be the same for both quarterbacks. What I’m looking for from Brady is the same type of operation that he’s had and when we do get the opportunities, being able to take advantage of the opportunities. Again, I’ve liked the steps forward that we’ve taken offensively and I want to see more of that.”
(On how he accounts for the improvements in the run defense)- “It’s pretty consistent, Tony (Grossi), with what happened in ’06 in New York. You install the defense and there’s a way to play it. Even though you’re playing it and it looks like it’s supposed to look, it’s not really operating like it’s supposed to operate. As you build up reps, as you build up a better understanding of how it all fits together, usually you make some significant jumps. We improved significantly in New York after the bye, which was at the same time, midway through the season, because it started to hit for a lot of guys. It started to clear up for a lot of guys, exactly how you have to fit, how each piece works together. When you do that, when you can play the scheme with all 11 parts sitting in the right spots, it gets better.”
(On how long it takes for a team to learn what to do against an unknown player like Marcus Benard)- “That’s a good question. I’m not sure what the right amount of tape would be for him. He played in the preseason. You could look at some of that stuff. He played a little bit against Detroit. You really have to work off the tape that you have. I’m not sure what the right volume is. The other thing, whether it was Marcus or Kam (Kamerion Wimbley) or Matt (Roth), it was all linebackers in there. David Bowens, they were all working in different spots at different times. Ideally, you’d like to be able to run the same defense, but just switch whose role is whose, so that you can’t count on, ‘Okay, Marcus is going to be on our offensive right side and he’s going to use these few pass rushing moves.’ One time it’s Marcus. The next time it’s Roth. The next time it’s Kam. They may all be doing the same thing from a concept standpoint, but it’s different bodies, different people doing it.”
(On if he was tempted to play Brian Robiskie more against Pittsburgh after his performance against San Diego)-“He played quite a bit against Pittsburgh, in terms of his percentage of play time. A lot of that stuff is packaged-based. Chansi (Stuckey) may be in one package or (Mike) Furrey and Brian may be in a different package. If one thing’s working maybe better than you expected or not working as well as you expected, one of those groups may get bumped up, may get more reps. Even with Pittsburgh, our base defense didn’t have nearly as many reps as our sub defense, so a guy like (Ahtyba) Rubin didn’t have a significant number of reps in the game, but that was just because of their approach and the packages that we played against it.”
(On how Ahtyba Rubin has played in place of Shaun Rogers)- “He’s played really well. He has a nice base. He has good hand placement. He’s improved throughout the course of the season in reading the core blocks. There’s not a wide range of blocks that you’re going to get as a 3-4 nose tackle. You can also use the back to anticipate where the pressure points are going to come and he has a much better since of that. I remember with Mike DeVito, his rookie year, [he was] similar to Rubin in the sense that he played with a good base, was strong, good hands, but he couldn’t put together how the back played into the blocking schemes. He’d get beat on some stuff that he had seen a ton of times and then the next year he came back, it really broke for him and he was so much better at playing those things. I see Rubin, as the season’s gone on, his feel for what’s coming and anticipating those things has gotten a lot better.”
(On if Rubin has surprised him since he does not look like a space-eater type of player)- “He’s pretty thick. I’m not sure what he weighs, but he’s pretty thick. Compared to Shaun, it’s hard to make that comparison, there’s not a lot of Shaun’s. He’s really thick. Him, Kris Jenkins, Ted Washington, those are big, big men.”
(On if Rogers was sometimes too quick for his own good in the run scheme)- “I think that his reactions were so quick that he would sometimes get to the point of attack before the rest of the defense had gotten there. Even though he was reading the play the correct way, it was at different tempos, so a crease would open up that wouldn’t typically be there. That happened on occasion. I wouldn’t say it was just all the time, but there were times where he was like that. He just has great instincts and speed for that size.”
(On Corey Williams’ development)- “I think he’s made strides throughout the season. One of the important things that I was looking for is consistency in the base defense and really embracing and understanding how you have to play the techniques. The two-gap is different than what most teams play. Even though Pittsburgh, San Diego and Kansas City are 3-4 teams, it’s much more one-gap than it is two-gap. They’re penetrators, where this is more of a read and react and there’s patience. I was looking for that to continue to improve and I think he has throughout the season. It was nice to see him go in and play as well as he did. I think that he’s played well at different points throughout the course of the year as well.”
(On if the play calling has improved over the last four games)- “I think the execution has improved. I think that’s what it’s come down to. When you look at the things that we’ve been able to do, not turning the ball over, that’s huge. It gives you extra drives. It gives you field position. Our ability to convert on third down, it gives you more plays. It gives you more chances. Those were two areas that we’ve struggled with. As we’ve improved in those two areas, we’ve moved the ball a lot more effectively, we’ve score more points, we’ve held the ball longer. Just look at the jump in those two categories. It’s been the same approach. It’s game plan specific. It’s trying to maximize our strengths. There hasn’t been a fundamental shift in how we approach our opponent. I think the biggest thing is we’ve executed better. The protection has improved.”
(On if the no huddle offense has been the key to the offense’s improvement)- “I’ve always been a fan of the no huddle. I think it does create problems. I think we’ve run it well and it’s not easy to do. I do think that has helped. I think that even when we weren’t running it if we had caught more of the balls there were catchable, if we had held on to more balls that we ended up turning over, I think the production there would have been significantly better as well.”
(On if the success of the sub defense against Pittsburgh alters the way he looks at the run defense)- “No, not necessarily. Usually it means that you’re doing a good job in base if they shift to a different personnel group. I think if we were getting gashed we probably wouldn’t have seen as much 11 personnel, because we were holding up well. It shifted the other way.”
(On Joshua Cribbs saying he is optimistic about getting a new contract before the season is over)- “I don’t have the timeline, but I can tell you I really like Josh. I really do, not just as a player, as a person, as a part of the organization, his dedication, his sacrifice. He is selfless. I really like Josh.”
(On if he has to wait for the front office to be established before he can negotiate any deals)- “Throughout the course of the season, you’ve seen we’ve brought in quite a few players, whether we brought them in or claimed them off waivers or signed them from the practice squad, whatever the case may be. We’re operating in that same pattern.”
(On if he has to wait until the front office is worked out to negotiate a long term deal)- “What we’re doing is really taking the same approach, is looking at things short term, looking at things long term. I’m sure the addition of a general manager or whatever that title becomes, that’s going to be an important component of all the things that we do moving forward. As you go through the season there’s a lot of things that still have to get done, still have to be addressed, still have to be looked at in the same context of how does it affect now, how does it affect the salary cap, how does it affect the plan, those types of things.”
(On if he was looking at any personnel acquisition for the following year at this time of year when he was with the Jets)- “I didn’t really do that. In terms of exposure to college players or potential free agents, that wasn’t something that I would do towards the end of the year. It just wasn’t, I didn’t think, very effective because there’s so much happening from a coaching perspective. I always like to start that after the season.”
(On if he does any work on college players now)- “I didn’t do it there. I’m not really doing it here. The scouts are doing a great job. They were in last week. They had their preliminary meetings. I think we’ve really made some strides there. That’s following the consistent pattern here, as it did in the Jets. All the different staffs are doing that now. You get the reports, the first layer reports. It’s all follows the same pattern. It’s pretty consistent around the league.”
(On if it is tough to evaluate Joe Thomas’ season given the team’s record)- “I don’t think it’s hard to evaluate him. I think he’s been outstanding. I think that every week he faces somebody that’s pretty impressive as a pass rusher and very rarely do you hear that person’s name. I think this week he’ll have his hands full as well with Tamba Hali. Very few times you look out and say, ‘Joe Thomas didn’t get his block,’ or ‘Joe Thomas was beaten on that play’. With an offensive lineman, the less you’re mentioning him, usually the better it is. I think Joe is really good, especially at this point. He’s got a young career. He’s just going to get better and better.”
(On how close Eric Wright is to being a Pro Bowl cornerback)- “You’d have to look at it in the context of a lot of other corners. What I can tell you about Eric is, coaching a lot of different guys, I think he’s very good in pass coverage. I think he’s got excellent feet. I think he’s very fluid. I think he’s got really good instincts and ball skills. I think the one area that he can continue to improve is run support and tackling. That’s something that he and I have talked about. As someone from a coverage aspect, I think he does an excellent job. Eric’s a very smart person. One of the things that you always want corners to do is continue to build their library of receivers so that they have something they can draw on, when I face a big receiver, when I face a shorter quicker guy, when I’ve got half field help. There are certain styles of receivers that you face. There are certain guys that you face, that he’s going to face multiple times. He has the ability to really understand the scheme, really understand the player that he’s playing against and apply those things, as well as being gifted athletically and physically.”
