Frank Reich Saints Postgame
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00:00 Shaq did have a significant ankle injury.
00:02 Probably missed some extended time, but we need some further evaluation tomorrow
00:07 with the docs that will give you the information when we have a full evaluation.
00:12 Tough loss.
00:14 We just gotta own every bit of it.
00:19 We gotta learn from it.
00:20 We gotta get better.
00:21 Obviously, I thought the defense really played well,
00:24 kept us in the game for a long time.
00:26 I was encouraged, six, three at halftime, and feel like we were struggling on O.
00:32 Like we were behind the sticks all the time.
00:34 Just couldn't get in rhythm and couldn't get momentum on offense.
00:38 Some penalties and some miscues here and there had us behind the sticks.
00:44 Defense kept us in, made plays, got some turnovers.
00:46 That was good.
00:48 I thought special teams played well.
00:50 I just been talking in there for a little bit, not with the team,
00:54 just talking with a couple guys, I've seen this before.
00:57 It's not that far away.
00:58 It looks bad, but really I don't believe it's that far away.
01:02 We make a couple plays here, here and there, and
01:06 actually you got 28, 30 points.
01:09 I know that's true.
01:10 I know we have the players and the coaches that do it.
01:12 I have zero doubt about that.
01:15 It's just we have to execute better on offense.
01:17 I'll open it up from there.
01:18 >> Frank, is there a couple plays you would point to that kind of back that up,
01:23 what you're saying about being close?
01:25 >> Yeah, fair question, Joe.
01:29 Let me look at the film just to really, before, and again,
01:32 I don't like to single players out.
01:35 But I just know in the course of that game,
01:38 there were a couple opportunities here and
01:41 there that we just gotta be better on and have a chance.
01:46 >> Frank, obviously Bryce is under a lot of pressure.
01:51 How do you feel about the way he's handling that pressure?
01:54 >> I think Bryce is handling the pressure well.
01:56 Listen, he's a quarterback, head coach quarterback, right?
01:59 We're gonna take the heat, and that just comes with territory.
02:03 So you own that, and you understand that when you're in that position.
02:08 And Bryce understands that for the position that he's in.
02:10 So I can tell you this, it's certainly our struggle on offense,
02:15 it's not one person.
02:17 Again, I will look at the film, but
02:20 I thought Bryce still did some really positive things.
02:22 Made some plays with his feet, made some good decisions, made good throws.
02:28 Showed plenty of things that we wanna see, so I was encouraged by that.
02:33 I know how hard it is to play that position.
02:35 I've been around it a long time, and
02:39 I know how dependent it is on everything.
02:41 So we all gotta get better.
02:43 Everybody's getting better, coaches and players.
02:47 So that's the way we work through it.
02:50 >> What do you think of the receiver play for the inning on separation?
02:54 >> Yeah, I thought the receivers ran good routes.
02:57 I thought at times, I thought there's some things that look good out there at times.
03:03 So again, I gotta take a closer look at the film, but
03:07 I'm confident in our group of receivers.
03:09 I mean, yeah, I'm confident in our group of receivers.
03:13 >> Frank, I know that it was just something that you guys were doing with
03:16 preseason where you would call the first half, Thomas Brown would call the second
03:20 half, when you get kind of in an offensive rut like tonight, does it ever come up as
03:25 a possibility to possibly let him get in and call a few?
03:29 Or is that not a change that you would make in game?
03:32 >> Yeah, that's not a change I would make in game.
03:36 Listen, I've mentioned this before, the way we call plays, I'm calling plays, but
03:40 it's very collaborative.
03:41 I'm talking to those guys on the sideline, but I'm the one who calls them.
03:44 And I'm always gonna do what I think is best for the team.
03:49 Right now, I think it's best for the team and I'll call them plays.
03:52 I'm confident in the play calling.
03:54 We all gotta get better, but I'm not ready to do anything there.
03:59 Thomas is a great coach.
04:00 He's, one day I do want him to, one day I want him to call it,
04:04 when that will be, I don't know.
04:06 But right now, I know it's a lot of things.
04:10 It's not the play calling.
04:12 I can be better.
04:14 All the coaches can be better.
04:15 All the players can be better.
04:16 I'm not saying it's perfect, but I'm confident that we have the coaches and
04:21 the players and the play caller to be better on offense.
04:24 >> Frank, is there a physicality element to the run game?
04:27 I'm sorry.
04:29 There's a physicality element to the run game,
04:32 but especially in short yardage, you're looking to enhance this season for
04:35 the offensive line's juggling a few pieces there.
04:37 But is that problematic from your view right now?
04:40 >> I thought last week, we ran the ball well.
04:42 And then we didn't get the run game, we didn't get to the run game early,
04:46 we were behind the sticks.
04:47 I just felt like we were behind in long yardage situations.
04:50 I had to go back and look at it.
04:51 But it just felt to me like I wanted to call more runs.
04:55 We had that one nice run on the second play of the game.
04:58 I thought, ooh, that's a good sign, downhill run.
05:01 We busted up up there for plus ten.
05:03 But just had a hard time getting back to some of the runs we were behind the sticks.
05:08 >> Frank, Throckmorton was in late.
05:09 Was that injury or other?
05:12 >> No, that was just, we had talked about giving him a few plays in the game.
05:17 So that was kind of planned out.
05:20 >> Given it came after a turnover, how big of a blow was that fumble in the first half?
05:26 >> The what now?
05:27 >> Given it was right after you guys forced the turnover,
05:29 how big was that fumble by Braxton in the first half?
05:32 >> Every turnover hurts, right?
05:34 I mean, every turnover hurts.
05:36 That's one of those unfortunate ones where he made a lot of plays with us.
05:39 He made several plays with us.
05:40 He today, this one guy coming behind him, gets the ball out.
05:44 So it was a tough break, but we gotta try to minimize turnovers.
05:48 >> Frank, you brought up wanting to run the ball more.
05:51 This game was a tie game or a three point game until three minutes left in
05:55 the third quarter.
05:56 From a rhythm standpoint as a play caller,
05:58 is there someone who kind of tells you what everything's going on?
06:02 Do you have a sounding board on the sideline that you can-
06:05 >> Yeah, I'm talking to everybody.
06:07 I'm talking to everybody all the time.
06:09 Primarily I'm talking to Thomas.
06:11 Primarily I'm talking to Thomas.
06:14 I'm talking to Parks Frazier, who's our past team coordinator.
06:17 And I'm talking to Kent Benaro, our line coach.
06:19 Those are the new guys.
06:20 So we're all collaborating, so
06:22 everybody else feeds their information through those three guys.
06:25 And then I'm talking to those three guys about finding out,
06:29 hey, what's our next move?
06:31 We collaborate on that together in between series, sometimes in between plays.
06:35 Sometimes thinking out two plays in advance, I'll be calling a play on first
06:38 down and I'll say, hey, Thomas and Parks, be looking at third down.
06:41 Let's just look at the third down options, so we can talk about it when we get there.
06:45 >> Great.
06:45 >> So kind of in that mode.
06:47 >> Frank, a few scattered boos tonight at various times when the offense
06:53 was on the field, is that just also part of playing quarterback?
06:58 >> Yeah, and that's not for, I don't think that's Bryce.
07:00 I mean, that's on me, that's on our team.
07:05 So that's part of it, right?
07:07 That's part of it, so I don't like it.
07:10 Believe me, we wanna give the fans wins and exciting red football.
07:14 That's what we're gonna do.
07:16 That's what we're planning on doing.
07:18 It's a process.
07:18 We're two games into a 17 game season.
07:21 Things haven't gone the way we want, but nobody's throwing in the towel.
07:26 It's a long year.
07:27 We got another game coming up here Sunday.
07:30 It'll be a bonus real quick.
07:32 So we gotta learn from this one and get better for next week.
07:35 >> Frank, we didn't see much of Chuba tonight after he had nine carries last
07:39 weekend, what was the deal there?
07:41 >> I just think it was more like we couldn't get the run game going.
07:44 And just not as many, we had 79 plays last week.
07:48 We had 79 offensive plays.
07:50 That was, I think, might have been the most in the NFL last week.
07:53 It was right up there.
07:54 So naturally, everybody was gonna get more plays on offense tonight.
07:58 I don't know what we had, but I know it wasn't anywhere close.
08:02 And like I said, we just got, I just felt like we were struggling a little bit
08:08 behind in the sticks.
08:09 And I felt like we were gonna snap out.
08:13 I felt like we hit a couple plays.
08:15 And there were a couple things that looked good, and
08:19 I thought we were gonna snap out of it.
08:20 And we just couldn't seem to do that.
08:21 So we'll keep working.
08:24 >> Frank, you've started us.
08:25 >> We'll do one more, just do the last one.
08:27 >> Frank. >> And let Steve read.
08:29 You've had some slow starts in Indy, and then you turned it around and
08:31 finished above 500 records.
08:35 And when it gets to a point like this,
08:36 what is the direction you have to take as a head coach?
08:40 What is the message you have to make?
08:42 >> I mean, it's a week to week league.
08:45 All that matters is the next week.
08:46 So we started one and five and made the playoffs one year.
08:51 So I'm not saying that's easy to do.
08:53 We don't wanna do that.
08:54 We don't wanna start off poorly.
08:55 But every year it happens.
08:58 So we can't play all the hypothetical scenarios.
09:02 And this league, as coaches, I understand that everybody else has to do that.
09:05 I mean, if I was a fan or if I was a journalist,
09:08 I would be thinking all those things.
09:11 For coaches and players, we're thinking about Seattle.
09:13 We're thinking about, hey, let's watch this tape.
09:15 Let's see how each one of us can get better.
09:18 And stay in the present, forget everything else.
09:20 All that matters is Seattle.
09:22 This one, there's nothing we can do about it except learn from our mistakes.
09:25 So we'll learn from our mistakes and get ready for Seattle.
09:27 >> Right, just to follow up on Shaq, is the fear broken?
09:33 >> I don't know yet.
09:33 I don't wanna say.
09:35 So I don't have that information yet.
09:37 >> All right, thank you, coach.
09:38 >> All right, thank you.