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Head Coach Mike Martz
Friday, September 3, 2004
(Opening comments)
“We came out of the game, physically, in good shape. We have a slight knee strain with Erik Jensen and a very minor ankle sprain with Cam Cleeland. So other than that we came out of the game clean. There were a lot of good things in this game. We were able to evaluate personnel for a long period of time, particularly on defense. On offense there was some pleasant surprises. I’m very pleased with being able to evaluate and where this team is. Some of these guys, hopefully, now can contribute during the season.”
(On RB Lamar Gordon)
“That is the first time he has been hit, or put pads on, in four weeks. To go in and take the ball like he did, and he took some horrendous hits out there on the edge, then jumped, turned, twisted, and stayed in the game. I was very impressed with his toughness. The burst that he had, the acceleration he showed right before the touchdown run, to get it down to the one-or-two yard line. I was very pleased with Lamar. I told him (we were going to play him a lot). I know the conditioning aspect, because he has not been hit in four weeks, and that’s a big deal now. But the more we played him, the better he played. He got dinged there a little bit and came out briefly, but went back in, which is important. I was very impressed with him.”
(On if WR Torry Holt’s back spasms are of concern)
“No I don’t think so. We didn’t plan on playing he or Isaac (Bruce) more than a few plays anyway. And the other guys need to play. (WR Shaun) McDonald has to play a whole game. Mike Furrey needs to play. The only issue at wide receiver is, that he still has shin splints, is (WR Kevin Curtis). We did try to play him as little as possible, but he did need to play a little bit and he was able to make a couple of big plays in that game. We will try to keep him quiet for a while on those legs, and see if we can’t get that thing to calm down a little bit. Anybody who has had shin splints knows how painful they are. The only way to get rid of them is to rest them. So we will try to manage them as best we can.”
(On how he feels about the team at this point)
“I feel good about where we are. The areas that we wanted to get better, running the football, we made a big emphasis of that in the last few games, as you could see. Regardless of who was in the game, we wanted to run the football. I think it sets a mentality for the offensive line and the backs. I was very pleased with the way we have run the ball the past few weeks. It didn’t make a difference who was in there. I’m very excited about the play of the quarterbacks. I’m very excited about the play of the linebackers and how the defensive line is starting to come together. We’ve got some issues in the secondary because of injuries. We need DeJuan Groce back, obviously. He’ll be back this week. Losing (CB Travis) Fisher has hurt us to some extent, but we should be fine back there.”
(On the offense)
“The most important thing is that I feel confident that our guys on the perimeter will throw and catch well. With all these players on the offensive line that we knew nothing about, putting them in for a length of time and letting them screw it up and let them make their mistakes so they could put it together and play well, that was impressive. Then the week before, to have Chris Dishman come on like he has, those are all very important factors to running the football well. Which was a big deal in the off-season. We need to run the football well. (Last season) we were not a productive team running the football. We get a lot of attention in our passing game, but we have always been able to run the ball very well, very effectively. Last year, we weren’t able to do that. So we had to get back to doing some of the things that are basic to this offense. Some of that is coaching. There is no question about it. We ran the ball last night 45 times, so we made sure (our running game was improved) obviously.”
(On not knowing the score at the end of the game)
“I’m embarrassed to tell you that. That was ‘the old coach screwed it up.’ When they scored their touchdown, first of all, I was upset they scored. I was walking down the sideline and I saw the holder drop the ball and bobble it. I saw the kick, and it looked to me that the kick went to the left. I turned and thought, ‘good, they missed it. We’ll go down there and tie it up.’ And just like a knucklehead, I didn’t look at the score board and made the assumption (that they missed the extra point). It’s hard for me to stand in front of you today and admit that. I could’ve kept that quiet, but I’m just being very honest with you. In a regular season game, I’m a little more tuned in. It happens. Sometimes the truth hurts. It didn’t last very long, trust me. Jeff Smoker came over to me and looked at me like, ‘what are you nuts?’ Then I realized I was screwed up, and we threw it to the end zone, like we should have done. Up until that point, we were doing what we wanted to do. We had to get the ball into an area where the throw would drop down to the end zone.”
(On QB Marc Bulger)
“I’m very happy with Marc Bulger. I thought that drive he engineered was, even though there were only three passes, (was impressive). You get a sense for people during the game on the sideline. When you are talking to them, the look on their face, their confidence, I feel very good about Marc and Chris (Chandler).”
(On the first-team defense giving up early scoring drives)
“That’s something that we have put a big emphasis on. We need to get them out in that first series. I will also tell you this, we have been in our base defense the entire preseason. We just want to see our guys make plays, tackle, and play basic football. And when you don’t tackle well, or blow an assignment someplace, it shows up. That’s what we are trying to stress, fundamental football, tackling well and getting off blocks. If you can do that well, you can move into the next step. In the first drive, we got tripped up a little bit, but recovered.”
(On RB Marshall Faulk)
“I feel very good (about Marshall). I was really impressed with Marshall last night. He has his juice. When he was in there, they were coming at us with safeties and linebackers. They didn’t want him to get going. But he ran up in there very physical. He made some big plays in that game. Both those passes, the check down on third down and, of course, the touchdown, he looks terrific to me.”
(On TE Cameron Cleeland’s play)
“Isn’t that great? And he blocked so well. He was a lead blocker, he was on the line of scrimmage, he’s is really playing well. You can’t praise him enough. He has been terrific through camp, when he’s not injured with the hamstring. He came back and didn’t skip a beat, which is hard to do. It’s one thing to carry the ball, but to get on the line of scrimmage, do the footwork, run the routes, and understand the protections, I can’t praise him enough.”
(On G Chris Dishman)
“He should be in at left guard this week. We kept him out of this game just so that ankle would be ready to go this week, as with Tommy Nütten, with the turf toe that he has.”
Friday, September 3, 2004
(Opening comments)
“We came out of the game, physically, in good shape. We have a slight knee strain with Erik Jensen and a very minor ankle sprain with Cam Cleeland. So other than that we came out of the game clean. There were a lot of good things in this game. We were able to evaluate personnel for a long period of time, particularly on defense. On offense there was some pleasant surprises. I’m very pleased with being able to evaluate and where this team is. Some of these guys, hopefully, now can contribute during the season.”
(On RB Lamar Gordon)
“That is the first time he has been hit, or put pads on, in four weeks. To go in and take the ball like he did, and he took some horrendous hits out there on the edge, then jumped, turned, twisted, and stayed in the game. I was very impressed with his toughness. The burst that he had, the acceleration he showed right before the touchdown run, to get it down to the one-or-two yard line. I was very pleased with Lamar. I told him (we were going to play him a lot). I know the conditioning aspect, because he has not been hit in four weeks, and that’s a big deal now. But the more we played him, the better he played. He got dinged there a little bit and came out briefly, but went back in, which is important. I was very impressed with him.”
(On if WR Torry Holt’s back spasms are of concern)
“No I don’t think so. We didn’t plan on playing he or Isaac (Bruce) more than a few plays anyway. And the other guys need to play. (WR Shaun) McDonald has to play a whole game. Mike Furrey needs to play. The only issue at wide receiver is, that he still has shin splints, is (WR Kevin Curtis). We did try to play him as little as possible, but he did need to play a little bit and he was able to make a couple of big plays in that game. We will try to keep him quiet for a while on those legs, and see if we can’t get that thing to calm down a little bit. Anybody who has had shin splints knows how painful they are. The only way to get rid of them is to rest them. So we will try to manage them as best we can.”
(On how he feels about the team at this point)
“I feel good about where we are. The areas that we wanted to get better, running the football, we made a big emphasis of that in the last few games, as you could see. Regardless of who was in the game, we wanted to run the football. I think it sets a mentality for the offensive line and the backs. I was very pleased with the way we have run the ball the past few weeks. It didn’t make a difference who was in there. I’m very excited about the play of the quarterbacks. I’m very excited about the play of the linebackers and how the defensive line is starting to come together. We’ve got some issues in the secondary because of injuries. We need DeJuan Groce back, obviously. He’ll be back this week. Losing (CB Travis) Fisher has hurt us to some extent, but we should be fine back there.”
(On the offense)
“The most important thing is that I feel confident that our guys on the perimeter will throw and catch well. With all these players on the offensive line that we knew nothing about, putting them in for a length of time and letting them screw it up and let them make their mistakes so they could put it together and play well, that was impressive. Then the week before, to have Chris Dishman come on like he has, those are all very important factors to running the football well. Which was a big deal in the off-season. We need to run the football well. (Last season) we were not a productive team running the football. We get a lot of attention in our passing game, but we have always been able to run the ball very well, very effectively. Last year, we weren’t able to do that. So we had to get back to doing some of the things that are basic to this offense. Some of that is coaching. There is no question about it. We ran the ball last night 45 times, so we made sure (our running game was improved) obviously.”
(On not knowing the score at the end of the game)
“I’m embarrassed to tell you that. That was ‘the old coach screwed it up.’ When they scored their touchdown, first of all, I was upset they scored. I was walking down the sideline and I saw the holder drop the ball and bobble it. I saw the kick, and it looked to me that the kick went to the left. I turned and thought, ‘good, they missed it. We’ll go down there and tie it up.’ And just like a knucklehead, I didn’t look at the score board and made the assumption (that they missed the extra point). It’s hard for me to stand in front of you today and admit that. I could’ve kept that quiet, but I’m just being very honest with you. In a regular season game, I’m a little more tuned in. It happens. Sometimes the truth hurts. It didn’t last very long, trust me. Jeff Smoker came over to me and looked at me like, ‘what are you nuts?’ Then I realized I was screwed up, and we threw it to the end zone, like we should have done. Up until that point, we were doing what we wanted to do. We had to get the ball into an area where the throw would drop down to the end zone.”
(On QB Marc Bulger)
“I’m very happy with Marc Bulger. I thought that drive he engineered was, even though there were only three passes, (was impressive). You get a sense for people during the game on the sideline. When you are talking to them, the look on their face, their confidence, I feel very good about Marc and Chris (Chandler).”
(On the first-team defense giving up early scoring drives)
“That’s something that we have put a big emphasis on. We need to get them out in that first series. I will also tell you this, we have been in our base defense the entire preseason. We just want to see our guys make plays, tackle, and play basic football. And when you don’t tackle well, or blow an assignment someplace, it shows up. That’s what we are trying to stress, fundamental football, tackling well and getting off blocks. If you can do that well, you can move into the next step. In the first drive, we got tripped up a little bit, but recovered.”
(On RB Marshall Faulk)
“I feel very good (about Marshall). I was really impressed with Marshall last night. He has his juice. When he was in there, they were coming at us with safeties and linebackers. They didn’t want him to get going. But he ran up in there very physical. He made some big plays in that game. Both those passes, the check down on third down and, of course, the touchdown, he looks terrific to me.”
(On TE Cameron Cleeland’s play)
“Isn’t that great? And he blocked so well. He was a lead blocker, he was on the line of scrimmage, he’s is really playing well. You can’t praise him enough. He has been terrific through camp, when he’s not injured with the hamstring. He came back and didn’t skip a beat, which is hard to do. It’s one thing to carry the ball, but to get on the line of scrimmage, do the footwork, run the routes, and understand the protections, I can’t praise him enough.”
(On G Chris Dishman)
“He should be in at left guard this week. We kept him out of this game just so that ankle would be ready to go this week, as with Tommy Nütten, with the turf toe that he has.”
