Head Coach Mike Macdonald Recaps The Win vs. The Panthers, Looks Ahead To Week 18

Mike Macdonald (0:02)

I know it.

Curtis (0:07)

All right, everybody, welcome.

Mike Macdonald (0:10)

Corbin, get us going.

Corbin (0:13)

Yeah, Coach, Byron Murphy, it seems like every week he's blowing up multiple double teams with the drop knee move. How rare is it to see a guy at this age to have that kind of proficiency with that type of a technique? And how critical is that to playing run defense in today's NFL with offenses able to create gaps with their motion and things of that nature?

Mike Macdonald (0:37)

Yeah, based on your question, I feel like you have an idea what the answer is. He's got great technique. Like normally, and look, and Justin Hines has done a great job with him training his technique, but Murphs also was really skilled coming into the league as well. So, but yeah, you're right. I mean, normally it takes years to kind of develop this type of proficiency. And I wouldn't say it's because of the motions. I just, you know, nowadays you're playing different front structures. Sometimes, you know, we like to play with light boxes. Light boxes probably mean more in double teams. And if you don't have guys to be able to do that, then it's going to make your life a little bit more difficult.

Corbin (1:20)

And how have you felt about the way that Josh Jones has played these past two games, stepping in for Charles Cross, particularly the run game. It looked like he had a really nice block on Sharpe's 25-yard run in that third and 15 play.

Mike Macdonald (1:33)

Yeah, Josh has done a great job. Really excited to see how he's played, stepped in and been ready to play and played hard, played Simon Sound, playing our style of ball. So really happy for him, done a great job.

Curtis (1:48)

Jen?

Jen (1:51)

It certainly is a benefit to have back to back 100-yard rushers, but does it give you the greater advantage because you can ride the hot hand or because it allows you to work from so many different places?

Mike Macdonald (2:04)

Well, I think the way the season is gone is we have some flexibility as games start to declare, and that includes runner is kind of good at what that day or how it's going. We haven't really had the discussions on quote-unquote like feeding the hot guy and all that type of stuff. It's really just, hey, how is the game unfolding? What do we need to do is to kind of find, a lot of times we're trying to find solutions in the run game, what schemes we want to double down on or formations we want to build out of. And a lot of times those guys are tied to those type of plays.

Jen (2:46)

And we got to look at Cam Akers granted in the return game, but what does it mean to get him in the mix and the work that he's had to put in to get ready?

Mike Macdonald (2:54)

Yeah, well, those with those two guys going down, Cam being able to play without, with the very minimal reps, you know, missing two of your kick returners, him going in and just being a pro, you know, understanding what to do and making fast decisions and really helping us in our field position battle was critical. He's done a great job. John?

John (3:20)

Yeah, Mike, to hold an opponent without a pass play longer than eight yards for an entire game, like, what does that tell you about what you guys were doing well on pass defense?

Mike Macdonald (3:30)

It's funny, you didn't really, I didn't, you didn't know that until they told us after the game. I'll just, I'll say this, our guys, our guys played a great game. You know, they played really hard. Our communication was on point. I felt like we were ahead of plays just in terms of being ready to go, like cleats in the ground, making our calls, looking at the right stuff, and then just playing really hard to the echo of the whistle. And that's that's DBS and front guys included. You know, there's a couple of rushes that, you know, that Bryce was able to extend plays and he's a really good player and that's going to happen, but there's some rush lane things we can clean up. But for the most part, our guys rushed really well and they rushed, they played off one another. And I think that really helped, you know, the secondary also, you know, come to life as well.

John (4:15)

And then on the back end, obviously, we've seen a lot of Julie Love and a lot of Tai Okada, but never really played together much. How do you think it just went with the two of them playing together back there doing things?