Head Coach Mike Macdonald Recaps Week 2, Gives Injury Updates

Brian (0:00)

Yeah, hey coach, two quick questions. One, you guys, after two weeks, lead the NFL in rushing success rate allowed in terms of lowest rushing success rate for opponents, and you also have the highest tackle for loss rate, one every 5.4 carries.

All this while having one of the lightest number of most defensive backs on the field in the NFL. So what is it that allows you guys to continue to not just be efficient when you have light personnel in defending the run, but be the best run defense in the NFL?

Mike Macdonald (0:38)

Well, my first reaction is it's early, and there's a lot of great stuff on tape from the first two weeks in the run game, and there's some stuff where I'm thinking of, hey, man, we can take it to another level on how we play things, whether it's, you know, how we game plan stuff, how we package our personnels.

Yesterday, I thought I could have done a better job of responding in terms of our front structures to some things that we saw that the Cardinals were doing to us. But, you know, my other reaction is really we get great players, and they play together, and, you know, if you want to play with light boxes, you need to constrict space, and you need to win one-on-one matchups, and you need second-level players that have an understanding for run fits and also how to pace the ball and beat blocks. And it's a three-level thing where, you know, our third level needs to be able to tackle if the ball spits, things like that. So, sounds like a good stat, you know, it sounds like a good stat. I feel like we're doing a lot of great things. I also just, I also understand that it's early and we got to keep attacking the things that we're doing on a daily basis to keep that coming to life, you know, but our guys are playing really hard right now. They're playing really physically and so definitely proud of that.

Brian (2:13)

One other quick one. You guys are the first team since 2006 to not allow a play of $20 or more in the first two weeks.

So I see 666 other chances for that to happen.

Mike Macdonald (2:25)

Brian, you always got all the stats, man. I don't think I've ever previously heard any stat that you told me, but they sound cool.

Brian (2:36)

So my question though is, you've done that while the pressure rate has not necessarily been as high as it was last year. I'm curious how you guys are able to hold down the explosive plays while not getting as much pressure, and what you're looking at from a pressure perspective right now.

Mike Macdonald (2:55)

Well, we're trying to create more pressure.

That's definitely the intent of what we're trying to do. Yesterday, we did hit our metrics. We did hit our quarterback, affect the quarterback metrics. First week, we fell a little short. But that's something that we're going to evaluate from week to week on how we want to approach our game plan and how we want to attack teams. But I think defensively with our coaching staff and our players, there's a lot of alignment right now on how we're playing our defenses and our coverages. And so, it's a shout out to them. And I also think, you know, I think our kind of the aperture is tightened in terms of what we're going into the week and what we want to get to and how we want to play those defenses versus what I think that what we think that offense is going to be able to do. So I'd say it's a probably more focused approach than we've had our first two years.

Thanks. Corbin.

Corbin (4:01)

Coach, with AB out, we got to see both Christian Haynes and Bo Stevens out there. What what was the rationale behind having those two rotate out there? How did you feel the way they played and contributed to the way the offensive line played in the second half?

Mike Macdonald (4:17)

Yeah, we felt like it was an opportunity to not only give, you know, Christian earned the start, but also to give Bo some well-earned reps. I think there's some flexibility in terms of how we wanted to approach the rotation, which we're pretty happy with the way it came out. Sometimes it's hard to control because, you know, until a guy has a series or whatever, you don't know how long it's going to go. But I thought there was some really good stuff for both guys, different things on for, you know, respectively on what we want them to work on, which is great. But to get an opportunity to go in and play really good football, when AB wasn't able to go, I think was great for our team depth, our office of line depth. It was great for Bo being a rookie and getting experience. But we'll kind of monitor the situation with AB moving forward and kind of take it from there.