Head Coach Mike Macdonald Recaps Week 4, Gives Updates On Injuries

Mike Macdonald (0:02)

We had a great, great morning with the guys, still meeting right now, so it's been a great day so far. Excited to keep it rolling the way we got.

SPEAKER_2 (0:11)

Mike, you guys still are one of the best defenses in the NFL outside the red zone. I think you're now ranked 31st in the red zone in EPA. Anything new that you're noticing coming out of this game?

Mike Macdonald (0:24)

It's going to be a point of emphasis.

It's not just one thing. I think we just need to focus on, as a whole football team, it's like a moment by moment mindset. When the ball gets down there, we need to recalibrate and refocus and take it one play at a time and play our style of ball. There will be some things throughout the week that I think we might tinker with with our process, but I think we just keep chipping away at it.

SPEAKER_3 (0:50)

Is that process with the whole team just on the defensive side of things?

Mike Macdonald (0:54)

Well, I think it's good to get the ball in the end zone on red zone, in the red zone on offense. We put our attention to short yardage and red zone last week. It's not like we're going to ignore it now on offense, but red zone is always going to be a point of assist with us. We practice it every day.

We've been a good red zone team on defense here for a while, and offensively, I feel like we're getting better, so we'll keep chasing it.

SPEAKER_3 (1:25)

Last week, you talked about special teams and that you wanted to see coverage tighten up a little bit better on kick coverage. What did you see in special teams yesterday?

Mike Macdonald (1:33)

I thought we took a step. Guys are trying. I think there's some details we still want to detail up and get better at. But again, it's another game. There's some more observations, some really good stuff.

But I think it's kind of just the next part of the process.

SPEAKER_4 (1:56)

Mike, when you look back at the film, what did you think of the run game yesterday?

Mike Macdonald (2:01)

I thought the run game was effective. I think we ran it like 4-4 carry for 100 and whatever yards. As Ham told me today, it doesn't matter. How many yards we run for? He goes, doesn't matter. Love it. I think there's spots where it could be more effective for sure.

Room for improvement, like with the rest of the team, but given JD's situation to the middle of the week and Emmanuel stepping up and playing, I thought everybody handled it well.

SPEAKER_6 (2:33)

It seems like you've had some success off the running back screen game, too, so far to start the year.

Mike Macdonald (2:38)

Screen game, how about that?

SPEAKER_6 (2:40)

What have you liked about it and how those guys have kind of factored in to that part of the.

Mike Macdonald (2:44)

Again, it's another example of why we just shift our focus to where we want to get better and guys make it come to life.

The linemen have done a great job hitting their targets out in the perimeter and the alley, and our runners have been more decisive once they got the ball. So I think we, again, have had good returns. Doesn't mean we just stop working on it. We just keep hammering away, but it's great to have that asset of our offense because it's tough to defend.

SPEAKER_2 (3:13)

Any more clarity on Leonard Williams's?

Mike Macdonald (3:15)

Nothing new, but nothing that would change what I said this morning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (3:21)

You guys have had 12 penalties, I think, on defense, six of them have come in third down. How much of the message to the defense is clean up our own stuff to get where you want to go?

Mike Macdonald (3:34)

I think the context behind probably overestimated the importance of the context behind the penalty in terms of the down and the distance. We want to play great football all the time no matter the circumstance.

So, I don't like to phrase it like, hey, we're in our own way. It's just like we want to, you know, chasing edges means something around here. It's like, hey, we want to play a certain way. We want to bring it up to the line, and then we don't want to cross the line. There's a couple of plays yesterday where we went over the line. We're going to learn from it. We're going to move forward. The guys are great today. But in order to play our style of defense and play physically and have waves of the football and be able to take aggressive angles to the ball and taking shots on the ball, things like that, you got to live that life. And so sometimes you go over the line a little bit and we'll learn from it and keep rolling.