Head Coach Mike Macdonald Recaps Week 5, Gives Updates On Injured Players

Mike Macdonald (0:02)

All right, a few in the proud today.

Man, it's been a long day, been a good day. It's good to be with the guys, good to watch the tape. You know, obviously, we're not, you know, not pleased or disappointed in the outcome of the game. I thought the guys did play hard. We fought the last second. It's a good, it's a good example of how the NFL works. You know, there's a lot of games where in our, you know, two year history, where I felt like you play complimentary football and, you know, defenses, helping out offense and special teams, things like that. Some certain games come to mind. Yesterday was a game where our offense and special teams had to pick up our defense and it came down to trying to get in a stop towards the end or scoring late. We weren't able to do either of those things. So, you know, we scoured to the tape, made a bunch of made a lot of a lot of corrections and guys are on board, go through not around, as we like to say around here. And what's important is we learn from it and we go attack the heck out of this week and we come back fresh on Wednesday and all eyes straight ahead and get ready for Jacksonville.

SPEAKER_2 (1:15)

What did the tape tell you about the tackling issues?

Mike Macdonald (1:17)

Is that just it's the way we it's the way we felt after the game? We missed too many, especially on the perimeter. So it's a technique thing and and an all 11 type of thing. So really as a defense, we have to play better. We have to take better angles. I think we need to we need to practice it better. I know we train the heck out of it, but it's not showing up on tape right now. So we got to keep attacking it.

SPEAKER_2 (1:42)

When you say all 11, do you mean just guys rallying to the ball?

Mike Macdonald (1:44)

Yeah, too much space. You know, we missed tackles early in the year as well, but they didn't show up as much because we had more guys at the point of attack and it's a lot easier to take your shot when I'm next to you and I got three guys behind me ready to clean it up for me rather than just me versus you out in the open field.

SPEAKER_3 (2:01)

When you just look at the passing yards they got, I guess what do you kind of attribute the main issues with just how they were able to throw the ball?

Mike Macdonald (2:08)

Yeah, it's obviously way too many.

It's hard, you know, it's like a pet peeve when the coaches get up here and they're like, yeah, it was all us, you know, like all those yards would be diminished if we would have just done X, Y and Z. Like Tampa, there's a lot of credit to Baker's playing at a high level. I thought they had a good game plan. They executed really well. They play hard. They're a good team. Having said that, you know, we have to play better too. And like I said, after the game, I feel like I have to have a better game plan and I have to call it better. So, it's kind of everybody involved taking their game to another level and focusing that, you know, getting all the inputs right throughout the week.

SPEAKER_4 (2:50)

You said this morning on the show that you call the plays for who you've got in the field. You've got to coach the players you've got. If what the players need kind of violates some of your core tenets, like maybe you need to bring more pressure and you tend to not be a pressure of blitzing team. What ends up winning out between those two?

Mike Macdonald (3:08)

I wouldn't say it's core tenets. We like to think of it in terms of like majors and minors or A's and B's. What's the right mix?

I think it's a combination of how you need to play the game going into the game. And then as the game starts to declare, I hate to be simplistic, but it's really just what you feel is going to give you the best chance to win the game. And so that's why we called the things we did. And I like to think of it through the lens of you're calling plays for players, not like, you know, mitigating risks for players. You're trying to put people in position rather than get them out of the way. You know, one's kind of a more aggressive mindset than a defensive mindset.