HEAD COACH MIKE MUNCHAK
(on the increase of intensity with pads)
It is. I just think it's when things go from day to day these guys competing. Groups compete, receivers versus DB's, O-line/D-line, linebackers and everybody. I think it's just one of the things that flare up every so often. The guys are good friends plus they're good competitors. You just don't want guy's swinging. You don't want guys to get elevated to where someone could get hurt, luckily no one did, guys are just pulling each other off each other. Blidi [Wreh-Wilson] and those guys, there's not many fighters in that group, and no one wants to get hurt, and it's just you got to be smarter that's all.
(on if scraps in practice are a learning experience)
Those guys got to separate, in their mind they think it's OK to for the camaraderie to try and protect each other. No doubt, I think it's a different mentality when you're going into a game knowing that those things aren't allowed. In the coaching perspective there's no doubt you don't want guys to think, 'someone does wrong to you, you can't retaliate by doing the same back.' We all know that usually ends where the second guy gets in trouble and then there's flags and there's penalties. Then you're hurting the football team and then getting fined. Nothing good comes out of it. It's nice to see the competitive edge and all those things but after that, the rest has to be cleaned up and we don't want that.
(on who won the scrap)
I think it was a no decision. It was hard to tell from my vantage point. I think it was more just the little guys trying to look tough.
*(on if Munchak was ever in a scrap when he played) *
Yeah, I was in quite a few myself. So I understand that. I always say I never took a swing or something. With linemen it usually ends up being a wrestling match, we don't want to hurt ourselves and we don't want to hurt our hands. We're smarter than most position guys. We know better than to swing and do things like that where we're going to break a hand or something. We just go and use what we have—our size. Tackle people and get them on the ground, it turns into a wrestling match, and we feel we can win those. But, you have them, you just don't want them, and hopefully that's the end of that. I expected there to be pushing and shoving and guys talking, and that's all part of it. But you can't have guys taking it farther than that.
(on Brian Schwenke leaving practice early)
I think his hamstring was a little sore. Earlier he tried to push through it a little bit. When he was pushing of it he just felt it wasn't quite right, so we took him out. We'll evaluate him and see where he's at. We don't think it's anything serious in that way, just more something that's part of this time of year. When you are kind of pushing through and for offensive lineman especially you have groin, hamstring [injuries]. We'll be careful with him, but I'm assuming he'll be OK.
(on hamstring treatment)
We'll evaluate him. It works out to where we have one more day tomorrow and you got Monday off. It's unfortunate; he was off to a good start. We'll look at him tonight and tomorrow, probably rest him a little bit, and then hope that he's ready to roll on Tuesday.
*(on Justin Hunter being taken to the ground by Bernard Pollard) *
I haven't seen. When I watch tape I'll see some of it, but guys got to learn to protect themselves. They have to in this league, and in any league, and how to fall. For quarterbacks, receivers, all those guys have to learn those things to protect themselves. There's a lot of things to learn. He hasn't played a ton and I was glad he was out there competing, catching some balls. And going against guys like [Bernard] Pollard and [Jason] McCourty and those guys in the secondary will help him and have him ready and battle tested to play when the season starts.
(on the presence of Chance Warmack)
I haven't heard any more than probably any of you have. I'm just worried about the guys that are here and hopefully soon he'll be here.
(on making a conscious effort to get bigger linemen)
Yea, well I just think that the way that we felt we needed to be, as far as we felt we needed to take control of the offensive line, defensive line, get more push, control the line of scrimmage more, you need some size to do that these days. You need some guys that can sit there and fight like a Sammie Hill, that we went out and got this year, and need to get bigger inside with the offensive line with Chance [Warmack] and with [Brian] Schwenke and [Rob] Turner, and some of those guys. So we think we're out doing what we need to do and now we'll see how it all turns out. We felt that that was something that was lacking a little bit. That's just part of the equation you need to have when you need it and so certain games when teams have tried to really run downhill on you and do some things like when we're in Pittsburgh or Jacksonville or teams like that where we feel like we have guys that can hold up to that type of game.
(on whether or not the plan for tomorrow's practice includes full pads and higher intensity)
It will, because it's an evening. It will be a night practice, tomorrow night. We are out here earlier in more of a teaching, walk-through type practice in the morning. And then in the afternoon, or the evening, we'll be out like last night, but in full pads and so that there always adds a little more energy to it. And the fact that Monday will be a day off, we have no practice. So I think we'll get a good effort out of them as we have so far.
(on what it takes for Colin McCarthy to reclaim his former status in the depth chart)
He looks good, he looks physical to me. He looks bigger. He looks stronger. He looks like he's enjoying practicing again, so it's fun to watch him. I think so far he's done everything he needs to do and we'll just keep practicing and I think he'll keep showing up the way he always has. So I think it's great. I think we have some linebackers, we have a lot of skill, you've seen some tremendous speed. We have backs trying to bounce and we have outside linebackers running with them. So that's encouraging to see because I remember many years when we couldn't run like that and we got beat off the edge. We have people now that can run, we talked about getting bigger and then the faster is also something I think we have with guys that good, [Moise] Fokou and those guys, Zach Brown. So we've got some guys that can do a lot of good things and it's fun watching them out here.
(on who has been coming out on top between offense and defense)
I think as a head coach that's what you want. You want these guys to be back and forth and competing., and one side have an advantage in certain parts of drills. Some drills are 14 and 15 plays long so I think you see plays where the offense make two or three good ones and the defense seems to rally. The offense starts looking flat and the defense sees them respond. That's what we're going be dealing with all season long. It's good; we've been talking about the competition. I think we're seeing some of that already. A long way to go with a lot of things we need to do, but it's a good start.
