Did it feel nice to see your defense holding up there in the second half?
Yeah, it was huge. It was a good team win. It took everybody today. We got it rolling early as an offense, we were efficient moving the ball, we were running the ball well. Guys making plays in the pass game and plenty of time to throw the ball. The defense there at the end coming up big. They overcame some things. Our defense just hung in there and battled and were able to make a huge play there on the two-point conversion.
When you talk about that protection, you were getting the ball out quickly. How well was it you getting the ball out, them protecting you. You were sacked only once late in the game and Chandler Jones left here with five sacks a year ago
Yeah, it was kind of combination too, right? I mean, it kind of works together. We can win quickly on the outside, get the ball in, great. And then if it takes a few seconds to get your progression and have time to do it, we're going to find somebody open on the backside. I think we had a little of both of that today where we got to be – sometimes that few plays have progressed to my third or fourth read and I was able to do that.
What was your biggest takeaways from the game, was it the fast start or the inconsistency in the second half and things you can clean up?
Yeah, it's both. I think you can take a look and say it's both of those things. We came out with the ball well, efficiently scored points early in the game consistently and it's just we took advantage of the situation at the end that got points at the end of the half, which was huge. We didn't come out and didn't execute well enough and didn't do things well in the second half. So, we'll take a look at it, see exactly what caused it. But, I think we can build on what we did in the first half, clean up some things there in the second half. We got the ball rolling in the right direction and that was our – my message all week was just come out, find a way to win this one game and get the ball rolling in the right direction and build on it.
The play action, seemed like that was very effective. What were the keys to find success on it?
Had guys getting open. I think we did a good job giving me a second to throw up front. And then we had guys getting open on the back end, whether it was Treylon (Burks), Robert (Woods), Geoff (Swaim) caught one when we had guys that were hitting their spots and hit them in the right times. And when we do that, we're usually efficient.
What led to Derrick (Henry) in the passing game, I don't think he had a catch in the first two games, five I think today. Was that just how plays went? Was there a design to get him the ball a little bit more today?
We called a couple screens obviously, which gets him the ball. The other ones, I think they were just soft. They were dropping out of there, kind of taking away some of the downfield throws for us. But when they do that, it opens up those underneath checkdowns. And I think Dontrell (Hilliard) had a big one on third down and Derrick (Henry) had a few of them. So, if you have, guys who can catch the ball and do something with it when they catch it underneath, it's huge.
Derrick always runs hard, but it looked like there was maybe just a little bit extra sense of hammering away for Derrick Henry today in terms of the run game?
Yeah, he was running hard. I think that's the Derrick (Henry) that we've all come to know and love, is the guy who's breaking tackles, running through tackles, getting those tough yards. So, good to see Derrick back.
When he's (Derick Henry) running like that and how much can you guys really rally around, it seemed like that?
Well, it's huge. I think if you have a muddy run right, where there's not a huge hole, they're trying to contact at or around the line of scrimmage and he's able to pump his legs off the floor and able to push him and get to a five, six-yard run, those are huge and will start to stack up over the course of the game. Wears down the front, you stay efficient offensively and in short-yardage situations. So, it's huge whenever he's running that hard. We talk about finish on a daily basis, and that's what we like to see is the pile going downfield. When you see that happening, you start to build that momentum and a lot of confidence is gained offensively.
You talked about just finding a way to respond to the first two weeks and how much of hope that kind of win supports it?
Well, obviously not the way we saw the first two weeks going. But I'm proud of the way we responded today. We came out and we played with an attitude, played with an edge and found a way to win at the end of the day. That's all we were asking ourselves to do. That's all we're asking each other to do and I'm proud of our guys. We did that.
Ryan, saw you and Robert (Woods) talking after the interception. Was that just a matter of miscommunication, or a route issue? What happened on that one?
Yeah, it was a little bit timing thing there, we made an adjustment.
Aside from that, he (Robert Woods) was productive today for the passing game. How important is it (for him) to get to involved for it to be successful?
He did a great job. I think he moved around a little bit today. I had him some on the inside and some on the outside, had him down the field a couple times on a deep cross where he made a big play for us, and on the backside route on the right-side route, he made a big play. He played fast. He's getting DBs on the heels and a lot of confidence throwing him the ball. So, of course we will continue to do that.
