#REDSKINS Post Game Quotes & Notes

[TK]

REDSKINS HEAD COACH JAY GRUDEN

 

 

 

On injuries:

"Injuries, [Brandon] Scherff, we're going to check his shoulder, get an MRI tomorrow; [Shawn] Lauvao, knee, same thing; [Morgan] Moses, knee, came back into the game; [Quinton] Dunbar had just more aggravation on his nerve or shin and [Jordan] Reed hurt his neck and back but he came back at the end and played."

 

On if TE Jordan Reed limped off the field at the end of the game:

"Limped off? Oh, I think so, I don’t know. I didn’t hear that."

 

On if the issue in the run game was due to the offensive line injuries:

"Well, the first half we had two major penalties take us out of drives. They played good, hats off to Atlanta [Falcons] though. [Falcons Head] Coach [Dan] Quinn and their staff did a great job. Their players played well – both sides of the ball. But as far as the running game, I don’t know, I'll have to look at the tape."

 

On playing from behind:

"Don't get behind. We just have to dig down deep. We had a chance. We cut it to a couple score lead. I think it was 28-14 and [they] came right down and they scored again to make it a 21-point game. A lot has to happen right for you to come back from three scores in the NFL. You have to have great protection. You have to have great defense. You have to get off the field. You have to stay on the field. We had a chance with the ball and then had another critical penalty. I believe two, three, four penalties, I believe on one drive, which hurt us on that drive for a chance to come back."

 

On how hard it is to win with so many penalties:

"It’s impossible. It’s impossible, you might as well just give them the ball and give them the game. I have to check the tape out to see what these penalties are all about. It’s very frustrating. We got a couple of token penalties on there late. I have to look at the tape, and if they are legit, we have to get them corrected."

 

On what he would have done if another lineman went down:

"That’s panic time. Matt Ioannidis would have played guard. Losing two starting guards is hard. You dress a backup tackle. I think we had to move Ty [Nsekhe] in there at guard. Not good. We’ve been there before. Love to have some guys to step up who are practicing with us and get them ready to go."

 

On how the Atlanta Falcons were scoring so quickly:

"It did surprise me. Really the way they were scoring, they had a bunch of third down conversions in the first half. Which we’ve been really good on third down all year and today, for whatever reason, we weren’t very good. They scored on two screen passes for long touchdown runs. One at the end and one early in the game to [Tevin] Coleman. The third down conversions, really what kept them in the game. They ran the ball effectively but for us to get a team like Atlanta, we have to get a team like them off the field on third down and we didn’t do it."

 

 

REDSKINS QUARTERBACK ALEX SMITH

 

 

On struggling early in the game:

“Early for us, I think too many negative plays, too many penalties. They’re tough to overcome. I think that many of them, I don’t know how many of the first several drives had negative play that put us behind schedule, put us into a third-and-long and those are tough to convert on playing in this league. They’re tough to overcome.”

 

On WR Maurice Harris:

“He’s a guy that I think everyone on offense has a lot of confidence in, certainly I do. He’s a guy that can move around and we can put in a lot of positions and he can do a lot. We ask a lot of him, but obviously getting to play inside here with Jamison [Crowder] out he’s done a heck of a job. I think he’s a young player, I think he’s got a bright future, but I thought today making some big, big plays, playing fast. It was good to see.”

 

On calming the team down after penalties:

“I know it’s frustrating for everyone here once we got going and we got the ball to Josh [Doctson] down the sideline. I didn’t see the play. He caught the ball on their sideline and I know they called the flag because he spun the ball, but I mean, to me it was where he caught the ball. I didn’t get to see it. I didn’t get a good look at it. And then things there the next couple plays with personal fouls and things like that, it’s tough. I mean, it’s an emotional game. You’ve got to play it kind of on that edge. It’s a physical game, guys put a lot into this and it can be frustrating sometimes with some tough calls like that. Every time we made a play, every time we got something going, there was a flag on the ground and like I said, I think guys got frustrated. So I’m going to try and calm them down after that, but those few plays can be frustrating, but they’re not what we want to see either.”

 

On Atlanta’s defense stopping the run game:

“They’re good up front. I think that’s where any of this starts. They’re a good D-Line, they’re coming off a bye-week. They got back healthy. They’re physical and like I said, I think it’s hard to stay with the run anytime you get behind schedule with the penalties that we did, negative plays. Then once it did turn into a couple score game you certainly like to stay with the run as much as you can, but obviously at the point its not as balanced as you’d like it to be.”

 

On if there’s a win-loss pattern when it comes to scoring early or not:

“It’s a great question, I hadn’t thought of that. I think we’ve been in a bunch of close games so I know we’ve had the lead, but there’s still back and forth. They are even games that have been one-score games, so we’ve been in some tight situations, we’ve been in big moments. I think those are learning experiences for us as a football team. Its tough to play against a good football team when you’re multiple scores down, period. As much as you’d like to come back and do that, it’s just rare. But certainly like I said there’s a lot for us on tape I think to get better at. Sometimes I think you’re going to have to come back from behind and I think there’s all three phases in that, but for us on offense and what we need to focus on, like I said, I feel like you can’t do it with the negative plays, all the penalties and getting off schedule when it’s hard enough trying to come back from behind, but when we add those on top, it becomes pretty daunting.”

 

 

 

On communicating with WR Josh Doctson after dropped passes:

“Yeah, certainly go talk to them. For me, it’s just you got to move on. Listen, its professional football. I can tell you it’s not going to be his last drop. It’s the nature of the game. Sitting and dwelling on it in the middle of the game wasn’t going to help us, so for me it’s just getting to move forward and move on and I think he did a great job bouncing back. He made a heck of a catch on the sideline there. That’s my idea. You’ve got to stay locked in, got to stay in the moment. Any dwelling on the past or doing anything else certainly isn’t going to do us any good.”

 

On his hit on the sideline: 

“No, I was good—Caught surprise mostly. I felt like I saw him out in front as I was running up the sideline. I definitely thought about ducking out. I did see AD [Adrian Peterson] running with me. Then my eyes went back inside and at that point—for me analyzing the possibility of cutting back and making a play, obviously that guy got up on me pretty quick and I didn’t see him.” 

 

On offensive line injuries and backups coming in: 

“I think you just try to communicate it as best you can—especially some of those young guys that are in there playing. G [Geron Christian Sr.] coming in and playing. Just trying to communicate as best I can. Try to help them out as best I can whether it be of cadence things like that—that I can use to try to help him. I think with that, just staying positive, communicate as much as possible. If anything, just try to help calm it down those guys have to go in and play. They have a job to do. Certainly, anything distracting from that wouldn’t help us.”  

 

On G Brandon Scherff injury: 

“It was really hard. Obviously with the flags and personal fouls—right at the peak of it. Frustrated by all that and then another play I didn’t see. Kind of late there with the whistle and getting thrown down—and then obviously losing him. He is a heck of player so when you’re already banged up to lose a guy like that hurts.” 

 

On execution and young players’ performance: 

“I think without a doubt any time you don’t play well, it’s execution. That’s such an all-encompassing term for not playing good and not getting the job done out there. A lot of reasons probably why—we have to look at the film and get better at it. We have to improve it on a consistent basis. Too inconsistent with the execution. I thought the young guys they got thrust into a tough spot especially upfront. G [Geron Christian Sr.] having to play in a situation when it was obviously pretty one sided with the pass. It was a tough duty for him. I think he did a great job competing. You have to have that. The next guy has to come up—and we have to be able to get it done.” 

 

On the team’s overall performance so far in the season: 

“I think to be 5-3 and sitting in first place is great. I feel like we have a lot of room for improvement for us—myself included. A lot of room to get better. I think it’s encouraging but at the same time we have to keep marching. We have to keep getting better at that halfway mark—obviously find ways to win games as you do march along. It’s about the team playing their best football come the end of the year. We want to be one of those teams—we have to find a way to get there.” 

 

On locker room comparison from New Orleans loss to today: 

“Hard to compare, hopefully we’ll end up the same way. I certainly thought that lit a little fire for us—a sense of urgency. And not to say that we lost it or anything—Falcons, hats off to them, they were the better team today, but we’ll see how we handle this. Every team faces adversity and we have to handle this right away.” 

 

 

 

REDSKINS WIDE RECEIVER MAURICE HARRIS

 

On the loss:

“Yeah it was a tough loss, but we just got to keep our head up. It’s over with, we’ll correct it and move on. We’ve got the Buccaneers coming up so we’ve just got to move forward, learn from our mistakes and keep pushing.”

 

On growth opportunities:

“Oh yeah, we definitely can grow. I think as a team we have a lot of things to correct, but like I said, we’ve just got to be positive, keep moving forward and go on to the next week.”

 

On his one-handed catch:

“We had some verticals going deep and Alex [Smith] liked the matchup so he threw me an opportunity ball and we had to take advantage of that, so I tried to make the best of that catch.”

 

On the significance of this game:

“Yeah, it feels bad but we’re not too far behind so we’ve just got to correct the little things and be on the details, and come out next week firing and I think we’ll be OK.”

 

 

REDSKINS DEFENSIVE END JONATHAN ALLEN

 

On the most frustrating part of the game:

“The loss. I mean, you play to win the game and when you don’t do that, it’s tough, but we’ve got to watch the film and get ready for Tampa next week.”

 

On if the defense was off to start the game:

“I don’t know. I mean we definitely didn’t play well, that’s easy. But, it’s hard to say without watching the film, so as a defense, we’ve just got to get back, watch the film and move on from there and get ready for Tampa Bay.”

 

On what could be done to shake off the loss:

“You’ve got to have a short term memory in the NFL. You can’t make it a big ordeal when you lose, every single game. We’re going to look at the film, we’re going to move on, see what we could have done better as a defense and get ready for Tampa Bay.”

 

On how he felt about rushing the quarterback:

“I mean, terrible. We didn’t do a good job, not much beyond that.”

 

On the reason for struggling to rush the quarterback:

“It’s hard to say, I’ve got to watch the film to be honest.”

 

On if there is anything positive to take away from the game:

“100 percent. I mean, we definitely made some plays out there, but it just wasn’t enough, so we’ve got to try and build on that and make some more.”

 

REDSKINS CORNERBACK JOSH NORMAN

 

On the amount of penalties and yards given up by the defense:

“Guess we have to find a way to do better than that, that’s for sure. We never want to see those numbers. Those are awful numbers. But at the end of the day, we have to go watch the film and see what we did. We have to correct that as a team because you’re not going to win games like that.”

 

On the complexity of Atlanta’s offense:

“They move guys around and they played really well. They had us cut out and had a whole two weeks, so they came in here with the time they had and they went to work on us. They did a good job and you have to tip your hats to them. We were rolling and then they came in and played really well.”

 

On Atlanta’s rushing success:

“That was tough for us. I don’t think any of us expected that. They hit us in the face. When you get a test like this, you have to come up and stand up and we didn’t do that. That’s the beauty of it. When you get knocked down, it’s how you get back up from it. We have the guys on this team that can and will respond. We just have to take ownership of it and move on.”

 

 

REDSKINS OFFENSIVE LINEMAN CHASE ROULLIER

 

On the changes to the line mid-game and adjusting:

“You’ve just got to stay locked into the game. The entire offensive line kind of has a plug and play mentality. We’ve had so many reps with one another, switching around, different guys at different positions, that no matter who is in there, we feel pretty comfortable. Obviously when you have a guy like Ty [Nsekhe] having to come down to guard which he’s not necessarily accustomed to, that’s something we have to adjust to and we have to communicate through some certain plays and make sure that Ty knows what he’s doing on each and every play.”

 

On how hard it is to adjust a player to a new position:

“I don’t think it prevents us from doing anything. Ty [Nsekhe], even though he hasn’t played guard, he knows the position quite well. It just helps to have the extra communication between all of us to make sure we are on the same page, just because we aren’t necessarily used to having Ty in there at guard. The more communication you can get, the more smooth everything is going to go and that’s all we’re trying to do.”

 

On the methods communication with Ty Nsekhe:

“No, not even really like that, it’s just making sure every single call between center and guard are called out and then all the protection calls, make sure he hears everything. When it comes to protection, guard and center are pretty similar on a lot of things so that’s all pretty smooth. It’s just certain calls that Ty might not be used to that he needs to adjust to and those are all things that he’s worked [on] and I just have to make sure he knows which call we’re in on certain runs.”

 

On how costly the penalties were:

“I mean, whenever you have that many penalties, it’s always going to be costly. You’re getting behind the sticks and the playbook gets a whole lot smaller and that closes everything up for us and just makes it harder to get the offense going.”

 

 

REDSKINS SAFETY HA HA CLINTON-DIX

 

On the defensive performance:

“As a whole, we just started slow and didn’t get off to as good a start as we wanted to. Preparation was great all week. We didn’t execute and get off the field on third down and that’s about it.”

 

On not stopping Atlanta on third down:

“It’s the NFL. Those guys are just as good as we are, but we have to find a way to get off the field on third down. We’ll look at the film tomorrow, correct our mistakes, and move on to Tampa Bay.”

 

On the impact of a short week and switching teams:

“It’s about being a pro and being held accountable. That’s what I like about this place. I wanted to make an impact and help this team as much as I could to come out with a win. Unfortunately, we fell short. We have Tampa Bay coming up next week and I’m excited about that. 

 

On adjusting to Washington’s defensive schemes:

“I came from Nick Saban so I’m ready for anything. I’m ready for any challenge and the challenge was accepted today. A lot of things I can work on to get better. I’m still learning the defense and still creating chemistry with my teammates on the back end. We’re going to get better.”

 

 

REDSKINS OFFENSIVE LINEMAN GERON CHRISTIAN SR.

 

On making his NFL debut:

“I mean, it just felt really good. We had been talking about it all week with Trent [Williams] not being here, Coach [Jay Gruden] kept saying and asking if I was ready and at some point in the game I was going to have to play. Just been focusing on studying and stuff, but when I got out there, I felt good.”

 

On making adjustments in game with the injuries:

“It wasn’t too much talking. Through practice, everybody played every position, just I guess because of last year with all the injuries and stuff and the select amount of players that we have that are active. In practice we kind of rotate in one-on-one’s. You might have the centers playing guard, the guards playing center and tackles playing both sides as far as me and Ty [Nsekhe]. Really just waited on Coach [Jay Gruden] to give the call on where he wanted who and just went out and played.”

 

On the amount of snaps he received in practice at left and right tackle:

“I think pretty much all my snaps, outside of one-on-one’s, so I probably got like four or five snaps at the right tackle this week, but with Ty being with the one’s this week, all my snaps were pretty much at left tackle.”

 

On communicating with a line that hasn’t seen any game action together:

“Really just starts in the middle, with the center making his call and with every guy at every position, we’ve just got to talk. It’s best to make it clear on who we’re working to and what call he wants, but I mean everybody knows the playbook and knows the calls, so when it’s time to say whatever is called and is to who, we’ll all work off of that.”

 

 

REDSKINS DEFENSIVE END MATT IOANNIDIS

 

On the amount of injuries for the Redskins:

“This is a league of next man up. If they would have called upon me to do that, I would’ve been ready.”

 

On the difference of his play this season:

“I give all glory to God. It’s all in his hands and I appreciate everything he does.”

 

On the importance of scoring first:

“I have no idea about scoring first or second. We play every play as hard as we can. That’s how we attack it.”

 

On Atlanta’s offensive performance:

“I’m going to have to go back and look at the tape. It’s still pretty fresh. At this point, I don’t know.”

 

On third down struggles:

“We were obviously having a tough time getting off the field and that’s something we have to work on.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

REDSKINS-FALCONS GAME NOTES

 

 

• The Washington Redskins fell to the Atlanta Falcons, 38-14, at FedExField on Sunday. 
• The Redskins now post a 5-3 record in regular season play and are 3-2 at FedExField. 
• The Redskins recorded an interception in the first quarter and have now forced a turnover for the 12th consecutive week dating back to last season. Barring the results of the L.A. Chargers vs. Seattle Seahawks game, the Redskins hold the second longest active streak in the NFL.
•  
• Quarterback Alex Smith completed 30-of-46 pass attempts for 306 yards, one interception and one touchdown for a passer rating of 82.3. Smith also rushed for 22 yards on one carry. It was his first 300-yard passing game as a member of the Redskins.
• With his performance, Smith (33,755) has passed John Hadl and Phil Simms for 33^rd on the NFL's all-time list in passing yards. 
• Smith has now passed for 300 or more yards for the 12^th time in his career.
•  
• Running back Kapri Bibbs finished the game with three carries for 20 yards and his second career rushing touchdown. 
•  
• Rookie tackle Geron Christian Sr. made his NFL and Washington Redskins debut. Christian was a third-round pick of the Washington Redskins in the 2018 NFL Draft. Christian contributed on offense playing the left and right tackle positions. Christian saw action at right tackle following T Morgan Moses suffering an injury before returning to the game. Christian also played left tackle following an injury to right guard Brandon Scherff.
•  
• Tackle Ty Nsekhe made his 12^th career start opening up the game at left tackle and seeing action at left guard following the injury to Scherff.  
•  
• Center/Guard Tony Bergstrom saw action at left guard following the injury to G Shawn Lauvao and then saw action at right guard following the injury to Scherff. 
•  
• Wide receiver Maurice Harris finished the contest with career highs in receptions (10) and receiving yards (124). Harris is the first Redskins wide receiver to record 100 or more receiving yards in a single game since Jamison Crowder recorded 141 receiving yards on seven receptions vs. the New York Giants on Nov. 23, 2017.
• Harris is the first Redskin to record 10-plus receptions and 100-plus receiving yards in a single game since Pierre Garcon hauled in 11 receptions for 138 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 21, 2014. 
•  
• Tight end Jordan Reed finished with four receptions for 34 yards. Reed has now tallied 3,153 career yards and passed Roy Jefferson for No. 13 on the Redskins all-time list in receiving yards. 
•  
• Tight end Vernon Davis (1,464) collected 62 yards on five receptions (12.4 avg.). With the total receiving yards, Davis now ranks eighth all-time among tight ends in Redskins history passing Jamie Asher (1,401) and Jean Fugett (1,460).
•  
• Wide receiver Josh Doctson finished with three receptions for 31 yards and one touchdown. The score was Doctson's first of the season. 
•  
• Cornerback Quinton Dunbar hauled in an interception in the first quarter and now has two for the season. The two interceptions is a career single season high.
•  
• Linebacker Zach Brown recorded a tackle for loss and now posts 50 for his career.
•  
• Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix made his Redskins debut after being acquired by the organization in a trade earlier this week. Clinton-Dix made his first start as Redskin, he has now started in 64 consecutive games.
• Clinton-Dix tied a team high with seven tackles.
• With his Washington Redskins debut, Clinton-Dix has now appeared in 72 career games and has not missed a game in his entire career.
•  
• Defensive lineman Matt Ioannidis recorded a sack in the second quarter to bring his team high season total to 6.5.
•  
• Linebacker Ryan Kerrigan tallied two tackles and one sack. He now has 77 sacks for his career and is now five sacks shy from passing Charles Mann (82) for No. 2 on the Redskins' all-time sack list. 
• Kerrigan started his 120th consecutive regular season game, the longest active streak among active NFL linebackers. Kerrigan has not missed a start in his NFL career.
•  
• Punter Tress Way punted five times for 245 yards for a net average of 48.2 yards. Way recorded a season best 62-yard punt landing four inside the 20-yard line. 

[Morneblade]

"Smith has now passed for 300 or more yards for the 12^th time in his career."

 

This is ****ing horrible! 12 times in 15 ****ing years? Absolutely pathetic.

[skinsmarydu]

I'd be willing to bet that Kirk's done that in his 6.

[Morneblade]

31 minutes ago, skinsmarydu said:

I'd be willing to bet that Kirk's done that in his 6.

 

Considering he has 4 this year alone (including 2 400+ games) that's a pretty save bet.

And he had 9 last year. So, in a season and a half, Kirk has as man 300+ yards game as Alex does in his career.

 

[Reaper Skins]

That screenshot of Gruden is pretty much all I needed to see.