Clay Helton media call tidbits
* We have four goals when we play on the road:
1. Play great defense – we held them to 330 yards
2. Run game – I’m proud of them for Ced to go for 173, Carr for 80.
3. Special teams – Michael Brown with a career long FG and another blocked kick
4. Clean play – limit the turnovers and penalties. This did not take place, it’s something we must concentrate on immediately and this is my job. Thankful for the bye to get the opportunity to work on this areas.
* Injury updates: John Houston (neck), Malik Dorton (ankle), Raymond Scott (fractured finger), Porter Gustin (ankle), Chuma Edoga (hip)
* The bye week is a great opportunity to correct our mistakes and get healthy. We will take the time to game plan ahead for Colorado, we will address some nicks and dings for some of our guys, correct mistakes and help the development of some of our young guys.
How do you address the penalties?
You be brutally honest and show the tape. There are 3 kinds of penalties;
1) decision making – a late hit (15) or block on PR (4) where the player went out of bounds and we kept blocking, facemask (10)
2) fundamentals – hands outside on shoulder pads,
3) administrative – staying onside.
We will show them on Monday so they can see how the game could have been separated without the penalties. The pushing and shoving ones are the ones that get the blood boiling. There was a lot of chipiness, these kids know each other and our guys had their jaws set. I talked with them about how you didn’t want to hurt your team, if you got a penalty in the 2nd half you would be out for part of the next game as well.
With the issue of bad snaps continuing is there any thought of moving Toa to guard?
Toa is our center. The athleticism he showed on 4th and 2 was impressive. There was the fumbled snap, it wasn’t a bad snap, it was that Toa heard something and snapped it when JT was looking to sideline.
How do you help ease the burden for a young QB on the road?
I thought it was a good game plan. To go for 450 yards of total offense when you consider the penalties and the fact that we underthrew a couple deep balls that I know he would like to have back. It was an efficient night, we got the TE involved and we leaned on the run game on the road.
This team has yet to play a complete, four quarter game, why not?
I believe they can do great things. The penalties and turnovers in this game hurt us, we need to cut those mistakes out, we need to play good defense and run the ball. If we can eliminate the mistakes we will see tremendous separation. I can’t wait for people to see this team in November.
