Sunday Ben McAdoo Conference Call

Ben McAdoo – © USA TODAY Sports Images

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SUNDAY BEN MCADOO CONFERENCE CALL…
New York Giants Head Coach Ben McAdoo addressed the media by conference call on Sunday to discuss the team’s 21-0 preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills. Coach McAdoo provided an injury update on wide receiver Dwayne Harris (knee) and provided an update on a few injured Giants who missed the game.

McAdoo: Good afternoon, we’ll start out with what we did well in the game. Defensively, I thought the first 15 plays, first quarter or so, there was some tremendous effort and physicality present on tape. Offensively, we improved our pocket integrity. From a special teams perspective, the punt team, our protection was good, releases and coverage patterns were good. We did a nice job pinning them down in their own territory a few times.

What we need to improve defensively, we need to continue building towards playing a full game the first week in Dallas and our sudden change stops. Offensively, we have to do a better job taking care of The Duke, our run blocking unit needs to improve assignments, fundamentals, and physicality. We made some progress with our long-stride, short-stride but we still have some work to do there.

The penalties really put us in bad situations, we had 10 penalties in the ballgame, and it put us behind the chains on offense. It gave them some first downs defensively and negatively changed the field on us on on special teams. Where do we go from here? We’ve got a lot of work to do, so we need to set our jaw and get back to work. We’re going to have plenty of opportunity this week to develop our fundamentals, physicality and building up for the first game. We’ve seen some great things in practice that haven’t carried over to the games yet, but we still have some work to do.

Q: What did you see from your first team offensive line and tight ends?

A: I think, just like I said earlier,  I think it’s time its fundamentals and physicality need to pick up.

Q: What can you do to improve the physicality in practice?

A:  I think there’s some signs in practice, the half-line drill, and the 9-on-8 and 8-on-7, the physicality is there and it shows up. We have to carry that over and we have to keep working on it in practice and carry it over and it’s got to show up on game day. A lot of the things, and a lot of the mistakes that we’re making, we’re not making in practice, we just need to have the confidence to carry those over to game day.

Q: Will there be any immediate personnel changes, in regards to first teams?

A: We’re going to give guys opportunities to compete, but at the same point in time we’re not going to have any knee-jerk reactions, no one’s panicking here. We’re not going to rush to judgement on anything. We’re going to go out there, we’re going to get the pads on and we’re going to get to work.

Q: Is Victor Cruz going to practice tomorrow?

A:  Yes.

Q: What’s the plan with him in general?

A: We’re going to put him back out there. He got some work in today, as he did in the pregame yesterday. We’re going to put him back out there and we’re going to let him work back into it.

Q: Can you describe what tomorrow’s practice is going to entail?

A:  Tomorrow’s practice will be, we’re just bringing them back off of a game, we’ll get some conditioning in early in the practice and get a jump start on the next opponent and the corrections.

Q: Tuesday will be the first real, true football practice?

A:  Yes… we want to take them through a mock game week.

Q: Do you expect Victor Cruz to have limitations?

A:  We’re going to put him out there, we’re going to practice. If we have to limit him, then we’ll limit him. If not, he’s going to go.

Q: Any update on Dwayne Harris?

A: Dwayne Harris had an MRI on his knee. His knee checked out fine. I think he is a little bit sore, so we will take a look at him when he gets here tomorrow. He did have some treatment today.

Q: How about the other guys who traveled but didn’t play? Are Pugh and Apple going to go this week?

A: Yeah, we are going to put – Justin is going to jump back in and Eli will jump back in with individual and we will progress from there.

Q: How much do you think Ryan Nassib’s struggles these past two games have been mental and how much do you think have been physical?

A: It is probably a combination of both. I still have confidence in Ryan. I know he can go out there and play at a high level. We need to run the ball better around him and he needs to make some throws and then we need to make some plays. We can’t be dropping balls out there, and we need to protect him.

Q: Do you intend to bring in any other kickers to compete for the Week 1 job, or are you still giving Tom Obarski every opportunity to get that job?

A: Yeah, you never say never. I haven’t had time to sit down, I just talked about the game with Jerry (Reese), but I haven’t had time to sit down and talk about those things, but you never say never.

Q: Are you any closer to deciding who your middle linebacker is going to be?

A: There is a good competition going on right now. B.J. (Goodson) made a good push yesterday, but Kelvin (Sheppard)  and Jasper (Brinkley) are battling it out.

Q: What did you see from Sheppard and Jasper yesterday?

A: Kelvin, again, he is an instinctive guy and has a good nose for the ball. That showed up again yesterday. He communicates and he gets football. Jasper had a nice play on the screen, they tried to run a ladder screen there versus a pressure and he blew it up and made a nice play. That was a big play for us.

Q: How did you like Tavarres King running with the first team offense?

A: Tavarres did some good things. He ran a nice slant route. I would like to see him leave a little more room on the go on the sideline, but Tavarres has had a nice camp and he is a guy that is earning the trust and confidence of the quarterbacks and it was good to get him out there running early.

Q: What did you think of how Bobby Hart did?

A: Bobby got better. He got better playing inside and playing tackle. Again, we need to see more consistency from him, but he is a guy that stepped up, jumped in when his number was called and he did improve.

Q: Where does Orleans Darkwa stand in the grand scheme of the running backs at the moment?

A: Yeah, Orleans is a guy that has value for us as a back and a special teamer. We wanted to make sure that we are doing our due diligence evaluating the entire roster, so he didn’t get as many snaps yesterday. His work load will have a chance to pick up here shortly.

Q: You had an opportunity to look at the tape. I know you mentioned that Paul Perkins needed to get over there quicker on that blitz pick up. Has anything changed with that?

A: There was an adjustment made. He needs to come over and block the nickel and he had a penalty which there is no excuse for from a back. He had a rough day yesterday. He has got to rebound.

Q: How much of that is just a typical thing for a rookie? Is that usually the hardest thing you consider for a rookie running back to pick up?

A: Yeah, protections are a challenge. No question about it, and especially when you are making adjustments, you are on the road and you are playing a defense that is multiple, it magnifies the issues, but listen, Paul is going to be just fine. He needs to come in, he needs to work at it, he needs to work on his mistakes like everyone else and he needs to improve.