HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on the two open roster spots and who will fill them) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"WR-Brandon James will fill one of them, so we will bring Brandon up and get him the work. Obviously, he has been working hard and now he'll get an opportunity to come in and do a couple of things for us. Punts and kickoffs, he does them both, so it's a possibility."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on the other spot and who will fill it) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"We are working on it. Sometimes you can wait until the end of the week and do something with your practice squad or you may be able to find someone else to solve the issue that you have. We are in that process right now."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on quantifying the amount of intangibles lost with new players on offense and defense) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"I am not certain I can answer it that way, and I am not certain I would agree with the term intangibles because I think a lot of the guys have it, but have not gotten the opportunity to get the reps. Maybe continuity might be a word that could be used in its place. That's probably how I could best answer the question. I do think that in every position, whether it's timing with the quarterback, that's what is involved with the passing game is timing and accuracy, those things take time and work. Now, some of the guys that you have seen that have been able to step up and fill in have been working in that vein. I think you saw that with WR-Blair White, for example. Blair had been working since the spring developing timing, knowing where to go and where not to. It also happens in the course of our practice sessions. We have to work on it, but it is a catch-up sort of thing that we have to deal with. Defensively, in particular like in the secondary, they have to get accustomed to working together because they have to know the range of the other guy that is playing next to them. There are probably two positions where I think that is extremely relevant because you have more players dealing with trying to accomplish a particular technique, and that's the offensive line and the secondary. There is five in the offensive line, if you include the tight end then it is six, and in the secondary there is four, sometimes five with the nickel. There is an old phrase that would go like this that says, 'The defensive player's value to his football team is inversely proportionate to his distance from the ball.' That's a fancy way of saying that they have to play in unison. Mike Murphy says that they have to be like June Taylor Dancers for some of you that are old enough to remember that. They have to be able to work in unison and together, linebackers, etcetera. So, it does take a little time, and that's what we try to get done in practice. Now how much we can get accomplished, that is not quite certain. So, what you do is that you know that it may be somewhat limited so you usually scale back and cut back what you normally do. You do less and in some cases that is what we have to do."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on DB-Aaron Francisco being part of that situation mentioned above) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"Certainly, but he is a little bit of a different case because he had been in it. He has gone through it and knows and understands it. It just took him a little less time. His learning curve was a lot less severe than someone that maybe was not or is not familiar with our system."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on if that's why players like LB-Tyjuan Hagler and Francisco are brought back) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"That helps because they certainly can be a factor for us right away. I think you might remember last year, LB-Jordan Senn was out there working. We called him back in and he ended up playing 51 plays that particular weekend and I think he may have arrived on a Wednesday or something like that. That's the reason why."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on midseason thoughts) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"First of all, we look at where we have been obviously. We take it quarter by quarter as to what we do. We break it down and take a look at where we were. We were 2-2 after the first quarter. We are 3-1 after the second quarter. Three and one in the second quarter is close to where we would like to be. I think there was one team in the NFL with a better record than we had in the second quarter and that was the Giants. They were 4-0. There were a lot of teams at 3-1. So, that is a place that we try to (be for a) reason. I talked to the team about it this morning as well, 'Hey this is where we are. Let's take a look at it.' Oftentimes, when you have a loss it clouds everything, but the fact of the matter is even through some difficult times and things we have to do in terms of shuffling, adjusting our practice, so on an so forth, we are still able to patch it together and move forward and win three ballgames in that quarter. So now we go into the start of the third quarter and we are going at it exactly the same way, trying to focus in on one game at a time and then we will add them up at the end of the quarter. We still have all of our goals in front of us and we still have an opportunity and we plan to make the most of it."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on impressing upon the players that the NFL is tough/close) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"I think I mentioned that to you guys the other day. This is the norm. The norm is not going 8-0. That is the highly unusual in that sense. I try to draw two parallels. Number one is the fact that it is such a thin line between winning and losing. It is just a couple plays here and there and even when we were going through a stretch where we were winning a number of games in a row, I would always try and remind them, 'OK take a look. If this would have happened in this particular situation, (it) could have been a loss.' That's how you get them to focus in on the little things, the details, because those small little things make a difference in the long run. For the most part the games, the way they have been unfolding, that's how they boil down. Typically, you have the ball, you are trying to drive to get into position to win or tie it with a field goal or a touchdown or you are on defense and you are trying to stop a team from doing the same thing. That's how it boils down in this league a great majority of the time. So that's what it is always about, and so you see teams all across the board going what we are going through."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on possibility of DB-Jerraud Powers being back) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"It appears (so). He is going to be back on the practice field. Obviously how much we will monitor and see how it goes, but it is good to get him out there on the field."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on thoughts on Bengals and how to defend WR-Chad Ochocinco and WR-Terrell Owens) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"Anytime that you have, number one; tall, fast and powerful guys like both Ochocinco and Owens, those are guys that certainly can catch the ball and not only just catch it, they can do something with it after they catch it. It does take concentration and effort to make certain that you keep those guys in front of you, and when they are in front of you, you have to make certain that you contest every time obviously a pass that is thrown and be in position. They are good players, they are going to make some catches what we have to do is make certain that we contain them. They have an outstanding quarterback that has been around. He is very experienced, knows their system extremely well and executes it well. Obviously, they have a good solid running game that goes along with that."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on if he re-addressed the league's status on hits) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"Our guys have always played by the rules. We have a clear understanding of it. We talked about it. That's one of the things we do in the preseason. We go over all of the areas of emphasis. If there are any rule changes, etcetera, we have the officials come in during training camp. We talk about all of those issues and our guys have been good about playing by the rules, and we did address it because it was mandated by the league a couple of weeks ago. We indeed addressed the issue with some of the hits with the neck and above, so on and so forth. We did look at those hits like we were supposed to and talked about those issues and moved forward."
HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL (on how Austin Collie is coming along) Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"He is making good progress, I think, overall and right now day by day his symptoms are subsiding and he is really in the hands of the physicians. They are going to look at him and make a determination on that until they feel he is clear and ready to go, but I think he is coming along."
