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Patriots Conference Call Transcripts 11/29: Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia

Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick, Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels and Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia address the media during their conference calls on Tuesday, November 29, 2016.

[wysifield-embeddedaudio|eid="500876"|type="embeddedaudio"|view_mode="full"]BILL BELICHICK, HEAD COACH

Q: What have you seen from Dominique Easley?

BB: I think pretty much the player that we saw when he was here. He's got an explosive first step. When he gains an advantage on that, whether it be power rush or getting to the edge, he can be a disruptive player. He's very quick off the ball, he's got an explosive first step, and like I said, when he gains the advantage, it's hard to get it back. 

Q: How do you have to account for both Aaron Donald and Dominique Easley in the middle of the defensive line?

BB: I'd say [Aaron] Donald is one of the most disruptive players in the league, maybe kind of like Geno Atkins that we played against with Cincinnati. He's got good quickness, good playing strength. He's got very good countermoves, so a lot of times he wins on his initial move, but if you happen to block his initial move, then he's got a counter move and a quick counter and they're hard to stop. He's very instinctive. He's got a good knack [for] knowing kind of when to do the right thing. He changes it up on his opponent, on those guards quite a bit. They don't always get the same thing from him; he keeps them off balance. He's really a very disruptive player. He makes his share of plays in the running game too, it's not all pass rush.  He does a good job in the running game and makes a lot of negative plays. He's just a hard guy to block. 

Q: What are your thoughts on Jeff Fisher and his style as a coach?

BB: I think they're aggressive; they are very explosive, I would say. They can score in a hurry, so that's in the return game with [Benny] Cunningham and [Tavon] Austin. [Johnny] Hekker is a tremendous punter. He can change field positions, so they're very explosive there. They're aggressive in the kicking game whether it's running fakes, keeping the defense off balance when they're kicking the ball or with their return game when they're getting the ball. They're very explosive to score. Defensively, with Coach [Gregg] Williams they have a good combination of zone, man, pressure; again, very disruptive up front. They have a lot of good defensive linemen. They're fast. [Mark] Barron is playing linebacker but he's kind of a safety, but he's a fast safety or a fast linebacker, whatever you want to call him. [Alec] Ogletree is fast, so they have a lot of team speed out there; very disruptive front. Again, they can score in a hurry with turnovers, strip sacks. Trumaine Johnson is a tough guy to throw against. He's long, he's fast, he's got good quickness for his size, so he's tough out there, and then offensively, again, a quarterback that has tremendous talent; can make all the throws, a big receiver with [Kenny] Britt, a very explosive guy with the ball in his hands in [Tavon] Austin, whether it's runs or catch-and-run plays or vertical routes. They have a lot of different ways that they can attack and a lot of explosive players that can do it. Obviously, [Todd] Gurley goes without saying, doesn't need much room, hard runner, hard to tackle. So I'd say Jeff [Fisher] is aggressive in all three areas of the game. They're explosive, they have explosive players, they have a very talented roster, one of the more talented rosters we've seen, a lot of really good players. The combination of the talent and the number of things that they do, and as a team we don't know very well, it will be a big challenge for us this week. 

Q: Is there anything you know about Jeff Fisher in terms of his coaching style and what he's brought to the table historically that you can touch upon?

BB: Yeah, I mean, I just tried to answer that. When you draft explosive players like [Tavon] Austin or [Todd] Gurley or [Aaron] Donald, then that's what you're drafting. You're drafting explosive, big-play players - or [Jared] Goff, or you sign a guy like [Mark] Barron, that's what you - you get those kind of players; they're all amongst the fastest players at their positon in the league. They're explosive players and they're capable of making a lot of big plays. They're not just out there taking up space on the field, they're impact players, so they play to that. [Johnny] Hekker, he's a tremendous punter and a tremendous athlete. Like [Pat] McAfee from Indianapolis, he can do a lot of things besides punt the ball, so when you have those kind of explosive players and dynamic players, you build around them and give them an opportunity to do it. I think that's what Jeff [Fisher] does. I don't know how else to put it. They have a certain type of player, they use that type of player in whatever phase of the game he's involved in, and those are the guys you've got to stop. They've got a bunch of them. They've got a lot of them. 

Q: What traits have you seen in Darius Kilgo that made you guys want to work with him?

BB: Well, Darius [Kilgo] is a big kid that's pretty athletic, a hard-working kid, has a good work ethic, good intangibles. We did some work on him coming out of the Draft, and we look forward to working with him. He was available and again, I wouldn't say we're - it gives us another person at that positon that I felt like we needed from a depth standpoint. 

Q: Is there any progress on Jacoby Brissett in terms of making him an Injured/Reserve - Designated to Return guy?

BB: It is a possibility. Once you start the clock, when the clock ends you either have to obviously activate him or put him out for the year. You can start the clock any time you want, but once you start it then you have to realize that there's a decision point. So the question is really, A) - when is he ready? And B) - do you want to start it? That's what the decision process is there and we just have to, again, based on the information we have, look at our situation and figure out what the best thing to do is. 

Q: How have you seen the size of defensive tackles, when it comes to height and weight, evolve over the years in regards to guys like Aaron Donald and Geno Atkins?

BB: Well, I don't know, I mean, in general, players are getting bigger. I don't think there's any doubt about that. I think when you have a quick, explosive player at that positon, if you go back to a guy like Henry Thomas that was here or Geno Atkins or players like that; they're tough matchups in there. I wouldn't say, [Aaron] Donald is not a small guy. He's a powerful guy and he certainly can hold his own in there. I would say Atkins can too because of his explosiveness, but the thing about Donald is that he can power rush. He's got good leverage. He uses his hands well and he's got good quickness so he can get the edge. There's not really a lot of weakness in his game. When a guy does that many things well, that's what makes him hard to block. You can't just set for a quick move, he'll power you and run you right back to the quarterback. It's really more about playing strength than it is weight. Some guys weigh more and don't necessarily play that big and there are other guys that maybe weigh a little bit less that play bigger. He's, whatever he is, 285 or somewhere in there, but he certainly plays strong. He's not a light player at all. 

Q: How do you compare and contrast the Rams' defense and a safety/linebacker player like Mark Barron to a defense like you saw in Week 1 at Arizona with a player like Deone Bucannon?

BB: Yeah, similar. They play very much the same role. [Deone] Bucannon and [Mark] Barron really in their regular defense, they're kind of in nickel, and in their nickel defense, they're kind of in dime. They don't play a whole lot of dime. Six defensive backs, because as I said, they kind of already have one with him, as Arizona didn't play very much six defensive backs, either. It gives them some flexibility defensively to match up with different personnel groups. It gives them a lot of team speed on the field in terms of playing zone and closing down the space on underneath routes because they can get there so quickly. Both teams have a very good front, so if you look at those players as being a little bit undersized - even Barron is just a strong, tough kid. He's not frail at all. He's an explosive player, and you put him behind a good defensive line which the Rams absolutely have [and] it's hard to get to those guys. They're fast and if they get a little bit of a step on you, they kind of beat you to the spot. If you're too fast to try to get to them, then you single up the down guys and you can't even get to the linebackers because you can't get past the line. The players are similar and they have a little bit of a similar style of play - not the same scheme - but there are some similarities in the scheme to take advantage of the things that they do well. But Barron is a very good tackler. He's got great range so plays to the perimeter like slip screens and outside runs, just in general, any pass. Even if he's not very close to it, it doesn't take him too long to get there. In the running game, he hits those plays downhill very aggressively like you would see a linebacker do. They have a very similar role and there are definitely some similarities between those two players, playing the linebackers as kind of the Will linebacker position, if you will. 

Q: What is the challenge in preparing for a quarterback like Jared Goff who doesn't have too much NFL experience?

BB: Well yeah, just that. I think you watch the team play, you can't just watch one or two games; you end up seeing more than that. You're not specifically looking at the quarterback as you're watching the team play in their previous nine games before these last two with Miami and New Orleans. You're seeing one quarterback in there and these last two weeks, it's a different quarterback. But you just have to respect the talent and the skill that [Jared] Goff has. You can certainly see that, particularly in this game against New Orleans, but he's a very, very talented player with a great arm and an ability to make a lot of throws. For him, we'll have to really focus on this last game against New Orleans to really get a good look at that. If you go back to watching him at Cal [University of California], we saw quite a bit of him at Cal, even last year when we got Chris Harper, I talked to Chris about him quite a bit relative to this year, or this year's Draft after the 2015 season. I think there's a lot of talent there and a lot of skill at the quarterback positon, so we certainly don't want to underestimate what this player is capable of doing. That's reflected by where he was taken in the Draft, too, so I don't think there's any question about his talent level and his ability to throw the ball. 

Q: What is the challenge in preparing for a defense like the Rams that does so many different things?

BB: Yeah, that's a big challenge. Coach [Gregg] Williams does a lot of things there. They play some zone and they mix in some man and they mix in some pressure, they mix in some blitz zone; they get into the five-down bear [defensive] look. Again, they have good team speed and then they're very active up front. They're hard to block. So a lot of different schemes with good players - if they just played one scheme it [would still] be hard because like I said, they're hard to block and they have good team speed. Trumaine Johnson is hard to throw on, period. So a combination of good players and identifying and getting the right blocking and assignments, getting those right - because if you're just half a step late or you just hesitate a little bit or they just catch a little bit of an edge on you, [Robert] Quinn, [Aaron] Donald, [Mark] Barron, all those defensive linemen, or if you're a little sloppy out there with Johnson - I mean, if you turn the ball over, they're very athletic and long and fast. The multiple schemes that Coach Williams employs and explosiveness and quality of the athletes that they have on the field, those two combined make them a tough team to prepare for. It's tough for us to simulate that in practice. I mean, I don't know that many teams could do that no matter who they put out there because these guys have so many players like that. It's tough to simulate in practice, as I said, if you're just a little bit late on it, then you're looking at sacks, negative runs, strip sacks, turnovers, all of those things. As I said, it's going to be a challenge for us.

[wysifield-embeddedaudio|eid="500881"|type="embeddedaudio"|view_mode="full"]JOSH MCDANIELS, OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR

Q: How difficult is it to switch around part of the game plan when a guy like Rob Gronkowski goes out with an injury when he is such a big part of the offense and you've planned on his availability?

JM: Yeah, I would expound on it past that one scenario you're referring to. Anytime you go into a game plan we only have a certain number of players active at the game. We only have a certain number of players at any one position active at the game, and so any injury that you incur really at any point in time can force you into I would say some backup stuff, some secondary things in terms of what you planned on doing versus what you might have to do from that point forward. I would say that is a very common checklist that we have to go through on a week-to-week basis because again, there are not an unlimited number of tight ends, running backs, receivers, offensive linemen at any position for any game for any team. So I think all of us have to have a contingency plan in place. We have to be ready to either put another player in at the same position or if we're out of players at that position, which for a small portion of the game the other night Marty [Martellus Bennett] was out for a little bit, Gronk [Rob Gronkowski] was already out, so now you're down to the groupings that you have left. I think our players have done a great job of embracing that responsibility when it comes up. It's not always easy. There's a lot of double learning that has to take place or just quick thinking on your feet because you start calling some things with guys in places that maybe they haven't practiced as much if you get wiped out at a specific positon and now some guys have got to really do some quick thinking in the huddle and maybe there's some other guys out there saying 'Hey you've got this,' or 'We're going to do that,' so again, it's something that you have to always take into consideration. It's part of our game. It's part of what happens every week. It's part of our preparation, especially when you go into a game week and you're not 100 percent sure if you have these players because they're questionable, or whatever it is, or they're recovering from an injury. You have to consider that as you go through the week as well.

Q: How does a young receiver like Malcolm Mitchell go about earning your trust in the offense?

JM: Well, I think the best way to do it is through your preparation and your performance and that all starts with practice. So being prepared, working hard to be ready to go on Wednesday morning, knowing the opponent, studying the material that you're responsible for, the things that we're asking each player to do that week and knowing your job. Then going out there and being able to execute your assignment in practice and do it well. We always say practice execution becomes game reality, and I think that Malcolm [Mitchell] has really taken advantage of his opportunities to work in practice, to make plays in practice, and I think some of those things are definitely transferring to the game. Again, the best way to gain trust and confidence from your teammates is to go out there and perform and be well-prepared and do your job and I think Malcolm has tried to do that here.

Q: When we see a new formation with a wrinkle like a wide receiver lined up in the backfield, how does something like that get implemented? Is it decided on that particular week and installed or is it something that's been in the works since the offseason?

JM: Well, I think the coaches do a great job of - our guys do a great job of not only studying the opponent we play but also you want to keep your mind fresh. There are a lot of great coaches that come up with great ideas. Pro football, college football - we'll steal something from high school or Pee Wee if it would work. Our guys do a great job of looking on a week-to-week basis and trying to see if there are some things that fit us and our players and what we're going to try and do each week against the opponents that we're playing. And then you want to put it together so that it's not overly predictable and it has to make sense against the team that you're playing. You have to be able to anticipate how they may react to it and the type of look you're going to get. And then believe that you have enough things off of that package so that it's not just a one trick pony. You don't want to do something once and then you're done. You'd like to have a little bit of a longer shelf life, especially if you're going to spend a lot of practice time on it. Hopefully you go in there with the right volume of things that complement one another that may look the same to the other side of the ball but they're a little bit different here or there. Then you give your guys enough practice snaps and all of those things so that when you get into the game and you start to kind of use the first part of it then all of a sudden you see something from the defense and say 'OK, now hey we can do this off of that because we've practiced it,' and you go ahead and give that a shot. As long as our players have practiced it and have confidence in it and know what they're doing and can do it at a high rate of speed and understand the adjustments that may be involved then we feel good about doing those on a Sunday.

Q: In this particular circumstance do you remember the coach that came up with that formation or the team that gave you that idea?

JM: No, I think we've been tinkering with different things. Again, sometimes things that you work on you might be working on them for a while. This wouldn't be the first time we've done some of this stuff. We've done it earlier in the season a little bit. You know, sometimes things you work on you may not necessarily do that week but that's what practice is for sometimes, to try and get better at some things so that you feel like you've put in enough repetitions and time into it so that you have a chance to handle something if you get a different look than what you were expecting. Like I said, we've been practicing a lot of these things and some of them we've run before, and some of them we may not have shown yet. We're going to continue to try and work on those things so that we go throughout the course of the season - it's a long year and you don't want to be predictable at the most important time so you want to try to always keep it fresh. The guys enjoy learning new things and new challenges and trying different things to help us be successful.

Q: Chris Hogan has a pretty good arm it seems.

JM: He did a good job. He was under some duress there because I believe it was [David] Harris that really did a good job of reading the play and put some pressure on Chris [Hogan] as he was getting ready to throw the ball, and [he] stood in there and took a little bit of a bump and let it out there pretty good. I thought he did a nice job of trying to do what we asked him to do. We ended up getting a big penalty out of it.

Q: What kind of a challenge does this Rams defense present? Also, what do you remember from that first Super Bowl team in 2001 that defeated the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI?

JM: Well, I'll start with the Rams defense. This is a very disruptive, aggressive, physical, fast group. They get up the field and play more of a one-gap style of defense. [They] challenge your ability to maintain the line of scrimmage. I think they have some extremely disruptive players. Aaron Donald obviously is one of the premier players in the league; [Robert] Quinn. Yeah, Quinn - this guy is - he's a guy that they can create a lot of problems in the passing game. He does a good job of - I mean he has 18 forced fumbles in his career, so he creates a lot of problems in the pocket, in the running game. Their front is disruptive all together. They've got a lot of guys that can do some things to create negative plays. They're fast at linebacker. They've converted [Mark] Barron from a safety to I think the last time we saw him playing safety in Tampa Bay and now he's a linebacker. [Alec] Ogletree is a really good player in the middle. They've been very opportunistic in creating turnovers in the secondary. You've got to be able to stay on track. You can't fall behind on the down and distance. If you do that you put yourself at risk in long-yardage situations where they've got a pretty exotic blitz package, which they can really challenge your ability to pick up the pressures and those types of things. A totally different style of defense than we've seen the past few weeks. Some different things we're going to have to handle schematically and some players we're really going to have to get familiar with because again, they do a great job of challenging you on every down, playing with great effort. We're going to need to do a great job of getting prepared this week to be ready to go at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. Just from the '01 year, I mean that was my first year. And again, I think the thing I remember most is just the whole - that year was one of the greatest examples of just 'team', and being able to do what you need to do to try and win each week. It didn't matter how, it didn't matter who got the credit. It didn't seem like anybody cared what they were asked to do just as long as everybody did their job and what a great way to come in and learn that first year from a lot of really good coaches, good people in the personnel department. They taught me a whole lot about how this league works, how our organization runs, the discipline, the detail that it requires to be good on a week-to-week basis and the commitment that it takes to really try and compete at a championship level. It'll be great to see a lot of the guys that are coming back. I look forward to doing that and really looking forward to getting started with our preparation for this week's game with our players tomorrow.

Q: How does a player that plays a sort of hybrid linebacker-safety position like Mark Barron challenge you as a play-caller?

JM: Well, I think you just have to declare how you're going to treat him at the beginning of the week. In this case [Mark] Barron really plays linebacker, so he is what he is. It's the same thing when we played [Deone] Bucannon in the first week of the season or anybody else that may be in that similar role. You decide how you're going to treat them in the beginning of the week. You make sure you practice that way. The guy who's going to play Mark Barron in the scout team, he'll have his jersey on so we'll all be sensitive to where he lines up and all the rest of it. As long as you know what you're treating him like and you prepare that way and you're prepared to block him accordingly then it shouldn't affect you too much. I think at times really where it affects us the most is when you start getting into you put a certain personal grouping out there and they put kind of a mismatched personnel grouping, if you will. You put two receivers out there then all of a sudden they've got dime, or you put four receivers out there and they've got base. Then you have to start considering what can we do or are there any matchup issues for us or do they have some matchup issues that you might be able to take advantage of? This one really won't be too crazy, hopefully. We'll get familiar with Mark here as we go through the week and be ready to handle him the right way on Sunday.

Q: How valuable is the versatility of being able to line up various players on the offense all over the field, such as running backs flexed out wide or tight ends coming into the backfield?

JM: Well, I think the more you can give them to have to handle and figure out the more that your guys are able to do that without issue, then I think the more you take a shot at trying it. We have a lot of guys that put in a tremendous amount of time and effort into their preparation, so they know more than their responsibility. They learn the whole offense, the concept of the offense, so that if they're needed to play a specific spot it's not like its brand new learning for them. Again, they deserve all of the credit for that because that takes a lot of work, whether it's James Develin, or Marty [Martellus Bennett], Rob [Gronkowski], Dion [Lewis], James White, LG [LeGarrette Blount]. Some of our receivers have lined up in different locations that are a little unique. Those guys - they put in a lot of time. They study it. That way when we choose to use that based on a potential advantage we may gain or something, some other reason, then it's something that they don't really blink at. So I think that we're privileged to have a lot of guys that have high football IQ, work hard at it, prepare and study hard as much as they can each week to get ready for not only the opponent but for the game plan and what we're asking them to do. We're grateful to have all of those guys here. Like I said, it's one of the best groups to coach that we've had and we've had a lot of good ones. This one's right there with them.

[wysifield-embeddedaudio|eid="500886"|type="embeddedaudio"|view_mode="full"]MATT PATRICIA, DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR

Q: What are your impressions of Jared Goff?

MP: Obviously he is going to be the focus point from their offense and the things they want to do. You have a big guy, he's a tall quarterback, he's long. He has an extremely strong arm and a very accurate arm in a lot of the different throws that they ask him to make. He's a very good quarterback from the standpoint of arm strength and the ability to get the ball downfield. He has some tremendous skill players - Kenny Britt, Tavon Austin, Brian Quick. I mean Kenny Britt is unbelievable as far as a receiver to be able to go up and catch the ball and create vertical separation, get behind the coverage, and with a guy like [Jared] Goff who can throw it down there, that's a big threat as far as the deep balls are concerned [and] the big plays are concerned. Tavon Austin [is a] very fast receiver, very quick guy that plays in the slot, so again, his ability to get those shorter, intermediate-type, possession-type balls out quickly with good velocity. I mean honestly, he threw an unbelievable deep ball downfield. It was tight-spiraled, it was about 56 yards in the air and it was just a really pretty throw. The guy has got a great, strong arm and he does a great job with the tight end too. I'll tell you [Lance] Kendricks kind of silently is a really good possession receiver for them, a guy that he obviously trusts and he can get the ball to. From the passing game you see a lot of those throws, you see a lot of decisions, you see what they're trying to do from a philosophy standpoint with him. I think game-plan-wise they're doing a good job of trying to - [Rob] Boras is doing a great job of trying to control it with him so he doesn't have to put too much on him. But then if you take a look at the run game, there's quite a bit in the run game where he obviously is, whether it's a 'check with me' type of play or he's looking at the defense and he can change the play at the line of scrimmage, it's very subtle, it's very quick but he is doing a lot of that at the line, which obviously with the run game that they have and the back [Todd] Gurley of course, he's doing a good job of putting them in some of those situations or trying to get them in the right situation. You can see his development from that standpoint starting to increase. 

Q: Who does Todd Gurley remind you of in terms of his style and what he brings to the table?

MP: Very, very strong. I would call him - he's really, he's a workhorse guy. He's a bigger guy, he likes to get the ball downhill into the defense, he runs with really good pad level, protects the ball, he has good vision, and he can set up a lot of blocks. I would say the thing that is really impressive is his burst to get vertical. When his pads are facing downhill and he can just get downhill quickly and really you see it in a couple routes that he has in the passing game where he's catching the ball on the move. It's like, 'He's coming'. It's a big, strong, powerful back that's coming downhill with low pads. Those are tough guys to tackle. You know, they don't really give you any angles to kind of hit him and that's one of the things that makes it most difficult to handle him. I think what's interesting too is they put a lot on him from - you'll see him run the Wildcat program and really a couple different plays that they'll do with him whether it's the fake with kind of the receiver coming across or he's just trying to get the snap and work in one of their run games. It's pretty impressive. A tough, physical guy. Great pad level. Downhill runner. Not to say that he doesn't stretch and cut which they have some of that in the game plan. They even have some of the toss plays where he gets the ball very quickly, but again, as soon as he can get those pads coming downhill he's a hard guy to deal with.

Q: How has Malcom Brown been playing up front?

MP: So Malcom Brown, I think this is great because there's obviously a running back on their team named Malcolm Brown too, so I was like 'Which one are we talking about here?' You know Malcom Brown for us defensively, I think like we talk about [he's] trying to get better and improve. I think one of the things we've been able to see is him trying to work his technique, and I think that's something that has been more consistent I would say over the set of games here. That's really helped him from the standpoint - he's a big guy, Malcom is a big guy, he's a strong guy but when you go against some of the offensive linemen that we see week in, week out, these guys that are 6-foot-6, 6-foot-7 and the length that they possess and the ability that they have to, we'll call it blocking legally while holding the shoulder pads, the ability for our guys to get their hands in position and get some separation and play with good leverage and technique, that's where we're really focused on with him. I think that's kind of where, if you're watching the tape, you'll see some improvement with him. 

Q: When you're dealing with a guy like Todd Gurley, who is 230 pounds, do you have to measure your front personnel when you put one of the smaller guys on the nose in some of those sub-package situations?

MP: Well, I think you want to take all of that into consideration, you know? I think when we know it's truly a downhill run situation or we're anticipating it to be a downhill, we never truly know obviously, and [if] we can get big guys in the game and try to make sure we stop the run, that's what we're going to do. Certainly with a back like [Todd] Gurley who is very large, we've played big backs before, when you get the 300-pounders in front of them the wall looks a little bit different in the defense. When we do go into some of those situations where we have maybe guys that aren't 300-pounders in there, hopefully some scheme allows us to either use something to their ability, their strengths, quickness or whatever it might be to help us with the blocking. I think in the run game, first and foremost, you have got to deal with the offensive linemen. That's really the first problem. You know, 'What is our matchup here based on the run that they're going to give us? Is it a big double team? Is it a stretch team? Is it a zone team? Are they just going to pour off the ball and try to knock us out of there?' So those are all things that come into consideration as far as putting a guy who may not be a 300-pounder in the middle. Then if you can dissect that, you know, I like all of our defensive players. We practice a lot of tackling. We spend a lot of time on it. Even if it is a big guy, we're going to go tackle him and do our best to go get him down and get in there. Obviously the down and distance can dictate how much from a yardage standpoint that we're allowed to kind of give a little bit with. With some of those looks that we have, that area is a little bit different, [so] we're just trying to make sure from a blocking standpoint that we can handle the blocking first, if that makes sense.  

Q: What is your analysis of the Los Angeles Rams' offensive line?

MP: Yeah, good question. I'll start with [Rodger] Saffold and I know he's a little bit injured here and we'll see where that goes. But you watch him with the offensive line and what an outstanding player. Very physical, very aggressive, strong. I think in general for their offensive line, [Rob] Havenstein, [Cody] Wichmann, those guys are big, long, strong guys, very powerful guys. They'll be on our left, their right. You know, guys that have played for them a lot. [Tim] Barnes in the middle is a very smart center. He's obviously a guy that's going to make a lot of calls for them and really control a lot of things that happen up front and be able to identify, which is good for their young quarterback. He can help that guy out and try to make sure that everybody is on the same page, so there has got to be some communication and a connection there which he obviously solidifies that in the middle. Then, really with the other positions with [Jamon] Brown and [Greg] Robinson - both guys that are really good players. Robinson is very long. He's long, he's a good athlete, he does a good job out there on the edge. You know, we're just trying to kind of see how that all shakes out but a good, solid group up front. Obviously going to run the ball and try to control the game up front. That's what they try to do. They do a great job of really - I'd say one of the best things they do is just the way that they finish and the way that they kind of attack. Coach [Paul] Boudreau, he's been in this business a long time and he's an excellent, outstanding coach and someone I have a lot of respect for. So it's always a good challenge. 

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