http://www.sitemason.com/pressroom/gCqK9a?id=11601
HEAD COACH JEFF FISHER, Friday, Aug. 8, 2003
(on what to look for in Saturday’s game against Cleveland)
“Look for efficiency early in the game out of both our offense and our defense because of the starters. You frown on and be critical about the penalties and the inability to move the football and protect the football, those kind of things. We want efficiency. We want them in and out of the huddle, we want explosion, we want to move the football. Granted, we haven’t game planed our defense, we have some kind of idea, we’ll probably try to adjust at some point. What we want to do is get on and off the field and make sure they’re explosive and we’re moving the ball. Defensively, early you want to tackle. You want to get off the field on third down. You don’t want any hard counts and you don’t want 12 guys on the field, those kind of things early. Now, after that, then you can begin to look at the younger players. Can a defensive back, one-on-one in the open field bring a receiver down? Those are the kinds of things that we’re looking for. We have not really done specifically a game plan to take things away. We anticipate a great deal of throwing out of their offense and that’s a great challenge for our defense because they’re going to cover and we’ll see who can play and who can make plays.”
(on Saturday’s starters)
“Eddie’s (George) going to get his share of carries, it could be two or three series. Then we’ll let Robert (Holcombe) play and both John (Simon) and Dwone (Hicks) will play in the second half at the running back position. Quarterback, Steve’s (McNair) going to get a quarter, Neil’s (O’Donnell) going to get a quarter, Billy’s (Volek) going to get most of the second half
and we’ll let Jason (Gesser) have some work then we’ll flip that next week. Middle linebacker, we’re going to start Frank (Chamberlin). Frank will play the first half, Rocky Calmus will play the second, this week Brad Kassell will play outside. Next week one of those two will be outside, the other two will be inside.”
(on the weight of preseason games in deciding the middle linebacker spot)
“The game’s are basically… we put them in a position now to compete. On the practice field we’re going to evaluate them, but now they’re in a position to compete. They’ve all got an equal amount of reps, they’re all prepared, so now we want to see who can make plays. So basically the games are going to make the determination. Now, we have to be objective from the standpoint if the defense has four three-and-out series in the first half because the offense kept the ball four or five plays then we have to be objective from that standpoint because you’ve got one middle linebacker playing 12 plays and you have another one that may be playing 30. The fatigue factor becomes an issue. I like to think we’re objective in the staff room as we begin to discuss these things.”
(on George’s training camp)
“Eddie’s just quietly done his job. He’s had a good camp, he’s in good shape, working hard. He was working with some sore legs, some tired legs a few days ago, but he got his legs back. It doesn’t make any sense not to play Eddie George in a preseason game. We want to play him, we want to build his carries up as we push through the preseason and get him ready for the opener.”
(on not playing WR Jake Schifino Saturday)
“Jake will not play in the game. If it was a regular season game Jake probably could play, but we’re dealing with a history of hamstrings, so we want to get a good full week of work with Jake before we play him in a game. Jake was back today, did well, ran well, had no problem. It makes too much sense to rest him through the weekend.”
(on if he expects players to learn and execute specific game plans)
“Not at this point in the preseason. In a game or two we will. In a game or two we’ll put them under pressure as far as some specific things that we’re going to do. They’ve got a call sheet and the call sheet’s really no different than what we’ve installed out here on the practice field. Now as we get later in the ball game that call sheet reduces itself because we can’t expect rookies to go out and execute everything the vets are doing. They’ll have a few number of three or four running plays we’re going to use, some play actions, some drop backs, and offensively we’re going to try to convert third downs and keep the ball moving.”
(on avoiding another slow start in 2003)
“It was no big deal because we won 11 out of the last 12 and it was a piece of cake for us last year. You’ve got to start fast. History shows that teams that start fast are usually the teams that do well in the playoffs. I think we just showed that every once in a while people can dig themselves out of a hole. We have no interest in jumping back into it.”
(on DE Jevon Kearse’s playing time Saturday)
“He may play a series less, one series or two less than the rest of them. In a perfect world he’ll play a quarter, but if he’s got a lot of snaps, a lot of reps in a couple series and he’s into that 12 to14 play range then we may take him out.”
(on Kearse’s progress)
“His movement and everything looks great on the field. He’s not having any trouble. Technique wise he’s behind. We’d like to see him rush the passer, make plays and get back to pressuring the quarterback. We’re going to anticipate some protection things. I would expect (Cleveland) to give themselves a chance to block him a little bit, so we’ll have to adjust. I want to see him play. I want to see him go out there and play two plays, come out, catch his breath, throw up and then go back on the field. I want to see him play.”
