Q. What were some of your big takeaways from how Gardner played?
SHANE STEICHEN: I thought Gardner was really efficient throwing the football. He got the ball out of his hands quickly, really efficient on 3rd down, made some really good plays. That 4th-and-2 hit to DeVonta, he was coming out and we had Dallas in the flat and Diggs passed it off and tried to take Dallas, and he snapped around, flipped his hips and hit the big one.
Then the 3rd down to DeVonta in the red zone versus blitz zero was really good, too. He had off coverage right there and liked what he saw, and DeVonta ran a great route and he laid it just out in front for him to catch it.
Overall really strong performance by him I thought.
Q. As good as DeVonta was last year and early this year, seems like he's taken things to another level the last month. Has he shown you anything during that stretch that you didn't know about him?
SHANE STEICHEN: No, nothing surprises me with him. He's an elite receiver, and those guys that work and grind every week to get themselves ready to play are going to do good things. That's what he's been doing, and he's continuing to grow as a receiver. He's seeing it well. The coverage, how to adjust his route in certain coverages and find the dead spots and the holes, and then he's making elite catches. He had some big time catches on the end cut, he had one on the sideline and just having an awareness where the sideline is and getting both feet down, he's been very impressive.
Q. The fact that you may face Dallas against in the postseason, how much does that go into your thinking and you're prepping for a game? Do you want to show them something so you can show counter later or you don't want to show them something?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think really any game you go in and do what you need to do to win the football game. I think that's our mindset in every game. It's like, oh, do we not want to show this because we might face them again; no, like you've got to do what you need to do to win the game. But then obviously looking at the film, it's like if we do face these guys again in the playoffs, what can we do to counter the stuff that we did against them in previous games.
Q. On the two interceptions, Shane, was there any sort of teaching points on both ends of that, Gardner --
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, the one on the slant, that was a really good play by the DB. It was a bang-bang play. Credit to them in that situation.
The other one was just like a little pivot over the ball. It was just off by a little bit. Sometimes those things happen, and we know that we've got to get those things cleaned up. When you turn it over four times and put our defense in bad situations like we did with short fields, we know that we can't do that. That's one of our formulas is not taking care of the football, and we didn't do a good enough job doing that.
Q. I saw Jalen had the headset on during the game. Was he just listening or was he having input into what he was seeing?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, he was just listening just like when most quarterbacks are out, they all have a little earpiece in or headset on and listening to the calls.
Q. Would you have done anything differently on those last three throws?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, you know what, in those situations, you always look back like shoot, could we have called this, could I have called this in this situation here, and there was a few things where obviously we clocked it there and then it was 2nd and 10 and I went with, hey, I think they're going to be in this coverage so this is a good all-around beater for the coverages that I think they're going to play, and just more so like instead of guessing like, oh, they might be in zero here or they might be in this, like hey, what's a play that's going to be a good pure progression to where he's got answers. They played it well; credit to them defensively.
Q. What's the benefit of clocking it as opposed to -- you probably could have called time around 0:38 and had four shots?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think right there you can save your time-out in that situation. I thought it was the right decision there to clock it right there and then you've got three downs there, and obviously if you get a 1st down inside the 10 or whatever and now you call your time-out and then you've got three shots. That's just the way we went with it.
Q. Without Lane, you guys have couple options obviously. What do you weigh in making that decision?
SHANE STEICHEN: Those are things we'll work through this week. We feel good about our options, and obviously we'll work through that, and I know Stout will have those guys ready to play.
Q. Does it change the game planning?
SHANE STEICHEN: We're going to do what we do; same deal.
Q. Dallas has the best catch rate in the NFL amongst receivers and tight ends. Obviously he's coming back, he's injured, but were they doing anything to take him away, what why did he only have three targets?
SHANE STEICHEN: Well, he had three catches. We had a lot more schemed up for him, and sometimes the coverage dictates where the ball goes. That's what happened on a few of those plays.
He was the first read in the progression, like even the 3rd down where Gardner scrambled out there, DeVonta was the fourth read in that progression, and he ended up getting the catch there, and Dallas was the first progression.
Same thing on another 3rd down, Dallas was the first progression and we threw the ball to the back. Like there are certain times obviously that the coverage is going to dictate where it goes.
Q. How did you walk away feeling about the offensive performance and the game planning and all that? Was there anything you walk away thinking you would have done a little bit differently or were you generally pleased with it?
SHANE STEICHEN: I mean, pleased for the most part. There's always things you can clean up and do better. The biggest thing is we've got to take care of the football. That's the No. 1 thing, No. 1 goal every week is we can't turn the football over, and we know when you turn the ball over four times, you're probably not going to win the game. So we've got to do a good job taking care of the football going forward.
Q. Do you think Dallas played you a lot differently without Jalen, especially in the run game, not having that threat on sort of the backside?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I mean, they did some different things, but most of their scheme was similar from a coverage standpoint. But credit to them, they played good, and they got it done, and we've got to do a better job.
Q. How do you go about this week in terms of quarterback distribution?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, same as last week. It's day by day. We're working through those things. If Jalen is ready to play, he'll play, but we've got to have a plan for both those guys.
Q. Is there any coaching point for Miles with the two fumbles?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing we talk about. Just wrist above the elbow, eagle claw, elbow lock when you're going through traffic, but he'll bounce back and he'll have a good game this week.
Q. What happened with the exchanges between Gardner and Boston?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, it's hard, we went back and looked at it, and really it was a fluke thing. But we've got to continue to work on the ball handling. We work on ball handling a ton, but we've got to do it more.
Q. Is there anything that Jalen could glean from watching just having a week off and watching Gardner and how he executed the offense?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I mean, I think you can always learn from anybody. If you're not playing, you can learn from those situations, anything that comes up in the game, certain coverages, blitzes, all those different things. But yeah, you can always learn.
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