Q. What are your big picture takeaways from the first game?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, obviously I thought resiliency showed up, certainly some production, and plenty of things to clean up. It's a week 1 game. Obviously ultimately you've got to find a way to perform well enough to come out with victories. I think those are huge in early games, and I think our guys saw the growth opportunities that we had. They were excited about that as far as where we could take this thing, so it's a matter of continuing to build throughout the season. Good first step.
Q. How do you address the bad snaps?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, snaps, I think it's just an operational thing I think for all of us to go through. There's a lot of things that go with that, from a snap to the cadence to the communication. There's a lot of things that go on pre-snap and just tightening that aspect of it up for all of us, how can we clean it up as much as we can. But I feel optimistic moving forward.
Q. What did you see in the two interceptions?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think two 3rd and longs, from a play calling standpoint, I'm always going to do it from a play calling standpoint, aggressive calls at times, and I think those are opportunities for us to grow from, learn from, one being backed up and one being in the red zone. Obviously critical situations. Fortunately for us we were able to come out of it and grow from those but also avoid obviously the big-time negatives.
Q. What were the coaching points to Jalen in those moments? They looked like late throws. What do you tell him?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, sometimes with those we call a particular play that has some opportunity to earn the 1st down, and at the same time there is some situations where, hey, any completion is good, and we'll make the decision as far as 4th down whether it's a kicking opportunity or a good-for-it opportunity. Those situations, and sometimes those we play out differently, so just communicating through how we want to handle those circumstances, whether it be the backed up or the red zone one. I think we all get to grow from our communication, so I think they're good growth opportunities for us.
Q. All throughout camp not throwing an interception for the entirety of it and then a few questionable decisions in the game, what do you attribute that to?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think sometimes the first game and we had two 3rd and extra long opportunities where you practice some of those during training camp and I think we just -- we got a little aggressive, myself play calling, also ultimately just the throw. But not overly concerned. They're outliers in many cases, I think as we all have seen Jalen in those circumstances, so we feel optimistic we'll be just fine moving forward and we'll be able to adjust.
Q. Did any of the footing issues affect you in game? Do you have to change at all?
KELLEN MOORE: From a play calling standpoint? Not for me standing there. (Laughter).
Yeah, I think there's awareness to it. I think obviously everyone understood that there was some element of slipping on both sides of it, so there was a little bit of awareness to it, whether a couple opportunities, hey, can we take advantage of an element of hey, if a guy slips here we've got a potential play here. But obviously there's some awareness, but I think both sides were playing in the same circumstances. I don't think it drastically leaned one way or the other.
Q. What stood out against the blitz?
KELLEN MOORE: I think our guys did a nice job of just communicating, being on the same page. I thought Jalen did a nice job. He felt comfortable back there with a plan. I felt the 3rd down was a big play when he threw the ball to A.J. and it was two yards short and understanding, hey, A.J. is going to be able to get us the last two, if not more. Good communication with the protections for all of our guys.
So I think there were some really good growth opportunities for us to continue to build on there.
Q. This is the first time you've seen the Mekhi-Cam partnership in an extended game action. What stood out about that pairing?
KELLEN MOORE: I thought in general up front, I thought we did an excellent job. We were firm in the pass protection. Run game obviously there were some really exciting highlights with those guys coming off the ball, getting the second level, combination blocks, a lot of things to grow from, a lot of optimism with that group. I thought Mekhi did an excellent job. One element is he's part of the cadence, as well, so he's having to play guard for the first time. He's also part of the cadence because he's really our indicator from the quarterback to the center, so he had heavy responsibility with that. He did an excellent job.
Q. What did you feel was effective about using Saquon in the game plan for the first time?
KELLEN MOORE: Obviously I think Saquon is a premier player. He did an excellent job. His versatility and ability to play in a number of different ways, obviously you saw the pass game come up with two catches, you saw the run game. Obviously he thought he was downhill in some of our inside zones. He did an excellent job, and he's a guy who once he gets out in space, obviously he can make some really big time plays. So we're excited. He's done an excellent job, and we'll be able to diversify it as we go. Week in and week out, everything -- we can adjust the game plans and we'll play different styles depending on how the opponent wants to play us. He'll provide us with that opportunity.
Q. What do you attribute the disparity with Jalen with motion versus no motion?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, obviously motion is an aspect that certainly we want to utilize as much as we can. By game plan it's going to be different. There's certain schemes that it may give us an advantage. Sometimes it may be more window dressing, and we'll see how much we emphasize it. But I think, again, we want to try and present the defense and stress their pre-snap communication, whether it be tempo, whether it be cadence, whether it be the motion aspect of it. I think every game plan is going to have a little different flavor, and so I thought he did an excellent job. I think he saw it well. He saw the adjustment the defense was making, and he was able to find a bunch of completions off it.
Q. You talked about the fumbles generally, but the second one by the goal line, what happened on that one specifically?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, just an element of slipping there. I think missed opportunity. Obviously we would have loved -- I think all of our guys were a little bit bummed with that opportunity to take that touchdown to kind of solidify the thing. It didn't happen for us, ultimately. Credit Saquon being aware there because really his responsibility -- he's ready to push and he had the awareness to quickly protect the ball there and he made a critical recovery there.
Not overly concerned based off the circumstances of that game. I think we've still got some great opportunities with the QB sneak element and keeping that a part of that package as we go.
Q. How unusual is it to have a rookie late-round pick like Johnny Wilson who's so developed in the blocking game?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, Johnny did an awesome game, fired up. There's a bunch of highlight blocks in there. He took advantage of his 10 or so snaps. He's got a role for us. Obviously it'll evolve as we go week in and week out from a run game perspective. In the pass game he'll come alive as we go, and we're really excited about him.
Q. DeVonta played more in the slot than he typically has here in the past. We kind of thought that might happen based on what we saw in the summer. What are the traits that you identified that he has that you wanted to put him inside there?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think he just does an excellent job. He's got great parable awareness, great feel for the game. I think when you play inside as a receiver, there's a lot more variables. There's a nickel on top of you but there's a safety, there's backers. You've got to have the awareness to kind of see -- have great spatial awareness, recognize all those aspects and see how all these moving pieces change the picture for you. So I think he did an excellent job finding space in the zone a couple times. He had the critical 4th and 3, big time play where he saw one defender outside of him and one defender inside of him, he tight turned it, hooked it up, Jalen saw him. Those are big time plays. Those aren't easy to see that spatially in that quick instance. He'll continue to play outside in different roles and different situations and we'll move those guys around. A.J. will be in there some. That's the beauty of what we have at the receiver group is those guys can play all over the field.
Q. (Indiscernible).
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think he did an excellent job hopping in there based off the tight circumstance in which he got here. He did a really good job. I thought he had a great understanding of what was being asked of him and the offense. He was able to play out there in some of the no-huddle situations, which isn't easy when you come in. We're really excited about him. We'll keep building it.
Q. Now that everyone has seen your offense and how you use Saquon and other guys, how important is it to diversify different parts of the game plan as you guys go forward?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, just one week, obviously, so there will be certain trends and tales associated with one week of the game. We obviously know that. The fun aspect of this thing is every week is kind of its own season. There's a different game plan associated with it. Hopefully it looks different, and it kind of can buck some of the trends that happened the week before and also create some new opportunities for some other guys. So that'll be the exciting part.
Q. In the summer you talked about creating tendencies to break down in big moments. Is that when you actually break those tendencies? Is it all data driven or is it based on feel?
KELLEN MOORE: No, obviously there's a huge data aspect of this thing, just understanding who you are. Obviously we study the film aspect of it, but there's a numbers aspect of it, as well, because obviously play callers are going to call things based off of the numbers and those are usually high indicators that you've got to trust the numbers in some circumstances, so we've got to be aware of those numbers.
If you're really good at something, there's going to be tendencies that happen, so you've just got to have awareness of it and understand at some point you're going to have to make adjustments according to that.
Q. What was your push for when you were on the other side, and are there things you would like to introduce there that maybe we haven't seen yet?
KELLEN MOORE: Obviously it's an excellent play. It's a very important play for us, and we'll continue to utilize it. It's certainly a part of this thing. Circumstances on Friday had some unique aspect to it just with the footing and whatnot, but it'll still be a part of our deal.
Obviously we know there's other plays associated with that, but it's a premier play, and we feel really comfortable with it.
Q. The Falcons made some late summer additions, Judon, Simmons, Grady Jarrett is back. What are some challenges that the defense of the Falcons present?
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, watching them on film, I think they do a really excellent job. The front, getting him, putting him on the edge, a premier player, and then to have two safeties of that caliber, just great feel for the game, great understanding, and they kind of can tie everything together. I think it's a veteran group, a really experienced group. They did a nice job of kind of containing Pittsburgh in some ways on Sunday. So it'll be a challenge.
Early in the season, Jimmy Lake being the defensive coordinator, it'll look different than their week 1, just like we'll make our adjustments. Especially early on in the season the first few games of the year, you're going to see a lot of unscouted looks, you're going to see a lot of things you haven't seen on film. You've got to be prepared to handle that and trust your rules and trust your training that you've invested all off-season on.
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