Q. How do you evaluate the passing game after Sunday? There was a long gap without a lot of production. How do you look at that?
KELLEN MOORE: Passing game obviously wasn't our best performance. Certainly every person involved would love to have it be cleaner. You know, play better in that aspect of the game. But I thought our guys, again, Jalen's credit he played clean football as far as protecting the football. Gave us opportunities. We made plays in some situations when we had to, and obviously that's sometimes how games go unfortunately. Obviously something that we are all excited to navigate and find better answers moving forward.
Q. How much were you surprised by some of the coverage looks they gave you?
KELLEN MOORE: Any time you go into playoff games people are going to stress you and challenge you on the best levels. Auto you are playing the best defense in this league. That's how playoff games are. They are going to give you different look, different presentations, and I think for us the exciting part is how we navigate that and execute it in those situations.
Q. When you have in the first meeting, Saquon had such a dominant game, how do you navigate that? Do you expect he'll be a focus going in?
KELLEN MOORE: Certainly Saquon had a great day out there. Long time between those two games, a bunch of other games. They are playing as well as any defense in the league right now, and they are playing really confidently.
Obviously they will stress us in a lot of different ways and there will be a lot of challenges associated with our run game based on them having the film and the film they have put out the last month and a half, which is really, really impressive. Will be a challenge.
Q. What is behind that defensive ascension from what you've seen?
KELLEN MOORE: Playing really clean, really sound football. You can tell just every phase of that defense is tied together and obviously the front is doing an excellent job getting pressure, and the challenge when you get in all these passing situations, those guys are as good as it gets in this league collectively.
Q. Jalen had the fewest number of carries in a game he completed. Was that by design?
KELLEN MOORE: We certainly had runs in the game plan associated for Jalen to run. He felt comfortable and exciting for those opportunities. As it went, the game played out, only kept it a few times but I don't think there's any cause for concern or hesitancy about it. I thought he went in there and when he did have the opportunity to run it, he ran it and gave us positive plays.
Q. Was the general feel that that game called for more of a conservative offensive game plan, not pushing the ball downfield, taking a lot of chances, running on third-and-long that, kind of thing?
KELLEN MOORE: Certainly you'd love to have more opportunities downfield. You'd love to have those explosive play opportunities and sometimes they didn't present their selves. Obviously we were able to grind it out as the game progressed with run game emphasis as the game ended.
Obviously there's things each and every game you come out of it you would love to do different things and love to call a few plays here and there that are different. You're going to come out of every game different. At the end of the day we accomplished the No. 1 goal which is advance in this tournament and obviously there will be things we look back on and say, hey, we want to improve on that and we want to improve on that, and that's the beauty of this group is that they are ready to do that.
Q. Do you think there's enough variety in the passing game right now?
KELLEN MOORE: It's always something you're trying to strive for. Just different presentations and challenges to stress the defense and give yourself different opportunities. Something we're trying to do each and every week, and as the season progresses, that's the balancing act of flavor in different looks and different presentations with an identity and ability to kind of do the things that you've repped a lot of times.
Q. The Rams have so many young guys up front. Have they gotten better because they are finally starting to get to play together as a group?
KELLEN MOORE: Any time guys play together, build cohesiveness, build connection, they are going to play better and better and better. They have an excellent staff over there. Obviously Giff, the defensive line coach I was with in L.A., he's one of the best in the business. He does an excellent job of getting those guys to play together and play with the incredible effort that they play with. It is just really impressive on film and it's going to be a real big challenge for us.
Q. You took a shot on the Tush-Push on third down. What goes behind that? Is that something you see or something you just wanted to take a shot in that situation?
KELLEN MOORE: It was a play that we've had in for a number of weeks. We're trying to find the right opportunity to present itself. Obviously feel really good about the sneak and it was a third and one that gave us a chance to be aggressive there with the fourth-and-one in our pocket. You know, took a chance. Obviously it's an aggressive call. Close but it didn't happen. We'll see what happens next.
Q. Even though you didn't complete it, did that still serve its purpose to put that on tape?
KELLEN MOORE: There's always value to the things you put on tape to force things to think about what has been done and what could be done. So you know we took a shot. I thought it was worthwhile and we were able to get the sneak on the next play.
Q. What did it mean to get him back in the mix with the starters?
KELLEN MOORE: Dallas has transitioned into this thing beautifully. He made the big plays and touchdowns which everyone sees. His blocking of the run game was huge. It was incredible. His ability to block on those edges against some really, really good defensive ends in this league really challenging matchups, I thought that was really one of the secret sauce of what made his game so special on Sunday.
Q. How did you and Jalen review his first game back after a couple games out?
KELLEN MOORE: Jalen and our whole office staff is a very similar process. I thought we always come out of games. We can score a million points or no points. You're always going to come out of games with things you want to improve on and things that we feel we can build off of. I thought Jalen responded really, really well. Coming out of that thing, not having played for a few weeks, it wasn't perfect but I thought he settled in, and in that second half we were able to play with tempo and play with pace and he was able to play some clean football and able to score down the stretch.
Q. The trust level in DeVonta is obviously really high. How important is he in those clutch situations when you really need a play?
KELLEN MOORE: We have got some premiere players on this team that seem like every time you need to make a play they make it. Smitty is one of those guys. He's really reliable. He's trustworthy. His physicality as a player is always under looked. His ability to go block in the run game and his ability to catch the ball and make plays. He doesn't shy away from contact and I think that's the beauty of his game that he has so many aspects of it that he can utilize.
Q. Your name has been linked to the Cowboys job. How did it end there from your perspective and is that a job that would interest you?
KELLEN MOORE: Obviously I spent a lot of time there, eight years there. So obviously have plenty of relationships about that place. And so you know, I love it here. I've had so much fun here. It's been a really fun process, and we're in a really special situation right now getting the chance to play this Sunday, had a chance to make a run at this team and that's really all you worry about. Everything else is what it is, and we'll see where it takes you.
Q. How vocal has Jalen been since the start of him in your offense to now and catering it to his likes and dislikes?
KELLEN MOORE: He does an excellent job each and every week just preparing every game new, every game, different opportunities, different challenges, different presentations. I've really enjoyed how we collaborate on this game plan and built it each and every week with Jalen and the rest of the staff. I think that's the cool part of it and it takes the whole group even on game day, the receiver's communication, the quarterback's communication, the O-line.
I think that's one of the secret sauce of our group is how collaborative they are. It allows us to make the adjustments that we need on game day, and so Jalen is a huge key and aspect of that. His adjustment in the game, they were giving us a bunch of pressure that they had not shown in the red zone going no it so obviously they stalled us out unfortunately. He made that signal adjustment to Dallas. Got the ball out of his hand and put ourselves in a position to score and that's a big time adjustment to the football he made.
Q. When you talk about physicality with DeVonta and Dallas does that in a physical kind of way what does that mean to the offense?
KELLEN MOORE: Our guys love that. They our guys strive on it. The physical way that we play, guys embrace it, and you know, shows each and every play by everyone.
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