Q. What are the emotions getting ready to head out overseas and go into Ireland?
ARTHUR SMITH: We're excited. Lucky to have been a part of three of the London games -- '18, '21, and '23. Regardless of the outcomes, they were all good experiences. I think this is cool, first in-season game in Ireland. This means a lot to this organization. We're looking forward to it.
Q. I like the hat.
ARTHUR SMITH: I appreciate it.
Q. The catch that Calvin made to basically win the game, is that going to help him develop as that number two threat outside? We've always looked to him as a small slot guy, but you need that outside guy. Is he going to be that guy?
ARTHUR SMITH: He's certainly proven himself, and that's the one thing -- it's cool to see guys like Calvin -- I know that's why you can't get down on rookies. Everybody's career starts differently. I know his -- I wasn't here, but I believe he was injured, and I thought he had a really good year last year and now he's going into year 4. That's what you want to see.
He's wired the right way. He's tough as they come, just mentally and physically. For a smaller player, to your point, traditionally those guys aren't the outside guys, they're usually slot guys. But Calvin's got a unique ability down the field to track the ball, to make catches like that. That catch he made with the Jets was on our sideline, and he went up and caught it. He was on a wheel route, one-on-one. A lot of times usually those are bigger players, the ones down the field that make those contested.
He does a good job tracking the ball, and he's strong at the point. So it's exciting to see.
Q. What did you see from the first quarter run game? Then what keeps it more consistent or more like --
ARTHUR SMITH: Well, when it's the run game -- I believe we had three possessions the first half. The first two, got 14 points, get in a rhythm. Then we missed that third down, and then they had that long drive, I believe, right? Then we got the interception and took a knee. So it wasn't a lot of possessions.
So it was good to see. We've got to continue that. I think on our opening drives, we got 17 points, which is big for us. Now we've got to -- the start of the third quarter -- I always say this. Whatever it is that's your focus for those years, there's always something to fix. Whether you're rolling and everything seems to be clicking or that's the week to week.
We just came out those two drives, felt better. I think even some of the runs we didn't hit, if you just look at the combination blocks, that's what's exciting.
We had a run that, I think, that bounced, those are the things you've got to work on. At the point of attack, Troy and Mason, that's about as good of a duo blocking you'll see. We've just got to continue to keep working.
Obviously in the third quarter we stalled out. Then we had the penalties, and we were just off track.
Then the fourth quarter, we did run the ball late. That last drive we chewed up a lot of the clock. You don't want to give up on it just because you stall out in the third quarter. So we weren't just an obvious one-dimensional offense. We chewed up the clock and got us the first down and Calvin made the play.
That's the whole key to this thing. Week to week, you've got to have the guys. You've got to be objective. You can't be delusionally optimistic. You can't be overly cynical. You've just got to be objective and realistic. On this journey, the best teams are the ones that improve. We've got the right guys, which is why we've been up, the two road games we've won. Those guys have stood up when it's critical.
Q. The touchdown production is there from your weapons. Aaron was saying initially he wants to get the ball more to DK and to Calvin. Is there a way to do that without the running game getting going, or is it just the running game has to get going and you guys have to possess the ball?
ARTHUR SMITH: A couple of things. You kind of answered it all in there. We've been kind of unusual. We've had a lot of scoring production, really good drives. Been good in situational, certainly at the end of the game. That's certainly part of it.
One part about it when you do run the ball well, you're on the field more, you've got more opportunities. Just look at our numbers. We haven't had many plays in three games. There's, again, a variety of reasons. Every time we get the ball, we need to go score. That's the intent. So that has something to do with it.
When you get in these low possession games and you're not having a ton of plays, that's kind of the unintended consequences of it. Then the other part -- and Aaron will tell you better, refreshingly when you talk to guys like Aaron who's played 21 years. There's a new thing now that's targets. I don't know when -- maybe somebody in here knows -- when they started counting targets.
Sometimes you call a play and here's your primary, maybe the coverage team takes it, maybe the quarterback gets flushed. There's a lot that goes into it. Obviously you're aware of it and try to spread the ball around, but naturally guys like DK are the primary target on the intended play call.
Like I said, the coverage can dictate it or play gets off schedule, whatever happens. We just need more plays, and that will naturally work itself out.
The positive spin is he's got a couple touchdowns, which is good. Those guys are scoring. But we've got to continue -- we need more plays, and we need to stay on the field more.
Q. There's been a lot of discussion this week about Brian Flores' defense and its ability to move pieces around at the snap, change the look. As an offensive coordinator, is that purely something where you're like, oh, this is a problem, this is a challenge, or is there difficulty in defenses executing that amount of disguise? And can it be a double-edged sword where you can punish them for doing that as well?
ARTHUR SMITH: It's the same way with offense, depending on what your philosophy is. I know Flo pretty well. We talked after the '22 season when I had a coordinator opening. Obviously he was going through a couple of head coaching interviews. Spent some time with him. Gotten to know Flo pretty well over the years.
Those are good. When you're in those positions, you hire positions, you do your due diligence. One reason we were both interested was we have pretty similar philosophies. If you really cut us open, we try to do a lot of the same things. We have multiple personnels, and sometimes it is an illusion with that, but you've got to go back to how you're teaching things.
Guys, they've been doing that forever, and that's the system he grew up in in New England. I know he started in scouting, but those guys all worked in that building. You're talking about old school, padding games, breaking them down, very aware of like tendencies and how they're calling things, studying protections, getting into your IDs.
So if you're -- depending on how you set things up and how you roll things, if you're really rigid about who's who, they'll change it up on you next week. So a lot of them may be the same pressure, but they'll do it from different personnel groups, give you a different front structure, and I like that.
The same thing about what he values personnel-wise, I mean, look at some of the players he had. If you guys know the history of New England, I mean, you look at really how Minnesota's defense is built, the strong, heavy handed, inside players, especially at linebacker, like Pace. You just go back and blink, and you can think about Bruschi, you can think about Mayo, you can think about Hightower, that whole iteration. There's a theme there.
Same thing with the safeties, going back to the Rodney Harrisons, Patrick Chungs, to McCourty, to how he uses Harrison Smith and Dallas.
Then you've got the guys on the edge and you look at the history of that: Vrabel, McGinest, Ninkovich, Van Noy -- now Van Ginkel. Van Ginkel is kind of like his Jonnu. He's going to travel with him.
That's the one thing I remember in that interview we were talking about because we were kind of cap hell for the first few years and we were going to spend on defense. That was the big thing about the coordinator interviews, we fit to who we hire. I think Van Ginkel was the first guy he talked about. Sure as hell he went up to Minnesota, and he was with him in Miami.
Those guys can do a lot. You've got those smart, instinctive players, it allows to you do it. It's a lot of personnel, your philosophy, how you teach things, because if you don't and you just kind of one size fits all, that's a nightmare, and they know it. If you spend too much time trying to ID who's who, it's going to change it. They'll change on you in the second half. That's how they get the advantage. That's the answer I can give you.
Q. What will it take to open up this offense and go downfield more?
ARTHUR SMITH: Again, it goes back to more possessions. You look at it on the surface, you talk about the context.
Q. (No microphone)?
ARTHUR SMITH: Correct. We won the game on a deep ball. The field ran out. If we had been 40 yards back, that could have been a 70 -- whatever, 60-yard touchdown. It's not for lack of trying. We opened the season going deep, and unfortunately we got sacked.
Again, that had something to do with it. It's not just calls. You look at it, and it's not just being a victim and blaming, oh, we got sacked or whatever. You're looking at it, all right, when you're setting things up and looking at matchups, the rhythm of the game. It's not like it's been quick game, three yards and a cloud of dust. They defend that stuff. You've got to hit more. When you don't put them on film, which we have.
There's a lot of that. We've got to continue to work, do a better job, make sure we're better at some of the basic fundamentals, whether that's blocking, taking advantage of some of the man and how we release, all that stuff goes into it. There's not a lack of vertical speed.
If you want to say the thing is well, do a better job of it, that's fair. But it's not for lack of intent.
Q. Is it the same thing about possessions having to do with your tight ends and maybe not getting the production that people maybe anticipated with you being a tight end guy?
ARTHUR SMITH: You mean catches?
Q. Yeah, catches, yards.
ARTHUR SMITH: Again, it goes back to everything. We've won two games, done a good job scoring in the red zone. That needs to continue. We need more possessions. That will naturally work itself out.
You look at numbers, again, you can manipulate stats however you want. There are some that are pretty meaningful. Usually you're going to win games if you don't turn the ball over, win in possession, downs, score in the red zone, situational football. Those are the most important ones. You get into total yards after you look at the totality of the season.
That's the only thing that's ever made sense to me, especially on defense, why is total yards the No. 1 defense? If you're really good, you're going to give up yards because you've got a lead and people are playing soft. Dink and dunk, two-minute offense, it can pad stats.
It's not impressive to me if a team is 4-12 and the guy throws for 4,000 yards. It's productive for him, but if you really look at it in that space -- same thing in total yards. Look around the league, there's been teams that have the lead in total yards and are not scoring very much.
It's everything you've got to work on. You obviously want to be best at everything, but that's part of this journey. You look at the totality of it. We're going to continue the things that are going well, and there's a lot of things we've got to improve on. That's our charge.
That's what excites me about the group we have. We've got the right guys. You get in those tough moments, you stall out. We didn't have the ball for a while, but at the end of the day, we started hot, got a little cold, bowed up, and we were at our best when we needed to be. It was the same thing in New York. So that's encouraging.
You come in here on Mondays and go back to work on Wednesdays, those guys, you're looking at the progress, and you want to call it the process and not so much comparative results. You get it down that thing, you're going to get a bunch of selfish guys and get selfish coaches, you play the game just to pad your stats. That's not going to help us win a championship.
Q. Going back to Flores' defense, obviously schematically it's a nightmare, but they have a lot of guys on that side, five turnovers the last game. How do you think this offensive line, your offense as a whole, but primarily the offensive line, matches up with these guys?
ARTHUR SMITH: Like I said, they've invested a lot. They've got good edge players. They obviously added to the interior of the D-line. Safeties have been in that scheme for a couple of years. It's a damn good defense, well coached. They've added consistency over there, which helps too.
That's another thing about player development that never gets talked about. When you draft guys for a certain scheme and you keep changing the system, it's hard to develop guys. They've done a good job of that. They're a damn good defense.
Every Sunday you've got matchups. This will be a good challenge for us. We're looking forward to it, especially in Ireland, early morning Sunday here. We're excited.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports