Q. (Indiscernible) get more carries or touches. Is it as simple as that?
ARTHUR SMITH: Every game you only have that few number of plays, no matter what your intent is. Then you get behind. You do it to yourself. I don't want to take anything away from the Chargers, because they had a say in it, as well. We have to sustain more drives and score more points.
I think the number is always going to be skewed when you get into a game like that.
Q. How do you assess (indiscernible) so far, where do you think he is in terms of being an option?
ARTHUR SMITH: All those guys. If they're out there practicing, with the roster flexibility, guys every week get opportunities, things happen.
Anybody that can help us, seen it throughout the whole entire season, there's been guys that have been pulled off of practice squads. Those are ongoing opportunities for everybody out there.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
ARTHUR SMITH: All those guys are working hard. Those are discussions that happen every day. Usually assessed every week. We'll see where it goes.
Q. What can you do to help DK out with all the extra attention he's getting?
ARTHUR SMITH: A lot of things we've tried to do. Game like that, you don't get the result really anywhere you want. We moved him all over the place. Continue to do that.
All these guys... I mean, you get in a game like that, you got to own it, look at yourself. Like I say, it starts with me. Thankfully get another opportunity to go play Sunday. Chance to do something about it. We got half a season left. This is a huge game for us.
Q. Aaron on Sunday, what did you see to evaluate how he played?
ARTHUR SMITH: Like I said, it's all of us. We're a team. Offensively you look at every game, whether you win or lose.
Certainly very critical of myself when you're trying to be objective; not being a victim. That's the name of the game. You look at everything you're doing, what do you need to execute better, things we need to change. That's an ongoing process.
You don't get the result, it's a collective effort. It's never on one person. I know certain positions get more attention than the others. That's the way it goes in this league.
The reality is, it takes all 11. Put that on myself. Not the result you wanted, but you get a chance to come back and we got to play well.
Q. Question about DK. Is Jonnu somebody that can help alleviate some of that pressure?
ARTHUR SMITH: Absolutely. You've seen that at times. That's what helped us in the Indy game. Those are things you have to problem solve every week, find different ways, make sure we get our guys the football that can move the chains for us and create explosives, ultimately score touchdowns. That's an ongoing thing. It's a collective effort.
Q. Aaron talked about they're finding different ways to double DK.
ARTHUR SMITH: It's the same thing. There's always recency bias, but that's the nature of the game. You don't get the results, you look at everything.
Even when your winning... Like I said, if you can flip to the week before, see how things opened up, we didn't execute. There's other things we can do to change. Certainly building it's an ongoing process. Both things can be true.
Q. How was the jumbo package with moving pieces?
ARTHUR SMITH: I thought other than the first play, we got the false start. AP is another guy. Bring up MVS or Ke'Shawn, whoever. Pete has done a good job.
I got all the respect for AP. Played a lot of good football in this league. Helps when you have that kind of depth. Guy's got a lot of starts, played at a high level. He's awesome behind the scenes. 'Cause of an injury, he had some opportunities.
Again, because of the way it went, didn't get into a lot of stuff. We never sustained enough drives clearly in that game.
Q. 10 weeks into the season, what do you like about this group and what do you think needs to be developed?
ARTHUR SMITH: A lot of things. I like the resiliency of this group. It's an unselfish group. I've said that many times. Gives you a chance, even in a game like on Sunday night, the ebb and flow. Even late, we had a long drive down there, there's not guys down there pouting, crying or whatever language I can use here.
You're trying to steal a win. We didn't take the opportunity. We got down there on a screen, got a chance to cut it within five with plenty of time. That's not the way it went.
Overall I think guys have made plays in big moments. There's ongoing work every season. You can start out hot. Here we are right at the halfway point with an opportunity Sunday with a huge divisional game. We have to continue to improve. We got to bounce back from Sunday night.
Q. What kind of role do you feel that Roman Wilson has in this particular offense? Is it increasing?
ARTHUR SMITH: Certainly. He's taken advantage of it. You've seen that as the season has gone on. He's a young player. Missed some time last year. Continues to work extremely hard. A lot put on him. He's starting to make more plays. He's earned more opportunities, like all those guys. That's where I see it. It's an ongoing process. He's certainly starting to show signs of his role increasing.
Q. Gainwell and (indiscernible), do they have the same possessions, downs? Do you ask them to do different things? Are they interchangeable?
ARTHUR SMITH: There are some things that are interchangeable. There's some things you go in there, try to take advantage of some things the way they're playing. That does change week to week. There's a lot of packages where they're both out there together.
Just like when you get in a game like that, your numbers are going to be skewed. You don't do well on third down, a lot of short possessions, then you get behind, you're in some hurry-up stuff. You look at the carry numbers, too. Both those guys are big impact players. Some weeks have been a little bit different in the passing game.
There's certain things that you package for guys to try to get a rotation to make sure if you got two key players, that they're touching the football, whether that's in the run or passing game.
That game, if you looked at it, Jalen got the carries, then Kenny doing some of the things we were trying to get accomplished in the passing game. That's why it looked like that.
Q. There are times that Aaron Rodgers (indiscernible)?
ARTHUR SMITH: That's every quarterback. That's kind of modern football. It's not call and (indiscernible). I've never had that with any quarterback going back to Marcus, to Tannehill, to Matt Ryan, to Marcus again, to Ridder, to Heinicke, to Justin, to Russ, now to Aaron. If Mason were to go there in, Skylar, Will.
That's every offense I've been in.
Q. (Indiscernible) when you want to run the ball, it's like, Hey, we need to keep it there? How does that balance work out?
ARTHUR SMITH: Depends what's called. I mean, I think you're seeing some people tag them as RPOs. There's all kind of buzzwords. Run alerts, run solutions, advantage throws, whatever you want to talk about.
When you empower somebody to do that, certainly situational things that you talk about that may just be calling the run depending on the situation.
When things are part of your offense, you've got to give guys, especially in that position, initiative. He's certainly one of the best of all time to do that stuff. Depends how you build it and situations.
Q. You guys haven't thrown the ball, aired the ball out downfield a lot this season. Does Aaron's effectiveness with the precision passing diminish the need for that?
ARTHUR SMITH: No. I think every game you try. Sunday night we tried a few times. We didn't hit it for multiple reasons. Sometimes it depends on the defense dictating. Sometimes it's the amount of time you have in the pocket. There's a lot of factors.
Certainly you go in with the intent to always be able to do that. They're going to come in there, pressure you. Calvin beat them one on one. There were times DK had it. We had a third and 11, we got the opportunity, that kind of got us going.
You always have the intent to do that. Some weeks it plays out better than others.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports