Mike Macdonald: "We Have A Great Challenge Ahead Of Us" | Press Conference - September 11, 2024

like I was just here a couple minutes ago um yeah but on to on to New England um we can as many football questions as you guys want to ask I'm ready to answer them um all the other stuff I'll answer those as well when you look at New England they've been really good at stopping the run the last couple of years that showed up week one is that more about the scheme or is it the emphasis that they place on it do you think uh I I think it's that I think it's both uh I think it's the players that they have um very very well coached obviously um but they play tough they have good players they play hard um all the fundamentals just go right down the list check check check um play Square get off blocks um what it takes to play really good uh run defense numbers back it up tape backs it up so um we had a great challenge ahead of us coach the last works at the last two Super Bowl opponents are the first two opponents this year for the Seahawks yeah that's right what's your uh memory of those two Super Bowls oh man um when we won I was in LA with my sister and my nephew and um that was pretty awesome when we lost I don't remember but that's a good point I I had thought about that that uh played out like that Mike you always have ties that you're from that area just I know you moved when you were a kid but what do you remember just from being a sports fan in New England as yeah I moved in '94 so that was before they had you know they went to the Super Bowl I think in 96 um my first kind of football memory is really my dad took me to the to Fox um the old Foxboro um when Drew got drafted and we got like a tour of the stadium and stuff and uh it was pretty cool but it's a long time AG go Mike in playing good run defense without giving all the inside stuff how important is it obviously to set the edge and get the front push up there and it's the name of the game then you just got to get the guy on the ground um again people do people have different philosophies on how how you play the run I think our philosophy and New England's philosophy is pretty similar um about you know trying to build a wall having knock back stay Square having edges um some people kind of opt for the hey let's destroy destroy the line on the kind of on the way to the QB sort of speak and then let the second level and third level kind of clean it up uh we just we just it's good there's a lot of good run defenses that do that we just we um our philosophies are kind of on that other end of the spectrum at the end of the day how just how important in the run defense to tackle you talked a little bit about last game that did clean up a little bit of that sure so how much is that going into well it's it's about I mean it's about space and angles uh you know so you have to understand you know the angle that you need to take um especially with you know with the runners that New England has and it's about getting multiple hats to the party because you know they're big physical backs that fall forward and there's a huge difference between making contact you know a yard or two past the line of scrimmage and falling forward for four versus making contact there and now there's multiple guys at the party and New England does a good job of kind of getting a hat for the hat so there's a lot of one-on-one matchups are going to be happening that um we're going to have to win in order to have success like what was what was yesterday like sort of first time after after a regular season game bringing the guys in kind of going through the the the sort of first process of breaking down the film and looking at what happened I thought it was I thought it was a great day um you know the the first part of the day is about uh you know you're coming in with a fresh mind you had a day off uh emotions kind of going down which is nice it's a little bit more of a surgical approach um kind of debrief on the game and then you we take a break and then you know we flip the page and when we move forward uh to the next opponent so uh we focused on doing in the latter part of those meetings and and then uh we're coaches were back to going to work and onward we go what you think of the game DK had and kind of the way they messed up with him was certain I thought DK did a lot of great things I mean there there was an opportunity for him to have uh make a play down the field but um found the ball you know later in the game like I like I mentioned to there's a lot of little things that he does that creates success for the rest of the team and um that's big so we he he needs to keep doing those things and obviously we got to try to get the ball to him uh earlier in the game to you know get him involved and get him rocking and rolling and um I'm confident we'll do that but um I thought DK played a really good game coach uh New England ran inside Zone more than any team in the NFL last week Rand Dre Stevenson had almost all his yards after contact what kind of challenges do they present running right at you well I guess said there's a hat for a hat and um you know it's kind of no fair dodging straight downhill um I a you know they have more schemes than just the duo play and things like that I think some of the front structures that Cincinnati was giving them um and the success they had with that play probably lent to more frequency and led to that so it's um good job by them but uh yeah I mean they they just they're a sound football team everybody knows they're all on the same page um just like they are on defense they're square at the point of attack they're coming right at you so um you know there's not a lot of secrets to what they're doing but it um it's very welld designed it's just uh it's good football Keon white showed up in the stats for New England how did he show up on tape uh well ke Keon's a really good player I mean you can play inside and out um just kind of fits the mold of of someone that's been in that defense for a long time um can play inside shade outside shade inside rush outside Rush um plays very hard um he's you know he's a big guy you know so um you know they move them around to kind of fit where they want him to fit within all the schemes so um yeah it's just one of one of many good players on their on their on their side you mentioned on Sunday reek made that play at the end of the game after not getting a lot of action his way during the game what's the challenge for a corner When A team's not throwing your way to kind of stay in the game throughout I've never had that feeling you know so I I can't speak for he's got it's mental toughness [Music] um I I I felt like he was involved throughout the whole game like you you felt reek throughout the whole game it didn't feel like he wasn't like there's some like lone soldier out there just kind of hanging out like you felt him in the Run game um felt him getting into the ball in the zones and uh he was active you know with the guys that he was asked to guard so I thought he did a great job any updates on George Fant Ken Walker and richu uh yeah we're going to we're going to see how those guys play out uh chenna will be out this week um but the rest of the guys coming off the last game you know we'll kind of take it day by day here with the reports and everything but yeah chennel will be out will they practice today the Walker and fan um we'll see you mentioned that there's some similarities in how you want to play defense and how the Patriots play defense what do you like about I don't I know if you would call it a chess match or just like an allout match up against a great defensive schem yeah I like the players are out there playing and um they have really good players with sound good fundamental schemes and change UPS um I know we have really good players and with what I believe are sound schemes and change UPS so um you know they're we're going to have to see how each team's trying to attack each other throughout the game and um you know this is going to be a four four quarter um old school football game like it's going to come down to um who makes the plays at the end uh that was the message to the team today and uh it's going to be a great game coach Bill bel's not with the Patriots anymore but he's obviously had a ton of success on the defense side of the ball what have you picked up studying him over the years man uh I mean he's the record speaks for itself means probably the best coach to to ever do it um someone that I've watched you know coming up through my coaching career uh so just I mean I don't know how you can have any more respect for a coach um I'd say it's like the first thing I'm thinking about is like toughness and preparation you know just a thorough understanding of the game and how to put your players in position to succeed um how to stay ahead situationally how to win football games without you know giving anything up cheap um all like you know in in a way just like along with some of the other great you know football coaches of Our Generation and generations past kind of molding the game and you know evolving it um over the course of his career so um you know his fingerprints are all over this this team still and I know coach Mayo has ton of respect for him and he worked for him for a long time played under him and all that so um I mean it's a it's a New England Patriot football team that you're used to seeing have you crossed paths with mayo much over your career no no I just met him at owners meetings the one time and that was it you you and him were two of the three youngest coaches in the League this year do you have any thought about why maybe younger coaches are getting more opportunities to be head coaches sort of in this era of the league yeah man I I I don't know I don't really want to like speculate on it um but I mean I think I think coach Maywood and I would agree that this game is not about us it's not it's it's about our guys going out and playing and making the plays that are going to take to win the game it's really um our age really has nothing to do with with what's about to happen on Sunday Mike when you got here traveling in from west to east coast are you just inheriting what team has done you study the well we've had a lot of success going east and um there's been some research into it too so a lot of it D A lot of it actually um is relation to sleep believe it or not so um we talked about team today we had sleep specialists come in trying to really be thorough in that approach but a lot of it's what uh with what we've done here over the past we've built off of that and in general it's keep them on their schedule as if they were still on the West Coast time yeah like keeping West Coast time we're going to go out on Friday um and some other things going on too but yeah the the main gist of it going to stay the same Mike what's been the messaging from week one to week two that Improvement I mean I know they want the players want to improve too what's the coaching as that M yeah I I mean I have a hard time kind of changing up themes and stuff so the stuff I've told you guys is what I've what I've told the team um a lot of great things happen in the first game um which is great to see like talking about effort and composure all those things um but you have to build on those things and take the next step you know it's you know you could rattle out moving on to the next next week but there's a lot of things we need to clean up that we can build off of it's one week it's a great win but now it's time to turn the page we got to focus on our preparation I think our our weekly practices can take a step up and uh really I mean that's the only thing we can focus on today is just having a great Wednesday you know so that we can have a great you can't have a great Thursday until you have a great Wednesday so that's that's kind of the thought right now Mike what was your thought on um AJ Barner the way he kind of played jumping in there with Pharaoh out last week and a quick update on Pharaoh too yeah I thought uh I thought AJ played really well um can do a lot of things at tight end for us and move around uh excited to see his growth moving forward and uh you know Pharaoh I know um with the connection New England stuff he really wants to play so um you know we'll we'll see with uh with where Pharaoh ends up by the end of the week you you guys sent Jed Hall last week as a third quarterback have you gotten much of a sense of what what you might have with him and kind of where he fits in uh well he's someone that I think that has a little bit of history with you know we've done a lot of homework on him as he was coming out before uh before I was hired so uh you know we respect him as a player um never play had a defense go against him so I I'm not like foremost expert on his game um but he's coming in he's done a great job he's got a great attitude he's learning the scheme a little bit the vocabulary is a little different than he's used to so um there's a little bit of learning curve there but they'll pick it up in a in a hurry back to the topic of schedules what do you like about structuring your week so that the players opt days is Monday as opposed to Tuesday um I'd say the the main thing is to really just be able to take a deep breath after the game and then be able to move on you know um that's the main thing take the emotion out of it be able to kind of digest understand why you won or lost where you need to improve um the guys get it the next day and then you're you know you're a once they come in you're kind of in next week's mode there's no there's no like break you know it's hey this is what happened let's move on okay now it's like an extended week on that next opponent what do you like about the the packages that have Kon in there with Julie and raan uh well it's an opportunity to get um a really good player on the field in Kavon um opportunity to get uh jensx closer to the ball uh you know we we'll be move like we I don't think you're going to just see that combination all the time with those guys but for that specific game we felt like it gave us a good chance to um get Cav on the field get um spoon some reps at corner um but kon's earned the opportunity to have reps he's had a he's had a great camp and uh that was really the thought behind it and you hadn't seen Draymond Jones much I guess in training camp how did you feel like he played in that played Sunday what you have um you know Draymond he a solid start uh there's so much more that that he can do and he knows that I mean but it's all positive you know it's just um let's keep ramping them up I mean we went with a little bit of a tighter game plan with them than we probably would you know come week 10 or so so uh the goal right now is to keep finding those things that he does really well get him doing those things more and uh and we'll build it here over the next you know um several weeks Jobe Brett's been around the AFC for a while what have you seeing when you've gone him yeah Jacob's a he's a really he's a really good quarterback I mean um this guy's really he's highly intelligent um he's underratedly mobile I if you if you let him run he can he can move um going forward I think he delivers an accurate ball uh he plays efficiently he definitely has a very very strong grasp of what they're asking him in terms of executing their system um so they're playing clean football right now and um doesn't doesn't look you know like the new age like sexy offenses of you know that you're seeing these days but I'll tell you what it's it's really really effective and you know comes down to how you move the football and they're doing that effectively right now anything else than you okay thanks guys