Vic Fangio
Q. Vic, the EDGE situation, because of circumstance, OLB Arnold Ebiketie had to play a lot, OLB Keyshawn James-Newby had to play a ton of snaps. How do you think those guys handled it? (John McMullen)
Vic Fangio: I think, for the circumstances, they did a good job. AK [Arnold Ebiketie], I think, played in the 70s of snaps, and Keyshawn played close to 50, I think. We were planning on playing Keyshawn a little bit in the game, but then when [OLB] Nolan [Smith] went down and [OLB Jonathan Greenard] JG’s ankle started bothering him, he went from a handful to close to 50.
Q. DB Cooper DeJean mention after the game when he was asked about maybe some of the tackling issues that there’s different angles required of him because of the safety position. Do you concur with his assessment of that? And how do you still feel like he’s doing there at the safety position? (Jeff McLane)
Vic Fangio: He’s doing good. He really hadn’t played a ton of base to where he’s actually playing a lot of safety, but Cooper’s playing good overall.
Q. He had been such a sure tackler in his career. What do you think are some of the issues with that this year? (Dave Zangaro)
Vic Fangio: There’s just been a few more than usual. He did get that stinger when he had to come out of the Rams game, I believe it was. I think that’s affected him a little bit.
Q. Where do things stand with OLB Jonathan Greenard? Are you guys going to give him some rest so that ankle can heal up or does he just have to play through it? (Tim McManus)
Vic Fangio: Yeah, we’ll see how he does during the week. Hopefully he’ll be good enough to go and play a good amount of plays, but we got to see how he does.
Q. What about OLB Jalyx Hunt? Are you expecting him to possibly be back this week? (Martin Frank)
Vic Fangio: It’s possible. We’ll see how he does in practice.
Q. The miscommunication on the long TD to Carolina Panthers TE Tommy Tremble looked a little bit like the miscommunication in the Bears game on the crosser. What’s the issue with those, and how do you fix them? (Jimmy Kempski)
Vic Fangio: I mean, they just have to communicate. It really wasn’t a communication issue. The outside guy ran his route, and we just didn’t cover him like we were supposed to.
Q. What factored into the change in safety? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)
Vic Fangio: Just that [S] Marcus [Epps] hadn’t been playing. [DB] Michael [Carter]’s hurt. He’s not even active. [DB] Kenny [Moore II]’s been doing a good job in practice and did a good job in the previous game when he was thrown in there without a whole lot of work, so I just decided to go with him. He did a fine job.
Q. What did you see from Kenny Moore II during practice to think that he could — (Dave Zangaro)
Vic Fangio: Just Kenny’s got good instincts, good football savviness to him. Although I don’t think he’s ever played safety prior to being here, he’s done a good job with it because it’s not an easy transition, and I just think he’ll continue to get better.
Q. How’d you think the linebacker rotation went? (John McMullen)
Vic Fangio: It went good because of the last drive, [LB] Jihaad [Campbell] was in there. It kind of got tilted. I think it was like 48-28 or 48-30, something like that. But it was fine. It went good.
Q. What do you see in the Cowboys’ offense? (Brooks Kubena)
Vic Fangio: I see a well-balanced, talented offense. They’ve got great receivers, as everybody knows. Their tight end group is really, really good. They’ve got a good offensive line. [Dallas Cowboys QB] Dak [Prescott] is one of the top quarterbacks in the league, and [Dallas Cowboys RB] Javonte [Williams] is a good runner. I had him in Denver, so I know what he’s all about, and he’s really good. They got behind the other night, and it became a passing fest for them, but they’d really like to be more balanced, and I expect them to try and be that.
Q. Could you have done better on [DT] Moro [Ojomo], the second time this season he kind of jumped on a key short yardage play. What are some of the ways he can improve? (Jeff McLane)
Vic Fangio: Well, work on it, which we do. I mean, if you’re going to fault whether we cover it enough or not, we may cover it too much, but we just got to be able to hold our water there. They let the quarterback get away with a really egregious false start on his part on that play, but that’s the way it goes.
Q. Have you been in touch with Dallas Cowboys Defensive Coordinator Christian Parker much at all? (Jeff Neiburg)
Vic Fangio: No. We talked right before training camp started, had a text exchange either after the first or second game, but that’s been the extent of it. Makes it a little different being in the same division.
Q. Getting back to the linebacker situation with LB Jihaad Campbell and LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr., do you expect that to be more of an even distribution of snaps? (Martin Frank)
Vic Fangio: Not necessarily. It’s kind of how it’s going.
Q. What do you like about Keyshawn James-Newby? (Reuben Frank)
Vic Fangio: He’s a pretty good athlete. He’s got some speed to him. I think he’ll even do better now that he’s got his feet wet more than he expected or we expected. I do like him, and I think hopefully we’ll see steady progress from him the more he gets to play.
Q. How’s the group handling the volume of snaps? (Zach Berman)
Vic Fangio: Good.
Q. We talked a little bit about the busted coverage. I know you’ve had some personnel changes because of the injuries, specifically at safety, but who’s handling the calls and has that had anything to do with some of these communication breakdowns? (Jeff McLane)
Vic Fangio: I don’t think so. Each safety handles the calls to his side.
Q. Okay. But was it just Houston Texans S Reed Blankenship last year? (Jeff McLane)
Vic Fangio: Oh yeah, he was kind of the — I would say the general back there, but it still comes down to each safety making certain calls to his side.
Q. But there’s no general back there this year is what you’d say? (Jeff McLane)
Vic Fangio: I don’t know that we could say that yet, but [S Andrew] Mukuba is progressing nicely.
Q. You obviously have a high opinion of Dallas Cowboys Defensive Coordinator Christian Parker. How do you make sense of sort of the start that he’s been off to and what it’s like to transition into that role for the first time? (Tim McManus)
Vic Fangio: Well, to be honest with you, it’s unusual after six games, but I haven’t seen any of their games. Usually, with an interdivision opponent, you see them a lot preparing for — Because we all play 14 of the same teams, but it hadn’t happened yet, and I haven’t seen any of their games. He’ll get through it. He’s a good coach. He’ll get through it.
Q. Getting back to DT Moro Ojomo, what have you seen from him through? How would you assess his play for six games? (Johnny McGonigal)
Vic Fangio: It’s been good. It’s been good. He’s active, gives great effort. He’s quick, fast. He’s gotten dinged a couple of times, which has affected his play. He got a little something this past game, but he’s playing good.
Q. Because your offense here is struggling a little bit to score points, do you have to call games any differently knowing that you might have to manufacture a little bit? (Dave Zangaro)
Vic Fangio: Possibly as the game wears on. Not early, but as the game goes on, possibly, yes.
Q. You’ve seen QB Tanner McKee on scout team these past three years. What’s your impression of him seeing him every day? (Zach Berman)
Vic Fangio: I think he’s got good knowledge of the game, [a] good feel, [and] command of where the ball needs to go. Again, another guy who got his first meaningful start, and I think he’ll continue to improve.
Q. Getting back to the volume of snaps a little bit, we often talk about it in game as wearing down. Can that be cumulative if it happens week after week after week? (John McMullen)
Vic Fangio: No, you can’t let it emotionally. We tell them very early in training camp, we have no control how we get on the field. We control how we get off the field and that’s where our mindset is.
Q. Seemed like it was an uptick in blitzing LB Zack Baun last week, just what was the plan behind that? (Brooks Kubena)
Vic Fangio: Yeah, that was a little bit of the plan going in and it helped us for the most part. The one third-and-eight that they converted when they kind of backed up, that ended up being a bad call by me. But for the most part, it was successful.
Q. You said before that it’s a fallacy to say that there’s really halftime adjustments that are made. It kind of happens probably earlier than over the course of a game, but if a defense does have a lot of success coming out of the half in that third quarter, is there anything that does kind of contribute to that, that you’ve done in halftime or that you’ve done in preparation? (Jeff McLane)
Vic Fangio: It’s all in preparation and you see the way the game’s going, the entire game. Every game is its own entity, and you just have to constantly adjust. Halftime is 12 minutes long, as you guys know, you got to come down and it’s a jaunt in our stadium, it’s longer than most. The point is you got to be making adjustments constantly. The major adjustment that you might do at halftime is if you want to change a scheme or something and you want to explain it to the players, but our coaches are constantly talking to the players in between series.
Q. It’s first we’ve talked to you since QB Jalen Hurts has been sidelined for the season. What are your reflections on that, what a player like that’s going through? (Brooks Kubena)
Vic Fangio: Yeah. I mean, it’s not good for him, but the good news is he’ll recover fully and be able to pick up whenever he’s healthy to get right back at it. Jalen’s a very tough-minded individual. He’ll take this and turn it into a positive somehow.
Q. When you mentioned that sometimes you might have to call a game a little differently based on the flow of it. Is that just a decision you make on your own as the DC [defensive coordinator], or do you take input from the head coach in a situation like that? (Dave Zangaro)
Vic Fangio: No, on my own.
Q. What kind of adjustments would you have to make in those kind of circumstances? (Tim McManus)
Vic Fangio: Maybe take a little bit more chances in that regard.