Shane Steichen

Q. You guys did a better job of getting the ball out quick. Obviously, game plan oriented but how much did the O-line issues factor into that? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think those guys, when they went out and played, I thought all those guys that came in; [C/G Nate Herbig], and [OL] Landon [Dickerson], and [T/G] Jack [Driscoll], I thought they did a heck of a job. They battled the whole game. They fought their buts off. I thought overall it was a good performance for those guys.

Q. When you go back to the first fourth down, Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni was talking about maybe the play getting in a little bit late. What was the communication there getting that play in and what decision – (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, we had a kill on it and when you have a kill on it and there’s two plays being called, we just got to get it in quicker. That’s the bottom line. I got to do a better job myself there.

Q. We saw a lot of ineligible men downfield penalties, it looks like on the RPOs. It looks like that’s a pretty big part of your offense. How do you fix that? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: We just got to continue to work it and talk through it. I mean, that’s the biggest thing, right? We just got to keep that space between not going all the way down the field. You know what I mean?

You got to keep that one yard in between those guys. That’s the biggest thing. We got to keep working it.

Q. Are there things that the opponents are doing to slow up the timing on the throw or is that just you guys offensively executing? (Geoff Mosher)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, we just got to control ourselves off the line of scrimmage a little bit sometimes. Because you can hand it off and you got to get up to the second level to block those guys, so that’s something we got to keep working through.

Q. What did you see from QB Jalen Hurts this past week that looked better than what he’s done, like, in the past? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think, more than anything, he’s continuing to grow. And the consistency is the biggest thing right now with him, and he’s continuing.

You know, we got to keep stacking those games on top of each other, just the consistency. Obviously, the completions he’s getting, the big plays he’s creating, we got to continue to do that.

Q. RB Kenneth Gainwell is such an interesting player for a young fifth-round pick, to be able to catch the ball like he does. What makes him such a special receiver? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think he’s got really good hands and he’s got a great ability to find the dead spots in zones and his speed. We’ve hit some shallows to him, so his speed is big. He’s got really good hands. He’s got a good feel for that.

Q. After the first two, maybe three, possessions, the offense seemed to have less motion and maybe more traditional drop backs. Was that by design because the first 15 plays were scripted or was that just the way the game was going? (Geoff Mosher)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think that’s just the way the game was going. Like we talked about the last week, we’re going to use motions to help us. And, obviously, we have certain things that we have set up to where there is no motion where we feel we can get an advantage there.

Q. If you guys were ahead by a touchdown or so and not behind, do you think that you would have – it would have looked more like the first quarter with what you guys were doing offensively? (Geoff Mosher)

SHANE STEICHEN: Not necessarily. I think we go with what we got in our game plan, and we go and try to create plays that way.

Q. This Panthers defense was a top defense in the league up until this past week, anyway. What do they do well? (Jimmy Kempski)

SHANE STEICHEN: They’re really fast. These guys can fly around the football. They got speed off the edge. I know [Panthers LB] Shaq Thompson is out, but he’s a really good football player. And then [Panthers DE Brian] Burns is a really good football player. They got really good football players. They got really good speed, like I said. And they can fly around and tackle. That’s the bottom line.

Q. As far as RB Kenneth Gainwell goes, how do you balance the reps that he gets versus what RB Miles Sanders gets? (Ed Kracz)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think those are things that we talk about through the week. Like, we put guys in position – what we think guys do best, and then we put them in position to make plays.

So, if we feel that Kenny gives us the best chance in this situation to make a play, we’ll put him in. Same thing with Miles. If we think he gives the best chance in a situation, we put Miles in.

Q. In watching the film, Nick gave us his assessment with what happened with WR DeVonta Smith and the illegal touching. Rewatching it again, do you agree with him that it was kind of back and forth in terms of –  (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, it was. It was back and forth. It was tough. Obviously, DeVonta would say this, too, we have to hold the line a little more. You know, hold the line a little more. We just got to do a better job there. It’s happened to us twice now.

Q. What happened with WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside on that OPI that he had that took away the touchdown from TE Zach Ertz? What do you tell him with that? (Ed Kracz)

SHANE STEICHEN: We tell him – obviously, the guy that was covering Zach, right, we’re trying to create an interference there. Obviously, the guy bubbled over the top. It was a tough call. They called it and it’s something we got to live with, and we got to go from there. 

Q. As a play caller, what have you learned about Nick? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Nicks’ been great. He’s feeling the flow of the game right. And, obviously, we’re hitting some big plays and some chunks. And once you get into the flow of the game and you’re calling it and things are rolling, everything just starts to roll a little bit. You know what I mean?

Q. The growing pains that you guys are kind of dealing with, you know, as far as – you mentioned the two penalties on the receivers, things like that. I mean, how much does that – like, did you kind of expect coming into the season with such a young receiving core and a young quarterback and everything like that? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I don’t know if I expected a ton. But like you said, some of those things happen, right? And you just got to teach them and overcome them. And we got to keep learning from those things.

Q. How much teaching, like, are you guys doing with – (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Oh, tons. We’re trying to grow and get better for – everything we have a mistake on, we got to correct it in the film room. That’s the biggest thing. 

Q. In talking with us yesterday, Nick said that explosive plays are one of the two things he looks for in the stat sheet after a game. It’s obvious that teams want explosive plays, but as play callers, what can you do to create those? What goes into creating explosive plays? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Obviously, you scheme them up. I mean, there’s certain things that you see from a coverage standpoint where you say, ‘Hey, they’re always in this coverage when we get into this formation.’

Or if we do this motion or whatever it may be to create those chunk plays, that’s what we’re trying to do.

Q. In moving Landon to left guard: Is it fair to say that part of the reason for that was knowing that G Isaac Seumalo is out for the year and this will be Landon’s spot for the rest of the year as opposed to G Brandon Brooks maybe coming back? (Bo Wulf)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I don’t know it will be his spot for the rest of the year. Could it be? Yeah, it could be. But we’re working through it and we’re going to play the best five guys every week.

Q. Back to the illegal downfield stuff. Nick said it’s been a point of emphasis around the league. So, if it continues that way, you guys might have to think about calling it less. Have you seen that? Is it borderline, is it bang-bang? Or have you guys been making that mistake? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: No, I think we’re working through it. Like I said, there’s some close calls. And I get it, the officials got to make the calls when they got to make them.

So, we got to continue to work through those. But, obviously, we just got to do a really good job of, like I said, not going downfield. That’s the biggest thing. We got to do a good job. If we want to keep that in our offense, we got to do that.

Q. What was the coaching point with WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside on the pick play? Did he extend too much or – (Geoff Mosher)

SHANE STEICHEN: Like I said, the guy that was covering him, he’s trying to go and create interference right there. And the guy bubbled over the top and he put his arm out on the guy that was covering him. And I think they saw that and that’s what they called, and we got to live with that.

Q. The arm was the problem there, you think? (Les Bowen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I mean, that’s what the officials called. That’s what it looked like.

Q. You talked about how you figure out Kenny and Miles, what they do best. Miles is used to being the guy from the last year and a half, at least. How has he reacted to the way he’s sharing reps with Kenny? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think Miles is fine. We all know that Miles is a heck of a football player, obviously. And we want to get Miles the ball as much as we can. And I think Coach [Sirianni] hit it on it the other day, right? We have runs where it’s a zone read play, we have runs where it’s an RPO play. So, we’re reading the guy. Right?

So, if [QB] Jalen [Hurts] sees a defensive end, and he crashes, he’s going to pull it. If he plays up the field, we’re going to hand the ball off. So, that goes into it.

Q. Nick said he wanted to see more big plays off of when Jalen scrambles. Is it more of the wide receivers and tight ends getting used to the rules when those break downs happen? (Chris Franklin)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, that’s on me. I think we got continue to practice that. We got to put – I got to put – when we script plays during practice, we got to create more scramble drills in practice.

We do a couple a week, but we need to do more of that so we can get better at that. 

Q. What are the teaching points for that? (Bo Wulf)

SHANE STEICHEN: We want to have good spacing when we scramble. So, when we scramble, guys, receivers, where they’re running routes, right, one guy goes low, one guy goes high, one gets in the middle, and the other back guys – you are basically creating five on a dice, right?

We want to have good spacing. And so, whenever he scrambles to the left, you kind of flow to the left. He scrambles to the right, everyone flows to the right. But everyone’s got to have good spacing when we do that.

Q. When you guys face third and long and you are in 11-personnel, what have you found of the teams so far this year? How do they defend you, and what personnel is it? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think that’s week to week, to be honest. Like, defensively, if you look at – when you break down third down, like, ‘What are teams doing on third and 11 plus from a coverage standpoint?’

Some teams play soft, right, and some teams are aggressive. So, our third and 11-plus calls are dictated off of what they’re doing defensively.

Q. Personnel-wise though – (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: I don’t think there’s a big – on third and 11-plus, I don’t think there’s a huge personnel – I think the defense is going to play what they have called.

Q. WR Jalen Reagor had the 12-yard run, and the 9-yard screen, obviously the 44-yard kickoff return. Are you guys still figuring out — trying to figure out creative ways to get the ball in his hands quicker and is that something that can be implemented more? (Geoff Mosher)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think so. Jalen is an explosive player. We want to get the ball in everyone’s hands. We got a lot of good football players.

Like I said, the other week, there’s one football, right, to get all these guys touches. But anything we can do to get him involved, we want to do that.