Shane Steichen

Q. Head Coach Nick Sirianni said yesterday, Mike McCoy used to ask him if he thought about Von Miller today or Khalil Mack, so how many times has he asked you if you thought about Cowboys LB Micah Parsons? (Ed Kracz)

SHANE STEICHEN: A lot. He’s a really good football player. I know Coach mentioned it yesterday. He has to be accounted for on every play.

He flies around. They line him up all over the place. Really good pass rusher. He has speed. He has power. So, we have to be aware of him.

It’s a really good defense we’re facing. They’re very sound in what they do. They play hard. They’re physical. It’s going to be a heck of a challenge for us. Again, one we’re looking really forward to.

I know The Linc [Lincoln Financial Field] will be rocking on Sunday night, so we’re fired up for it.

Q. Nick said on some of those screens the hots were to throw them. Were they all that, and how did you like QB Jalen Hurts and how he handled all that blitzing? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: I thought he was great. Just to see it the way he did. They pressured us. He got the ball out of his hands quick. He was efficient doing it. He was 72% on the day.

Some of the things they did, we had to get the ball out quick, and I thought he handled it well.

Q. The explosive play rate was the lowest it’s been this year. You had long drives. Was it a function of the way they were playing you? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yes, each game is going to be different. Every game is going to be different. Obviously, we want to push the ball down the field. That game was a little different the way it played out, but we want to create those explosive plays. That’s something we want to create every week. Hopefully, we’ll get that done this week.

Q. Any influence from C Jason Kelce on those QB sneaks? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: Shoot, yeah, if you listen to his podcast, it’s all about the QB sneak. What did we run? Up to seven of them I believe, and we got six of them. Need one yard, QB sneak.

Q. Are there things that go into those plays beyond the obvious? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: Those things we talk about throughout the week and how we want to do it. It’s very efficient. You need one yard. Quarterback sneak is the way to go. What did he say it was? 99%, 92% getting a yard on a QB sneak, so it’s an efficient play.

Q. What have you seen from the Cowboys in the way they disguise their pass rush not just with Cowboys LB Micah Parsons, but Cowboys LB Leighton Vander Esch and those other guys? How do they disguise it? (Chris Franklin)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, they do a nice job. Like I said, they put guys in different spots. [Cowboys DE DeMarcus] Lawrence is a heck of a pass rusher. Parsons, Vander Esch. They have a good front. They do a really nice job.

I don’t want to get into too much scheme about how they do their things. That’s stuff we’re looking at right now, but they do a really good job.

Q. Going back to what Jeff McLane was asking you about the blitz and everything. Specifically, that third and 12 to TE Dallas Goedert, can you kind of describe what Jalen Hurts was going through, like what he saw? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, that was the play of the game. It was awesome by him. We were third and 12 there. We had a man-play on. He killed it to a zone play. Had great eyes. Stood in the pocket. Gave [TE] Dallas [Goedert] a great throw away from the defender, and then Dallas was so strong at the finish to go get that first down and get that YAC afterwards. It was a hell of a play by him.

Q. We’ve seen the NFL kind of be pretty hypersensitive with the concussion stuff now. Dolphins QB Teddy Bridgewater was pulled out of a game for what an NFL spotter thought he saw a wobble. Is there any concern about Jalen Hurts now running the ball and getting up and maybe taking a wrong step and being flagged for the rest of the game with a concussion? (Ed Kracz)

SHANE STEICHEN: I really don’t want to comment on that stuff, to be honest. I know the NFL, that’s their protocol right now. I’ll leave it at that.

Q. When you guys are in 13 personnel what makes WR DeVonta Smith the typical receiver in this? (EJ Smith)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think that’s week to week. That game he was in on 13 personnel. It could be [WR] A.J. [Brown]. It could be [WR] Quez [Watkins] depending on what we are doing.

We saw some things that we looked out of 13 that week, so we had that series where we were running it good, and then we had Dallas on the seam ball out of 13. That was just the way that drive went.

Q. So why WR DeVonta Smith more in those packages versus WR A.J. Brown? (Jeff McLane)  

SHANE STEICHEN: Well, that was just that game. I don’t know how many snaps have we been in 13 personnel this year. I couldn’t tell you the exact number, but that was just the way that game played out.

Q. It’s been most of the season DeVonta has played much more. Not much more, but a significant percentage higher than A.J. I was wondering why him in those packages versus A.J.? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: No particular reason. That’s the way it’s been playing out.

Q. I’m sure a lot of teams have Micah Parsons high on their radar going into a game, but he has been very effective regardless. What is it about his skill set that allows him to overcome the extra attention? (Tim McManus)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think he just has so much speed and power, like I said earlier. He is so fast off the edge and the way he retraces back on certain plays and chasing down guys, I mean, it’s very impressive to see him fly around.

Even when you are accounting for him, like Coach Sirianni said the other day, this guy is going to make plays. You have to be accounted for with him, but he is going to find a way to make plays, but we have to limit those plays on Sunday.

Q. For part of the first half you had, like, three of your starting offensive linemen out. You had G Sua Opeta in there, C/G Cam Jurgens, and T/G Jack Driscoll. What did you see from those three guys when they were in the game? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: It was awesome. Those guys came in and battled. All those guys. It was a really good group effort the way they step up.

And it goes back again, like I say, to the preparation. When guys need to come in and step up, they’re prepared. Stout [run game coordinator/offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland] does a heck of a job preparing those guys every week for whatever may happen in the game. For those guys to step in and do what they did, it was impressive.

[T/G Jack] Driscoll was awesome. [G] Isaac [Seumalo] battled. [C Jason] Kelce battled, came back. [T] Lane [Johnson], again, has been phenomenal all year. Lane is playing his butt off. It’s really fun to see.

Q. Have you noticed maybe TE Dallas Goedert having more space to get open or more open this year because of WR A.J. Brown and WR DeVonta Smith, two receivers now attracting maybe more attention on the defense? (Ed Kracz)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think so. Any time you have three guys that are really good athletes on the outside, you know, some guys are going to get more attention than others, and it does open up space. I think depending on what the defense does, that dictates where that ball is going to go and the space that’s going to open up and if they want to double somebody, it creates matchups on other players. It definitely helps.

Q. There have been a couple times this year when we’ve asked you about target sharing. It’s easy for us to track it in the press box with our computers in front of us. On the sideline how aware are you of the target share on a drive basis and throughout the game? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: We’re aware of that. We want to get all our guys the ball, and we say this every week. There’s one football, and we’re trying to get everyone targets and everyone footballs.

I think Week 2 against Minnesota it played out pretty good. I think everyone got, what, eight, nine catches. The three guys that we’re trying to get the ball to the most, and then some games it’s going to be different.

In a perfect world we would love everybody to get eight, nine catches every game, but games are going to play out differently. Again, like I said, we want to get all our guys the ball.

Q. Are you calling plays accordingly? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Absolutely. We have plays up on the call sheet to where we want to get our guys the ball. Sometimes they might take that player away to where we have to move on to our next read.

Q. On the third and five or third and goal at the end there, what was the breakdown there? What did you think was going to work, and what went wrong? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: We felt they were going to be in blitz zero there, which they were. We felt like we could get outside a little bit and drift and throw a touchdown there. It just didn’t work out exactly how we wanted it to, but we were prepared for that situation.

Q. The broadcast seemed to pick up you saying, “trust me” to Jalen Hurts. Is that what you said, and what was he trusting you on? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: That was just the call and the preparation part of it. The night before, we talk about the plays. Hey, if we get down in this situation, it’s third and goal. Hey, boom, here are the calls. It’s going to be zero. Like, let’s just go with it.

It was just a normal conversation like you would have with anybody. Like, hey, trust me, let’s go. This is the call. We good? Everyone good? Let’s go. That’s what it was.

Q. What made you decide to pound it on the ground after that final drive? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: It was 17-17. We wanted to win that football game. So, we started running it, and we were running it good, and we started just running it and keep running it, and then they were able to burn their timeouts there at the end, which was awesome. That was a thought process there.

Our offensive line did a heck of a job. The backs all good. The tight ends blocked. I thought it was an impressive way to finish the game.

To finish a game like that, you know, the game was an up-and-down game, but to find a way to win it at the end like that, I think it shows a lot about who we are as a football team.

Q. With Jalen Hurts switching plays at the line, is that happening more frequently this year; and if so, what does it speak to? (Tim McManus)

SHANE STEICHEN: That’s just the preparation part of it and being in the system for two years and understanding what we’re trying to do, offensively. It’s the trust we have with him at the line of scrimmage getting to the right play.