Saturday, August 12, 2017 

Head Coach Mike Zimmer

After evaluating the tape, really there were some good things that happened all along. The first two plays offensively we drove them off the ball, had some nice surges and good runs, a six yard gain. Then the two sacks kind of set us off a little bit. Defensively I thought there was some good things. We didn't cover good enough all night, really what I said after the ball game. Still a lot of things to work on, but I still like the way this team works and how they respond to things, so we'll get better this week.

Q: How much will it help to have the offensive line you planned for all playing together and healthy?

A: Well as soon as we figure out who the offensive line is going to be it will help. We want to do it sooner than later, but we want to make sure we get the right five guys in there. [Pat] Elflein played very, very well. He had one bad snap, but he played really well. He missed one guy, he took a poor angle. [Nick] Easton played well. [Danny] Isidora did some good things. [Willie] Beavers, early he played well but it looked like he got tired or something late. Some of these young guys are starting to show up.

Q: Is playing well on the offensive line a function of fixing mental mistakes or of how well physically they react to defenders?

A: That's a good question. It's not so much mental. We had very few mental errors, but there was a couple where we took improper steps or we crossed over, things like that. The physicality of the guys is good, so that hasn't been an issue. It's more about technique errors, so that's really what we're working to clean up.

Q: Is Riley Reiff closed to being able to play?

A: I don't know. He practiced a little bit today, and he's getting better every day. We'll give him a little bit more tomorrow, and see how he comes out of today.

Q: What did you see out of your young defenders, such as Dylan Bradley or Eric Wilson?

A: The thing that showed up on tape with Wilson, he's playing the Mike linebacker, which is probably a little out of position for him, but we're trying to get looks at [Edmund] Robinson and [Emmanuel] Lamur and getting [Ben] Gedeon at the Will. So he's playing a little bit out of position, but he can run around and hit, I thought he did good on special teams. Dylan needs to continue to show the quickness that we saw on him in college. He was actually playing a little bit out of position because we put Jaleel Johnson in the three technique this week, and we put him at nose. That's really not his best position.

Q: How did Eric Wilson do in pass coverage?

A: Like a lot of these young guys, they semi go the wrong way a lot. The one ball that Edmond [Robinson] tipped, he should've been over there. He kind of dropped to the other side. So, it's still kind of a learning process, in coverage, with those guys. 

*Q: Your veteran secondary doesn't make many mental mistakes, do they? *

A: We're pretty simple with what we do. It's basically cover your guy. They don't have to be real intelligent for that. We didn't have many mental errors, we just didn't cover very good. We were soft in coverage, when we were off we were soft. We opened up way too early when we're bumping and running. So, we spent a lot of today on that. We spent a lot of time in the film room today on that. Our receivers didn't get off the press very good. The quarterback didn't have places to go with the football. We've got to do better with the receivers and DBs than we did the other night.

Q: Is that a function of guys not practicing pressing until later in camp?

A: Yeah, I think part of it. Because a lot of the guys that we have, haven't had an issue with it. It takes work. When you're playing against somebody that you haven't really studied, we had half a day of cards on it. They might release a little bit different or they might bump you a little bit different than what we do. It's always a little bit of a change. When you start studying the other team or game planning, then you have an idea how they're going to approach it.

Q: Will you try to do more of that going into Seattle?

A: It's about us. We've got to get better. We can't worry about Seattle right now. It'll be a great test. It's going to be a great atmosphere for us. It's going to be loud, like a regular season game there. We had three penalties, we didn't have any pre-snap penalties in the ball game, which is good. The penalties we did have, other than maybe the hold on Boone, the push in the back on Floyd, it's hard, he's got to pull off of it. It's an effort play that he made a bad decision on the end. I can live with those things. Try to correct them as we get into the tape.

Q: How did Dalvin Cook's play look on tape?

A: Good. He didn't have a lot of open space. He had good runs, he had effective runs. I guess the one pass that he caught on the sideline there and the other screen pass, it kind of showed his ability a little bit more than when he can really hit a crease and go. You didn't really see that the other night, it just wasn't there. The first two plays of the game we knocked them off the ball 4-5 yards. He got what was there. The thing I liked about him was, when it got into tight quarters, he lowered his shoulder and tried to fight for the extra couple yards.

Q: Was that sack due to Cook not chipping the DE?

A: He was supposed to help, yes. He was supposed to help. It was poor technique by Rashod [Hill] but he was expecting help to the outside. 

Q: What do you think of Bronson Hill?

A: Rick and those guys looked at him, I didn't look at him.