Blue White Illustrated

S E P T E M B E R 9 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 7 C O A C H S P E A K • E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S P O S T G A M E P R E S S E R Have you ever had a team like this where you could give up time of pos- session and still control the game of- fensively? The game has changed, and I think time of possession is a stat that people used to look at for a long time and was a major factor in wins and loses. I don't think it is as much of a factor anymore with these teams that are playing this style of offense. They're winning a high percentage of games and losing time of possession. Obviously, you'd like it to be a little more balanced, and whenever you get to the extremes, that's when there are problems. It's not different than any- thing else in life. It's not as big of a factor as it's been in the past, but for us we are mainly worried about the scoreboard. Was there a concerted effort to get Saquon Barkley more touches in the second half? Not really. Our offense and our game plans in this RPO system [are designed] to take what the defense gives, and they were using a lot of interior pressures and trying to take our running game and inside zone package in between the tackles away. We did some things to get the ball to the perimeter later in the game during the second half, which I think helped us. Your defense was on the field for more than 38 minutes, in terms of time of possession. What does that say about your depth and condition- ing on that side of the ball? I think it's good, obviously. Our defense was on the field a lot, but we were able to hold them to field goals for most of the game, created some turnovers, and we played a lot of guys again. We played a lot of guys throughout the game, which is going to be important to us moving for- ward. I saw some of the young guys get on and [they] did some really good things as well, so we're going to have to con- tinue to do that. We practice really hard with a really fast tempo. We don't ever condition a@er practice. It's all condi- tioning through practice and maximiz- ing the time that we're out there, so I'm pleased with where we're at. How much does your speed on spe- cial teams play into the success of that unit? I think it's huge. We've got a two-deep on our kickoff team and our punt team right now that can run down the field and beat blocks and make plays.

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