Doug Pederson spoke Sunday and Monday, so today it was Jim Schwartz and Mike Groh at the dais for their weekly press conferences.

Notes from Schwartz:

  • Colts came in as the best third down team in the NFL, was happy with keeping them to 2-12 on third and thinks that had as much to do with stopping them as the stout red zone defense
  • there’s “no such thing” as halftime adjustments in the NFL, adjustments are made after every series, team has a resilient group of players and gets better after each drive
  • Rodney McLeod took part in a walk through Tuesday, but Schwartz punted that injury question to Doug Peterson
  • Marcus Mariota is probably the fastest QB in the NFL, efficient out of the bootleg and forces you play clean across the board, remain disciplined playing against that kind of player
  • felt like the second pass interference against Jalen Mills was a good call, didn’t think the first call was as bad, believes that Mills had a good bounce back game and made some big plays when called on, specifically the pass defense in the end zone against Eric Ebron (which I mentioned earlier today)
  • team hasn’t been playing a ton of snaps defensively, makes the snap percentages seem misleading since the time of possession has been lopsided in favor of the Eagles
  • keeping corners on one side vs. following matchups around the field: “there’s a consistency in technique… lot of layers in trying to match certain players on certain players all the time” (Schwartz points out that T.Y. Hilton moved around a lot on Sunday)

Schwartz was also asked about the bevy of flags being thrown for roughing the quarterback, in specific reference to the new rule that disallows defenders to land with their weight on top of the player:

“Yeah, you know it’s a difficult thing. First, you’ve got the strike zone where you can hit him. You can’t hit him in the head and neck area and you can’t hit him in the knee area, so you have a very short target area there. You saw one last night where a guy is trying to bat a pass and just hits a guy in the head. You’ve just got to stay away from stuff like that. It’s difficult, but I think what you’re referring to is the whole new layer of landing on a guy with your weight. And again, you talk about a difficult thing, you’ve got guys who are fighting a 300 pound offensive lineman and trying to get to the quarterback, not sure if the quarterback’s going to get rid of the ball, not sure if he’s not. We have an increase of scrambling quarterbacks – strong, scrambling quarterbacks – and we’ve seen them get out of our grasp before and you gotta tackle ’em, but then make sure you don’t land your weight on them. It’s the only player that we have that (rule) for. It’s not our job to make the rules, it’s our job to figure out a way to play around them. I don’t know if it can always be done. I think you can work to do it, you can try to spin out of your tackle. You can try to keep your weight from landing on a quarterback. It’s not always going to be possible. That’s life as a defensive lineman. Just like you’re trying to block a pass and your hand goes down and you scrape the quarterback’s helmet. You’re not trying to do that. Nobody is trying to do those things. They’re just trying to increase protection for the quarterback. But I think the double side of that is that as they’re trying to increase protection for the quarterback, we’re seeing more mobile quarterbacks, which makes it even more difficult, because you have to tackle them like running backs… these guys are mobile, they’re fast, they’re strong, and they’re becoming more like running backs. That’s what makes it so difficult.”

This is the play Schwartz is referring to:

https://twitter.com/CaseyBake16/status/1044398149597638656

Roughing the passer!

Anyway, Mike Groh:

  • Dallas Goedert did a nice job on Sunday, blocked well in addition to his pass catching, they’ll continue to “put more on his plate” moving forward
  • Carson Wentz “locked in” to Zach Ertz a bit on the interception, can clean that up
  • Josh Perkins is a big body who can really run, made some good plays for us in the first few weeks
  • going up-tempo on the first drive, felt like they could put some stress on the Colts early while also getting Wentz into the game (also likes the 13 personnel look with heavy tight end usage)
  • on the Colts’ sacks: combination of things, good coverage, good rush, holding the ball too long, one of the sacks was the result of Lane Johnson being held
  • Tennessee shows good pressure up front, made Blake Bortles uncomfortable last week in their 9-6 win
  • Still want to push the ball down the field, would like to create more explosive offensive plays