Everything Matt Rhule Said Following the Win Over New Orleans

RE: Opening Statement

"It’s not a perfect game. A lot of things we still have to improve upon. A lot of things that showed up in the first couple games are still there. But I thought our guys competed. I thought our defense took the ball away and scored on defense. I brought that up when you guys asked me this week. We challenged them to not just get the ball but score. It was great to see some great efforts by some guys - Derrick Brown, Marquis Haynes, Frankie Luvu getting that ball out and Laviska [Shenault] giving us a spark on offense. Excited for the guys. 1-0. We will have the same approach this week that we had last week, just trying to get better and try to do it again next week."

RE: Laviska Shenault's performance today

"We had a couple plays for him. Early on we ran a play where we ran back on a naked and they defended him so we had some plays for him. Certainly, that ball that he caught, really, he is kind of running a flat route and it’s really supposed to go to the other guy but they played it differently. Baker [Mayfield] read it perfectly and got on the ball and he turned and ran down the field. People in this room have heard me talk. I thought he was going to give us a spark. I woke up this morning to a text from Garret McGuire to Laviska and I, showing that they went to rival high schools. Garret is one of our young coaches saying, ‘hey, this is all we need to see today.’ It was hinting at DeSoto. Laviska is kind of a competitive guy and so that’s why we traded for him. He has come far enough along that we feel like we have a good feel for him. It was good. He had a good kickoff return. We will just continue to up his workload now that we can see what he can truly do."

RE: Impact of the blitz package for Phil Snow and playing Jeremy Chinn up more in the box?

"We played Chinn [in the box] some. We really tried to pressure more. We kind of talked about that. But then it hurt us on a couple. They threw some up at the end. It got outside contained. But we knew coming into the game we were going to pressure a little bit more than we have. I thought they did a good job starting the second half out. They ran the football more at us. They just kept running the ball. I think really when I look back at the game, stopping the run and holding them to 84 yards was really a big key in the game. We wanted to get Chinn involved in some of the pressure packages. Some guys went down early. Donte Jackson went down, CJ Henderson went down, Xavier Woods went down at the end. Guys just kept stepping up and playing which was great."

RE: Tone set from Frankie Luvu’s strip that led to Marquis Hayes Jr. touchdown?

"I think it just unleashed at least the spirit for the defense. I think the defense heard all week about not getting takeaways and our challenge wasn’t just to get takeaways but to try and go score on D. So for Frankie to go and rip the ball out and not kind of land on the ground but for him to rip the ball out which is something that we want for Marquis to scoop and score like that, I think that is exactly what our team needed. Later obviously when you have your nose tackle in a 3-technique making a diving interception and then Jaycee [Horn] finished it. We know those guys can make plays and we just keep coaching them. The guys keep working trying to get to this point where it all shows up."

RE: Mood in the locker room after the length of time between home wins

"You guys know me, I’m not the one to ‘so long thing.’ We lost two games. We are not doing that. At least I’m not and I hope you guys all respect that. We are 0-2. Now, we are 1-2. We are 1-0 this week. We will play again next week. So these guys have done a tremendous job of staying really true to the narrative, not that I’m saying, but they are setting of, ‘hey, let’s get better this week, let’s get better this week.’ I think there are a lot of guys in there that said, ‘hey, we did well but the guys on defense feel like we should have finished the game better. Offensively, obviously Christian [McCaffrey] had that long run that could have ended the game or changed the game a little bit, gets called back. Well, Laviska gets us back on track. I think they are happy to win. They worked so hard to win. They want to hear the fans cheer like they did at the end. It was a great atmosphere today. I appreciate everyone for coming. But they also know there is a lot more work to do."

RE: Why the offense isn’t creating explosive plays?

"I honestly knew we weren’t going to get behind them today. They have too many crafty veteran players back there. You are playing against Marshon Lattimore. You are playing against Tyrann Mathieu. You are playing against guys who have played a ton. We knew we weren’t going to get behind them. We thought we would be more explosive in the intermediate areas. We weren’t. There is a lot of work to be done offensively to get this thing to the level that we want. I think when we have 145 yards rushing and a big run called back at the end. That’s really coming along. I think our O-line is coming along. Again, I’ll go back to the third downs. I think we were 1 of 6 or 1 of 7 at halftime. We finished 4 of 14, plus a 4th down conversion we didn’t get. Those are probably what is holding us back also. But you know what, I think Baker [Mayfield], every week we expect him to get better and better in the new system. We expect the guys to continue to generate. To win a football game in the NFC South and have Robbie [Anderson] and DJ [Moore] each have one catch, I wouldn’t have thought that would happen. DJ takes the reverse and I just feel like we are going to keep coaching it and hope that it gets better next week. It has to get better next week."

RE: When he decided to activate Laviska Shenault Jr. and why

"We knew he was probably going to be the kickoff returner on Monday. Just felt like it was time. Felt like it was time for him just watching him in practice. He’s a competitive guy, makes a ton of plays in practice. Just felt like it was time. Again, all week, I just had to see it all week. I had to see him practice well. I had to see him prepare well. I walked in this morning at 9 am and he was in the treatment room. Usually, I’m one of the first guys here on game day. He was in there getting ready. I knew he was ready to go. I think he is a real competitive kid."

RE: Timing between Baker Mayfield and receivers

"I have to watch the tape. I have to be careful everything I say right now. I don’t want to say it’s this guy then it’s that guy or say it’s that guy and it’s this guy. I have to go back and watch the tape to see what it is. At the end of the day, we protected the football on offense. We ran the football on offense. We were able to do a couple things in key moments to go score. Had an explosive touchdown when we needed it. They went down and scored. I think that in the National Football League, when you can answer a score with a score at the end of the game, you have a competitive team. Laviska went and answered a score with a score so I’ll watch the tape and try to give you guys good answers in the next couple of days."

RE: Seeing players pick other players up

"We are trying to have the team, I think we got the right people, I think we have a really good foundation built. We are trying to have our guys be guys that understand that through adversity, it can turn you into something that is so ferocious, so competitive. So, we have those types of guys. At the end of the day, they made three or four great catches with us right on them. That was one at the end of the half. Then we are trying to have our guys just win the next rep. Just play the next play. Two – you know the blocked field goal was awesome. I thought that was exactly what we needed. This is one of the best 2-minute end-of-half/end-of-game offenses that there is in football the last two years. To get that field goal blocked and have the miss coming out of the half, I thought those were crucial things. I think one of the keys to the story early on down in the red zone was we were able to hold them out of the end zone and force them to get to that field goal."

RE: Excitement after today’s win

"Oh yes. Please don’t get me wrong. I wanted to win the first week. I wanted to win the second week. I’m just not going to feed into ‘hey, its been this long or that long.’ That’s one of the problems, honestly, that we are trying to get our guys past. Just because we won this week, doesn’t mean you are going to win next week. Every week, just go compete. That’s what the greats do. They get to the end of the game like that and they love it. They love all the pressure on them. I think we are seeing a team that’s like that. The first two weeks, we got down to the end, we competed all the way to the end and it didn’t go our way. We talked a lot about finishing this week and at the end of day Jaycee [Horn] picks the ball off to finish it. Christian [McCaffrey] hits the long run. It came back but we did a lot of things to finish the game. We are not a perfect team right now, so we are just going to try and get better and better at it. Trust me, I’m happy. I’m happy we won and I’m happy for these guys. But, I’ll say this and it may sound corny and I get it but I don’t care. At the end of the day, the true victory is they responded on Monday and they responded on Wednesday. You guys are in the locker room. I don’t think you see a bunch of guys pouting or whatever. They just keep fighting back. That’s the thing that’s really important to me."

RE: Whether the score on defense took pressure off players and coaches today

"We went into this game as coaches saying we were going to let it rip. Even the double-reverse to DJ [Moore] there. We were just going to let it rip and trust the guys to make plays. I think the defense had heard all week, hey, you’re not getting takeaways, you’re not getting takeaways. As a coach, I’m pushing the takeaways, but I’m also pushing, hey it’s also going to come. Week 1 to week 2, we worked on tackling and improved the tackling. In week 2 to week 3, we were better at taking the ball away. So, I just think with this group, we have to identify what we didn’t do well and try to improve upon that. So, there is a lot of things we have to better at. But, that was a good win for us in a lot of ways."

RE: Offensive line progression this season

"Yeah, I think the offensive line has played well. We got beat too many times. The left side is still young and they are a work in progress. We got beat twice on twist games that at the end of the half we got the ball. We blocked that kick. I think we had 21 seconds or 27 seconds and two timeouts. I wanted to go kick a field goal and score. We gave up the sack. There are some things that have to continue to improve over there and we knew early on playing some young guys, a second-year player and a first-year player, it will take some time. The long run at the end gets called back for a hold. We have to be better. There is lots of good things. I do feel the interior of our line is strong. I do feel like we are running the football well. If we can just stay on the field some more third downs, I think we will really see the offensive line get into rhythm."

RE: How close the defense is to going from good to great

"I hope they don’t come in and start, saying, ‘hey we’re this, we’re that.’ It’s one game. I think they wish they would have ended the game better. We can’t give up that long touchdown at the end of the game so quickly. We are doing a lot of things well. I think one of the keys is that we are stopping the run. I don’t know how many sacks we had today, I am not sure, but we were able to affect the ball, but there is a lot of room to improve on defense."

RE: Whether you are surprised the offense is a work in progress since to many things are new

"It’s just kind is what it is. Honestly, I have a lot of confidence and faith in the offense. Right now, it’s always like a bunch of little things, it’s the twist game on third-and-five when I think we are going to nail it. It’s the third-and-four that gets down to fourth-and-one, I feel like we are just one more yard. Its kind of like the defense last week, we are going to just keep coaching them. The guys in that room, we believe in, we are going to keep coaching them, keep trying to get them involved. I don’t have a great answer right now, to be quite honest. I have to watch the tape from this game and see what things happened. I will say this, we knew going into this game, and I think you guys heard me say this all week, the Saints are one of the best defenses in the National Football League. Great red zone defense, great third down defense, great passing defense. We knew it was going to be a challenge and we were just able to make a couple more plays."

RE: What he saw on the challenge of the kickoff return and his discussion with the refs

"I looked up to see what happened. I challenged it, because I couldn’t tell from the angle. I was hoping he didn’t get touched. Obviously, they didn’t overturn it, which means they felt like when he hit his knee down that he got touched. You guys probably have better angles in the pressbox than I did, I look at the jumbotron. I took a shot at it. They said to me, ‘hey if you want to challenge it, you have to challenge it.’ So, I challenged it, hoping to get the ball right there at the 15. I don’t know what happened."

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