Starting quarterbacks you worked with at those times were guys who you know, Peyton at the time, he's already on his way. It's going to be a Hall of fame career in Philip Rivers, you know, borderline kind of guy, well established. How does experience working with those kinds of guys at that stage of their careers impact what you do with Carson and the quarterbacks here in a day to day basis. I think it gives you a vision
for where you want to be. You know, when you've worked with elite quarterbacks and then now you get a young guy who you believe is going to get there one day, and you understand what it took for these guys, you know, the Peyton Mannings and the Philip Rivers of the world to get to that point, the work that it took, the process that it went through, the ups and downs that they had. It kind of gives you a vision for that and it enables you to stay
focused on that vision. Possession thirty seven minutes. I don't think the team has been particularly been on third down conversions, which kind of just seems an odds are kind of possession. I know, you're fourth and four on fourth down, but how do you how do you explain? Yeah, I mean I think some of the explanation of the of the time of possession we had as a credit to the defense, for they just keep giving it back to us. And uh, you know, some of us been the fourth down conversions
that have kept drives alive. You know, um so that the third down numbers aren't good, but um you factor in those fourth down numbers, now it starts to at least get up there a little bit. Um so. But it's just it's a team thing. It's a lot of defense and um you know, holding them to three play drives and then us making a few plays here and there. Better work third downs, stay in phase. I mean, I
really I haven't looked at it. Uh you know, I just made a cut up the other day of all of our third downs, and and as I started to look back, I just know there's a lot of third and really long. Um. I don't know the exact numbers. Um, I didn't get to that point. But you got to stay in phase. You gotta get third and manageable. That's going to be key. And penalties put you in third and long. And if you get a second and long you've got to be good on second and long to
kind of get it back in phase. Carson is so successful against the Blitz, like he is the highest confusion percentage against the Blitz and the league. What goes into him? I think it starts, you know, with he and Kelsey being on the same page in protections, and I can't I can't even begin to tell you how how much of a benefit it is to Carson to have a guy like Jason Kelsey as a center. I mean, the
guy is brilliant. He's absolutely brilliant in past protection calls and scheme and he just has this air of confidence about him that I think sets the tone for what we do in the protection world. So and then Carson has that himself. He's just a little bit younger than Kelsey, so I think those two are on the same page. I think Carson is extremely confident that Kelsey is going to get the right things communicated up front. And then I think Carson has he has a fearlessness in the pocket.
The guy's not afraid. He'll stand in the pocket, make to throw versus pressure. He doesn't have an ounce of fear in him in the pocket, and that's one of the things I really love about him, and that's why one of the reasons why it's good against the Blitz. I mean it's pretty much I guess this way with every back. But you know, can he be effective just carrying at night times? Gets no? I mean you know no. I mean I think backs you want to get fifteen
twenty carries? So, um, you know, we we ran the ball fairly well in the second half, you know, Monday night. But still where I really believe that we're gonna our running game is just going to continue to get better. We've run it okay at times. I think we have a really good offensive line. I think our backs are good. Uh, I just think it's early in the process. We need to just keep handing in the footballs, you know. I mean,
our guys are our guys. You know you you you drill, you teach, and you encourage, you rebuke you know when. But um, I don't think you over emphasize it. You know, I just think you just keep playing football. Everybody knows no one wants to drop the ball. No one wants to throw a bad pass or miss a block or miss an assignment. So it's gonna happen. There's been a lot of evidence of positive things. So, um, I I
don't get two worked out. I don't like it when it happens, but you just got to move on to the next play played a night and you can pay into exactly what I think. We thought he was gonna do, make some plays and uh, what we thought the whole off season. You know, he worked. What he showed us the whole off season kind of put him in position where when Zach went down that he wasn't just filling in. This is a guy He's not just gonna fill in. We're gonna We're gonna go to him. I mean, Carson
has a ton of confidence in him. So um, you know, so we'll bounce it out. You know, we'll bounce it out. We got we gotta. We feel like we got a good staple guys that can make plays. Trey adds to mix. It's the way this is in the NFL. You know, it spreads around. You know, it's two weeks in a row, one guy gets the ball a lot, and then two weeks later, all of a sudden, hufs making all the plays or dgb's making It's just kind of you just get a feel for when that's kind of the way
it ends up working out. Usually it's all the running game back so far? Do you think, um, you know, I mean I think the running You know, we ran for one hundred and thirty three yards in the first game and you know, one hundred last games. So that's that's okay. I mean, that's that's acceptable. Um, it needs it needs to be better. We expect it to be better. But that's certainly in the acceptable range. Uh. We just have like to have a few more explosive runs and
keep it in phase. And but I think we're on our way to that more given cars in the option to run a little more and not a lot, maybe one or two times. And can people all open things up more for the run game or has there been a reluctance to do that because you're just afraid of getting your army? Um? You know, I think there has been and a little bit of thought into not putting him in that position to too much too early. UM. I would envision as the season goes on, you know
that that has brought more and more into it. But you're just starting out, and I want to make sure he gets the message, um, which he needs to prove that he's gotten the message that he can that we can give him that responsibility and he can protect himself. Um, and he was coming off an injury and we knew he was fine. You know, we knew he was fine. But as a coach, there's still that little bit in the back of your mind of hey, let's just play it safe for a week or two until we know
for sure. I mean, you guys have used pretty much all play backs in both games. Again, is that difficult to manage? I mean, Kennell work something. Yeah, I think I think it can work. You got to have unselfish players, and we do. Duce does a great job with those guys.
Some of the some of the carrier, some of the different use of the backs is very specific where Coach Peterson puts it into the game plan that he won Sprawls in on this plane, and Ryan in on this play, and ken Yon in and this play of small Wooden on this play, and then some of it is just the rotation and you know that really comes from the
position coach. So that's kind of Deuce, And you know, Douce will talk to coach primarily and say, hey, here's what I'm thinking about rotate how I'm going to rotate these guys this week, and Coach he kind of gives his plan to Coach Peterson tells him how he's going to rotate him. Coach kind of signs off on that plan, and then Dous kind of he has the freedom to rotate his guys as he sees fit. Like I said, though, other plays are very specific, and so that's just the
way it normally rolls. You mentioned Manning and Rivers as kind of the end goal, you know, for for Carson, how specific and kind of granular at all? Do you get with him about you know, hey, when Peyton saw this or defenses try to do that, he had, you know, this little thing that nobody could pick up on that he did, Or the same thing with Philip, I mean, does he get to that level of detail with yes,
but very selectively, you know. I mean, I think it's really important that we focus on our guys and as coaches, we've all had experience with great players at every all of our position, coaches of we've all coached great players in our career, a lot of great players in this game, and you certainly would be ridiculous to not use those experiences but you know, you just try to keep Sometimes I'll make general statements that I have something experience with
Peyton or Philip in mind, but I don't have to say it was with Peyton. They know, guys know. I mean, we're bringing our experiences to the table, just like they're bringing theirs to the table. But every now and then you pull something out just very selectively. Hey, everything, you pull something out of a Peyton story or a Philip story, or take whatever the position is for their guy. You pull one out that you think can be effective and trying to get a point across run stopping the run.
I mean, I don't I don't know for sure, but you could look over the last twenty years, this defense is continually in the top five versus the run. You know, they got great schemes to stop the run, they got great personnel to stop the run, and that that's they put you into a pass only mode and then they can run some of their exotic stuff. But I think that's their strength. Yes, yes, no, I mean he should
there's a couple of hits he shouldn't have taken. There's ones on the sideline, you know that he shouldn't have took. Last week that were not good plays. I mean, you just can't do that. And he knows that we've taught, you know, coach, we've all talked to him about that you just can't do that and uh so, but some
of the hits in the pocket, that's just now. I mean, we're protecting well, there's been one or two miss protection calls that he's had um that are on him, But other than that, I think it's normal course of business.