Here is everything Houston Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley said ahead of their Week 3 game against the Indianapolis Colts, including his thoughts on the red zone execution against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 2, the chemistry between quarterback C.J. Stroud and wide receiver Jaylin Noel and his process for making in-game adjustments.
Question: On how he maximizes tight end use in situations
Nick Caley: “I think each week we have a plan for the usage of each player, so tight ends are no different. You're asking about play time last week, it went and transitioned more to an 11 [personnel] game. Certainly, the game moves sometimes and we try to do what we feel is best, but they all have roles. We have a lot of confidence and faith in those
guys and I think you saw that Week 1. Is every week going to be the same? No, it's not, so we're always trying to try to adjust as we need to.”
Q: On whether he believes there is an element of overthinking personnel
Caley: “No, I don't. I think what happened relative to the last game was, we had a plan we go into the game with and I think you saw the first week, we were sixth or seventh in 13 personnel usage and middle of the road in 12. The game adjusts and in the moments of the game, I felt that one of the things that would help us have an opportunity to move the ball was to try something different, open it up a little bit. We got a rhythm and I thought C.J. was dealing it and seeing the ball or seeing the field well. I think that was the ability to adjust there and no, I don't. I don't think it's a matter of lack of confidence or just completely being so drastic from a game plan standpoint. I think it's an adjustment or possibly adjustment as the game flows. That's how I see it.”
Q: On whether he feels the game plan for Week 2 vs. Cincinnati was the right approach
Caley: “I had confidence going into the game. I wouldn't put plays in if we didn't feel that we could go out and execute them and you get confidence through going out and executing at practice. We have to play fundamentally better. We have to do a better job collectively as an offense and we own that. Going into the game, no. I'm not going to sit there and run plays that I don't think are going to work. I don't think anybody's going to do that. So, no, to answer your question, no.”
Q: On what stands out about red zone execution in Week 2 vs. Cincinnati
Caley: “I think you have to keep moving the ball forward and I think some of the possession downs, we stalled out, wasn't good enough. I think the first week, we were much better in short yardage. We were certainly better in the red [zone] area, but being able to continue and get a new set of downs is important and when you don't convert on third down, that's a problem and that prevents you from going and moving the ball through the end zone. Positive plays, playing clean, eliminating penalties and doing a better job of just moving the ball through the, you know, through the fringe to the high, to the low.”
Q: On how the use of 11 personnel helped the offense move the ball
Caley: “I thought just opening them up in general, we were going to try to get the drop-back game going a little bit and try to get some positive plays and I thought just seeing C.J. and the guys going through the progression and watching us get some yards there and being able to move the ball and the comfort level of moving that, I thought he did a good job distributing the football. I really did. I think that we ended up probably doing that a little bit more and that was the instinct throughout the game that I felt in that second quarter, we kind of shifted that way.”
Q: On what needs to happen to improve the run game
Caley: “First of all, give credit to them. They did a great job. We didn't do a good enough job coaches players in terms of that, but I think just the ability we have to play cleaner up front. We have to do a better job on capturing combinations and double teams and we just have to do a better job across the board, hat on a hat and I think being able to work through those things and continue to improve. Like I said, last week throughout our prep I felt confident going into it. I thought we had a really good week of practice. I really did and I just don't think we were playing quite as well as we had all hoped.”
Q: On not going for it on fourth down in Week 2 vs. Cincinnati
Caley: “We're always ready to go for it. We have plays that throughout the week, if there's something that we feel like we didn't like quite as much as maybe we thought or there are issues with it from an angle standpoint or whatever the standpoint was or an execution standpoint, we don't bring it to the game. We have calls for those situations. We're ready to go. We have confidence because we've executed those in practice and if [Head] Coach [DeMeco Ryans] tells us to go for it, we're ready to go for it and we're ready to go out there and do it. We're always going to be aligned from that standpoint.”
Q: On WR Jaylin Noel and QB C.J. Stroud’s chemistry
Caley: “I think it's continued to grow. He missed some time in Training Camp and he's done a good job of coming back, I have a lot of confidence in him. I think you saw it on the jet sweep. You can see the shot plays and he played a good amount of football, so I have confidence in him. The more that we're out there, you see him grow every single day with C.J. and have a lot of confidence with him and the ball is going to go. We're going to distribute the football and I think he's going to continue to be a big part of what we do. There's no loss of confidence from my standpoint in Jaylin Noel and he knows that too.”
Q: On whether utilizing quarterback sneak is situational
Caley: “We always can have that available, but I think it is really a week-to-week, depending on the core package of what we want to get to. Different front structures, different identities of what you're seeing from a defensive front. We've obviously repped it enough over the course of the last year and change that, that's something that we can do. It just depends on what we're looking to see, what might give us an advantage in those situations, from week-to-week, really.”
Q: On WR Kayshon Boutte and the difficulty of getting a player acclimated in preseason
Caley: “I think that's the NFL and we've have to be ready to do that, whether it's acquisitions right before the year starts or in the middle of the season, during the season. I think those guys do a good job. I think he's worked extremely hard since he's been here. I have faith and confidence in him. I think he's grown and he's been comfortable. Even when we started the season, I thought in the role and the relative role from a grouping standpoint that we had him in, he was comfortable with and I think that's going to continue to grow. He's catching on. We're getting more plays. We're stacking more plays, more situations each week and I'm confident in him being able to go out there and catch the ball. He had a couple of nice contested catches and stuff like that and he'll do those things. I have confidence in him and I think he'll continue to grow with us.”
Q: On what can be done to run the ball against a good defensive front
Caley: “You have alternative ways to do those things and that's always from a scheme standpoint. Whether it's you're trying to get double teams and hats on guys, multiple hats on guys that are problem players, he's [Cincinnati Bengals DT Dexter Lawrence II] a great player and we have to continue to also work on the fundamentals of the footwork and the hand placement and be able to direct run certain ways based on alert criteria and stuff like that. There are a bunch of different ways you can do it, as you go through the run game plan.”
Q: On whether it’s difficult mixing in run plays
Caley: “I think in the flow of the game, certainly. Let me just say this, you always want balance. I think you guys probably have all the stats and stuff like that. You look at the body, last year to this year, I'm usually always trying to play with some balance in a perfect world. Sometimes that gets out of hand. Sometimes you have to adjust. I just felt at the moment when we started in the second quarter, throwing it a little bit more, the rhythm, the ability to move the ball, we were playing with a good rhythm. The quarterback was confident. I thought he did a really good job seeing the field and again, that's where it started to transition. Could I have snuck a few more runs in there? Sure, certainly I could have. I'm not disputing that, but I felt in the moment that that was the right thing to do for the guys and to try to help us move the ball.”
Q: On the process of in-game adjustments
Caley: “As you're processing things real-time, when you come off the sideline, the guys come off the sideline and we're going through the pictures and we're talking as a staff and with the players to make adjustments. We talk through those things. Each thing might be a little different. It might be a personnel grouping or, ‘Hey, let's get to this grouping and see if we can get this guy at the point of attack’ or, ‘Hey let's get to this scheme and these are the reasons why.’ We talk about it. After each drive, we'll set the deck. We'll communicate as a staff and then we'll distribute any information that we need to, to the players to be able to move forward so we're all on the same page, but that's the process. We communicate that through the staff, through the headset and make sure that we're all aligned in what we're doing moving forward.”
Q: On whether QB C.J. Stroud taking snaps with multiple centers was normal
Caley: “I think that's a process we always do. We're always working on that. I think every day we're hitting the line and working quarterback-center exchange. That's an everyday thing for us, so we'll always sit there and put time into that every single day and so I think the biggest thing is just continuing to learn from everything. It's Week 2. I think it didn't go the way we wanted it to. I'll be the first to tell you, I always do tell you, I'm never going to sit here and lie to you guys about things and take accountability and the one thing I would say is we've done some...you can look back to Week 1, I thought there were some positives. We had a chance to go win the game. We certainly didn't come through on that, but there were some positives. We didn't start off the way we wanted it to this past week, but I thought that there were some positives in terms of moving the ball. Do we want to throw the ball that many times? No. I didn't realize C.J. hadn't thrown the ball that many times, but I think there's balance, but I thought in the moment that was the right thing to do for us and I think we have to learn and we just got to keep applying and improving and those are the mark of good teams is consistent and steady improvement from week to week and trying to refine those things, especially early in the season. I have a lot of confidence in our guys. I have a lot of confidence in our staff and we have the right approach and just have to continue to be honest and work through those things every single day.”
Q: On Offensive Line/Offensive Run Game Coordinator Cole Popovich
Caley: “Cole's consistent and steady every single day. The standard never changes with Cole. Our standard doesn't change and I think that's what makes Cole a really good coach, so I don't think you see ebbs and flows and emotional roller coasters. I don't believe in subscribing to that. I don't think a lack of consistency is a good thing for any line of work or anything like that and he does a really good job, so we continue to tell the truth. ‘Hey, what can we do as a staff? What can we do to help the players? What can the players do to help themselves? How can we move the needle on certain fundamentals and techniques? Can we devote more time to those things and can we learn from the mistakes?’ Certainly, we have a conscientious group of guys. I don’t think there are egos. There are not. Staff, same thing. Our main concern is trying to continue to improve and be the best that we can possibly be and being honest with each other and again, no egos. Just go to work, learn from things and keep pressing forward and that's what we're going to do.”
Q: On whether he believes the struggles of the run game are due to missed assignments
Caley: “I think everything goes into it. To think that everything's going to be threading the needle 100% of the time, that's not real. We have to be cleaner on those particular plays. We also, I think, can sit there and look through and be able to adjust and find different ways to be able to help those guys, whether it's throughout the week, throughout the game, et cetera. I think we're all in this thing together. It's one play. Certainly, we want those back. But again, we have to learn and we got to apply. For us, it's the ability to just continue to get better on certain aspects where the deficiencies are. Call it a combination block, we have to make sure we're tighter on those. We're fitting those better and learn from it. I'm confident that all of our guys on our side of the ball will.”
Q: On whether the mistakes on fourth down are easily correctable
Caley: “We saw [Evan Brown] make that block. He does a great job. He's a competitor. I have confidence in him, had confidence in him. We wouldn't call the plays if we didn't have confidence in him. I would not do that. Then there's certainly things like we grow. We evolved last year. Every year I've coached for 21 years, you're going to learn and you're going to grow and you're going to see what you are, especially early in the season. That's going to be a process like anything else and we're going to continue to try to put our best foot forward as we get going.”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans OC Nick Caley said ahead of Week 3 game vs Colts
