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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Quotes: Jay Gruden (8.20.15)

Head Coach Jay Gruden

On quarterback Robert Griffin III :

"Robert, he had a concussion. He is following concussion protocol at this time. Obviously he won't be fielding any questions. We will get a further exam and do all the things we have to do."

On Griffin's shoulder:

"They checked his shoulder and the concussion, obviously, but his shoulder is okay."

On if hits affected how long Griffin played:

"No, we felt confident in our tackle and our offensive line to try and get something going there with the fourth drive. Unfortunately, it didn't happen."

On the reason for the sacks:

"I'll have to check the film out, I don't know. The first one, Brandon Scherff got bulled back and gave up a bull rush, Robert got startled and got sacked. Second one I'll have to wait and see. I think our LT got bull rushed back and bumped into the quarterback. I'm not sure about the third one. We gave up some pressure tonight no doubt about it. We have to do a better job of protecting the quarter back, better scheme wise and stay out of those nasty third and longs."

On if he knows the length of time Griffin will be out:

"No, no idea… We'll have to see, I would imagine depending on how long he is out he is still going to be our starter. We have to wait and go through the whole process and see how he recovers, see how fast he recovers. I have no idea as far as third preseason game, fourth one, right now."

On if Griffin could have avoided the sacks:

"I'll have to wait and see. On the sideline it seems easy or from replay – slide here, move here. I think the first one, it happened so quick, he got bull rushed and then he got hit. On the second one he got bull rushed, felt the pressure and then lost sight downfield. We'll have to wait and see. I'm not going to lay any blame on the QB or the offensive line, we'll just wait and see. It was not a very good performance for our first-team offense, to say the least. I think we had one first down in four drives and a turnover. We have a lot of work to do."

On the first quarter drives:

"It's frustrating but I said to the team, it's the second preseason game. We're trying to get better. We want to have some momentum going into the season obviously. If we have some drives that don't work out, Detroit was the No. 2-ranked defense in the league last year. They're a good team, a very good defensive football team. We have some guys not playing. We're going to continue with our process, second preseason game, third preseason game, fourth preseason game, get our team as ready as possible. We're not going to be doom and gloom because we didn't get any points with our ones in the first quarter."

On linebacker Adam Hayward:

"He's getting checked for an ACL. We'll know more tomorrow."

On why tackle Trent Williams sat out tonight's game:

"In practice the other day, he hurt his foot – his right foot. Not his bad foot. He sprained his right foot a little bit. He'll be day-to-day. He should be OK."

On if it's good to see progress with the running backs:

"Absolutely. Matt Jones continues to hit the hole the way we want him to – hard. He gets through the second level, he's a problem. Trey [Williams] makes some excellent runs. And of course, Chris Thompson continues to do what he's been doing throughout camp. Very exciting to see those backs step up and make some plays. You know when you're not protecting your quarterback that great and your passing game is not working so good, it's nice to rely on a good strong running game. That's what sparked us – the running game got us a couple big hits there. Got us some good positive field position – we did some good things. With Robert [Griffin III], we didn't get the running game really going. We had one good hit with Alfred, but other than that it was one or zero, and we were stuck in the long yardage. Detroit's defense did a nice job stopping us in the first quarter."

On his level of concern behind Williams at left tackle:

"I think Willie [Smith] played pretty good. We still have Tom Compton, he's still here doing some good things. We've got Morgan [Moses] we can flip over there. We have a lot of options and a lot of versatility on our offensive line right now. Not a lot, but when you talk about replacing a pro-bowler, that's always a concern because he is one of our best players on this football team and usually when you go from a pro-bowler to whoever you go to, it's not going to be the same."

On evaluating special teams after losing Adam Hayward and Niles Paul:

"It's a big blow for special teams, you're right. And leadership – Adam was voted captain. He just got here from Tampa last year, and he was voted captain unanimously. That's the type of guy he is in the locker room, and Niles too. That is a big blow – more so off the field in the locker room than on the field. But they are both impactful players on the field. Also, it's unfortunate, but we're not going to rule out on Adam just yet. We don't know the depth of his injury. We'll wait and see."

On sending Griffin back out for a fourth series after struggles with protection:

"We weren't doing that well on offense. I wanted to get something going on offense. A lot of quarterbacks play into the second quarter in a pre-season game. Football is a tough sport. We wanted to get something going offensively. Unfortunately, it didn't work out."

On guard Brandon Scherff:

"It's hard for me to say. I just know the one pressure he gave up. We tried to run to the right a couple of times and Detroit did an excellent job of stopping it. I'll have to wait and see. I'm not going to give him a, 'Great, great,' or a 'Terrible, great,' from where I saw on the sidelines."

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