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When you’re grading film on Devin Gardner how much do the near-misses, the picks that maybe should have been, factor into that and how much do you talk about that?

“A lot. I mean, that’s always part of the evaluation. You want results but you’ve got to be process-oriented when you play the position. We’ve got to be on the right side of the field and have our eyes in the right place and our feet and timing and all that factors in, so any time we look at a pass play we look at all the factors that play into it whether it was a successful or not-successful play and why.”

Do you feel like you got away with a couple on Saturday?

“Well, I think there was a couple that I’m sure they felt like they should have had and obviously we look at it as well. Why were we there? Was it timing wrong or on the wrong side of the field, did we made a poor decision? The biggest thing is that goes back to communication and we talk all the time in our room [that] you’ve got to be open in communication because if I don’t know what he’s seeing then I can’t help him, so you’ve got to tell me what you see, what happened, what played out in your mind so now we can paint the real picture of what happened and get it corrected.”

How much extra does game performance count in terms of evaluation as opposed to practice? I’m thinking particularly in this instance of Drake Johnson.

“Well, I think obviously any time you play a game the goal is to play well and the best players in games are the guys you want to play. Now, that being said we evaluate practice every day. Guys challenge and compete and usually it’s very rare that you have a player that does not practice well that plays well.”

Does what he did give him maybe an extra look in terms of more snaps going forward?

“Well, I think that when you talk about Drake and what he accomplished it goes back to everything we talked about in the development of players and it’s kind of similar, it is very similar- I look back at where Derrick Green was at. We talked about right before he went down he had two very good weeks of practice and really kind of started to develop, and you look at Drake, once Derrick got injured the last two weeks he had two outstanding weeks of practice. Had the opportunity this week, did some great things, and [we’re] really excited about what he brings.”

To piggyback on what you were talking about earlier, how did Devin grade out? How would you evaluate him in that game?

“Devin did some really good things and he did some things we need to correct. Obviously 22/29, completed some balls, did some good things, two touchdowns, obviously the one interception we’d like to have back and there were a couple other decisions but he did some good things and he did some things that we corrected.”

[After THE JUMP: Talking about Drake, Darboh, and the Devins]

In terms of just going back to Drake a little bit, were those 16 carries- I know it’s not a lot- but it seems like he showed on those handful of carries a little bit more than what DeVeon has shown on 77 attempts. Can you say what you like about him, what you notice about him?

“Well, I think we can talk about two different styles of run. We talked about this a little bit early in the year when you had Derrick and DeVeon playing, two different styles of backs. I said all along DeVeon’s a downhill thumper between the tackles power-type guy and Drake did a nice job, and I think you’ve got to look at the big picture too. We talk about this all the time: it’s an 11-man game, and the offensive line did an outstanding job in this game. We protected better than we have all season long. We averaged 5.8 a rush. Give those guys some credit too. They did a great job and not to discredit anything Drake did, Drake had an outstanding game too but those guys did a heck of a job and I’m proud of what they accomplished.”

I think you might have answered this, but this is the first game since Miama (NTM) where you’ve been able to have one rusher with over 100 yards. Was that something Drake did or was that something to do with the performance of the line?

“I think it’s a combination of 11 guys, and I’ll give you this too: I didn’t feel like this game was our best game on the perimeter from our wideouts in the blocking part of things, and they take a lot of pride in that. We challenged them this week because they have over the course of the season blocked tremendously well on the perimeter and we didn’t have one of our better games blocking on the perimeter. We will block better on the perimeter. Those guys take that to heart because they take great pride in that, and when they get downfield and they block it helps spring big runs and we preach that all the time so it’s an 11-man game. It’s about the quarterback getting us in the right run if we need to be in one run versus the other, it’s about the guys securing the holes, it’s about the back hitting the right hole. It goes back to, as we’ve talked [about], you’ve got to have consistency in all groups to perform well.”

Saturday though, those things just clicked when they haven’t before or is that something where you’ve seen that and then everything finally came together?

“Well, I’ve said all along we can continue to have improvement from individuals and [we’re] trying to have group improvement. I thought we really had group improvement this week.”

Obviously those were career numbers for Darboh. Is he gaining confidence? Where is he fitting into the blocking you were talking about? What does he need to get better at?

“Well, I think Amara’s a guy- you start talking about theses guys [and] you talk about Drake Johnson, you talk about Amara Darboh, both of these guys had injuries last year that their bodies- everybody says, ‘Well, a guy should be ready to go. He’s cleared to play.’ Necessarily being cleared to play doesn’t mean you’re going to play at the highest level you’re capable of and these are both really young players that are growing each and every week. You’re seeing the emergence of Amara. You see a guy like Drake gets an opportunity, comes out and does some really great things. Seeing these guys grow as players is what you want. You want to grow players within your system. You see across college football [that] that veteran teams tend to play better.”

On Devin, Brady said after the game he’s a little bit limited with his injury on designed runs. How limited is he when you’re preparing the gameplan?

“I’m not allowed to discuss injuries.” /smiles

Well, I said he was injured, so…

“Obviously we try to put our players in the best position possible to have success.”

My other question’s about Jack Miller. You talked about the improved offensive line. He’s not somebody that I think anybody would think is physically gifted. How has he overachieved?

“Well, I wouldn’t- when you say he’s not physically gifted, this guy’s in the top 1% when you start talking about a guy playing football at the University of Michigan and being the starting center. That’s a great accomplishment in its own when you talk about young athletes that play football growing up to reach the level he’s playing at today, you’d say, ‘That’s an outstanding achievement in its own right.’ But Jack is a guy- we look for guys each week who are bell-cows and guys you can count on week in and week out and Jack’s been a guy that’s been there for us. He’s been the guy that’s kind of rallied those troops, so to say, up front. Really pleased with the season he’s been having.”

Much has kind of been made about Devin maybe targeting Funchess perhaps a little bit too much or maybe getting locked in on him, but then last week it seemed like he was very comfortable going to Darboh. Can you talk about him spreading the ball out a little bit more, and then also his one-on-one play with Darboh and how comfortable they are?

“Sure. Obviously it’s no hidden secret that people are going to know where No. 1 is and we’re seeing multiple coverage looks and things to try and people trying to decrease his impact on the game. He had seven touches. Obviously we’d like to get more ways to push the ball down the field but teams are being very conscious of that now, and when you have that you try to create balance in your offense. They can’t double everybody and if they’re going to double somebody it’s going to create one-on-one matchups in other places, and it’s important that the quarterback understands that when he gets his one-on-one chances to go to a player we want to go to on specific plays he does it, and then when we get doubled we go back and find our one-on-ones. It’s a big part of the game.”

Has Devin progressed like you thought he would in being able to read defenses, and how much does three systems in five years hinder that?

“Well, any time you have a quarterback that has three systems in five years it’s a tremendous amount of growth. It’s a great opportunity to learn because everybody’s going to ask something different of you and ask you to do things in different ways, and Devin’s continued to progress each and every week. Some weeks more than others. But like I said, his consistency in his approach, his preparation week in and week out is second to none. The way he’s approached it and gone out and played, it was good to see him finally get a couple of touchdown passes. We’ve been struggling to get a couple and he had a couple in this game, so looking forward to this one and going to Northwestern.”

Saw a couple different things from Drake and what he did. The first carry he had the burst, and on the touchdown he moved a lot and showed some power too. What’s more of defining his style? Is it one more than the other?

“There’s a little bit of slashing. He’s got good speed. He’s going to try and create holes with his speed, and you’ll see him stick his foot in the ground and go north and south. Once again, I think he’s continuing to develop his feel within our running game, understanding what holes to hit when. Obviously did a nice job. Saw a couple of those creases especially late in the game there he stuck his foot in the ground and went north-south there which is something we preach all the time to our backs in outside zone which is you’ve got to press the gap and then stick your foot in the ground and go north and south. He did exactly that. The line did a nice job to create a crease. Joey had a little seal block on the backside which froze the linebacker and created a natural crease and then he hit it and he hit it big, so that was good to see.”

Was that touchdown run more indicative of what you see in practice or the first burst, the 18-yard run?

“I think it’s interesting. Because we’re young you see a little bit of everything in practice. Sometimes it’s not what we want to see and sometimes it is what we want to see, so the thing is what we talk to our guys all the time about is our focus in practice, our attention to detail has to be there so when we get to the game on Saturday it carries over. Sometimes we do do it right exactly the way you see in the game and sometimes we don’t, and obviously when it’s not right we correct it.”

Can you talk a little bit about Northwestern and the challenge their defense presents?

“Very, very well-coached defense, first off. They do a good job in their scheme. They play that quarters scheme. They play physical. They play fast and they’re very sound in what they do.”

MGoQuestion: To go back to Devin Funchess for a minute, we’ve seen you throw a number of screens his way. Is that because you feel that’s one of the more effective ways to get him the ball with the way they’ve tried to take him away downfield, or is that more of a constraint play you go to when you’ve set up the run?

“Well, obviously we’re always conscious of how many touches Devin’s getting and obviously when you have a player of his caliber you want to make sure he gets the ball in his hands and you’ve got to design different ways when people are trying to double him and those types of things, so not only does it 1) give him the ability to get the ball in his hands 2) it does put pressure on the defense to defend the perimeter.”

Greg [Mattison] mentioned Indiana was trying to get some of the signals they were trying to get out to the field. They towels up and that sort of thing. Is that something you guys deal with on your end of things too?

“Sure. You’re always conscious of people trying to pick your signals. We have a system in place. Obviously if you watch us we have multiple guys signal and have the ability to change who signals, who’s live, those type of things.”

Is that something that’s always gone on or has that kind of grown as offenses speed up?

“I think that starts probably in the backyard when you’re playing against your buddies and you’re trying to figure out what play they’re running. I don’t know that you can say at any level of football it’s different than others. I just know for us we’re just concerned with getting the right players in the game in the right situations and calling plays. From an offensive standpoint, a lot of times they’re not going to make a call until you’ve got everybody out there [and] a lot of times not until you’re in formation sometimes, so for you to wait and think you can pick their defensive signal, I don’t think you can do that.”