Highlights

Q: We didn’t ask you about this new sign [outside the locker room], but what precipitated putting that sign up? Where do those sayings come from?

TODD HALEY: “Just words that are important. They might have been signs that I’ve had at other places or thoughts that we came up with as a staff. I think you’ll see more and more, you might see some you won’t see others – just little reminders to the players to kind of keep them thinking in the direction we think they ought to be thinking.”

Q: Is there any reason in particular for putting them up at this time?

HALEY: “No, no. I’ve got a coach assigned to signage and posters and he’s just been slow. I won’t say who it is.”

Q: You say it’s for the players, but the poster was tweeted to fans and the media to see? Is there a message in there to the community and fans to see?

HALEY: “Not intended to be. There is paint on other walls and I don’t want to make any marks on this nice new building. That’s a cement wall and the other walls are plaster. To me that hallway, even though you guys are in it, is still a sacred hallway and I don’t think it’s any different than you guys videotaping a guy walking down the hall naked or in a towel. So, me personally I think that stuff is off-limits. You get to see it with your eyes because you come through this area but I don’t think it’s any different of taking a picture of something else in that hallway.”

Q: So you’re saying that sign is something we should not report on?

HALEY: “That’s just my feeling. I understood that the media could see some of those things. We’ve had posters in hallways where media was in other places that we’ve been that really hadn’t been talked about. You all can make of it what you want but that’s for us.”

Q: I think we would have ignored it except for what’s happened over the last few weeks with Larry Johnson. You look at it and the first thing that we’re going to surmise is it looks pretty direct, pretty pointed?

HALEY: “Make of it what you want.”

Q: When you put something like that up do you talk about it?

HALEY: “Tell them about some, not others. I think it all depends. I think if words or a quote needs some background we may talk about it. We as football coaches like to put up quotes. That’s fun for us.”

Q: You talk about winning quarters of the season. How important would it be to get to 2-2 in this quarter?

HALEY: “I think it’s the second quarter of the season and it’s the final game and it’s a chance to go 2-2. That’s huge to us and that’s all we’re focused on and all we care about and that’s in an effort to stay in the present tense and not in the past or the future. It’s right now and that’s the way you play your best football and the way you coach your best football, not getting distracted. Our focus is on the Jacksonville Jaguars.”

Q: You talk about limiting negative plays and getting off to a positive start. It would seem to be very difficult because of your offensive line is in a state of flux and different receivers coming in. How difficult is that to overcome?

HALEY: “We need to start better and eliminate minus plays. You talk about injuries but I’ll say in the Dallas Cowboys game with the game on the line and down by seven points we’re going to lose the game if we don’t go the length of the field and score a touchdown [and] we score a touchdown against a very good defense. So, to me, if we could do it in that situation we’ve got to do it to start the game. All we can do is talk about it, think about it and try to come up with the right mix of plays early and get off to better starts and part of better starts is eliminating minus yards plays like sacks, runs and penalties.”

Q: But the state of flux with the players on offense…

HALEY: “I don’t know but that particular drive was the biggest state of flux as you could be in. We were missing our left tackle, we had a backup center playing left tackle. Mike Goff left the game for a couple of plays. There was a lot going on and we were able to pull together, execute plays and score a touchdown on a long drive. Overcome a penalty, overcome a sack. So, that’s why when that happened that was so big to me and potentially to our team. When you can do something like that in a game then everyone knows you can do it and the players most specifically. They need to understand they did it in that situation and they can’t forget that they did it.”

Q: Doesn’t urgency help a team do that? How do you create that in the first quarter?

HALEY: “Every [practice] period we start out here we talk about starting fast. You’ve got to catch the ball, got to get our blocks, quarterback has got to get rid of the football, all different things a period starts that’s as close as we can get to starting a game. Tomorrow we’ll do a period that will be the next closest to starting a game. You just have to coach it up, try to come up with the right mix of plays that give you the right opportunity to start fast and guys can execute.

“There are a lot of factors and you just don’t know. I’ve been on teams that were great starters and been on teams where we were slow starters. I think it would definitely serve us well to start faster.”

Q: Does playing in Jacksonville which is experiencing small crowds give you an advantage on the road? Do you coach it differently?

HALEY: “The last time I was in Jacksonville my last year in Dallas it was a pretty raucous environment. They have good fans and, like I said, they are a good team. We had noise out here yesterday and we had it today and we’ll have it tomorrow. We’re preparing for a road game in the NFL. Games are tough enough to win let alone going on the road. We’ve got our work cut out for us but we’re doing everything we can as coaches to prepare for this team to go into Jacksonville.”

Q: One more question on the sign to be clear. The sign was commissioned weeks ago but it did not get put up until now. Is that right?

HALEY: “Yeah. Exactly.”

Q: What’s your favorite coach’s quote that you’ve heard?

HALEY: “The most recent to me is from Sam Rutigliano, who is a favorite coach of mine, who sent me a Winston Churchill quote which I thought was very apropos to me and I appreciate it very much. Winston Churchill said, ‘the way you endure that which you must endure is more important than the crisis itself.’

“Coach Rutigliano is a great motivational speaker, awesome to be around, great coach. I’ve always had great fondness towards him and he’s always kind of looked after me. Right now, that’s my favorite one.”

Q: In the process you’re going through with this team, what leads to success?

HALEY: “If we do it the right way, do things the right way and do it well enough and prepare the team and put them in a position to succeed, let them know what the situation is going to be throughout the game, and have them ready, then we’ll start to have success.”

Q: Can you see a percentage of players on teams that are able to do that given the experience with teams you’ve been around? You can’t get all 53 guys to do that.

HALEY: “I don’t know if I can say percentage but we are making progress. There is not a doubt in my mind. There are individual players making progress and our team is making progress. We just now have to do it a little more on Sundays and then we’ll have success and that’ll create a little confidence.”