On the biggest mechanical change he has made with K Alex Henery over the course of the season: "Well, the only thing that I could pinpoint would be that we spent a lot of time right when we got back from camp just having him step off and working everything from a 90-degree angle to where we went out with a tape measure. We did the whole thing, inch by inch by inch, and tried to make sure we had that solidified. He had had a little bit of problems just being in the habit of walking off a little wider each way and he was just off a little bit. Plus I think he"s gotten used to the holder, he"s gotten used to the snapper, he"s gotten used to the rhythm, he"s gotten used to the ball. I think all of that plays a factor, you know, he"s a really good kicker obviously. He had a really good (college) career, and I don"t think it was anything to do with 'Boy, he"s in the NFL now, this is really big." I mean, he"s kicked in a lot of big games, so he"s never succumbed to pressure before and I didn"t think it was that, and I think just mechanically some of those issues had to be worked out and they took time. And you know, we didn"t have an offseason. I think that hurt him, maybe hurt every rookie more than normal. I just think it took him a little while. The first day he kicked for us was the first day of camp. So, I think that was it more than anything."
On whether Henery has the physical ability and emotional makeup to put together the kind of career that San Francisco K David Akers has if he stays healthy: "I think he does. I think he"s really gifted in the two areas you need to be. I think he has the mechanics and I think he has the mindset to be able to do it. I know when we drafted him we thought he would, should, or could have a long career as a kicker in the National Football League, and he has a lot of real good qualities. We saw him and we thought he could do it, and he"s so far been able to rise up for the most part. I know he"s got a couple of glitches in there. But his leg is getting stronger which is kind of surprising because as the season wears on, his kickoffs have been pretty good. They"ve been better than I think we anticipated, and hopefully he gets even stronger. There will be a point where he may fall off or reach a plateau, but I think for him, right now, his ceiling is still pretty high."
On whether Henery has surpassed his expectations for his rookie season: "Not necessarily, not necessarily. I think he"s kicking off better than I thought he would, but I had a lot of confidence in him. A lot stemmed from when I went out there and visited Nebraska and the type of confidence yet humility, the type of focus yet not uptightness. And then looked at the big games he was in and he kicked the best in the big games, so that along with a four-year career that was really good, I mean, I thought he was pretty darn good."
On whether P Chas Henry is in the same league as P Sav Rocca when it comes to holding: "You know, that"s a really good question because you"re not going to kick very well if you don"t have a good holder because there"s a very small degree of difference in making it and not making it. I"ll tell you, Chas has been a really good holder, Chas has been a really good holder. The thing that"s unique about Sav, tells you what kind of athlete he is really, he never held before, and he came in, and I wasn"t here, but in a very short period of time developed into a tremendous holder. Chas has been holding, well, he was a kicker too so he"s kind of bounced around in holding, and he was a placekicker as well, but he"s pretty much been involved in holding for a pretty long time. But he"s a very good holder. Yeah. If he"s not already as good as Sav, and that"s pretty good, he definitely can be and will pass him, I would think, with more experience."
On how important making a 51-yard field goal at Dallas was for Henery"s confidence: "It"s hard to say. I mean, it was a big kick because it gave us the points to push out in front of them even further. I think it was good. I mean, I was glad he was able to go in there and take a shot at it. And he really hit it too. That thing was well hit, accuracy-wise, power-wise. I think it was good for him, yeah. That"s his longest of the year. He had two of his longest of the year, well, the 43, but both of them were hit really well, the protection was good, the snap, operation, everything was very good. He"s pretty confident anyway. Seeing him around here you might not think he has that kind of self-assurance because he"s pretty mild mannered, he"s not popping off or anything like that. He"s a pretty confident guy when it comes to kicking, but it was good for him, yeah absolutely."
On whether RB Dion Lewis will return kickoffs on Sunday: "(WR) Chad Hall right now is penciled in to do the kick returns. And on the punt returns (WR) DeSean Jackson or Chad Hall will do it. Coach Reid hasn"t really decided yet."
On whether Hall will do the kickoff returns: "Hall will do the kickoff returns. Hall will do the kickoff returns, yeah. Actually, he started last week (but) we didn"t have any because the first one was a touchback and the second one we had our hands team out there. So unless you were really looking you wouldn"t have noticed because we didn"t have any returns."
On what Hall does differently from Lewis: "Well, at this point we don"t know because Chad really has not returned any kickoffs in a game. But we wanted to give him a shot. We wanted to just try to shuffle the deck a little bit or change up the deck. You know, the house has not been doing that well with the deck we were playing with. So just by Vegas terms we wanted to just bring in a new deck and possibly a new dealer. And we don"t necessarily think it"s going to work in our favor but we wanted to give it a shot. Dion"s been fine. Dion"s been fine, but we just need to block a little better, our preparation needs to be a little better and our scheme needs to be a little better and all of that"s on me. Really, I have to prepare them better and they have to get technically better through my leadership, and of course I devise the scheme. So that"s more to do with it than Dion, but we did think that by changing an ingredient it would give us a little spark."
On whether this game will give him any information about players going into next year: "Well, I know what"s up to this point, but I think you"re asking me how I evaluate this game, in my mind I"ll evaluate it heavy. I mean I don"t know if it will outweigh everything they"ve done for the whole season, but it will be an integral part for me in telling the organization what I think about players. You know, to me it will tell a lot. You always want tough, young scrappers it doesn"t matter what. I definitely expect to see that on Sunday and if I don"t, or if we don"t, I"ll put it in my evaluations. So just like every game really – I"m not saying this game I"ll evaluate however they did (and that"s it), (but) through the whole course of the year I"ll make an evaluation. But yeah, I expect them to play well and I hope to evaluate them well on it."
On whether he"s seen an improvement with the rookies throughout the season on special teams: "Well you know, we were improving steadily, we were improving steadily. And then right here at the end we"ve had some gaffes and those gaffes are a black eye (because) they show up, they show up bigger. So I think incrementally we were improving week to week and in the last four weeks or so we"ve sort of hit a wall, not totally, not totally because some of our stuff is excellent. But to give up big plays, to have some mistakes – and I"m not saying it"s them because I"m responsible for it and if I"m responsible for it then it"s on me. Maybe I haven"t done as good a job as I should have the last four weeks. So I"m certainly not happy with our play over the last few weeks, but as long as we"re getting better…I mean, I like what we"re doing but I want to win the games though, too. So we"ve won games without giving our team the probability of winning on special teams."
On whether the problems on special teams have coincided with the injury to S Colt Anderson: "Possibly, possibly. He made a lot of plays and he set in motion the dynamics for other guys to make plays because he was a factor on things. So possibly, possibly. I just need to do a better job with these guys getting their attention and getting them to do the right things."
On whether the two blocked punts were related: "No, it was not the same breakdown. The blocked punt on this one was we really had a missed assignment and that thing always has some fluidity because there"s movement, there"s different things that they do, it"s like pass protection, so there"s always adaptations and adjustments you have to make. And again, I have to have them more prepared. I just have to have them more prepared."
On whether either one of the blocked punts was because Henry didn"t release the ball quick enough: "No, not directly. But there"s always a lot of moving parts in that deal. It"s kind of synonymous with a sack; it"s probably directly on the linemen that got beat, but indirectly it could be on some other things because there is an operational time to get the thing out. So that"s always part of the equation, always, in this case or any other case. The reason it got blocked was because the guys were not prepared to block. And ultimately, that"s on me, I have to prepare them."
On whether Henerey was rushing kicks in the past: "You know, his times have been pretty consistent. That"s a real good question because, yeah, if he"s moving inappropriately, too fast, then his probability of not striking it right goes up. If he"s moving too slow he may not be generating enough force and there"s a probability of getting the thing blocked. You don"t have (a lot of time), that"s a pretty quick deal or it"s going to get blocked. But his times have been consistent and he is kind of fast to begin with even at Nebraska. When we timed him we noticed that he was a little faster than most people and definitely, way faster than most people. He"s not necessarily real fast for the NFL because there"s some guys that are faster than him, but he has a quick time, he has a quick get-off."
On whether he gets to the ball before it gets set: "No, no. He has enough time to see it, he has enough time. Now, occasionally that happens to him because I time almost every kick he makes, almost every time he hits the ball in practice, pregame, everything we have a clock on him. And occasionally he"ll get a little fast for him and he knows what it is. But that"s all part of the holder and snapper, too. If that ball"s over here and he"s already bringing it he has a very short period of time. So that snapper and that holder getting it down for him is critical when you have, basically, a fast guy. And he is fast."
On his one regret from special teams this season: "As I"m thinking you"re probably thinking, 'Geez, he has that many he can"t figure out what it is." Because I"m concerned about everything I"d like a lot of things to be better. I think I"ll exercise my Miranda Rights and not say anything that can and will be used against me."
