That readiness should extend to McCarthy, even if in the meantime some reps produce an ugly outcome.
“Without getting into too much detail, some of [the pressure] hasn’t been schemed. Some of it’s been guys like Hargrave, Allen, Greenard, Dallas Turner, flat-out winning right now on a pass rush,” O’Connell credited the defenders. “And no, we have not had our top five [offensive linemen] up there, but that pass rush, without it needing to be schemed, has been winning up front. And that’s the challenge for our o-line as it comes together, as we do get Will and C.D. out there more and we’re able to activate some things kind of the same way Hargrave and Allen have kind of impacted, from Day 1, the defensive line.”
O’Connell noted there’s no excuse of, “Hey, we don’t have those guys at full capacity,” but there is an expectation of Darrisaw and Fries, as they acclimate to greater workloads, helping the offense succeed.
“It’s easy to watch a practice and [say], ‘Man this is domination, or this that and the other,’ especially when you’re not calling balls and strikes on the run game, when we’re scripting things and things are just kind of as is, but there’s no question that I have to talk to J.J. daily about, ‘Hey, you’re playing a really good defense and this is a great challenge for all of us,’ ” O’Connell said. “And we can’t get too wrapped up in the minutiae of the minute-to-minute, play-to-play analysis as much as doing your job, technique and fundamentals, eye progression, discipline of my decision based upon the situation and then after all that let’s start talking about the result, and then most importantly how we can improve for the next rep.”