Cameron Wake – October 13, 2017
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Friday, October 13, 2017
Defensive End Cameron Wake
(Does it feel like as you guys are 2-2 right now?) – “Sure. We have a short memory but we know we let a couple of games slip through our fingers. We had a good win last week, but in reality all that stuff is over. I can guarantee the Falcons don’t care whether we’re 4-0, 2-2, 0-4, blah, blah, blah. It’s going to be a nail-biter.”
(Speaking of the Falcons, obviously their offense is very prolific with what they have. What do you guys have to do to slow that down?) – “Just play consistently. That’s the way defense is set up. As an offense, you’re going to have a few bad series and have two good ones and everything kind of evens itself out. Obviously the converse is true for defense. If you have a couple of series and then you let your guard down for a minute, in this league, they have lots of players – whether they be running backs, quarterbacks, receivers, whoever it is, tight ends – that can kind of change the course of the game in one play. You can’t ever let your guard down. You have to (be) locked and cocked every play, and that’s the only way to get it done.”
(A couple of your defensive linemen teammates have said that run defense was a big emphasis in the offseason. We saw that through draft, through free agent acquisitions, but what around here? I mean were there signs in the defensive room or did you spend more time in OTAs?) – “Yes. Well, signs don’t make you a better football player or change your defensive output in any capacity. It’s time, hours, blood, sweat, tears, the age-old mantra. It’s going out on the field and repetitions over and over. It’s being wrong. It’s making mistakes. It’s all the things that we’ve done from April until now and again, I think it’s also, I guess a sense of accountability to know that this is my gap, this is my job – whatever the scenario is – and I have to do this or else the entire team suffers. So all of those things combined I think is what it is. It’d be great to just make some signs and some t-shirts and then all of a sudden your defense changes, but unfortunately that doesn’t work or else I’m sure a lot of stores would be sold out.”
(Speaking of t-shirts. The significance of yours?) – “It that a rhetorical question?”
(Those in Vegas think you are underdogs this week. I think 13 is the line?) – “I don’t concern myself with Vegas.”
(Was it a conscious choice to wear the t-shirt with the particular message on it?) – “Sure. Every shirt I buy is a conscious choice. They all get worn at some point.”
(Are you speaking for yourself or the team there?) – “You all have great ideas, it could be any and all.”
(Nice kicks.) – “Yes, of course. The same classics. You know my story and you know the team’s story. It’s a badge of honor for me. I’ve always been counted out – every opportunity to be counted out, I’ve been counted out, and every opportunity I just keep putting my head down and working. I don’t think the team would be any different. I don’t think the defense would be any different. I’m sure a lot of other people will agree. So, whatever.”
(Is that the kind of feel you have this week, that you are underdogs going up there?) – “No. I just like the shirt. It matches my shoes.”
(Football is a team sport. Guys always talk about offense, defense and special teams. How can the defense help the offense pick up their flow?) – “I think it starts with repetition. It starts on the practice field. Even if it’s getting with a coach or a player, or maybe even the head coach – whatever it may be – offering wisdom. More repetition. ‘Hey listen, let me show you what you didn’t do right on this play.’ Or ‘If I was a player going against you, this is what I see, and what I would try to exploit.’ The same thing on their side. Doing the repetition and losing, and making mistakes and learning from those things. Again, it’s a conscious effort from everybody involved. It’s not just offense. The defense has to help as well because on Sunday there is no, ‘The defense won, the offense lost.’ The Miami Dolphins, either win or lose and you win or lose together. It’s going to take every man. That’s kind of the way to approach it.”
(But even within that, are there times where the defense would get frustrated at the offense or even vice versa? The offense. Do units get frustrated with each other at any point?) – “For me, and I think I can speak for most guys, when you sign up to play defense, you sign up to say it’s a whenever, wherever type of mentality. There’s no real script. I know you probably know this about offense, they come in and they have a play list of things (they’re going to run). ‘My first 15 plays, whatever we’re going to run.’ Defense doesn’t really work that way. The second play of the guy, it could be a turnover and you got the ball on the 6-yard line, goal line. ‘Get out there.’ You’ve got to stop them. You’ve got to get an interception. There’s no predetermined amount of plays or area on the field. It’s ‘here’s the situation, ready, go.’ If you don’t have the mindset that I don’t care where the ball is, I don’t care what you’re doing, I don’t care what happened two plays ago, I’m going to go in here and we’re going to stop the bleeding, we’re going to end the play, we’re going to get a touchdown. How about that? We’re going to score. We’re going to take it to you. If you don’t have that mindset then to me, not only have you already lost but I wouldn’t want you on my side of the ball at all. So to me, there’s no frustration. I accept the minute the ball is put down on the field that I’m going to be victorious, regardless of the situation.”
Adam Gase – October 13, 2017
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Friday, October 13, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Is it safe to say WR DeVante Parker is out for Sunday?) – “No. We’ve got him listed as doubtful. Last year, it looked at a point where we didn’t think he was going to play in that Baltimore game. I never count him out after what he did last year.”
(What have you seen from WR DeVante Parker this season that’s different from past seasons?) – “I think he just has a good rhythm of how to practice, how to prepare, how to get ready. When you’re a bigger guy, sometimes some of these smaller guys can just go out to practice, stretch a little bit and get going. He’s got to get loosened up and really have his body ready to go to really hit full stride there in individual, which that’s what we want. So he spends a little more time pre-practice to be able to play full speed in practice.”
(Last week you had to adjust on the fly with WR DeVante Parker out in the game. Does it help getting WR Leonte Carroo and WR Jakeem Grant a week full of reps?) – “Yes, absolutely. With those two, and you can throw (Kenyan) Drake in there too when Jay (Ajayi) doesn’t practice, just getting those guys as many reps as possible, getting them used to playing with the quarterback, it really helps those guys so much because they don’t feel like when they walk on the field they don’t get a rep in practice and all of a sudden they have to do it in a game. Being able to have as many reps as they’ve had this week is always going to be helpful for them.”
(How do routes change or play calls change when a guy fills in for another guy and he’s eight inches shorter?) – “It’s interesting. There’s some things that you just avoid and then there’s some things that you can still do the same thing. The quarterback’s really got to lower his target. It’s hard to see (Jakeem Grant) sometimes. There’ll be certain routes that we try not to do with him because you get a better feel … If you stand right behind the quarterback and you’re trying to see what he’s seeing, it’s tougher than you think because the line’s a bunch of big guys, a lot of them are extremely tall, and you’re trying to find those throwing lanes and all of the sudden you just see a little flash. It can get difficult sometimes.”
(How did WR Jakeem Grant play last week?) – “He did okay. I think it’s just one of those things where he was in a lot of plays that he’s never actually got a rep (of) before. The smallest mistake can get magnified. I think he learned a valuable lesson. I know he’s studying extremely hard. He does his own, I think him and (Leonte) Carroo go on their own and they almost do their own walk-throughs to go through the plays and talk through what each other would have. They’ve done an outstanding job of being consistent since the spring. Once they got past that first year and realized, ‘Okay, this is what it is to be a pro.’ I think Kenny (Stills) has really been the one that has guided those guys to make sure that they prepare week in and week out, and he really started helping them right after last season ended.”
(How do you reduce the completion percentage of opposing quarterbacks?) – “Try to stay as tight as you can. When you’ve got guys that can fit the ball into tight windows, it makes it very tough and when you do take away those throws, you have to be tight on their (receivers). Basically, I always say, what’s the quarterbacks out, whether it be the running back or the tight end? You’ve just got to try to stay as tight as possible. You’ve got to try to put extreme pressure on them and try to make him get the ball out when he doesn’t want to.”
(Has CB Cordrea Tankersley continued his steady progress since he went into the starting lineup?) – “Yes. He does a great job. He treats every day like a game. You can see a guy that really loves playing football, and it’s been fun to watch him work the last few weeks. I love his attitude. I love the fact that he thought we were all nuts for him not being out there sooner, which you love. I love the fact that (he’s got a) ‘Hey, it’s about time you guys put me in there’ kind of attitude. You talk about getting thrown into the fire, you’re going against Drew Brees and now, all of a sudden, Matt Ryan. It’s not one of those things where you’re playing small schools and then, all of the sudden, you get loosened up for conference play. Every week’s tough.”
(How uncommon was CB Cordrea Tankersley’s reaction to being put into the starting lineup, saying ‘It’s about time?’) – “I think a lot of guys wouldn’t be like that. They’d be like, ‘Okay,’ and just get ready; but he’s confident. That’s one of the things that we really liked about him was he didn’t care what anybody else thought. In his head, he feels like he’s one of the best guys on the field. At the end of the day, that’s what you want.”
(Is it likely that you’ll have the same group of defensive backs active?) – “We’ll have to look at that. We’re going to talk about that again today. We probably won’t make any hardcore decisions until tomorrow night. We’ll see how it kind of plays out for us.”
(On Sunday after the game, you said you scaled back the offense to help the group. Can you elaborate on that a little bit and what went into that decision?) – “Really the last couple weeks, we’ve been trying to figure out what’s worth having in and what’s really not important. Any time you find yourself a little bit out of rhythm or whatever you want to say it is, we haven’t been putting points on the board. We haven’t been playing well on third down. We really wanted to try to focus on things and make sure that we practice them and get multiple reps in practice with it and being able to walk through everything. Really at the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is say, ‘We’re going to give our players the best chance possible in these situations and allow them to execute at a high speed.’ That’s what we’ve been trying to do. We’re trying to find the right formula for this group, because what we did last year is really, at the end of the day, it’s irrelevant. What works with Jay (Cutler) and the group that he’s out there with and the o-line? It is 11 guys that have got to do it together. We’ve just got to keep finding a way to put ourselves in third-and-manageable and see what happens. Right now, we have the same amount of snaps on third-and-11-plus as we do on third-and-1-to-6, that’s not a good thing. We’ve got to flip the script on that.”
(How would you describe S Nate Allen’s performance through four games?) – “I think he has been a solid, solid veteran player for us. He has done exactly what we’ve asked him to do. He has done a good job. I think there has only been one or two times where I felt like where he missed a tackle that I felt like he could’ve made. He has done a great job. The big thing for us is keep everything in front of you and when somebody gets to you, get them down. Give us another chance. He has embraced that role. Any time that you bring in a new player from a different organization or that has been around for a while, you’re always curious to see how he fits in, and he has done a great job of fitting in with the guys and then contributing with really the role we’ve asked him to do.”
(When you look at a guy like Falcons LB Vic Beasley, what type of challenges does he present to your offense?) – “Any time you have a guy that has extreme speed, you have to be very aware of him. And then you throw in the fact that he’s an extreme competitor. You may block him on the initial rush, but he’s going to keep coming. When you play a guy like that, you have to bring your A game, because until the whistle blows – and if you think it’s going to be one of those where you just tie up and you slow down, it’s not going to be like that. He’s not going to quit on the play. He’s going to keep coming. Really at the end of the day, that’s a Dan Quinn coached defense right there, because I’ve been watching it since 2013. It hasn’t changed. It’s something he instills in those guys to where it’s relentless pursuit for the entire game.”
(Most important thing against Falcons WR Julio Jones for those guys who will be covering him?) – “We’ll kind of see how that all plays out as far as what we want to do. I don’t want to give you exactly what we’re doing. There’s going to be multiple guys that are going to have to cover him at some point, because he’s not going to be in one spot, fire a flare and let everybody know where he’s at. Everybody has got to be ready. We’ve got to be great at our leverage. We’ve got to make sure we know where our help is. Guys are just going to have to be very sound in our coverages.”
(How similar of a defense is this to the one Dan Quinn had in Seattle?) – “He has evolved over time. It’s close. The attitude is the same. That’s the sign of a really good coach of somebody that goes from one place to the other. It’s about that swagger, the intensity, the speed they play with. It just carried over, just different guys.”
(Do you think WR Jakeem Grant should’ve caught the ball that Titans CB Adoree’ Jackson broke up?) – “That was a tough one. It looked like he kind of mistimed his jump at little bit. I’ve seen him jump higher than what he did. It was one of those situations where I called it and you’re thinking one thing and it kind of played out a little different than I thought. And then when I saw the ball go up the seam, I was like, ‘This’ll be interesting.’ The ball looked like it came out pretty high. It was a good job. Jay (Cutler) put it in a pretty good spot to where they couldn’t do anything about it. I think if Jakeem times his jump a little different, we might’ve been able to pull that one in.”
Mike Pouncey – October 12, 2017
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
C Mike Pouncey
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen said there’s no finger pointing on offense right now. Do you see that?) – “No, no one is pointing fingers. We’re just trying to get it all figured out right now. It’s still early in the football season. We know that we’ve got to get our offense going now. It’s the second quarter of the season. We will. We’ll get it going on Sunday.”
(Is it more mental, because I’ve heard you and some of your teammates say the blocks are mental and some of the routes? Is it mental?) – “Yes, for the most part, the first quarter of the season it was a different guy on a different play. We’re trying to get that figured out now, get it sorted away. It doesn’t matter what coach calls, if 11 guys are doing what they’re supposed to do on that play, then that play is going to be successful. Obviously, we haven’t had that going. We’ve had spurts of it throughout this season, so far; but we’ve got to be more consistent on the offensive side of the ball.”
(QB Jay Cutler said yesterday it’s nothing magical right now that’s going to turn this around. What do you think turns this around?) – “Just going out there and doing what you’ve got to do. No one has to do anything extra than what we ask the person to do. At the end of the day, if you do your job, we’ll win a bunch of football games. That’s our mindset right now is get guys to do what they’re supposed to do on every play.”
(Fixing it during the week is one thing, but what about when you’re in game and the struggles are there. How do you approach it that way?) – “You come in at halftime, you try to figure it out. You sit there, you draw stuff up and figure out what plays worked for us in the first half and try and get back into those plays in the second half. A football game, sometimes you think you’re going to line up the way you practice all week and sometimes they just don’t do that. When we get into games, we’ve got to be able to figure that out. Right now, we’re trying to figure it out.”
(How personal do you take the struggles that the offensive line has had?) – “Big time. I’m one of the guys that’s one of the leaders on the offensive line. (I have) been here the longest out of all the guys. Whenever they talk bad about our offensive line, it reflects on me most, because I’ve been here. I just feel like we’ve been playing well on offense. We’ve just got to figure it out and keep being consistent on the offensive side of the ball and stop going three-and-out.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said there needs to be more of a sense of urgency coming out of the huddle as the clock winds down. Do you see that?) – “Of course. We see the snap count rolling down – or the play clock rolling down – and you just don’t want to be in those situations where you feel like you’re panicking out there. We’ve tried the no-huddle where we just line up on the ball. We just couldn’t get guys lined up right. Now we’re just trying get guys to do what they’re supposed to do each and every play. If we do that, we’ll win a bunch of games. We’ve got a lot of time on the offensive side of the ball.”
(You’re a quarter into the season, how do you feel physically?) – “I feel great. Better than what I expected. I keep rolling, keep going with the plan. 16-plus.”
(Every team obviously deals with adversity throughout the season. Do you think this team has had more on its plate in 4 or 5 weeks than some have in an entire year?) – “No, not really. We just deal with a couple things. As a football player, you come in and you focus on that day, and that’s all you can ask for. When you start worrying about outside stuff is when you start playing bad as a player, as a football team. Right now, we’re just focused on one day at a time, getting better.”
(What has Head Coach Adam Gase done to keep it together?) – “Just be the head coach. Motivate guys. Keep guys wanting to play hard for him.”
(What was your reaction to the events involving Coach Chris Foerster?) – “I was shocked. Chris is a good friend of mine. I hope he gets the help that he needs because he’s a great coach. He was always great to me. He treated me really well. I learned a lot from him in the year and a half we worked together. I just hate to see that he’s going through this.”
(Did you have any inkling that there was anything going on?) – “If I would’ve, we would’ve done something; but no.”
(With Chris Foerster obviously not here, Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen was saying you and G/T Jemon Bushrod are more involved now in overseeing things, along with Assistant Offensive Line Coach Chris Kuper and Tight Ends Coach Shane Day. What specifically have you had to do more of this week that you might not do if Chris was still coaching?) – “Honestly, I just come in and be myself, do what I always do. I just motivate guys that want to practice harder, practice better. Obviously, we brought back in my offensive line coach that we had here my rookie year. We feel real comfortable with him. He’s a great coach. He brings a big personality to the offensive line room, something that we need. We’ll be good.”
(So in the room out front, is it Assistant Offensive Line Coach Chris Kuper? Is it Senior Offensive Assistant Dave DeGuglielmo? How has it been the last couple of days?) – “Chris is running everything. ‘Gug’ (Dave DeGuglielmo) is there to help out. Me and ‘Bush’ (Jermon Bushrod) are kind of the guys to lead the rest of these guys to get everybody ready to go.”
(So it is going as smoothly as it could possibly happen?) – “Yes, it’s just a regular work day for us. Nothing has changed at all. Guys come in, the same meeting time. Nothing has changed.”
Jay Ajayi – October 12, 2017
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
RB Jay Ajayi
(Head Coach Adam Gase said yesterday in a light-hearted way that there are three hot heads on the team: himself, you and WR Jarvis Landry. How do you maintain your emotions on the sidelines?) – “Just trying to not get frustrated if a play is not executed the right way. We’ve got to keep our emotions in check just so that we can keep the offense rolling.”
(Is that something consciously you’re trying to do?) – “It’s definitely something that I’m working on now. I’m such a passionate player. I play with a lot of emotions, but at the same time, you can’t let those emotions affect the game or the team. Being in a role where we’re counted upon, and I feel like I’m counted upon in my role, I’ve got to just be able to hold my emotions in check sometimes.”
(The fact that the offense has not been able to hit big plays like last year, how is that impacting the running game for example in the way defenses approach you?) – “I think that once we can get those explosive plays, of course it’s going to help the run game. It’s also going to help if we can get explosive plays in the run game, which we haven’t been able to do that much. I just think it comes down to execution. If we can just really line up, do what we need to do, clean up the details, execute and make those big plays, our offense would be able to run a lot smoother.”
Adam Gase – October 12, 2017
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With WR DeVante Parker a question for Sunday, last week the thinking going with WR Jakeem Grant for a lot of snaps compared to WR Leonte Carroo? Was it because of what Jakeem showed preseason, practice recently? And how did he do?) – “Looking back at it, I wish I would’ve mixed them both in there a little more. When you have a guy go down and you’ve kind of tailored the game plan to those three guys and all of a sudden you … It’s like the third play of the game. I was trying to go through and fix a lot of the formations. I didn’t want to mess Kenny (Stills) up either, because we had certain things in the game plan for him. We felt like Jakeem gave us as good a chance as Carroo. I probably should’ve just mixed them in there a little more. That probably would’ve helped us.”
(You guys are 10-0 when RB Jay Ajayi has 18 or more carries. Does that number have any significance, and if so, what does it tell you about what’s happening or what could be happening?) – “It’s hard for me to say that’s the only reason. I think it helps when your defense doesn’t allow a team to move the ball and special teams plays well. If we have a high amount of carries, there’s probably good reason behind it. We’re either ahead and we’re trying to finish the game out by running the football or things were going really well that day. I don’t know if that’s the only thing that correlates to winning and losing. If it was, it’d make it a lot easier.”
(Last year the success was run game, play action, big play. This year, no big play. What has happened to the passing game where that has just been non-existent?) – “Just kind of our opportunities have come up a couple times, whether it be something that hasn’t gone right. Even this last game, we had a couple shots and called them at the wrong time. They brought a pressure one time to where Jay (Cutler) couldn’t break the pocket and tried to get it to Jarvis (Landry). We’ve got Kenny (Stills) running down the field by himself but there’s nothing he can do about it. He basically had no laces and tried to throw the ball as well as he could on that one. The opportunities we’ve had, we hit a couple in that first game; but ever since then, we really haven’t been able to get too many guys downfield.”
(As talented as WR Jarvis Landry, WR Kenny Stills, WR DeVante Parker – as talented as those guys are and it’s ideal to have them on the field at the same time – are you seeing a little bit of a difference in the run game when you’re able to get more tight ends in the game as well?) – “It has been hit or miss for us. You go through everything and you’re looking gun, under center, how’s your play-action game, with personnel groupings, all of those type of things. Every game has been such a different story of what has been successful for us. Really, at the end of the day for us, it’s all about not having negative plays. When we have second-and-12 and we’re leading into third-and-7-plus, that’s what hurts us more than anything. Those are hard down and distances to convert. That’s why the league average is what it is when it comes to (third and) 6 to 9 (yards) being 25 percent or whatever and (third and) 10-plus being 10 percent. We’ve got to put ourselves in third-and-2-to-5. That gives us a chance. If we can do that and have success there … We just haven’t had a lot of opportunities.”
(RB Jay Ajayi only has three carries of 9 yards or more on 76 tries. Is it actually more important that he eliminate or lessen the runs for loss? Is that actually a bigger point of emphasis?) – “That’s an ideal situation. The less negative plays you have, the better. That’s what puts us behind the sticks. Obviously, we have some work to do on third down. I’ll give up some of the big, big plays for the consistency of positive plays and putting ourselves in third-and-manageable.”
(We hear from coaches so many times – you, others – over the years, ‘Don’t turn a bad play into a catastrophe.’ So, even though the optics – which you wouldn’t care about in this case – of QB Jay Cutler just throwing the ball away several times per game it seemed, even though that doesn’t look good, is that what you want him to do?) – “Yes. If you would’ve known what happened on a couple of those plays … We had a couple opportunities and we didn’t execute certain things. He did the right thing. What he did when he threw the ball away, he was right. When things happen unexpectedly, when your eyes start to go somewhere, and there’s nobody there, it doesn’t give you a lot of options.”
(Are defenses playing you any differently as the season has gone on, because of the lack of big plays?) – “I think last game was … What we’re seeing is what we’re getting really early. It just seems to be different with what a lot of teams have done in the past. What we’ve seen on film, we’re not necessarily getting that all the time. So we’re making in-game adjustments quite a bit. I think teams are kind of testing us to see if we’re going to start to be able to get the run game going. We saw a little bit more of the middle-field open. That was a good defensive front, which I can understand. You’ve got DeVante (Parker) and Kenny (Stills) outside, you don’t always want to go middle field closed and load up the box and let those guys test it out and see if this is going to be the game they break out. Coach (Dick) LeBeau did a great job as far as mixing it up and calling some pressures at the right time and playing a lot of middle-field open. It surprised us a little bit, and then we adjusted and started making some hay there towards the end of the game.”
(Is it fair to say that time of possession will be a huge stat this week’s game, because you want to keep that offense off the field?) – “It probably wouldn’t hurt us. I know that. Points will probably help us. That’ll probably be something that would be very nice to have against an offense that you know can get hot at any moment. If we do a good job of controlling the big plays from them and then finding ways for us to consistently move the ball, stay third-and-manageable, get in the red zone, score points, that’ll give us a good shot.”
(I was interested in something you said last week about QB Jay Cutler learning to play as a 34-year-old quarterback instead of playing like he’s 25. I know you have experience with him and other players in that regard. So, what’s the difficult thing … That seems like a challenge for all athletes: learning to play at your age at this point. So, what’s the process for working with him on it?) – “I think the biggest thing you try to get used to is in the past, he has been able to hop left, be off balance and throw the ball across the field and the ball would get there with good velocity. The older you get, the more you have to be able to set your feet, get aligned, make sure you’re using your entire body, because your arm eventually doesn’t give you the juice that you did five years ago, six years ago. Sometimes it’s that reminder of, ‘I have to do a good job mechanically – set my feet – to throw an accurate ball with good velocity.’ It just doesn’t happen like it used to. When he sets his feet and he’s aligned, that ball comes in there pretty good. He had some really good throws that we just didn’t come up with. The one he threw to the sideline and Jarvis (Landry) … That thing was moving. When I see him do that, and he’s able to set his feet and be in the right alignment, he has made some really good throws.”
(Players usually don’t want to believe – or maybe don’t believe – coaches when they tell them – not just in football, but in all sports – when you tell them that this isn’t there anymore. Did you have to show him … ‘You have to understand your new reality?’) – “No, not really. We’ve talked about it. The throws that he has made in those positions, not a lot of guys could make them to begin with. Most guys actually do have to set their feet to throw the ball. He does have like a freak gift of being able to really put some juice on the ball. It’s still there. It’s just not always going to come out as clean as he wanted. It’ll be a little inconsistent. That’s just kind of the reality of getting old.”
(I have a question for you about the play clock. So, I’m hoping you can teach me something. Is it really that big of a deal when you guys snap the ball with 1 or 2 seconds left? What’s lost doing that as opposed to snapping it at 10 or 12 seconds?) – “It’s just mixing it up for the defense … Some guys will watch the play clock – defensive ends. And when that clock gets down to 3, 2, 1, they try to time it up to where they know it’s either we’re snapping it or it’s a delay of game, so they just go. There are some guys that are special that are able to do that. It causes some problems. You can vary when you’re snapping the ball. I think that always makes it tough on the defense. You can kind of tempo it up sometimes. You can slow it down. You don’t want to be the same every time.”
(If you got up there at like 12 seconds, then there’s a little more guesswork for the defensive ends than if you’re getting up there late in the clock. They know it’s coming?) – “The faster you can get out of the huddle, the more things you can do – shifts, motions, cadence. You’ve got more options. You’re able to see a defense, you might be able to check out of something. The closer you get to 0, now you’re limiting what you can do.”
(So, was it better in your opinion this past week than it had been?) – “I still think we have a long ways to go. We’re not doing a good enough job of getting back to the huddle, getting in the huddle, getting our substitutions in there, getting the play call, getting to the line of scrimmage. We’re too slow. It’s something that we’ve really made a big point of emphasis on of just being better in little, tiny details of huddle mechanics, getting to the line of scrimmage, not walking around, come out of the huddle with a little sense of urgency. I know our guys, they’re working on it. They’re very aware of that’s something that we need to improve on.”
(Are you surprised at all with the number of veteran players you have on this offense – obviously, you have some young offensive lineman – that the no-huddle wasn’t more effective with this group, and is it still in the back of your mind?) – “When you do it, it just can’t be like two or three guys. It has got to be the entire group. All it takes is one guy that doesn’t know what to do and now you’re going to get thrown off.”
(You talk a lot about just that, a handful of guys every play do something wrong? Is it focus, is it attention? What is it?) – “That’s always a question that no matter what year it is, you’re always trying to figure out … There’s always something that goes on that you’re trying to fix. This is a sport everybody is trying to be perfect and the reality is it’s tough to do. You’re always trying to fight to get to that point where your execution is flawless. That needs to be your mindset. You’re always going to try and figure out, ‘Where’s my weak links? Who’s struggling with what and why are they struggling?’ That’s really the biggest thing you’re trying to get answered is why are we having problems with certain things. To me, it goes back to we have to do a great job of communicating and then the players have to do a great job of executing on the field; but it does take some extra time. What you do in the building, it’s not going to be, ‘Hey, I got it.’ Because once you think you’ve got it, you’re probably in trouble. Our guys are trying to do more. They’re trying to make sure, ‘Okay, I’m clean on third downs. I’m clean on red area. I have a really good sense of everything going on. If something else comes up, and I have to adjust, that’s a whole different animal you’re dealing with.’ So I think the guys are putting in the work. I noticed it, especially yesterday in practice. I felt like our focus was good. Our sense of urgency was good. We’re giving ourselves a chance to really compete on Sunday.”
(How many incompleted balls did you count as catchable from the last game?) – “I think we said we have five drops. They were big plays; and then we probably had a couple busts that were we’re talking about those throwaways. There was one in particular that we felt like would’ve been a big play that we busted on.”
Darren Rizzi – October 12, 2017
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(You have a unique perspective on this. When the offense is playing well and the defense is not, or vice versa, and teams go through this all the time and players always say the right thing – we’re all in this together and it’s a team game – but at some point there’s got to be some strain and some stress, I would think. What’s your experience with that? What are your thoughts about it?) – “I think the strain and the stress really come from the guys on that particular side of the ball that aren’t doing well. I really have never seen it here, especially with this group since (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase has been here, with the other side putting pressure on the other. The leaders of the team on the sideline are going to be vocal and they’re going to try to motivate in one way or the other, but the stress and strain I see I think sometimes guys … For example, if the defense is struggling or the offense is struggling, guys on that particular side of the ball may be putting too much pressure on themselves and trying to press a little bit; but I think this team has been pretty good about that. As you know, since Adam has gotten here, and we’ve talked about that, we’ve won games in varieties of different ways. We’ve won games on offense, defense, special teams. Although this year I know the narrative has been the other way with defense and offense, I haven’t seen that in the building. Guys like Cameron Wake, or Reshad Jones, or (Ndamukong) Suh, the guys that are veterans, the guys that have been around, I’ve seen them step up and either tell the defense, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get it done today’ and be more encouraging and motivating to the offense. I see the offensive guys being the guys maybe being a little bit too hard on themselves that way, maybe pressing a little bit. Other than that, again, I know Adam’s addressed that with the offensive stuff, so I’ll let him do that; but I think our guys have handled it pretty maturely, whichever way it is, and it’s been both. It depends. Like you said, sometimes it’ll swing the other way, where now the offense is carrying the team and the defense could be struggling at points. I think our guys have really handled that part well.”
(Do you have any responsibilities as associate head coach in terms of bringing newly hired Senior Offensive Assistant Dave DeGugliemo up to speed? Do you have any role in that? How difficult is it for a coach to come in in the middle of a season and learn personnel?) – “Yes, obviously I know ‘Gug’ from the last time (he was with the Dolphins). I’ve actually known ‘Gug’ a long time. We played against each other in college, believe it or not, way back when. I’m dating myself there – Rhode Island and Boston University days – back in 1990. That’s almost too long ago; but no, I’ve known ‘Gug’ a long time. I really respect him as a person. My help to ‘Gug’ has been just getting acclimated. He hasn’t been here, obviously, in six years. A lot of new faces, getting him caught up to speed. I think ‘Gug’ is a guy that’s been with a lot of great organizations, he’s been to the Super Bowl a couple of times, he’s got a very strong personality, so in light of the situation, I think he’s a very good guy to come in here and step in. He’s seen a lot of different things, so I think it takes a strong personality guy to do that, and he’s just that. So really my role with him has been more of helping him get acclimated, not the Xs and Os part of it.”
(This is your ninth season, is that right?) – “Yes.”
(You’ve seen some stuff. There’s some controversy that has been around this team over the last decade. How do you focus? How do you compartmentalize? How do you channel that into not laying an egg on Sunday?) – “It’s a great question. I’ve always been a believer that distractions are what you make of them. Distractions are distractions if you let them be distractions. In today’s society, there’s so many distractions with all of the different things that can be going on between social media and everything else. I think they are personal choices that we make every day. As a group – and I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has done a great job with this team since day one – is what are we going to do? Are we going to let distractions deter us and take us off the rail or are we going to circle the wagons kind of thing? I think we’ve done a pretty good job of eliminating distractions. They’re going to be there. There’s going to be distractions every day. To me, like I said, it’s almost a personal choice. I know you guys don’t want to hear this, because of your professions, but are you going to read the media? Are you going to log on and read all of the articles or are you going to follow everything on social media or, at some point, are you going to focus in on, ‘This is our job?’ I get paid to coach football. These players get paid to play football, and at some point you’ve got to lock in on what your responsibilities are. I know it’s easier said than done. Personally speaking, I stay off the internet stuff and I don’t have social (media). I couldn’t even tell you how to get on Instachat or whatever the heck they’re called. (Laughter) I have no idea. Trust me, my children are the ones that keep me up to speed on the social media. Again, I think it all depends on your (choices). Like I said before, do you let the distractions deter you from what you’re doing? It’s easy to make excuses. This team has had plenty of distractions this year between the hurricane and moving the game to the bye week, West Coast travel, London. You can make as many excuses as you want or you can bind together and circle the wagons. I think this team has done a pretty good job of that.”
(One quick follow up, and I don’t want you to speak ill of predecessors, but in 2013, things didn’t go smoothly, I would say, with the bully controversy. Have people learned in this building how to move beyond that?) – “Yes. There’s not that many people that are still around, let’s be honest. There’s only a select few of us, I would say. In that instance, I would say, again, it all goes back to – I think on an individual and collective basis – what do you let the distractions do. Do you let them seep in and become a cancer or do you bond together and circle the wagons and keep those things outside? The world’s a funny place. You can justify anything. You can justify reasons why you win, reasons why you lose, reasons why you succeed, don’t succeed. Again, in my opinion, we can’t use built-in excuses, and I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has done a great job of that with our team. Maybe with things in the past, we haven’t handled it as well. I think this group right now, the building between all the leadership we have from (Owner) Stephen Ross right on down through Adam and the coaching staff, I think we’ve done a much better job of handling these situations.”
(What did you notice on the K Cody Parkey extra point miss against the Titans?) – “Have you ever hit a fat ball when you play golf? That’s what he did. He got some grass. It was a little soft down there on that end of the field and he chunked it. He just got some grass. That’s a ball that I’ve never seen him hit that ball that far to the right before. It was just one of those things where if you saw where he hit the ball and you looked right down, a big chunk of grass came out of the turf. That’s what happened on that particular kick.”
(How does chunking a kick happen? Is that just not keeping your eyes on the ball?) – “Yes, he’s actually trying to stay down on it, through a little bit, and stayed down a little bit too much. It is what it is. I haven’t seen one of those. (Cody Parkey) had a great practice session yesterday. You guys may not be aware of this, I was actually looking through the stats. I get the weekly stats throughout the league right now. You guys would probably be surprised, there’s only three teams in the league that haven’t missed either a PAT or a field goal. Only three guys in the league right now are perfect. I think (Cowboys) Dan Bailey, the team we’re playing this week (Falcons) Matt Bryant and I think the young kid from Oakland (Raiders Giorgio Tavecchio) are the only kids that have not missed either a PAT or a field goal. Moving that PAT line back, as I’ve told you guys before, I treat every kick as it’s a field goal now. That’s what it is. It’s a 33-yard field goal. It only counts for one, instead of three; but he’s obviously got to be better. I’m not really overly concerned about it, though. He just happened to get some grass on that one.”
(What did you see from P Matt Haack, technique or otherwise, that led to his big day on Sunday?) – “Like any rookie, I think in the first couple of games he was just a little bit inconsistent because I think sometimes he was pressing. I think he was much more relaxed, whatever you want to call it, being home this week; but he kind of got in a zone. He really showed what we’ve been seeing since the day he got here, once he was locked in. It was really, last week, a big part of our game plan because (Titans) Adoree’ Jackson, the returner for Tennessee, had been having a really good year and we wanted to keep the ball out of his hands. He was a game changer, bottom line. He was our special teams player of the week, in house, and he really changed the game in my opinion. He really showed you what he’s capable of doing: high hang time, good direction, keeping the ball away from the returner, letting our coverage get down there and do their work, so I was very, very impressed with him. It’s not like I was surprised, because I’ve seen him do that in practice.”
(How do you decide who handles punts, who returns punts?) – “Who returns punts? Weekly it’s just decision made rep by rep. We’ll go into a game sometimes, let’s say if we had this particular call, Jakeem (Grant’s) going to take this one or Jarvis (Landry’s) going to take this one. A lot of the time it’s how the game is going, where we are in the game in terms of situation, where we are on the field. Last week we were almost, if I’m not mistaken, close to 50/50 on who took what and both guys have done well. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, you guys know how I feel, we have two very good guys. I’m fortunate to have two great guys to put back there, two great options. Obviously, to get a guy like Jarvis, if you can get the ball in his hands a couple times a game … We know what Jakeem can do with the ball in his hands. I think it also keeps our opponent off balance. I think one thing that gets under looked a little bit is them not knowing which guy’s back there, because they’re two totally different style guys. How you’re going to play those guys and try to keep them off balance and keep them on their heels a little bit, too, is something that is a little bit underrated when we’re making those decision, too.”
(RB Kenyan Drake hasn’t gotten many touches from scrimmage. Have you and Head Coach Adam Gase discussed anything on kickoff to maybe get him a couple of more touches?) – “Yes, we’re trying. Again, we’ve got two guys back there and sometimes just game plan-wise, or where they kick the ball, or the wind or whatever (affects who gets the ball). Early on, he got the first few. If you remember back to the Chargers game, Jakeem (Grant) didn’t have any for a little bit and then all of the sudden everyone’s asking, ‘Okay, when is Jakeem going to get some?’ That’s just the way it’s balanced out. I think usually it’ll end up balancing itself out at the end of the day. Obviously Drake is a guy that we’d like to get the ball in his hands and we know what he’s done in the past, as well.”
(I know you have history with K Cody Parkey that goes way back, but this is the first time you’ve really been able to get hands-on coaching. You’ve had about a month. What have you observed about him overall?) – “I really didn’t know him as well as a person, I knew him more as a kicker. I’m starting to really respect him as a person, just his approach. He’s got a very, very professional approach to him. It’s almost like he’s a guy you would think that’s been kicking in the league for a lot longer than he has. (He has) a really positive and professional approach. As a kicker, he’s really done exactly what I’ve seen on film through college and his short NFL career. He’s just been a consistent guy. I know everybody will point (out) that he’s missed a couple of extra points. I get it, and he has to clean those up; but he’s been pretty consistent throughout watching his warmups, his practice routine and his game routine. It’s been pretty much what I expected. I just didn’t know him as well as a person.”
(A coaching staff spends more time together than sometimes you do with your family. Were you surprised, not surprised, when you saw or heard about Chris Foerster?) – “Yes, I’m not going to get into great detail about it; but when I first saw the information come out, I was surprised, yes. Unexpected. Obviously an extremely unfortunate situation, I’m not going to get into great detail about it; but I was surprised, yes.”
(It was a big extra point that K Cody Parkey missed at that point in the game and he missed very badly. So when he comes off after that, what’s his demeanor like or how steady is he after something like that happens?) – “Like I said, that’s part of his approach. Even when he misses a kick in practice, he’s not overly down on himself. He’s a very good self-correct guy. I’ve had kickers in the past that have missed kicks and come off and said, ‘I have no idea what happened there.’ He’s immediately able to regurgitate and tell you exactly, ‘My plant foot,’ whatever it is, ‘I slid,’ or ‘I hit too high on the ball, I wrapped my…’ There’s a bunch of different kicker lingo, if you will; but he’s a pretty self-correct guy. He can kind of coach himself. He never gets too high, too low. Really, that’s what I like about all three of our specialists: John Denney, Matt Haack, Cody Parkey. They all have very, very good personalities. They’re very, very level people. They’re never too high, never too low, which is very good at that position. He’s never too down on himself. Obviously he was disappointed. We all wanted to make it. Every extra point is big and every field goal is big and we know points are at a premium in this league, so obviously we’re looking to make every single one of those. That’s the Captain Obvious statement of the week, but he’s able to self-correct and he doesn’t really get too down on himself, so that part has been good.”
(Are you aware that one of the CBS announcers said during the Titans game that the networks need to have a Rizzi cam on you?) – “I don’t know why. (Laughter) I can’t understand why. I’m just a level-headed guy that, once in a while, gets a little bit passionate about a call or two. (Laughter) Someone did tell me that. I was informed that there was a Rizzi cam quote in there somewhere; but I’ve been good, I’ve been really good. (Laughter) I’ve been calm.”
(Yesterday, Head Coach Adam Gase said he, WR Jarvis Landry and RB Jay Ajayi were the hotheads of the offense. Are you the hothead of special teams?) – “No, those guys are crazy. I’m calm. (Laughter) I can’t understand why anybody would get that excited. I think (the running into the kicker play against the Titans), in particular, I thought it should have been a roughing. In fact, in the referee’s defense, I think he came back later on and said, ‘I think I missed that one,’ which I respect and appreciated. I thought that should have been a 15 (yard penalty instead of) 5, which at that point in the game was a huge deal because that gives us a first down. We keep the ball with 5:15. Instead of just being a tack-on (penalty), it’s an automatic first down. Who knows? We might not have given the ball back up and that could have changed the entire game, so that’s why I was a shade bit upset. I was a little bit emotional.”
(It’s an automatic roughing the kicker penalty if the defense hits the plant leg, right?) – “Yes, so pretty much if his kicking leg is still on the ground, you cannot take out his plant leg. Usually, that’s a 15-yarder if you make body contact, you run through him. Usually, if you hit the up leg and you just hit the kicking foot, you just run through that, usually that’s the 5 (yard) variety. I thought the player had come in and kind of taken out (Matt Haack’s) plant leg, so I thought it was a 15.”
Matt Burke – October 12, 2017
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(Regarding DT Jordan Phillips last week. He said that he was healthy enough to play. Was that a coach’s decision because you’re happy with DT Davon Godchaux and DT Vincent Taylor or an injury decision?) – “No, it was a combination of both. We thought Vincent got a little bit more work during the week. It was close with Jordan. He was kind of right up until game time but we just felt we were only going to have three healthy (defensive tackles). We couldn’t keep four up with the way the actives were going to be constructed, so we just felt for another week to have three healthy bodies. God forbid if something happened, if Jordan kind of aggravated something and we were down, we were going to be shorthanded. So we just felt having the three healthy bodies, truly healthy, that we felt that was just a better option for us.”
(If DT Jordan Phillips is healthy, will he be active on Sunday?) – “You’d have to ask the head coach that but yes, Jordan’s been working back in. I think he’s got a good chance to play.”
(Can you talk about from a personal standpoint, what the first four weeks have been like for you calling plays on the sideline? Is it a chess match? Is it like the most draining experience you’ve ever had? I mean what has it been like for you?) – “It’s definitely draining. I don’t know if you guys watch me on the sideline. I’m a little out of my mind sometimes too. It’s exhausting. Game days are tiring. You’re on edge. It’s a high intensity moment for four hours. Even in between series when we’re making corrections and those sort of things. Mentally, the information is constantly changing, so every series there’s new information coming of what they’ve done and what their adjustments are to what we’ve shown. So I’m always trying to work the next series and what calls I can make to get ahead and stay, try to stay one step ahead of what we’re getting from the offense. So there’s a little bit of chess match element to it. It’s definitely exhausting, just physically and mentally. I mean I go home on Sundays and I just like comatose on the couch for about five hours.”
(Is there a lot of second guessing?) – “From you guys or from me? (laughter)”
(I mean is it hard to move on to the next play? Or you really have no choice but to move on?) – “Yes. There’s always calls … It’s really not within a moment. In the heat of the game, if something doesn’t work or if a call doesn’t work, it’s just kind of like why? If that does not fit what they’re doing, if we went into a game with a blitz that we liked against a certain look and now they’re not running that, so it’s more like ‘I don’t want to call that anymore.’ It doesn’t fit what we’re actually seeing. Again, it’s sort of real-time processing of what their adjustments have been. I mean they can call whatever they want obviously on offense. So the second guessing, usually it comes after the fact. There’s always calls when you’re watching the film the next day and you’re like ‘I wish I hadn’t called that,’ or ‘I wished I put our guys in a better spot.’ So within the course of the game to me, it’s more just taking information, like as its coming. Again, we have a database of what we’ve watched and prepared for during the week and then as things adjust within the course of a game, it’s just taking that new information and trying to say ‘Okay, this call fits better in this situation,’ or ‘Here’s where I’m going to come back to with this,’ or those sort of things. Then there’s always the second guessing a little bit later on.”
(Do you enjoy it as much as you thought you would?) – “Oh yes, I love it. This is what we do. It’s cool. I mean game days are the fun stuff for me. That’s why we do all of this. That’s why we work 100-hour weeks and that’s why we spend all this time here to … I love it. It’s awesome.”
(Has the success of the defense so far through these four games been a little bit of confidence builder for you would you say?) – “I’m a fairly confident person in general. (laughter) No. I mean every week is a new challenge. It really is. I mean looking at this week, it’s never easy. It’s hard to battle the complacency or any of those sort of things. We’ve had some decent games. We’ve had some okay games. We’ve made a lot of mistakes, so every week it’s a new challenge and every week you come in and you start looking at the next opponent going ‘Oh man, this is going to be another piece of work for us.’ I don’t know. I’m confident in what I do and what our players are doing, but every week it’s a new battle.”
(When LB Kiko Alonso decapitated Titans QB Matt Cassel and CB Bobby McCain came…) – “(laughter) It’s your words not mine.”
(They were both untouched and it seemed to me that Titans QB Matt Cassel didn’t know they were coming. Take me inside that play and also maybe in general, what’s the best way to disguise your pressure points?) – “Yes, I mean we try. You always try to hold your looks and to build pressures off of things you’ve already shown or looks you’ve already shown. Not to get too specific on stuff, but like for example, a play like that, we blitz – I mean everyone this is no secret – we blitz Reshad (Jones) and Lawrence Timmons a lot. That’s no secret. You can watch the film and know that. So now you can start setting stuff up to where people are alert to where those guys are and you can bring pressure on the sides. I don’t know in that particular case, Bobby (McCain) and Kiko (Alonso) both did a good job of just playing from depth. Just to backtrack a little bit, we went through the spring and one of the things we went through in part, the pressure package in particular, is I try to let those guys know why I’m calling a certain pressure. In some cases, it’s like that. That was a second-down play, so it was second-and-10 or second-and-long, I think – I can’t remember specifically – but in that pressure, we don’t want to show. We want to make it look like we’re kind of playing a shell and then we kind of hit it almost like a sneak attack. There’s some pressures that we have that I don’t care if they know, where I’m like ‘Look, I want you up. I don’t want to be late. I don’t care if he knows.’ If it’s a heavy run pressure, I’ll put Reshad up and say Reshad, I want you on the line of scrimmage. I want them to check out of a run here if they’re going to do it, and if they try to run it, then they’ll run into a bad look. Part of our process through the spring was that, was understanding ‘In this call, this is kind of what I’m trying to do when I make this call, so I don’t care if they see that you’re coming.’ Or ‘in this call, I don’t want them to know we’re coming and try to hit it on the fly.’ So that’s part of the process partly all the way through the spring and partly our install process when we do that. They try to understand what I’m trying to get out of each call and each blitz and those guys did a great job of executing.”
(S Reshad Jones, LB Lawrence Timmons and LB Kiko Alonso seem like three really good tools to have as blitzers.) – “Yes.”
(How effective do you think those guys are as blitzers?) – “Again, they are. They’ve all got a good feel for it. They’ve got a good knack. They’re all violent players. Kiko has such a big hit when he makes contact there and we know what ‘20’ (Reshad Jones) and ‘94’ (Lawrence Timmons) can do, coupled with our front and those things. It definitely helps having different tools to use, for sure.”
(Regarding CB Byron Maxwell, was he a healthy scratch or was that the hamstring? Byron Maxwell last week, he was inactive?) – “He was. It was a combination. Obviously he’s still working back in. He’s been battling some things. The guys that were getting the work were going to be active for last week. It’s the same this week.”
(There was a lot of hand-wringing on our end about the linebackers.) – “I’m sorry about that (laughter).”
(When LB Koa Misi and LB Raekwon McMillan got hurt. Has the linebacker group exceeded your expectations or have they played to them?) – “Yes. I have high expectations in our room and it’s something that we preach – every man up. It took a little bit. Obviously with Ray (Maualuga) getting his first action last week, it was good to have him out there. I don’t know if they’ve exceeded anything. Again, I have pretty high expectations for every group and yes, we’ve dealt with it last year, when I was in the room with those guys. Nothing surprises me. I think it’s a talented bunch.”
(With each of the three starters – LB Kiko Alonso, LB Lawrence Timmons and LB Rey Maualuga – can you give me one thing each does well that we might not see?) – “That you don’t see? I mean I hope you see it. Lawrence surprises me every day with the way he runs. Honestly, he may have been a touch rusty two weeks ago, or in the London game, but he was sideline-to-sideline last week. He’s however old he is, I don’t even know; but he does it in practice every day. To watch Lawrence Timmons, literally he runs like that in practice. To see him run the way he does and chase balls sideline-to-sideline, it’s always impressive. I’ve been around Rey a lot. Rey, he’s somewhat typecast. He’s a big, big Mike linebacker. Rey has a really, really, really good feel for the game. He’s played a lot of football. He’s been a linebacker most of his career, most of his life probably. He’s very nuanced in just getting reads. He reads play actions really quickly. So whatever he may – he’ll get mad at me – may lack in some speed, I mean he’s really quick off the spot. He diagnoses plays really, really quickly. It gets him off the spot. He gets from point A to point B faster than you think because he’s so good at diagnosing plays. Kiko’s just such a unique player for a linebacker. As an athlete, for him to be able to cover – I mean I said it last year – we match him up on receivers sometimes, backs, tight ends. He can run. He makes that play getting the ball out on Delanie Walker last week, which is a great play and on the third-down stop. The ability for him to play coverage and do some of the things that we can do schematically, he allows us to do a lot. I don’t know if that answers your question.”
(Opponents are completing 73 percent of their passes. They have a QB rating of over 100, how do you get those numbers down?) – “It’s one of those things to me, where if … Again, I kind of talked about this last week at one point about trying to get out of our lane. If I’m trying too hard to do something or if I’m telling our players ‘Hey, we can’t let them do this.’ I think the growth of ‘Tank’ (Cordrea Tankersley) and ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) and those guys are getting closer. I think they’re starting to get a better feel, just as a unit, for the coverage package and how we’re trying to attack things and approach things. I see progress. I think it’s closer and closer. At some point, if a guy wants to throw a 1-yard flat route, there’s only so much you can do to stop that. Some of that is built into what we are doing. Obviously we keep preaching challenge, challenge, challenge and get us closer. I think our coverage plans evolved to help those guys out a little more and get them in the right spots. Again, as we move further in the season, we’ve got some complements to some of the things we’ve already played and try to put some different coverage looks out there for those guys. I think that’s helping and hopefully it keeps trending down.”
(With QB Matt Ryan, WR Julio Jones and RB Davonte Freeman, obviously they’ve got three of the better weapons in the NFL at each of those positions. How do you maintain balance in terms of how an offense like that can attack you?) – “Yes, they’re a talented group. Both running backs are good players. They’re top of the league in explosive plays, from all three of those guys really. It’s a challenge. I’m not going to lie, it’s a challenge. You’ve got to pick your spots and who you’re focusing on. You can’t go triple cover Julio and then leave Devonta Freeman to run against a light box and vice versa. You can’t play soft coverage all day and let them run the ball for 8 yards a clip. Matt Ryan has been around for a long time. He’s a good veteran quarterback. He gets them in the right calls. He gets them in the right looks. It’s a challenge. I think our guys are excited. Pretty much top to bottom, it’s probably the best offense we’ve faced all year. It’s not easy. If I had all the right answers, I don’t know if I’d give them to you anyways. (laughter) It’s difficult. Again, we have to mix our looks, mix our calls and try to give them some stuff that they haven’t seen and just try to keep them off balance. Whenever you’re playing a quarterback like this and an offense like this, it’s trying to keep them off balance. That’s what they do to us. They’re going to hand the ball of to ‘24’ (Devonta Freeman) and ‘26’ (Tevin Coleman) and they’re going to get Julio going and Matt’s going to get them in the right calls and they’re going to use tempo and cadence and all of the stuff that they’re able to do. We’ve got to try … As a defense, you’ve got to try to do the same thing to them. They’re one of the best teams in the league at converting on first and second down. They stay ahead of the chains, they keep you off balance, where it’s third-and-short. They do a good job on first and second down so we’ve got to try to combat that with throwing some different pitches at them to get them off track a little bit.”
(Going back to the linebackers, that was those three’s first time in the lineup together. How do you feel about their communication and are you satisfied?) – “They’re great. Like I said, I think Kiko (Alonso) has been outstanding in that realm. Rey (Maualuga) and Lawrence (Timmons) are both veteran guys that talk ball and know ball. Rey’s been in the room. It’s not like he’s been in a cage on the side somewhere. Rey’s been in the room and they kind of built a rapport already. Again, they’ve all seen a lot of ball. It doesn’t take much for veteran linebackers to look at each other and go ‘Hey, we’re doing this here,’ or this or that. So those guys are starting to get a connection I think.”
(Why was the pass rush so successful last week? Well even statistically, I know they’ve been effective before, but you had six sacks.) – “We did, did we? I don’t know. (laughter) Again, we actually … We got out to a little bit of a lead early, which helps. Some of the situations, we had some more third-and-long sort of situations. That gives you more of an opportunity. The quarterback is going to hold the ball a little bit longer in those situations, so it gives them a little bit of an extra second to work to the rush. I think in general, I just thought overall our energy last week was really sky high and I know a lot of guys have talked about how we’ve moved on from last year and all of that, but there’s things you don’t forget. We were still smarting a little bit from how that game went against those guys last year. It was the first home game. There’s a little bit of extra energy in the building for that. I think just a little bit that half a step of extra juice, which helped. I think the guys were really into it and feeding off the situations and then, like I said, I think we just got them in some longer down and distances with a little bit of a lead at times that just gave us more rush opportunities.”
Clyde Christensen – October 12, 2017
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(What positives do you have to bring us this week regarding the Dolphins offense?) – “What positives? We won a game and the first quarter is over. I think I told you, I thought it’d be huge if we could get out of the first quarter 2-2, with all that took place and all that went down. It just kind of gives you a chance to hit a reset button and I think that’s the positive. There were some drives in the second half that were what we hope to look like. We’ve just got to duplicate and do it more often, more consistently. I do think that there were two drives in that second half where it looked like you wanted it to look. Some guys made some plays, we drove the ball, we converted a couple of third downs, ran the ball – got the running game going a little bit. There were some positives but I think one of the big positives is just whatever reason, you just mentally see this thing in quarters and that’s the end of the first quarter and you’re in it. There’s not eight 5-0 teams. You probably can’t win anything in the first quarter but you sure can make it really, really hard for yourself coming out of that first quarter. So coming out 2-2, that’s in the middle of the pack and with a long way to go. I think that would be my positive.”
(I’m guessing you’ve been a part of a lot of teams where the offense has been playing very well and the defense has really been struggling, or vice versa. At what point does that become a strain on team chemistry and in the locker room?) – “It is a strain. I’ve been on both sides. In Tampa, when I first got into the league, we were spectacular on defense. Offensively, we were kind of a grind it out (team), probably by design – more of a Mike Alstott, a little Warrick Dunn. That defense was great. It does put a strain on it. It always puts a strain on it and I think always it comes down to the head guy because the outside forces are the outside forces and you just have to keep them out. Adam (Gase) does a great job with that. His is a little unique because he’s an offensive guy, but he does a great job of just calling it like it is and Coach (Tony) Dungy was a anyone who builds it … I’ve been around good places where you build it as a team. You pick each other up and you go. It’s not fun. It’s certainly not fun and you kind of feel like (the defense is) playing so well; but our time will come too. I probably have been on both sides. You strive for balance but the truth of the matter is that you have to find some way to win two phases of the three and give yourself a chance. Week after week, that will kind of change. You’re never quite as bad or as good as you think you are and you’re not quite as far as it feels like you are from turning the thing the other way. That was kind of the message today and you tunnel. You’re in a tunnel. You don’t see light. You just keep digging. I can’t guarantee them today that this is the week we break out. It may be three weeks from now. I can’t guarantee that the second quarter isn’t more eventful than the first quarter. Who can guarantee that? I certainly hope not and I don’t think so. It would be hard for it to be; but that’s the case. So you tunnel and that’s part of this job. That’s what we stress to them. If you’re a receiver, you run a thousand routes and hope you end up with 100 catches. If you’re blocking back side and convoying to the free safety, you do it 100 times and then one pops for you. You don’t know when that’s coming and that’s where the good pros – the mature pros – can keep doing it play after play after play. Then, when it happens, they’re ready and in position to do it. That’s hard to do. That’s hard for all of us to do, to just keep doing it when you don’t know when you’re going to have some success in doing it. That’s the challenge for me. That’s the challenge for Adam (Gase). You keep dialing up plays and all of a sudden, you get hot and the thing starts moving in chunks, but you don’t know when it’s going to happen. That’s why you just have to keep doing it and that’s why the word for the day is consistency. You just have to be able to keep doing it and not get tired of doing the right thing, not get tired of working, not get tired of practicing hard, not get tired of protecting the football, not get tired of coaching and teaching – don’t false step and all of the things that they get tired of hearing you say – and you keep your attitude right. There’s a lot of good examples. I think the year we won the whole thing in December, we got trounced. I think we went (2-3) in December. Then all of a sudden we got hot in the playoffs and won a Super Bowl. But if you looked at December, I think Jacksonville rushed for 300 (yards) on us. There was nothing that pointed to (winning a Super Bowl). That’s football. That’s part of this thing. You’ve got to keep the outside forces out. You can’t let anybody define what you are. You’ve just got to keep going with no guarantees. There are no guarantees that we don’t win every one of the rest of them and no guarantees that we win another one. That’s the deal and that’s what we signed on for.”
(How has your unit handled the Chris Foerster situation on the field and off of it?) – “Pretty amazingly. It’s hard. It’s hard but I would say this, ‘Bush’ (Jermon Bushrod) and ‘Pounce’ (Mike Pouncey), I put the hat on them. They’ve got to take ownership of the room and make it go. ‘Kup’ (Assistant Offensive Line Coach Chris Kuper) has done a yeoman’s job and worked triple overtime. (Tight Ends Coach) Shane Day, we’ve spread him, worked him to the bone on just having to overlap. He’s been an offensive line guy. He’s a tight end guy and tied into the run game. Everyone’s had to pitch in a little bit but ‘Kup’ and Shane Day and then ‘Pounce’ and ‘Bush,’ they’ll be the key. They’ll be the key to if we pull this thing off. That’s some responsibility maybe they weren’t counting on. The same thing, a little curve ball and they’ve got to step up and go. I believe they will. That’s the deal.”
(You’re known Chris Foerster professionally since the mid-90s. Did you see at all a change in his personality, his demeanor? Any warning signs over the course of the last 20 years that would suggest that it would end the way it did?) – “Let me give you a quick statement on that. The answer is no. I’ve been good friends with him and his family. I have a great love for him and his family for 25 years – for a long, long time. That hasn’t changed. Now it’s just a friend who is dealing with some struggles and will stay a friend and we’ll pray and keep pulling. There’s no other option but to overcome this thing for him. There’s no other good option. You don’t let that win. That’s the way it is. I would (also) say this: Mr. (Stephen) Ross, Mr. (Mike) Tannenbaum, Adam (Gase), just how this organization handles stuff like that. They do the best they can to take care of their people. I’m amazed at that. I said that to you through the storm (Hurricane Irma), how they handled the families. I don’t think anyone will kick (Foerster) to the curb. The other thing that I would say is any player, any ex-player, any ex-coach who would say something really derogatory about Coach Foerster would be an outlier. Not that we all don’t have people who are sour; but overall, (he was) a very popular player (and) a very popular coach. That’s the truth of the matter. Then lastly, my job is not … This is a unique job. You can’t take three personal days to deal with some grief or some hardship and stuff. You can’t take three personal days to deal with a storm. It’s just one of those jobs that it keeps coming and we just move on. We’ve got to go. That’s one of the hard things about this job. It’s one of the really hard things about it that the next game comes, you evacuate and you get ready for the next (one). You’ve just got to keep going, whether it’s missing a kid’s recital or something with your parents. It’s just one of those unique jobs. I owe it, all of us owe it to the team and the organization, that you keep going. That’s what you have to do. That makes it a little bit easier because you don’t have any other choice. That does make it easier because you don’t have to wrestle with it. I do think there’s a part of it that I’m kind of thankful for, that just keeps you busy, that you go back to work. I’m grateful that there’s a silver lining to that, that you just go back to work. I didn’t see anything coming and he’ll overcome it. He has to overcome it. He has to fight it.”
(Last year, the offensive line was credited for the turnaround at this point, to the rest of the season. This year, even with many of the same pieces, now they seem to be the anchor holding back the offense. Have they taken accountability for that and have they figured out what is the fix to address what’s going on?) – “Yes, I think so. I haven’t seen a bunch of finger-pointing around here. As a coach, that’s something that you’re proud of, that there’s not a bunch of finger pointing. I think probably you guys gave them credit for the turnaround. I probably give (Jay) Ajayi some of his and Jarvis (Landry) some for going in there and whacking safeties and whacking linebackers. Again, I try to not put it on component parts. I would say the same thing about our issues, which I’ve said to you, it would be a hard time for me to say it’s a pie-shaped deal and everyone’s got their share, including me. Mine is probably the biggest piece of the problem. I am proud as a coach that there isn’t a bunch of finger pointing. I’m proud of the organization that it’s not one of those ‘If he, this. If he did that, it’s his fault.’ It hasn’t been one of those and there’s still a long way to go. That’s the truth of the matter. We’re at the end of the first quarter here and there is an awful long way to go. I think the other thing is we’ve been so darn busy during these first four weeks handling everything that you haven’t had time for all of that. That’s therapeutic a little bit that you’re dealing with stuff. You’re evacuating your family, you’re moving your family back in, you’re moving shutters, you’re dealing with this, you’re figuring out how to get the run game plan in on a Tuesday with a curve ball. There’s a therapeutic part to busy-ness and that stuff keeps coming at you. I can’t even remember the question. (laughter) I do know this, it started if we gave (the offensive line) credit for the turnaround last year and I think that was you speaking, not me. (laughter)”
(Head Coach Adam Gase actually said it) – “Did he? Okay, they were a part of it. It must be true. If (Gase) said it, it has to be true. Then I agree 100 percent. (laughter) No, the truth of the matter is that running the ball certainly was a part of that, but we certainly say that it’s all 11 guys. We give the quarterback a trillion things to do in the run game. He’s got to get us in the right place. I’m going to give you the company coaching line that it is unit wide, but I think that’s the truth in our case.”
(Last week you were obviously playing TE Anthony Fasano a lot more and TE Julius Thomas a little less. What did that achieve in terms of what happened to the tight end during the game? Was the run blocking better? What happened?) – “I think we played a lot of different people a little bit more. I think before you read too much into it, some of it is because of that first quarter and we are tired. We’re tired so we played more people that kind of raises the energy level. If you know you’re going to play a couple of snaps – if Jakeem Grant knows he’s got a role in the game, he’s going to practice better. He’s going to be more focused in. Fasano, all of that. Then also, it just cuts the reps and spreads them out and you try to keep fresh legs in there. Don’t miss that that’s part of it. Coach (Adam Gase) wanted to get more people in because frankly, what we went through in those first four games and just the physical tiredness and the weariness of this thing. That was a part of it and then kind of by some tendencies, some self-scout stuff, that if Fasano comes in this, we try to break a couple of things self-scout wise. You’re always conscious of that, so there’s some of that that works itself in there. Then some of it is just strengths and weaknesses. Fasano has his set of traits that are unique and different from Julius, and Julius has some things that Fasano will never do. It’s a puzzle of putting the right piece at the right time and just keep mixing it up a little bit. Sometimes just to mix it up, I think that one thing Coach Gase has always done a good job of is to just not be afraid to change it up to see if he can find some extra energy or a winning combination. That isn’t a ding on anybody as much as it’s sometimes when things are flat, you have to go to the bullpen and just see if you can pick some energy or a big hit or something that helps turn the thing around.”
(How would you evaluate the play of T Laremy Tunsil so far this season?) – “I think it’s been okay. I think he would tell you just okay. I think he feels like he could play better and I think he will play better as it goes. I would evaluate his play as probably expected. It’s (his) first time at a high-profile position in this league and again, there’s a tendency to think of him as a veteran guy and that’s really not the case. He’s a second-year guy who’s really playing – he’s got four games under his belt playing left tackle, which is a tough position. You’re out there, you’re out on an island. I think it’s probably been expected. I think he’ll tell you that he’s going to play better and I think he will. The more games he gets under his belt, he’s going to keep getting better and better and better and better. He does work. He’s a pro. He’s a talented guy. I think it is coming and some things you only can learn through making a mistake and messing it up. He’s had his share of those. One good thing, one thing you look for as a coach, is that it doesn’t derail him. It doesn’t ruin him for the whole day. That’s what you don’t want. You can’t play left tackle in this league if you have a long memory and you can’t forget things. Bad stuff happens at that position. You’ve got to move on and keep going and he has been able to do that. I think you’re going to just see him keep ascending and again, I think like everybody, just getting into some form of a routine and a rhythm and a cadence on this thing will do wonders for us, especially if we can string a couple of wins together. That cures a lot of small ills. Hopefully we can do that.”
