Darren Rizzi – December 13, 2018
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Thursday, December 13, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(What happened on Sunday with the two blocked punts? What happened on each one?) – “First of all, let’s start off with a happy birthday to John Denney. John Denney is 40 years old today, so I want to wish him a happy birthday publicly. We had a little cake for him this morning, which was nice. As far as the plays last week, it’s never one thing. I think John has kind of taken the brunt of the ‘blame.’ It’s never one thing. He’s obviously at the center of it, so he obviously gets a lot of attention his way. It really was a myriad of things. On both, there are a lot of little intricacies that we have to get cleaned up. I’ll give New England credit. They did a good job. They’re player (Albert) McClellan did a hell of a job. (It was) a great rush by him. So we’ve been working this week on getting a few things (adjusted). There’s alignments, there’s hand placement, there’s technique, there’s all kinds of things. I think John gets the blame because the guy rushed on him. We just have to do a better job on a few things. It’s kind of a week to get back to your fundamentals and techniques and that kind of thing, so we’ve been working on that. That’s about it.”
(Did you see it was something they saw on the film that they exploited?) – “No. We did a pretty good job of getting a hat on a hat. It wasn’t like a guy came free. We’ve got to do a little better job with … There’s an alignment thing we have to get corrected. There’s a protection thing where John can get some help. There’s a couple of things. It always wants to be one thing or everyone wants to blame one person and pinpoint it on one guy. Again, John has done a great job here for a long time and will continue to do that. I’m not worried about John Denney at all.”
(How did you process those moments on Sunday?) – “Well, they’re game-changers in the game. Obviously we did a heck of a job after the second one of stopping them before the half, which obviously we didn’t let become a snowball deal for us. When you’re in the game like that, obviously with any play, with every play we get, we dissect. We look for any potential breakdowns. It’s really no different than any other play. You’re looking to see what happened and kind of do it from there. We thought we had it corrected the first time and obviously we didn’t. Then we have to correct it from there.”
(It seemed like you guys went with the rugby style for a bit. What was the thinking behind that?) – “That’s something we’ve practiced now for a couple of years with Matt (Haack). That’s something that Matt is able to do that he’s done a lot in his past, so we had the ability to have that in. Although we went to it in the second half a couple of times there, it’s certainly not something we’re going to do a boatload of. It just was a natural changeup for that game and I thought it was a good time to break it out.”
(What were you encouraged by on Sunday?) – “There were a lot of things. Our effort was tremendous. I thought our rush on our field goal blocks certainly helped with their misses a little bit, especially the second one. (It was) a tremendous effort. We had a couple of mental things that were a little uncharacteristic of us. The effort in our special teams has been really, really good. That’s been good. I think there were a couple of mental things that, like I said, were uncharacteristic of us that we have to get cleaned up. This time of year … I told the players at the beginning of the season that if you look at special teams, there’s a lot of big plays at the beginning of the year and then there’s a little bit of a lull, in general. Then there are a lot of big plays at the end of the year. There’s a reason for that. At the beginning of the season, you don’t have the same atmosphere that you have in the preseason games and there’s a little bit of a misconception on what the tempo is going to be and all of that because you don’t really get a live look at it. So you see a lot of big plays early in the season on special teams. A lot (of) blocks and returns and crazy plays. Then there is a little bit of a lull during the season where things kind of level out. Then at the end of the season, you see a spike in the big plays again. You have a lot of new players. Every team has injuries and you get new players playing. Your fundamentals and techniques, you don’t work on them as much in practice anymore. You’re working on more scheme throughout the season. That starts taking a little bit of a dip. As I told our guys on Wednesday this week, it’s kind of the back-to-basics beginners mentality type of thing. You have to be really locked in on your fundamentals. All of the training stuff that we did in OTAs and in training camp, you’re kind of back to square one. That’s in everything that we’re doing. That’s not just in our punt protection (but) everything. It’s offense, it’s defense, it’s special teams. This is the time of year where you’ve really, really got to lock in on your technique and really go back to what you rely on. It sounds really simple but in this time of year, blocking and tackling – simple things – are going to win football games. The best tackling teams, the best blocking teams, the teams that win situations … You look at the end of both halves of our game last week, we both situations and we won the football game. In tight games and one-score games, teams that win situations like that at the end of the half, the 2-minute (drill), the 4-minute (drill) and things like that, are usually this time of year going to win. When you look at how many close games there have been now in the NFL the last month or so and you look at how many one-score games we’ve been in ourselves, it can come down to a play here and there. We’re really kind of locking in mentally on the situations and we spent a lot of time on that. At this time of year, you get a little bit off the … You’re not doing as much physically in practice. It gets a little bit more mental. That’s everywhere across the league. There’s more evidence on film and watching film and studying film, that becomes the mental part of the game. It becomes so much more important. That’s kind of what we’re locking in on right now across the board. Not only that one-game mentality, but the same thing with the fundamentals and techniques. That’s been a huge emphasis for us and that’s going to be a huge part of what we do moving forward with these games. Starting this Sunday, it’s going to be really, really important. That’s going to be something that we’re locking in on.”
(Is there any research on opposing field goal percentage and opposing extra point percentage? Do you guys know if you are – over a two or three-year period – at the top or among the top few teams? And assuming that’s true, can you tell me a little bit about why?) – “Yeah. If you look at our numbers over the past … If you take the last five years for example, we’re definitely in the top five in the league in terms of opponent field goal percentage against. I can’t tell you the exact number for five years but right now I believe we’re in the top few again for three, four or five years in a row. There’s a few factors involved. I’d like to tell you that our effort on film is tremendous. One thing we pride ourselves on is effort. If we’re going to make mistakes … The one thing we always talk about on special teams is being fast and physical. If we’re going to make a mistake, we’re going to be doing it full speed and we’re going to be the most physical team. If you look at the effort on our field-goal block team, that’s something that we pride ourselves on. I think that shows on the opponent film. The opponents are looking at it. They’re locking in on their protection, the operation speeds up a little bit and all of that factors in. We’ve definitely gotten our hands on some, which has helped. And I think we’ve forced some kicks wide here and there. As we all know, a little bit of an inch or a half a second or a quarter of a second makes a big deal on a field goal, the operation and all of that. I think over the course of time, that’s probably the reason why we’ve been successful in that area. It’s the same thing if you look at our numbers in terms of net punt against and gross punt against. It’s the same type of thing with our rush. I think we’ve done a good job. Again, it goes back to the players really buying in and giving great effort – tremendous effort – in those areas. I think those areas we’ve been pretty consistent at over the course of time.”
(Since WR Jakeem Grant got hurt, you obviously have mixed and matched a little bit on punt and kickoff return. You haven’t seen a ton of chances it seems like. Is that fair?) – “Yeah. Really if you look at the kickoff return, since Jakeem has been out and we put (Kenyan) Drake back there or (Kalen) Ballage or Senorise (Perry), we haven’t had a ton of opportunities. We ended up getting a squib kick at the end of the game this week and we got one short kick, but it’s really been only a handful. Listen, Kenyan Drake has also had a great career in terms of return numbers. He’s had a lot of big plays. It’s no different than when I think teams saw Jakeem back there. Teams see Drake and some teams are going to kick it high and short and take a chance and some teams are going to see a guy and drive it out of the end zone. We’ve done a pretty good job with the field position in that regard. As far as the punts go, that really is a game-by-game thing. You really can never predict how that’s going to go. It depends on the field position, your call (and) whether it’s a rush or a return. Obviously we’ve had a lot of different people back there with Danny (Amendola) and Kenny (Stills) and things like that. But you’re right, there hasn’t been some wide open opportunities like we had maybe earlier in the season. That’s another trend. If you look at the kickoff returns with the new rules this year, that’s kind of been unique to follow. The touchback percentage and the play itself has been very successful in terms of the new rules and what we’re trying to accomplish with the new rules. But there’s a lot of teams that are opting for touchbacks to avoid the penalties and give them the ball at the 25-yard line. That plays into it as well. There’s some teams that are deciding … There were a lot more teams kicking the ball short with the old rules than the new rules. We talked about it at the beginning of the year. We didn’t know how that was going to go. It’s on a team-by-team basis but the consensus is you have more teams kicking the ball deep right now and more teams staying in, so the touchback percentage is up a bit. I think the player safety issues that we wanted to accomplish, through 13 games, we’ve accomplished. We’ve really cleaned that play up and I think it’s going really, really well.”
(Do you have any information on concussions being down?) – “I don’t know the exact numbers. I do know that right now, at this point in the season … They put some numbers out at the midyear point and we were certainly trending in the right direction. I don’t think through the last five weeks that has changed at all. I know the people that were involved in the discussions and the committee and all of that – the coaches and the NFL and everybody that was involved – are very pleased right now with the way the play is going. It’s kind of what we expected. A little bit more of a wide open play. It took some of the bigger bodies out. It took some of the back-end collisions out of the play. I know that the numbers are down. I know that the injury numbers are down but I don’t have the specifics for you.”
(Did you think that the miracle play was going to work? Did you feel good about that?) – “The miracle play … I had an interesting perspective of where I was. I was kind of in the middle of the field and once (Kenyan) Drake got the ball, I think like most of us, we thought he was probably going to give it up one more time. Then when he kind of cut back to his left back across the field and started to go back up the field, I knew ‘Gronk’ (Rob Gronkowski) was back there, as well. When he first came out, we kind of looked back there, a couple of us. I know Brock Osweiler mentioned it. I think Brock Osweiler said out loud, ‘Why is ‘Gronk’ back there?’ So I knew once he broke into the open field, I was kind of saying to myself I hope he just keeps the ball at this point because the guys that were trailing him, I was hoping Ted Larsen and the boys weren’t going to get the ball. What happened was from where I was standing on the field, Kenyan was about at the 10-yard line and a bunch of our guys started to run out onto the field. So I lost vision of the ball. So all I did was look up at the fans. I just looked at the fans’ reaction and that’s how I knew we scored and then I got my eyes up to the screen. I was saying to myself I hope the fans are right with where he was. (laughter) Obviously the first thing you do as a coach … what are you doing? You’re looking for flags, you’re looking back behind the play to make sure the pitches were legal. You’re making sure nobody had a hold or a block in the back on those long returns. You always see those, obviously. We were just hoping … I knew they were going to review the play obviously because it was a scoring play and a game-winner. I was just hoping he didn’t step on the sideline. Once all of those things cleared, the celebration started for sure. But it’s just a testament to our guys. You guys have heard me say it before. I think over the course of the time that (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has been here, we’ve been in a lot of crazy games and have had a lot of different types of endings. I think our guys have grown accustomed – over the last few years – of playing to the end. We’ve had a bunch, as you guys know, a bunch of crazy endings in the last three years. That’s certainly the craziest. It’s really a testament to the guys of playing right until the end and in that case, we won the situation. Situational football this time of year wins those games.”
(What would you say the personality of this team is?) – “The overall personality? It’s kind of like that lunch pail, hard hat kind of mentality. Guys come to work every day. We go out on the field and it’s no different than our Wednesday and Thursday practices this week. Guys go out, they know what they’ve got and I kind of like that. That’s kind of my personality too. Bring your lunch pail to work, put the hard hat on and we’re going to work. Then on Sunday, we’re doing the same thing. Our sideline has been excellent this year in terms of guys staying in the game, staying in the moment and just having that blue-collar mentality, that hard-work mentality. They’re just going to keep grinding and pound the rock, pound the rock, pound the rock. Eventually we’re going to crack it. That’s kind of the way we’ve been. With whoever has been in there … We’ve obviously had a lot of guys moving in and out. We’ve got a lot of replacements and injuries and guys who have stepped up. No matter who it is, it’s been that same mentality. It hasn’t changed. With any position, with whatever injuries we’ve had, it’s kind of stayed the same that way.”
(Do you think the temperament of the team is one of the biggest changes from last year?) – “I think this: I definitely think we improved our locker room for sure. There’s no doubt about that. If you look at some of the guys we brought in, and I know this has been talked about a lot, but some of the leadership that we brought in and some of the different guys and the mentality. Even guys that were late additions, a guy like Brandon Bolden for example, he’s brought leadership to the team. Anybody that we’ve added, it seems like any piece we’ve added whether it was the offseason or after the 53 cuts or whatever, have been really welcome additions to the locker room. There’s no drama, if you will. You guys know I’ve been around here for a couple of years and there’s been some drama-filled stuff that’s happened here. I’m not letting the cat out of the bag on that one. But I don’t feel that with this crew. It’s a lunch pail, hard hat crew. We’re bringing or lunch to work every day, we’re putting the hard hat on and we’re going out to work. This is not a drama group. I don’t see the divas and the drama queens or whatever you want to call them. Whatever the right term is or the wrong term, I don’t see that. I see a lot of camaraderie. I see a lot of cohesiveness. I see a lot of going out and wanting to get the job done. We call it 1/11th. I see a lot of guys doing their 1/11th every day, on a daily basis, no matter who it is – coaches, players, the entire organization. That’s kind of where we are right now from a personality standpoint. That’s kind of where we are from a team, temperament and overall (standpoint). I think that’s kind of where we are.”
(What’s it like to know you still have a chance in December?) – “When you’re playing games this late, it’s always nice to know they still count. There’s no doubt about that. At this point, it’s this one that matters because the next one isn’t going to matter as much, or vice versa, if we don’t take care of business. There’s no doubt about it when you’re playing in Game 14 in Week 15 … We feel like at this point we control our own destiny. It’s one game at a time with that and it starts this week in Minnesota.”
