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Sam Eguavoen – September 11, 2019 Download PDF version

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

LB Sam Eguavoen

(You’re in the NFL now. It’s probably pretty natural now, you’re used to it; but here comes QB Tom Brady. What are your first thoughts?) – “We’ve got to come correct. With everything we do, we’ve got to be dang near perfect, because he’s been in the league for a long time. He’s seen all types of defenses, coverages and everything. He knows what you’re doing, so it’s all about how well we execute.”

(It always starts with the run with QB Tom Brady. They set up the play-action. How important is that middle of the field where you’re patrolling when it comes to not letting him get to what he wants to get it?) – “It’s huge. Every step counts, especially in the NFL. It’s a tight, very tight game. With Tom Brady, like I said, with the Patriots and everything, they study a lot of film. They probably know what cleats I’m going to wear come game day. (laughter) That’s why we have to put a lot of time in, in the film room. Once it comes to the run, it’s about being physical up front. It starts with the d-line – Christian (Wilkins), (Davon) Godchaux – all of them guys up there. It starts with them and then me, Raekwon (McMillan), ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) = all of us just got to fill.”

(What did you learn about yourself after your first NFL start?) – “It’s a long game. You can get down early – a team can get up on you early, but then there’s still so much more game to play. There’s so many plays that can be made out there. You’re down 14-0, you can go out there next series, catch a pick-six, now you’re down 7. So, you can never get down on yourself when you’re down early in a football game, because there’s so much football left to play.”

(What do you guys have to do to improve on defense?) – “There’s a lot. Just our fundamentals, learning to work together and being physical and knowing where to fit and where teams are going to try to attack us defensively.”

(You talked about if you get down early not getting down on yourselves. Is that hard to do if you’re down two or three touchdowns?) – “No, it’s – It shouldn’t be hard because whatever you put on film, that’s on you. The whole NFL is looking at that and you don’t want to put something on film that other teams can pick up on like, ‘He doesn’t do this good. He doesn’t do that good,’ and that’s just not you. You want to play, hard, fast, physical every single snap. You don’t ever want to put a bad play out there on film, because that’s just not a good look on you, the organization or anywhere.”

(Obviously, they’ve got three backs that do different things. What do you key on when you have different guys like that in the backfield?) – “You’ve got to know the personnel. You’ve got to know their strengths and weaknesses. Say this back is good in the passing game, you have to be ready (for) what routes he’ll run when he’s here, what routes he’ll run when he’s there. It’s just watching film and understanding what they’re trying to do. They’ve all got different numbers, so you know who’s who, so it’s not that hard.”

(When do you get comfortable with the game plan? When does all that click in your head where you’re like, “Alright, I’m comfortable with this.”) – “Really, it should be Tuesday morning – not Tuesday (but) Thursday. After Day 2, you should be comfortable. Then we come in Friday – fast Friday – and everything should be clean, sharp. Then Friday afternoon, that’s when you start toning it down and things and getting focused for the game, focused on the personnel like, ‘How does Sony Michel, when he’s running a counter, what does he do?’ Steps like that – just knowing your personnel. They’re doing the same thing. What do I do when I’m about to blitz? That’s just football.”

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