Darren Rizzi – September 22, 2016
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(On if we will see RB Kenyan Drake on kickoff returns this week) – “Yes. Obviously you noticed he was back there last week. This new rule has really affected (things), as you can see, as we kind of talked about all preseason. This new rule has really affected things. It’s funny. We were just watching, just literally before I came down, I was watching the kickoffs throughout the league – not just ours –and more and more teams are just going to try to kick it high and short. The more options we have back there, the better. You’re seeing teams really starting to adjust formations, getting more returners back there – more guys. So if you noticed last week, we had Jakeem (Grant) in (and) Kenyan (Drake) back there. Every week is going to have, whether it’s two guys, three guys, one guy. It’s going to be a week-to-week thing but we have to have options. Kenyan (Drake) obviously has a good history in college of doing that although I don’t think his decision (to take one out of the end zone) was a great one last week. He’s looking obviously to make a play there. But yes, (Drake’s) a guy, for sure, that’s going to be, we’ve got him doing both now – catching kicks, catching punts. And he’s certainly in the pool of guys that can do that for sure.”
(On what your returners should be looking for) – “That’s a good question. Really, on a week to week basis, a lot of it has to do with the game plan, a lot of it has to do with the game situation, a lot has to do with the depth of the kick, a lot has to do with the hang time of the kick –there’s not just one factor. There are multiple factors there. If we look at last week’s play in particular, that ball where Kenyan (Drake) was lined up, he was moving backwards on the catch. The two biggest things about kickoff return, really, are timing and spacing. We drill that into our guy’s heads from day one that if your timing’s not good and your spacing’s not good, most of the time it’s not going to be a great play unless the guy makes four or five guys miss on his own, which we all know can happen. But generally speaking, your timing and spacing have to be in sync. Last week our timing wasn’t in sync there. Now, to make matters worse, Kenyan (Drake) fell down. We did have a little bit of a crease. We might not have gotten to the 25 (yard line, but) we certainly would have gotten more yards than we did had he not fallen down. You can’t put your finger on one thing and just say ‘Hey, it’s this reason.’ (The) direction of the returns, so for example, if you have a planned or a schemed return to one direction and the ball gets kicked all the way the way the other way, it’s going to be an uphill play the whole time. It’s like running an outside zone into a blitz, if you would. So again, kickoff return is like an offensive play. so there’s going to be, again, ‘Who are you blocking? Where’s the play designed to go? Where is the ball kicked?’ So again, there are many factors and now, more than ever, I don’t think I’ve seen this many, some people call it mortar kicks, some people call them pooch kicks, whatever you want to call them. I don’t think I’ve seen this many in a two-game stretch. Certainly in my time in the NFL, and really in my 24 years of coaching, I don’t remember seeing this many pooch kicks or mortar kicks in this two-week stretch. So we’ve got to be prepared. Everyone’s got to be prepared for it. And again, all those situations will play into it.”
(On how gratifying it is to see that S Walt Aikens is on top of the kickoff return rules and the factor he has played on special teams through two weeks) – “Let’s talk about the play first. Most of you guys are familiar with the rules. So basically, on a punt play, if the punt team touches the ball, it’s not automatically downed at that spot. So for example, if they tip the ball, the ball is still a live ball. The return team can then advance the ball without any risks. So what I mean by that is, you can run the ball back 90 yards, fumble it, lose the ball and now you have the option – the result of the play or where it was first touched. We tell our guys if you’re 100 percent sure that the ball is touched, meaning you physically saw the ball being touched by the opponent, then by all means, try to pick it up and gain yards because every yard you gain, every inch you gain, is a bonus. So yes, Walt saw, I think it was 81 for the Patriots, touch the ball. He was smart. Now flip the side of the coin. Jakeem’s (Grant) rule is, as a returner, if you see that we are not going to field the ball and our blockers don’t know we are not fielding the ball, you need to communicate to them. So what Jakeem (Grant) was trying to do was get our guys away from the ball so it didn’t hit one of our guys. So Jakeem (Grant) was doing his job and Walt was doing his job, as well. It’s a little bit of a strange play, which you see a lot in special teams obviously. It’s really great for Walt. Walt saw it. (It’s) great that he knew the rule and that’s why he went in. So Walt actually did go in and touch the ball and the Patriots ended up with the ball, but at that point it doesn’t matter. That’s not a fumble because they had touched it earlier. It’s a first-touch rule. (The) second part of the question: you know Walt, really since OTAs has started, has really taken kind of a leadership role on special teams. I don’t think there’s anybody that had a better offseason than him in our room, in our special teams room, in terms of just being that leadership guy with the gunners and the jammers and kind of the DB room. I’ve seen a lot of maturity out of Walt (Aikens) since he’s been here, not only physically but mentally. You can see when, to me, it’s one of the biggest compliments when teams start to game plan against you. And you could see teams game planning against Walt Aikens. They want to know where he is on the field. He’s going to get, a lot of times, two blockers on him. Things like that. That changes the game plan. We’ve had a few guys like that but certainly Walt (Aikens) is one of them.”
(On when the offensive is struggling with three-and-outs if that impacts his coverage unit or punt unit) – “I think it depends on your personnel. Some teams are going to have different offensive guys, defensive guys or just core special teamers on their punt unit. If you look at our punt unit, we’re made up mostly of defensive players. There are some offensive guys: Damien Williams, Jay Ajayi, Kenyan Drake. What we’ll do in those situations is kind of look and see where we are. We’d like to have 10 fresh bodies plus the punter out there, for sure. In some cases we will substitute, if that’s what you’re trying to say. Those defensive guys that are on there are mostly core special teamers. They’re not defensive starters. We have one or two mixed in; but hey, that’s the way it goes. You’re going to have stretches of times, where you said that whatever it was, 10 punts in that amount of time (the first half). Then you may not have a lot of punts for a stretch. I don’t think we punted in the second half last week. You never know when they’re coming. We’ve just got to be ready for it. We’re always prepared for the personnel changes if we have to, and all those guys stay ready. But you have your nine core guys besides the snapper and the punter, and then there’s always going to be three or four guys that are ready to go in case someone is playing a lot on offense or defense, to help.”
(On if he will send sub on special teams units if the defense is on the field for 80 plays) – “Potentially, yes. No question. And I think we did last week a couple of times. We had a couple of subs. Like one example, Bobby McCain we’ll use. Bobby McCain plays on defense in the nickel packages and sub-packages. So for some reason, if Bobby’s playing a whole lot of plays, we’ll have another gunner ready to go in his place. That’s just one example to give you. But yes, we’re definitely cognizant and aware during the game of the number of reps guys are taking. We’ve got to be aware of that because you really want, as we know, those are game changers. You want fresh bodies out there, for sure, in your coverage. No doubt about that.”
(On if he lined up differently on the missed opponent field goal and did it help) — “Good catch by the way. Good job. So we have multiple formations on our field goal block unit. We have different ways we can line up. We can line up 6×4. The rule is you can’t have more than 6 on the side. So we’ll have a bunch of different 6×4 alignments. We can have six on the left, six on the right. We can have boundary rush. So with all of our defensive linemen, they could be in any particular place: right side, left side, left guard, right guard, right tackle. So we have multiple schemes in that. It depends on what the block is. I’ll say this about our field goal block team. If I’m not mistaken, we were number one in the league last year in field goal percentage against, meaning the kickers against us were the worst in the NFL. So we were number one. I think a lot of that is, you watch us on film, we get tremendous effort, even dating back to last year, out of those guys. That shows on film. Another kicker watching it, you know, we may not get every one, and obviously it’s hard. It’s hard to get there and get a hand on every one; but they know the effort that we’re going to put forth. You look inside, you mentioned Jones, (Jordan) Phillips, (Ndamukong) Suh, (Julius) Warmsley, Chris Jones, all those guys had a hand up and a hand in the kicking lane. I think what you know right now is when you’re going against that unit, and I’m going to give ‘Moof’ (Assistant Special Teams Coach Marwan Maalouf) a lot of credit. That’s Marwan Maalouf. (He) kind of handles that front group with that unit. We get tremendous effort out of those guys and I think certainly, that’s going to be in the head of the opposition, the opposing kickers. Now am I saying that’s why he missed it? No. There are other factors involved for sure. But if you look at that picture – I saw a still shot, actually someone send me a still shot – and to see six guys busting their tail off the ground with their hand extended, it’s impressive. Yes. So to answer the first part of that is yes. We do move those guys around. It depends on the game plan, personnel, those type of things.”
