Josh Boyer – January 12, 2023
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Thursday, January 12, 2023
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(Against a team that you’ve seen so many times and come up with so many different gameplans for, I’m curious when you do go back to game-planning and you have all of those tapes of your guys against them, do you ever have to fight this internal conflict of ‘Do I want to go this way? Do I want to go that way?’ How conflicting is putting together a gameplan against a team that you’ve done it against so many times?) – “I think you look at a lot of things. You look at some of the things that you’ve done well. You look at personnel. Some of that has changed over the years, when you go back and look at all of them. And then ways that they’ve kind of combated some of the things that we’ve done and scheme that they’ve had that’s hurt us, to make sure we’re prepared for that. I think it’s a constant. Then you look at things that they’ve done to other teams as well that may be similar to some of the things that we do. I think there’s a lot of familiarity but at the same time, they’re very familiar with us too so you kind of have to combat, ‘Ok, if we do this, they’ll do that. If they do this, we’ll do that.’ So there’s a lot of back and forth when it comes to preparing for a team that you have faced multiple times.”
(Defending QB Josh Allen and specifically his scrambling abilities, what have you found has and hasn’t been successful?) – “Well, I think you have to give him different looks. If you sit in the same thing – they do a very good job. They’ve got good offensive linemen, they’ve got good skill players, they’ve got good tight ends, they’ve got good backs and their quarterback is able to see things very well and run the offense very efficiently. It will be a big challenge for us this week that we’re looking forward to.”
(On that point with QB Josh Allen, I know we’ve asked you a lot about sacks and getting pressure on the quarterback and whatnot. Is this the type of matchup and the type of quarterback where given his ability to kind of evade pressure and still make plays in the face of pressure, do you kind of really emphasize that you have to bring them down? It’s not one of those things where just the pressure is going to get to him?) – “I think when you have the opportunities to tackle him – and I think the more people you can get around him, the better off you’re going to be. You try to cage him up and not give him open space. I think he’s proven time and time again if you give him open space, he can make plays. We know he’s going to make some plays. He has in every game that he’s played in. We’re just going to have to try to limit those the best we can and then when we have opportunities to make plays, we need to do that.”
(Regarding QB Josh Allen, can you briefly give us the pros and cons of putting a spy on him? And what situations maybe is it more effective? Like third-and-5 as opposed to first-and-10?) – “Any time that you devote a spy or somebody that’s going to be on the quarterback, then obviously you’re pulling them from somewhere else. So either you’re pulling them from the rush or you’re pulling them from the coverage. Like we mentioned, they have a good offensive line. They have a good (group of) skill (players). You just have to weigh your odds on what you’re trying to do and what you’re trying to get accomplished within the calls. I think anytime you do the same thing repetitively with them, they usually have an answer somewhere along the way.”
(Was LB Bradley Chubb on a pitch count last week, so to speak? And will he again this week?) – “I think Chubb is working very hard to get back to full strength. It was very impressive that he got out there last week dealing with what he’s dealing with. Hopefully that will continue. I know he’s working very hard to get back out there as much as he possibly can. I think you always take into consideration – not just with Chubb but other players we have that at this point in the season, there’s probably not anybody who is 100 percent. Guys that are dealing with things, you try to say ‘Ok, this is the best situation to put them in. We can probably get him for this amount of reps.’ And then how you spread that out with everybody else that is available to you. I think you always go into it week-to-week planning that way, especially with the guys that are dealing with things.”
(On LB Jaelan Phillips, what area has he shown the most growth over the last 12 months or so?) – “I would say just his overall awareness defensively and his ability to play multiple spots I think has been pretty impressive. He’s always been a high motor, high effort guy. I think the techniques that he’s using in the run game has improved. I think our ability to move him around has improved. He’s a selfless player. There’s a lot of things that don’t necessarily show up in the stat sheet but he definitely causes some disruption for the offense for sure.”
(The decision last week to get DB Elijah Campbell his first start, what led to that?) – “Again, I think there are a number of things. One, there are certain things that we feel like Elijah gives us and there are other players that are involved in that equation, that we knew we kind of wanted to limit the amount of reps that they were getting. I think any time that you see us putting a player on the field, we’re going to be pretty confident that that guy is going to get the job done. It’s not one of those where – especially when you start the game, if you’re going, ‘Ah, man. We’ve got to put this guy in.’ That’s not the case. Obviously we feel very comfortable and very good. I think Elijah has made a lot of progress. We’ve talked about Elijah earlier in the year. He was not a guy that we were able to pinpoint what he can do because he had to be very multiple for us based on players that we had available to us. I think we’ve kind of narrowed his role down a little bit and I think he’s made the most of the opportunities that he’s had. We’re very excited that he was able to get out there last week and help us out, and also was able to limit some reps of some other guys that we were trying to limit reps.”
(DB Elijah Campbell’s best skill as a defender is what, you would say?) – “He’s fast and physical. I think he has a wide variety of skillsets and within the scheme, trying to pinpoint, ‘Ok, we think we can get this out of him.’ He’s worked very hard. He’s a very diligent worker. He’s had to learn multiple positions over the course of the season, that I would say has evolved, especially when you’re game-planning week-to-week. It’s different week-to-week. He’s a very explosive player. He’s able to start very quickly. He can go from zero to 60 in a hurry. He’s a physical player. He’s not afraid of contact. I’m very pleased with where he’s at and where he’s going, and we’re working very hard to build on that and to help him along in his progression as a defensive football player.”
(There’s 17 games in your career that you’ve coached up in Buffalo but the first time in the playoffs. What do you expect the atmosphere to be like compared to a regular-season game up there?) – “When you play at Buffalo, it’s always a great football environment. This is going to be stereotypical, but it’s a very blue-collar, hardworking town. The fans are very passionate. Obviously I’ve spent my entire career in the AFC East and if you are wearing a different colored jersey, you’re not welcome there. But they love football. It will be a great environment. We’ll probably have a few less snowballs thrown at us this week if it doesn’t snow. (laughter) But I think it’s awesome. I think it’s a great football environment. I think it’s a good football town. They’ve got a great football team. They’re well-coached. They play hard. I don’t think you can ask for anything more going up there and playing.”
(Upon reviewing the Jets tape, what did you come away most pleased with in keeping them out of the end zone?) – “You always go back and look at things that you could have done better. You always start with that first. Obviously when we had opportunities to get off the field on third down like we talked about a week ago, those four-point plays that we talked about, we were able to get them off the field. So obviously that was good. Anytime that you can limit a team or eliminate a team from scoring a touchdown, you’re going to put yourself in a pretty good opportunity.”
(The first game, obviously you guys had two late stops to clinch that game. In Week 15, they were 4-of-5 in the red zone. What sticks out to you from both games and kind of the execution in the red area?) – “I think it comes down to just that – execution. We probably needed to do a little bit better job of mirroring the rush with the coverage. Sometimes we had good rush and not good coverage. Other times we had good coverage and not a good rush. Sometimes you have to marry that all together. Really, that’s what this Sunday will come down to will be execution. It’s a new season. We’re very excited about it. The 18 weeks we had before us, none of that really matters. What’s going to matter this week is the execution that we have on Sunday. We’re really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a great environment. We couldn’t ask for anything better. We’re looking forward to it.”
(Last week, you guys ran the ball a lot and had 35 minutes time of possession. What does that do for the defense?) – “That’s probably a better question for … I don’t really pay attention to what we’re doing offensively, scheme and time of possession. The reality of it is when you go out there on the field, your job is to get off the field and get the ball back to the offense. If that happens where it’s a long drive, that happens. If that happens where it’s a short drive, that happens. But the reality of it is your goal and your mentality is always the same. It’s what can we correct that happened on the field? What can we get better? Are there things that we need to change? But the end goal is ultimately to get the ball back to the offense as soon as we possibly can to help with the field position, because obviously the longer the drives on, usually you lose field position as you go. I don’t think what they’re doing one way or the other kind of affects the end goal for us defensively.”
(Watching the games back over this year and even a couple of years prior to that, it seems like there are a lot of opportunities for you guys to take the football away but it doesn’t always seem to happen for your defense against this offense. I think they had six fumbles in two games against you this year but you only recovered two of them. How do you emphasize taking the ball away and capitalizing on those opportunities?) – “I think you probably hit it right there in your question. One, we have to attack the football. And then when it’s out, the more people that we can get to the ball increase our odds greatly of recovering the ball. We put an emphasis on that every week so that won’t really change. We’ll try to attack the ball as much as possible and then try to get everybody to the ball the best we can to recover those.”
