Matt Burke – October 24, 2017
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(How tough a decision was the CB Byron Maxwell decision for you?) – “It’s always tough anytime you’re making a move like that. Obviously, the team had a need at another position. That was just kind of the spot we had to get to. It’s always tough. You make relationships with guys and you’ve been around guys for a long time, so anytime you make moves like that it’s hard.”
(Was the second touchdown – the second thrown touchdown by the Jets – on CB Cordrea Tankersley or was there supposed to be safety help?) – “Both. It was a miscommunication to be honest with you. We should’ve had better pre-snap communication, which would’ve provided better help for him. He didn’t do it. He was expecting help and didn’t really get it; but that’s partly on his fault that wasn’t communicated before the snap. You can kind of paint that both ways if you want.”
(What is it about that deep out and that post combination that makes it difficult on the cornerback, for CB Cordrea Tankersley?) – “Again, schematically stuff, in that play he’s outside leverage. Now the post route is running away from him. Again, that’s why if we see splits or tendencies or stuff when we get in that area of the field, those guys need to communicate that if that’s a possibility, we can either pass that off or draw some extra help somewhere. If you’re playing outside leverage and you’re by yourself and that guy is running an inside route, it’s hard to close on that. We still put those guys in those spots. He has the athletic ability to do it. I felt like he slowed down a little bit, to be honest with you, because he was expecting the help. Where if he just accelerated through, he still has a chance to go make the play. To me, it was probably more of a communication error than anything.”
(So could CB Cordrea Tankerlsey have treated it as though he does not have help?) – “Absolutely. Again, he didn’t – technique-wise – he didn’t play it … He was playing it like he had help, but he never talked about it beforehand so no one else knew he was expecting help, essentially.”
(What’s your concern level on defending the screen?) – “What’s my concern level?”
(Yeah, it seems like it’s had some success.) – “To be honest with you, the first play of the game, we were lined up wrong. And it was a very similar play, too. I don’t know if you guys remember, later in the game where Lawrence (Timmons) made that tackle and they got kind of backed up on a very similar play. If we’re lined up right, it should look exactly like that. Defending screens, to me, it’s about getting bodies to the ball. Teams are going to do it to us because of the style we play, because of out front. To me, it’s about recognition and keeping leverage and getting hats to the ball with the d-line turning and running or again our back end guys being in leverage and sending it back to whoever they’re supposed to send it back to. Two of the plays – two of the screens we gave up – we were lined up wrong, which I’m obviously not very happy about. One was a tough call – the one they through to the tight end. I pressured a little bit when I shouldn’t have there. Reshad (Jones) was the only guy out there. If he doesn’t make the play, there’s nobody there to help. It’s something we work on every week, because we do see it a lot, obviously. We just had a couple mental errors. On the third-and-long one, we missed seven tackles on one play. It was third-and-19. We preach trying to get turnovers and all that, but the first guy in has to get the tackle secured and then the next guy are trying to punch the ball out. We had about three or four guys that were just going for strips and not securing tackles. We should never give up a third-and-19 conversion. Between the missed tackles … There were a couple that we weren’t lined up right. There were a couple, that one in particular, we obviously missed a lot of tackles on, and there was one I put them in a bad spot. Those things happen. We’ve addressed them, obviously, and we’ll continue to get better.”
(The impact per snap for DE William Hayes seems extraordinarily high. With that being said, if you don’t have DE Andre Branch this week, how do you determine what is the realistic snap count for him where he wouldn’t lose effectiveness?) – “We roll those guys through a little bit. Obviously, it’s hard for us. If you’re putting Will in the game, a lot of times you’re taking Cam (Wake) out. That’s a tough tradeoff for both of them. We feel both those guys are more effective when they’re not playing 70 snaps and we’re able to roll groups. Whoever is up this week, we’ll kind of take the same approach. We don’t have pitch counts on any guys. We just have ideas in situations of when we want to use all those types of guys, whether it’s Will or Cam or Charles (Harris) or ‘Dre (Andre Branch). Even (Terrence) Fede went in when ‘Branchy’ (Andre Branch) wasn’t feeling great at the end of the game. Fede gave us some good snaps. We try to utilize those guys. That’s part of the point of us keeping a bunch of d-lineman active on game day, that we’re going to keep them fresh and get them going. Will’s play time is going to be dictated by what we’re seeing and what the situations are.”
(With DE Charles Harris against the run, has he shown enough in terms of setting the edge that you can trust him in base a lot, not just occasionally, but a lot if you need him there?) – “Sure. Yes, absolutely.”
(As far as DE Cameron Wake being 35, has that played any into his … You said you don’t have a pitch count …) – “You’re always … Any of our veteran guys, we’re always proactive with worrying about wear and tear and again, especially the circumstances of our season in terms of playing a bunch of games back to back. We’re aware of it. We’re trying to give him some time off during practices and moving guys in and out. We have an awareness of it. You get into a game, there’s not like ‘once Cam gets to 40 snaps, we can’t play him anymore.’ It’s more like that. We’re aware of all our veteran guys – Will (Hayes), (Ndamukong) Suh, all those guys that we try to be proactive in terms of taking care of them during the week and as you go through the season.”
(What did DE Cameron Wake show you at the end of the game against the Jets?) – “What did he show me? A couple sacks and caused holding. (laughter) He showed me some good plays. I know (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has talked about it. He’s amazing to be around. It’s crazy to watch him work day in and day out, and again, continue to be effective. I keep sounding like a broken record here. It’s a testament to how he prepares and who he is as a person and the work he puts in, not just during the week, during the offseason. Nonstop. He’s a special person.”
(What’s an anecdote? Everybody keeps saying it is crazy to see DE Cameron Wake day in and day out. What illustrates that?) – “When we first got here last year – (when) we first got hired – and he’s coming off the Achilles (injury) a year before, I didn’t know Cam before I got here. I remember ‘V.J.’ (Vance Joseph) and I were like … It was one of our first … We had just gotten hired. It was early January, mid-January, and we’re walking through the building and this guy – I don’t know when he hurt it, four months, three months off Achilles surgery – and he looks like he still looks right now and he’s doing box jumps in the weight room. To watch him rehab and put all the work in to prepare to come back and then being around the offseason when he’s still coming in and getting his own work in and doing those things. We have to proactively say, ‘We’re going to try to sit you down a couple of these periods,’ and he never wants to come out of that stuff. He always wants to go out there and get his work in. When he’s doing his drills and his work, it’s always 100 miles an hour. He never slows himself down. It’s just impressive to watch.”
(What does CB Cordrea Tankersley do best right now and what will be some continued points of emphasis in his training?) – “It’s funny, I told ‘Tank’ when he first got here … He can run. He’s a fast kid. He can run. And I said, ‘You always have that in your back pocket.’ He’s a bigger kid, so he’s a physical player at the line of scrimmage. Just like any young corners, I think his growth has got to come from route recognition, pattern recognition, formation tips. He has been pretty good with that stuff, but that’s to me where his development has got to come along. (As for) physical tools, I think he has got a lot to work with, obviously, with size and speed. He’s a tough kid and he’s confident, as we’ve talked about before. I think his development is just going to come from some of the stuff that we’re doing and seeing the route combinations and understanding how teams are trying to attack him better.”
(What’s your evaluation of LB Rey Maualuga, especially considering where he started from this season, coming out of retirement or whatever you want to call it?) – “Retirement. Forced retirement. (laughter)”
(Inactivity. It wasn’t a normal offseason.) – “He has been good. I know everyone was impatient. We tried to have sort of a long-term plan for him – a long-term picture – in terms of making sure he was healthy and in shape, especially obviously down here (as) we’ve talked about with the heat. So, we kind of had that plan. I remember when he tweaked his hamstring a little bit in training camp, whenever it was, and I said, ‘Look dude, if you can get back for the Titans game…’ He is a great, great person. I know you guys have talked a lot about him. He’s one of those guys that hates being away from his teammates and hates not being out there to help to contribute and be that guy. So, he puts himself in bad spots, because he always wants to get back soon. He wants to do everything. He wants to take 50 reps out there. Again, he’s another guy, I was like, ‘Look, if you get healthy and get right and get in shape, then I’ll take the seatbelt off and you can do whatever you want.’ He kind of stuck to that plan. He did a lot of good work with (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach) Dave Puloka in the training room and the weight room guys to get to where he’s able to do what he’s doing right now. He has been great. He really has been. Obviously, (he has) a physical presence in there. He has played well since he has been in. He has had (three) good games or something, whatever he has played.”
(Why does G/T Jesse Davis qualify to play on the goal-line defense?) – “He’s a big dude. He’s physical. Again, it’s a testament to (Head Coach) Adam (Gase). Everybody is all hands on deck. When we went into the game with only three tackles active – defensive tackles active … We’d actually done it two weeks ago – I guess that was the Titans game – and he went out there for the snap and they jumped offsides, so he didn’t get an official snap of it. It was literally sort of like, I went to Adam, I was like, ‘Who’s going to be active? What are we kind of looking at, the picture of this here?’ He seemed like the best fit. He played d-tackle, I think, way back in his day at some point. So, there was kind of that element. It just felt like, ‘I’m going to stick you in this A gap. Can you go just get off and try to knock somebody around?’ He was good.”
(G/T Jesse Davis just plays the big unit, right? When you don’t have cornerbacks?) – “Just in goal line, he has been, yes. I figured if (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) was going to steal Rey (Maualuga), then I get one of his too. (laughter)”
(Most of the time towards the end of the game, most defenses are geared to stop offenses from going to the sideline. With the play call that you guys made on the CB Bobby McCain interception, were you surprised when the ball went out to the outside that way, especially considering that the quarterback is a 15-year veteran?) – “Honestly, not to give too many secrets away, we play that coverage a lot. It’s on tape. We set it up from a different look than we had before in the past. I don’t know if that was part of it. You can see on tape – I know Josh (McCown) talked about it – we dropped Reshad (Jones) in on the front side, so I think he’s looking to the front side first. When he sees Reshad rotate, obviously he doesn’t want to throw over there. Reshad is kind of sitting in the window, so I think when he comes back, I don’t think he has time to really look. We’ve been getting some pretty good pressure, especially in the fourth quarter. Again, you’d have to talk to him; but I don’t think he saw Bobby. They had somebody in the flat also. I don’t know if he thought Bobby was going to get sucked up on the flat route a little bit and he kind of short-armed it a touch and went to Bobby. Bobby did a good job kind of getting where he had to get to, to that spot. It was a great play by Bobby. Obviously, we were pretty happy it happened that way.”
