Matt Burke – December 8, 2017
Download PDF version
Friday, December 8, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(Opening Statement) – “Before you guys bombard me, I want to follow up at the end of (Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen’s comments), just something about Kenny Stills. For me, on the defensive side of the ball, he’s the most into us playing defense in the game of anybody on offense, for whatever that’s worth. Every single game, that kid gets his corrections and comes up and stands on the sideline and is either talking trash to the other team or cheering our guys on. I’m bumping into him half the time telling him to get out of the way to make my calls. I heard you guys asking and Clyde talking about him, and Kenny, as a team player and a leader and all of that stuff, he’s the most into the game from that side of the ball to when we’re playing, of anybody. I notice it. I said something to him about two weeks ago. ‘Hey man, don’t think I don’t notice you’re the only guy up – or not the only guy – but you’re the loudest guy, for sure; and the most energetic guy up watching us play defense and rooting for our side of the ball.’ He’s taken a lot of strides there.”
(Can you share with us maybe something you learned the first time against the Patriots calling defensive signals for the first time?) – “I think it just was an emphasis really for myself, going into the game, that you have to be quick with the calls. You have to get them out them. Even if they’re changing personnel groups and not necessarily going no-huddle, they’re probably the best in the league with (Tom) Brady and everything in terms of breaking the huddle, getting up and running their plays. For myself, it was a point of emphasis to get the call to the defense so they could get their eyes back to the offense so as they broke the huddle, they were able to line up and play. That was something going into the game that was a point of emphasis for me. I want to make sure that I don’t slow our defense down by being slow with the calls, so I really had to, for me, even be more on my game in terms of getting a huddle called out quick and anticipating what I wanted to get into so those guys could get the call and get their eyes back to the offense and be ready to go.”
(And were you able to do that?) – “I felt like for the most part, yes. They do a good job obviously. They roll personnel groups. They throw a lot of different things at you and they kind of pace the game. They’ll kind of be normal, normal, normal and then they’ll get up on you, then they’ll pull it back. They play that game. I didn’t feel like getting the calls out and getting the huddle call was an issue, which I felt like that was important for me to give our guys the best chance to compete.”
(No Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski on Monday night. Is that going to impact your game plan?) – “Yes, obviously he’s a great player. The thing that’s hard is even if ‘Gronk’ is playing, this is a team that game plans every game you play against them, and they’re going to change personnel groups. Not to sound like a total idiot but if anything, it almost creates a little bit more uncertainty. Obviously if ‘Gronk’ is playing, you know he’s going to be involved and he’s a factor that you have to account for. They’re always like this when you prepare for a team like the Patriots, but even more so now. You don’t know what they’re going to throw at you, really. They could come out and run unbalanced for the first 20 plays or they could go empty personnel. They could go three running backs. You don’t know. There’s a little bit more uncertainty. We always approach it like that. We’re going to have to be ready for anything between personnel groups and formational things and what they’re doing. Obviously, he’s a great player and he’s having another great season. Taking him off the field lessons some of the matchup issues you have. Obviously you have to account for him; but sort of the flip side is it creates a little bit more uncertainty in terms of groups they’re going to use and some of the ways they’re going to attack us. It’s an interesting approach to what we’re going to see here.”
(What do you hope that CB Bobby McCain takes from his first meeting with the Patriots in terms of the lessons learned?) – “I think it’s not just Bobby really. It’s everybody. You guys have been around Bobby. He’s a competitive kid and he’s feisty. That’s just something that we know they’re going to try to do. They’re going to try to get under your skin and it’s always been that way. Those guys are going to try to give him a little … Just let him know they’re there and try to irritate him a little bit. That’s fine. We just have to keep our composure. He understands what went on and how that came to be. I think we’ve moved past that. I think Bobby has. I think Bobby has been playing really well this year for us and having a great season and he knows we need him on the field. I think it’s just the awareness of that stuff doesn’t matter. If someone gets a little extra bump on you or if someone is holding you a little bit longer than normal or someone talks a little trash to you, that’s fine. We’re expecting those things to happen and we just can’t respond to it. We’ve just got to go out, play ball and execute our calls. I think Bobby will be ready to have a good game for us.”
(Is there any concern that if CB Cordrea Tankersley plays that him not being 100 percent would make him a target for Patriots QB Tom Brady?) – “Everyone is a target for Brady. (laughter) If we make the determination that ‘Tank’ is going to play for us, it’s because we think he’s healthy and ready to play a real game for us. So we’re not going to put him out there if we feel him dealing with whatever injuries and stuff he’s trying to fight through is going to affect the play. We’ll have other options for that. No, I would assume if he does play that they’re going to test him out but that’s just what they do anyways. They just try to find matchups and whether it’s a running back on a linebacker or a receiver on what they think is a less than 100 percent DB, or whatever. Or ‘Gronk’ on somebody, those types of things. They’re going to find the matchups they want. That’s what their plan of attack is always. We’re not going to make that decision unless we feel that he’s capable of competing for us.”
(When you see or notice a guy … Over the years, Patriots QB Tom Brady always finds a target. When you see or notice a guy who is being picked on by him, does that go into your thought process coaching wise or schematically?) – “Yes. Again, when you try to boil down what this team tries to do to you … For us, that’s what it’s about. They try to find matchups that they can take advantage of. For us, it’s trying to keep the matchups in our favor as much as possible. Whether it’s moving different personnel groups or moving bodies on bodies that we like better in terms of certain, specific skill sets or matchups for us. Or just trying to keep the target moving. It might look like this is a matchup you like and then the next play, we’re playing something different. That’s just the game you have to play with them. They’re going to try to put as many players on the field that they think are positive matchups for them, and find the one that they like the best and go to it. Our job is to try to take those matchups away as best as possible. You can’t take them all away, so whether it’s changing the target or changing the matchups, play to play, series to series or just coaching up. We have to tell our guys, you have to know if you’re lined up against this guy, that’s probably where they’re going, and you have to win that down for us. We’ll help you out the next down or we’ll change it the next down but we can’t protect everybody. Somebody’s got to go win some matchups for us.”
(With regards to CB Bobby McCain, to see him kind of lose his composure like that … Am I right that’s uncharacteristic of him?) – “It is. Yes, you’re right.”
(Do you expect that CB Bobby McCain is going to be tested?) – “I would assume. Yes, I think any team – not just the Patriots; but any time that you show as a player – not just Bobby but any player – that you show susceptibility to that, people are going to test you. Just anything or in matchups, right? If someone says he’s susceptible or he’s given up a lot of plays on this specific route or he’s done this, they’re going to test you and find out if you’ve corrected that or if you’re still going to go angry and react to things. There’s no doubt they’re going to test us. He’ll be ready. He’ll be fine. Bobby is going to play a good game for us on Monday.”
(How would you evaluate how CB Alterraun Verner did when he came in against Denver?) – “Yes, he did a good job. Again, that was something obviously we preach in terms of guys being prepared. ‘Tank’ essentially went down on the first play. He kind of went back in and tried to fight it out for a couple of plays and kind of couldn’t keep it going for us. I can’t remember the exact number but ‘Vern’ ended up playing 45 snaps for us or something. He did a really good job. He’s the ultimate pro. There have been times during the season where we kind of had him or told him ‘Hey, I think you might be up this time’ or ‘You might be doing this,’ and then he didn’t get to play. He’s been steady through the whole thing. He prepares like a pro. He’s always ready to play. He stepped in and competed and did a really good job for us.”
(What were some of the things that the secondary did much better against the Broncos than in previous games?) – “They caught the ball, right? That’s something we’ve both been talking about. (laughter) I wish I could bottle that up. Honestly, I’ll give (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) a little bit of credit. Some of the things that he’s done in practice in terms of just stressing and really putting the emphasis on getting our hands on balls and attacking things. We’ve talked. Even with a guy like ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) for example, who I felt has been playing good coverage and that was the final step he had to take. Now he’s getting five pass breakups and catching the ball and obviously doing those things. I think just taking the step of finishing those plays and not just being in pretty good coverage or not just kind of being in good coverage and still allowing catches but for us to finish those plays and obviously to get our hands on a few picks and obviously to break up a bunch of passes. That was something that we stressed all the time but it’s kind of just been a team-wide thing. I think from Adam’s side of things, his stress is not turning the ball over. He’s been emphasizing, even for the scout team guys, ‘Hey man, make us better. Attack the ball. Strip it. Go after it in practice.’ Then us from the same side, so as a team-wide thing, it’s become just more of an emphasis, just truly like ‘We have to protect the ball on offense and we have to attack the ball on defense.’ I think sort of the fruits of those labors are starting to show.”
(Aside from getting a victory, how do you know when you’ve done a good job of defending QB Tom Brady?) – “I’ll take a victory. That would be enough for me. Look, he’s a great quarterback and one of the greatest of all-time. He’s going to make his plays. I don’t think anyone in the building expects him to go 0-for-25 with seven picks. He’s going to make some plays. We measure everything by wins and losses. That’s how we’re judged. That’s how we should be judged. If we make enough plays on him to win the game … Obviously if he goes 30-for-31 with eight touchdowns, we’re probably not going to win the game. Whatever measure of success leads to us getting stops, getting off the field and trying to limit his success as much as possible … A win is a win. We’ll take it however it comes.”
(What was the skill with DE Cameron Malveaux that intrigued you guys? Is he stout against the run? What made you want to take a look at him these last few weeks?) – “He’s a big body for a defensive end for us. He’s kind of a little different body type than we have. He has been destroying the offense in practice and really getting after them. He does everything right. I know the cliché of being the first one in. He literally is the first person sitting in the meeting room every morning, waiting for stuff to start. In terms of skill set, he’s a big, long kid that is tough against the run. He sets edges for us. Even as a rusher, he’s not going to be super fancy but he does a good job in terms of long-arming with his length and speed-to-power and trying to just collapse the pocket and push guys, which is a benefit for us with our other guys that can do some things in the rush game and those type of things. And a little bit with losing a guy like Will Hayes, that provided us sort of that same element for us, we felt that was a nice complement to kind of fit (Malveaux) back in. Will did some of those things in terms of the run game and just power rushing and those things. We just felt it was a nice chance to get (Malveaux) up and give him an opportunity to go play and he responded. He had about 30-to-35 snaps and did a really good job for us.”
(With CB Xavien Howard’s improvement, is it just the natural improvement of a young player or did Defensive Backs Coach Lou Anarumo or you point out anything specific to him that’s been a chance in technique? What has led to these last three weeks of high-level cornerback play?) – “I’d like to take credit for that. I don’t think I will. You can ask Lou about his cornerback whisperer techniques. (laughter) I think ‘X’ has been in good coverage. Most of the year, I think ‘X’ has been in really good coverage. I think the emphasis on finishing those plays and that’s the next step. That was always the next step for him. I think we forget that he had somewhat of a lost season last year with all of the injuries and the limited time. As a young corner, some of the growing pains we’ve been going through with ‘Tank’ (Cordrea Tankersley), ‘X’ didn’t get as much experience as ‘Tank’ has got this year as a rookie. Early in the season, I think ‘X’ was still developing through that rookie experience and those sorts of things. Then, as the season started progressing, I think he was tighter in coverage and tighter in coverage and getting closer to what we were asking. Now, in the last couple of weeks, he’s kind of gone the next step and now he’s getting the ball out. I think it’s just a natural progression. Again, he’s just been working at it and I think he missed enough time last year that he wasn’t fully experienced through his rookie ups and downs and hopefully this is him turning the corner and really becoming what we’ve expected from him.”
