Matt Burke – December 14, 2017
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Thursday, December 14, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(According to the game book, DT Ndamukong Suh played every single defensive snap against the Patriots. No. 1: How amazing is that? No. 2: Was there ever a point where you asked him to come out and he told you, “No, I’m staying?”) – “(laughter) No. It’s amazing. I always talk about the way that Suh prepares and gets himself ready to play. A little bit was kind of the game situation in terms of we didn’t have a lot of long drives, necessarily. We were kind of getting off the field at times, which allows us to keep those guys playing. When we get into those longer, extended drives where we’re trying to roll guys a little bit and keep them fresh and be a little bit proactive … Our total snap count was like right around 60. I think it was 61. It’s definitely a testament to him and his preparation and obviously he didn’t want to come out. We didn’t really get to a point in the game where we felt his snap count was affecting his play because we were kind of being able to get out. (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) was controlling the clock and our time of possession was pretty good from a team standpoint. We just never really got to a point where we felt like we had to roll him out of there.”
(Was that the best DT Ndamukong Suh has played all year?) – “He’s played pretty good all year. I don’t know. I’d have to go back …”
(DT Ndamukong Suh seemed to have more tackles for loss.) – “Did he? I don’t know. He played well. He definitely played well. He affected the game. He obviously had the sack and some of those things. He’s a guy that affects the game regardless of the stat line because they’re always accounting for him. Sometimes it’s stuff not everyone sees where they’re double-teaming him and putting four hands on him and that frees somebody else up to make plays. He’s always got an impact on the game but he definitely played really well on Monday night and obviously was a big part of our victory.”
(After the game, one of our photographers took a pretty amazing photo. I can show you later. You’re very emotional. It’s very cool. If you could take me back to that moment, it seems like you were very emotional from the game. What went into your emotion?) – “When was that? Postgame? Yes, it’s just … I’ve said this before. All games are … We put a lot into it. We put a lot of work into it and all of that but it’s a high-intensity moment for four hours straight, in between every series, especially against a team like that. I felt obviously we had to stay ahead of the curve and keep changing things up. You can’t give them a static look or they’re going to figure it out eventually. So for me, it was like every series, ‘Alright, what are we doing next? How can we change this up? Alright, they’ve seen this.’ So it was about four straight hours of just non-stop, non-stop, non-stop. When it kind of ends … Obviously it was a big victory. I just felt like … I don’t know. I’m not sure what the picture is obviously but I was just letting out a lot of – probably two weeks’ worth – of stuff from the first game that I had personally. Game days are hard on play callers. For me, the players and coaches did a great job – and I mentioned that in our meeting – about just helping me with that stuff. Literally, I was getting feedback from the guys on the field. (Ndamukong) Suh always comes over and he’ll talk about what he’s seeing and things. Reshad (Jones) was coming over, Kiko (Alonso), ‘X’ (Xavien Howard). Even ‘X’ was like ‘Man, I’m doing this. I’m good on this.’ That helped. It’s just a four-hour straight high-intensity, stressful, on edge (experience). So when it’s over, and obviously we got a result that we were happy about, it was cathartic.”
(How many wrinkles would you say you threw at the Patriots this game?) – “I don’t know. I pretty much dialed up every blitz on my call sheet. (There were) a lot (of wrinkles). That’s just what you have to do (against them), which is hard. It put a lot on the players. There was a little bit more learning because we had some new stuff in and we had some changes. I came in at halftime and was like ‘Hey, we’re going to kind of put this stuff to the side and we’re going to come back to this.’ Even series to series, I try to stay ahead of it and let them know so it’s not just blindly coming in from the sideline. So in between series, I’ll try to go up and down and say ‘Hey, here’s what I’m thinking,’ or ask the coaches ‘What do you guys like next third down or next this?’ I think that’s just how it has to be with (the Patriots). If they know where you’re lining up, they’re going to have answers and ways to exploit that. We tried to do a pretty good amount of different things. Again, preparing for them with different personnel groups and not quite sure what they were going to come out in – in terms of who they’re putting on the field and their course of attack – you had to have a lot up because you weren’t sure where they were going to come with it. So you had to have answers no matter what they did.
(As a follow up, can you do that week to week? Is that possible?) – “Sometimes. Sometimes it’s overkill. Sometimes you can screw yourself if you’re putting too much in. All of the time you want your players to play fast, so I’m always cautious of slowing them down just by overloading them mentally too much. There are games where you don’t have to do that all of the time. Sometimes you mess yourself up. We want to play technique and play our defense and those sort of things. Every game is a different entity in terms of how much you need or what you don’t need or what the challenges are. A game like this week, where you have to be sound with the running back and where he’s going to be and hold up your edges, if you try to get too cute sometimes in a game like this, then he squirts out and it’s trouble. Every week is a different challenge in how you handle that stuff.”
(Was CB Torry McTyer out there in the dime package?) – “He was.”
(Did you guys play a snap or was there a penalty?) – “No, we had about … I think there were three snaps. I think he played three snaps.”
(How many times have you showed dime this season?) – “Probably not a ton. Against these guys (the Patriots) we have a few times. I would say less than 10, probably.”
(Around the NFL, it seems like the dime maybe isn’t as popular as it was 10 years ago or something like that. Is that true?) – “I’m not sure. Again, we have different personnel groups we try to use and it’s week to week and what the matchups are that we like on the field. Any time you’re putting somebody on the field, you’re taking somebody off and that’s what you weigh in terms of is this a good matchup for us or is this guy better for us in this situation than somebody else? I guess that’s about it. We’re going to use the personnel that we feel is going to fit us best for each play.”
(The Bills are such a run-heavy team. You know RB LeSean McCoy is going to be bringing it. How do you contain him?) – “It’s going to be a team effort, obviously. I think he’s the best in the league at making people miss. He’s unpredictable in terms of where he is taking runs. He’ll jump cut and bounce pretty much anything. Everyone is going one way and he’ll stop on a dime and take it back the other way. It’s not going to be a one-man thing. It’s the whole team – everyone – has to swarm to the ball. He’s going to make somebody miss. You guys can write that one down now. Someone is going to miss a tackle in this game. As long as there are four or five other guys that are closing to him and closing up space on him … Obviously he’s most dangerous in space and when he gets air around him, so we’re going to try to take that away as much as we can and not just give him those opportunities. But for me, it’s really about our guys pursuing and chasing and being relentless to the ball because, again, there are going to be situations where he’s going to beat a one-on-one tackle and there’s got to be guys there to clean that up and not let a missed tackle turn into a 20-yard gain. If it’s a 3-, 4- or 5-yard gain, then we put the ball down and play again. We’ve got to try to get hats to the ball to eliminate the explosive (plays) with him.”
(With CB Xavien Howard, has he reached a point now … I’m not saying you would do this every week because of the game plan; but do you feel confident enough for him to shadow any receiver in the league?) – “Yes. We’ve done that all season. He’s obviously made a bunch of pretty spectacular plays the last couple of weeks. We’ve had that confidence in ‘X’ all year and again, obviously some of the results are starting to show. I tried to tell you guys. Nobody wants to listen to me. (laughter) But yes, that’s the same as the personnel packages and everything else – week to week – how many different calls and variances we have. That week, if we feel that’s a good matchup or a better situation for us, then we’ll do that and we’ll flip guys. Maybe it’s not ‘X.’ Maybe we like a different matchup for somebody else. That’s part of our discussion every week we start on the game plan.”
(You said before that one of CB Xavien Howard’s biggest issues was getting his head around and locating the ball. Not X’s and O’s wise, but technique-wise and maturity-wise, have you seen him grow as a player?) – “Yes, absolutely. Again, I think I mentioned it last week or the week before, I think it’s just the experience is catching up to the talent with ‘X.’ On paper, he’s a second-year player; but in reality, he only played seven games last year. I think he’s gotten a lot more time this year, obviously. We have put him in some spots in terms of matching guys or doing certain things. We’re putting him in those spots to get that experience and he’s been responding. I think it’s just part of his maturation and development.”
(Speaking of CB Xavien Howard, what goes into limiting a guy as explosive as Patriots WR Brandin Cooks? A guy that can get vertical as quick as he can.) – “Well, ‘X’ can run first of all, so that helps. I thought what ‘X’ did in the game Monday night was really put his hands on those guys at the line of scrimmage. Cooks is a fast kid and he’s explosive. You’ve got to try to get him before he gets going a little bit. When he did get going, the second pick (Howard) had, he showed some pretty serious closing speed. But I thought most of the night, ‘X’ was really getting up on the ball and pressing him and trying to disrupt before (Cooks) really got off the line of scrimmage.”
(Was there an increase in man coverage? Was there an increase in press? And if so, in the times that you utilized those techniques, what was the strategy behind it?) – “Again, we try to be a press team for the most part, as formations and splits and certain things dictate, and calls. We probably played a little bit more man, probably because I was pressuring a little bit more than maybe I normally do. So maybe there was a little bit uptick in just man coverage. Again, they were having success. Those guys were covering. It gave me, as a play caller, confidence that obviously I’m looking out there and I’m calling man and they’re covering them, so I can keep going back to it. That helps.”
(When you watched the Buffalo/Indy game earlier this week, are those favorable conditions for a defensive coordinator?) – “I don’t know about that. I was a coach in the last game that happened. I was in Detroit when we played in Philly in 2013 in a very similar (snow storm). I never thought I’d see it again, honestly. We kind of came off the field and we were like ‘Man, that’s never going to happen again.’ So I coached and literally the same thing happened. ‘Shady’ (LeSean McCoy) went off for about 150 yards on us. I get it, where on the surface it looks like a low-scoring game and all of that. I think one of the issues defensively is you’re reacting to what an offense is doing. Especially a guy like McCoy, who’s got really good balance – that’s probably one of his better assets as an athlete – so he knows where he’s cutting and how to make those moves. As a defender, you’re reacting to that and it’s harder to keep your footing and do some of those things when the field conditions are like that. Obviously if you can get him behind the sticks, you saw they were running the ball on every third down. It was third-and-10 and they were handing the ball off just because throwing was a little questionable, especially in that second quarter when it got really bad. That’s great. There’s an advantage of that in terms of it was a low-scoring game and all of that; but it’s more difficult, I think, defensively, just because you’re reacting to what an offense is doing and that just slows you down. You being sure on your feet and stuff is going to slow you down even another step and whatnot. That’s nothing we can control. I remember when we came out of that game in 2013, we sat down as a staff and was like ‘Hey, if this ever happens again, overall, philosophically, what are things that we would do? What are some of the techniques we would do?’ We went through our game plan this week kind of normal and we’ve kind of tick-marked some calls and some thoughts if the field happens to turn out like that. I don’t know what the odds are, but we’ll be ready for it if something happens.”
(Do you have actual notes from that game that you go back to?) – “Yes. I keep a lot of stuff. I’m like a pack rat. I’ve got notes from all over the place.”
(How big of a deal do you make out of holding New England to 0-for-11 on third down? Do you put it up on a wall?) – “No. I don’t put anything up on the wall. Honestly, I had no idea. I literally had no idea. You play the play. I’m just trying to get the next call out and figure out what’s going on. I had no idea it was going on until the last drive. (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) was up on third down and I was looking up at the scoreboard to calculate what the time was going to be in that last 2-minute drive and how many timeouts they had. I was looking up and trying to be like ‘Okay, there’s this much time left.’ And I’m going through the process and they flashed up on the scoreboard that they were 0-for-10 at the time and I was kind of like, ‘Man, that doesn’t seem right.’ (laughter) When you go through that, I felt like I was getting my butt kicked most of the game. You’re just up against it nonstop. I had no idea that was happening. I knew we were having some success and the guys were rushing well up front. I was happy for the players, that they were able to execute and have some success in a game like that. That was it. We didn’t put anything up. We moved on to Buffalo pretty quick.”
(You’ve actually held teams to 1-of-24 on third downs over the last two games. Did you know that?) – “No. Now I do.”
(That’s pretty remarkable.) – “It’s alright, yes. I mean every week is tough guys. Buffalo is actually 10th in the league right now in third downs. They’re converting over 40 percent of their third downs and obviously have a couple of different types of weapons, so it’s going to be another big challenge for us this week in terms of whether it’s keeping Tyrod (Taylor) in the pocket or containing (LeSean) McCoy and those sorts of things. We don’t look back. We try to look forward and we can’t worry about what happened last week or the last two weeks. Every game is a separate entity and we’ve got to go out and perform again or you guys are going to be asking me different questions next week.”
