Austin Clark – October 6, 2022
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Thursday, October 6, 2022
Defensive Line Coach Austin Clark
(What are you seeing out of the pass rush so far, compared to last year? And what are you not seeing out of the pass rush?) – “I think, if you look at the season as a whole, it’s week-to-week. I think there’s weeks where we’ve affected the quarterback the way we’d like to. And then there are some areas where you’d like to see us finish. Like early in Cincinnati game, we got a chance – I think it was (Trey) Flowers and (Jaelan) Phillips missing a sack and the finish. And you want to knock down balls. Our goal is to affect the quarterback with the pass rush. I like the pieces we got. The effort is there. We’ve just got to finish a little bit better overall. We look to get them in situations, advantageous situations, where they have to throw the ball. When you know they’re throwing, that’s when the rush can really hit home. I’m pleased with the way the guys are working and looking forward to this week.”
(When you look at the pass rush success and sacks, how much of that is attributable to winning one on ones? And how much does CB Byron Jones’ absence affect that?) – “The way I look at things as the defensive line coach is it’s about those guys I work with. I think there is an element, I’m sure (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer) can tell you rush and coverage work hand-in-hand, and we preach that to our guys. But really, part of it is one-on-ones, part of it is the scheme and what we’re trying to do to attack certain guys with blitzes and games. And a lot of it is fundamentally. It’s your get-off. It’s attacking a set you’re getting. It’s the quarterback. That’s kind of the piece when Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Zach Wilson – you’ve got to rush these guys a certain way versus a quarterback that maybe doesn’t move quite as much. So there’s a lot of different factors that go into it. Like I said, I think we’ve got a lot of great pieces and the guys are working hard. Hopefully we can clean some things up.”
(You mentioned winning one-on-ones. The Jets have some tackles out. Is that viewed as an opportunity to attack and win some one-on-ones?) – “It depends who’s out there. Every week we prepare like Duane Brown is out there – Alijah Vera-Tucker. You look at the way they use their offensive line, they’ve got a bunch of different guys. That’s a small piece to the puzzle in terms of knowing your personnel and how you’re rushing a certain type of guy. It’s definitely a part of it.”
(Are there some instances where you mentioned – you’re rushing athletic guys like QB Lamar Jackson or QB Josh Allen – where maybe the defensive lineman’s job isn’t necessarily to collapse the pocket or – I don’t want to say not get to the quarterback, but maybe keep them … We talked about gap integrity. Are there some cases where that is their job on that play?) – “Yeah, rush lanes. I mean, as you look at rushing the passer, how many are we bringing? Where does a guy look to escape? Does he get rid of it quick? Is alerting three step and batting down balls, is that a big part of it? All of those things are factors to it, for sure. Absolutely.”
(Through four games, how you would assess how DE Emmanuel Ogbah is doing? I know pass rushers obviously are always going to be judged by numbers, but there’s more to it. His play overall, is it up to your standards?) – “Yeah. I don’t want you guys take this wrong way but when I look at Ogbah, it’s three downs, it’s four downs. It’s being a complete player down in and down out. I think he’s done a heck of a job so far. There are certainly some things, some more plays out there to be made for him. But I think week to week, he’s done exactly what we asked him to do and he’s flashed. He’s shown a lot of those flashes we’ve seen early in the season, especially in Buffalo. Late in the game last week in the second half, I thought he really turned it up. He’s got a lot of fundamental things we’re looking to clean up and he’s had a great week of practice so far.”
(I think LB Jaelan Phillips’ sack was from the four technique if I’m not mistaken. Did you guys know that he could play that far inside coming out of college? Or is that something he kind of grew into?) – “Yeah, to be honest with you, off of the stuff he did at Miami, he didn’t really do a lot of that. But him, like every player we got, you don’t know where that guy is going to line up. Every down or every week, it’s going to be different. And I think what Jaelen does a good job of is buying in and really feeding on the role that’s given to him each week. In that game, that was his job. He finished a play and was able to get him a sack, so we’re definitely excited for him for that.”
(How do you assess this team’s run defense at this point? I know probably some numbers have been skewed by some long rushes, maybe some quarterback scrambles or just on design runs.) – “Yeah, I would say in terms of our run defense and what we’re asking guys to play, to be honest with you, we’re focused on the New York Jets and how we’re going to stop their run. But last week, I thought we did a pretty good job. The guys inside are buying into attacking the man they are aligned on based on the methods of play per front we’re playing. and we do a lot of different things. We’ve got to continue to work on pad level, leg drive and all those things on all downs, whether it’s the early down run defense, short-yardage, goal line. There is a lot that goes into it. But again, our guys inside and the linebackers – Elandon Roberts – they’ve bought into all that so it’s been good so far. It’s got to be good every week.”
