Cameron Wake – November 3, 2017
Friday, November 3, 2017
DE Cameron Wake
(Anything special about playing Sunday Night Football? It’s the NFL’s marquee package. WR Jarvis Landry says it’s special to him, that’s one perspective. Anything for you or zero appeal about that?) – “Not really. I like playing football. It doesn’t matter if it’s – I won’t say Thursday – but it doesn’t matter if it’s Sunday – Sunday morning, Sunday night, London. I just enjoy playing the game.”
(Did you notice any kind of difference at practice this week coming back after the “mini bye?”) – “I think guys were refreshed. I’d like to think guys have time to do whatever, whether it was get away from the game, whether it was get some extra treatment, or whatever thing you needed as an individual to help you get through the rest of the season. I think guys took the time to do that and I think it was good week of practice.”
(How do you measure pass-rushing success when you have quarterbacks who get rid of the ball really quickly?) – “I’ve always thought that we, as a front, we’re eventually going to get there, no matter what. It just depends on whether the quarterback has the ball or not. You can control what you control. Whether he has it, that’s not necessarily in your control; but the reality is at some point – especially with the guys we have in the back end – at some point they’re going to hold it and you have to trust that those guys are going to do their job, and you have to say, ‘This is going to be the play that I’m going to get the opportunity to get to the quarterback.’ If you do the opposite and say, ‘Alright, he’s throwing the ball quick, I’m not going to rush,’ then that’s a play when he’s sitting back there for five seconds and heaving it down the field. You have to have a short memory and you have to have a lot of confidence in yourself in every single play. ‘This is the play I’m going to get there, this is the play I’m going to get there. I trust in my guys.’ From a measurement standpoint, if you beat your guy, whether the ball is there or not, to me, that’s doing your job.”
(Do you get help from the back end? Is that how it works?) – “That’s exactly how it works. I feel like especially as a general teaching for the lay football watcher, that when they see a long pass and the corner got beat or the safety got beat on a 60-yard bomb and (they say), ‘Oh, that guy got beat.’ But in this league, there’s nobody … A corner couldn’t cover me for 10 seconds and I’m not a receiver, so eventually a receiver’s going to get open. As a pass rusher, if you throw a 70-yard pass, that’s my fault as a pass rusher; not mine, but we as a front. We definitely work hand in hand. Short drops and short, quick passes, I feel like, ‘Okay, you guys challenge those route concepts or whatever it may be, and when it’s the long routes, that’s our chance to say we’re not going to put you in that situation. We’re going to get there regardless of what the circumstances are.’”
(On a week like this where obviously you have health questions at defensive end with DEs Andre Branch and William Hayes, do you and Defensive Line Coach Terrell Williams or you and Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke have a conversation about more snaps. Do you express willingness for that? Do they come to you and say, ‘We might need you’ or does that conversation never happen?) – “I don’t think it’s a conversation, it’s a reality. Unfortunately, the game we play, it’s violent and injuries happen unlike any other sport that’s played in this country. It’s an unfortunate situation. You know that it’s going to happen at some point, yourself included, and the guys around you know that. If we have to step up and play a little more, that’s just the situation. We knew that the day we signed on to play. Whatever happens on Sunday, and still, again, that’s to be determined about who plays and how many snaps and all of that. When your number gets called, you’ve got to go in there and you’ve got to do your job. That’s the way it’s been, whether it is injury, a shoelace, a person with no shoe, a suspension, so on and so on and so on. ”
(Emotionally, is it better for a team to come out the same way every week or would you prefer to see a spike after a loss or a change in personnel like you guys had?) – “I don’t like spikes. I don’t like rollercoasters. I’m not a fan of extra. For example, Sunday night are we going to play harder because it’s Sunday night? What were you doing Sunday at 1 o’clock? What were you doing Thursday night? If there’s an extra, then to me – and I can say that to any football player – you’ve already been withholding something that you should have been giving. It should be a maxed-out effort week in and week out, no matter what time the game is, no matter who you’re playing, no matter if you all lost 10 straight, you won 10 straight, you’re going against an All-Pro, you’re going against a rookie who’s never played. There’s no let up. It’s your 100 mph fastball every pitch until your arm falls off. That’s the only way you can play this game. If you’re out there throwing lobs because it’s not a great hitter and then you’re waiting for a hitter to come up, then you’re wasting an opportunity. Me, I’m swinging for the fences every play, I don’t care who’s pitching.”
