Christian Wilkins – October 27, 2021
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Wednesday, October 27, 2021
DT Christian Wilkins
(Obviously the gap in score the last two Bills games have been pretty lopsided. Do you all look at that and say it shouldn’t be this way, our teams are closer or comparable in talent than what the score reflects?) – “You really just have to take each game game-by-game. You can’t really think about that. Obviously, the last two times we played them, they were the better team that day. We just have to focus on this game and the task at hand, which is following the game plan, working hard, studying hard and just prepare as best as possible so we get a good result Sunday.”
(I wanted to ask you about DE Emmanuel Ogbah. What has stood out to you about what he has been doing this season and also since his arrival?) – “I love having Ogbah around. He’s a great teammate. He’s the vet in our room. Sometimes he sees things that we don’t see or just always helps us in all the ways he can. He just loves to compete, loves to play. He always plays hard, runs after the ball. Great get off, ability to pass rush and he’s strong in the run game. Whether he’s on the edge or inside, he does a really good job for us.”
(I know it’s been a few weeks but how much does that first loss against Buffalo still stick in guys’ minds?) – “Again, that was so long ago you don’t really – like I was saying earlier, you don’t really try to think about that. You focus on this week because they’re a different team than they were then and we’re a different team too. You just got to have the right approach – a week-by-week basis, don’t really think about the past and just focus on the present and what we’ve got to do this week.”
(In what ways do you think that your defense has gotten better since that first meeting?) – “I feel like the obvious one is that we got better at defending the run. We’ve been able to do a pretty good job the last few weeks, which is important. That’s obviously the big one. We just try to improve each and every day, each and every week. It’s not ever going to be a perfect game but we are going to try to always strive for that each week.”
(I know you’re a high-energy guy. How do you bring that energy and juice when things are going like they have?) – “It’s just a part of me. It’s just a part of who I am. It doesn’t matter whether we’re undefeated or 1-6. You just have to be who you are and that’s important. That’s what you kind of need at this time when things aren’t going as you would want. You need that leadership, you need guys to bring some juice, bring a spark and just really have some fun because this is still just a game. It’s work to us, we love it, we’re passionate about it,but it’s still a game so I’m always going to have fun playing this game.”
(Do you still see guys having fun each week?) – I feel like there’s definitely still great energy around the facility and around the building. Guys just come in still every day with the right mindset and just want to get better and want to keep striving to be our best.”
(On the subject of fun, an incredible oversight but last week we forgot to ask you how much pleasure you got out of seeing Head Coach Brian Flores in a Clemson shirt?) – “It’s just good to know you have someone who likes to keep his word and pay their debts. That’s good. That was kind of fun for a second. I got a chuckle out of that.”
(We’ve seen your production in terms of the counting stats tick up this year and last week I talked to DT Zach Sieler on some of the stuff you worked on. He mentioned your hands. I’m curious how just what you do with your hands correlates to that uptick in production this season?) – “I recognize that as an area for me to improve on. All offseason, just countless reps of shooting my hands, inside hands, doing grip things to make my hands stronger because that’s important as a d-lineman. Really, hands and eyes go together so seeing my hands in, shooting at my target and being strong at the point of attack, that’s something I’ve just tried to improve on all offseason and continue to try to improve on each week during the season.”
(Since the last time you played the Bills, they moved OT Daryl Williams into guard. Do you notice a difference, besides personnel, in productivity or anything in what that group looks like with him inside?) – “Not so much of a difference there in anything I notice but it does present a different challenge where I’m used to one guy being in there but now, they kind of switch it up. At the end of the day, if I just play with the techniques and the fundamentals I’m taught, we should be fine there. It definitely is a little bit of a switch up and a little bit of a different look than I’m used to.”
(How much are you guys emphasizing getting off to a fast start?) – “That’s always important. We stress that each week regardless of the opponent and regardless of the game, it’s always important to start fast and finish fast. If we can do that and keep that momentum and start fast and keep going, it’ll put us in hopefully a good enough position to carry it out, get on the right end of things this week.”
(I know it’s the coaches’ job to point out mistakes on tape but how much have the coordinators and Head Coach Brian Flores been in terms of trying to stay positive and upbeat so that the group doesn’t get down at 1-6?) – “Like I said, there’s still been good energy around the building. Everybody – not just players, coaches – everybody just still trying. It’s easy to start going off the rails and things like that but there’s still a lot in front of us and we are just trying to get better each week.”
(A lot of times when you go through a losing streak, you see the players will lead a meeting and get everybody together. Have you felt the need to or done that so far this year?) – “Well, I’m going to keep that between us whether we’ve done that or not or if that’s something we – I’ll just leave that between us. But again, like I kind of was saying earlier, we’ve got good leadership on this team and guys who want to win and guys who played a lot of ball in this league. We’re trying to just figure things out to do whatever it takes to get on the right side of things.”
