Darren Rizzi – December 20, 2018
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Thursday, December 20, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(Did you see Giants DB Michael Thomas is a Pro Bowl alternate?) – “I heard through the grapevine. I didn’t see it officially but I kind of heard. A lot of times those Pro Bowl things, especially with the specialists, it’s almost like it’s a year behind. If you guys remember when (former Dolphins punter) Brandon Fields made the Pro Bowl here, he actually had a better year the prior year from a numbers standpoint. A lot of that stuff obviously comes down to numbers. The year than Brandon Fields made the Pro Bowl here, the year before I thought he got robbed. A lot of it was I thought it was going to come down to him and another guy, and then a third guy made it that you would never expect. A lot of it, especially with the special teams guys – other than the core players, I’m talking about the kicker, punter, returners – a lot of it is just pure numbers. A lot of it, you’re sometimes a year behind. That’s other positions too. Sometimes, you get a lot of noise and you hear about the guy’s Pro Bowl snub and then be in some people’s mind for the next year. I think it works out like that.”
(Do you think K Jason Sanders maybe is joining that level of consciousness with the year he’s had? Rookie kickers are really hard to make the Pro Bowl.) – “I certainly think he’s in the conversation. Again, you look at his numbers and that certainly would put him in the conversation. He maybe didn’t get as many attempts (with) just the way things worked out this year. There’s going to be years where a kicker may have 40 attempts, he may have 20, somewhere in the middle. It’s just the way things worked out this year. Up to the Pro Bowl voting, he didn’t have a ton of attempts; but certainly with what he’s done and put on paper and put on film, he certainly joins the conversation in my opinion, for sure.”
(On the long punt return, it looked like CB Cornell Armstrong got down there fast, got blocked and then RB Brandon Bolden was aware of the left sideline and was pointing left, and then TE Durham Smythe kind of cut inside, leaving the sideline exposed. Is that Durham’s lane? Should he be protecting the sideline there? If not, explain to me what could have worked out.) – “I’m a big hater of the word ‘lane.’ We don’t talk about lanes.”
(How does the sideline work? Whose job is the sideline?) – “Obviously, we lost contain on the play. You’re 100 percent correct that we lost contain on the play. Durham (Smythe) was obviously the widest guy there and he started to fold in early. He thought he had enough room and obviously, he didn’t. We had three players coming from the inside-out and lost contain on the play, and that’s why the ball should never get down the sideline there. You’re correct in saying that we lost leverage on the ball, 100 percent. A lot of kickoff cover and punt cover, a lot of it has to do with leverage – where you started, where you finish, keeping the ball inside of you, a lot of those things. (Vikings CB Marcus) Sherels is a great punt returner and had a really big day against us. I’m not surprised because he’s a very good player. We lost leverage on that side. Durham wasn’t alone. All we needed to do in that situation was force the ball back inside. We had free players, unblocked players coming from inside-out, so essentially that’s what happened.”
(Just a guess, what percentage of long returns are sideline?) – “It’s probably about 50-50. It depends. A lot of teams work on the sideline. Actually, that particular scheme wasn’t designed to go down the sideline. That particular scheme, they were actually trying to work the middle of the field. We spilled the ball to the sideline and then didn’t have contain on that play. We’ve done a pretty good job in the past here keeping leverage on it, sending it back to the free players and on that particular play, we just didn’t do it.”
(WR Leonte Carroo once was not dressed for a playoff game. He said it was because he needed to improve on special teams. That play that he made to prevent the touchdown, is that probably the best special teams play he’s made since he’s been here?) – “He made a bunch of plays in the Green Bay game, too. I don’t want to openly just say ‘Yes, that’s the best play he’s made.’ The thing about Carroo, since he’s come back and been activated, I’ve seen kind of a refocus. I’m really proud of Leonte Carroo. The reason is because I think he got humbled a little bit. When you get released and you don’t make the 53 and you get put on the practice squad, there’s a couple different ways you can go with that. I’ve seen it both ways. I’ve seen guys come back and kind of sulk and the ‘woe is me’ attitude and don’t really get back to where they should be. Leonte Carroo took the exact opposite approach. Carroo took the ‘I’m going to prove to these guys and to myself and everybody else that I deserve to be on the 53.’ He kind of refocused and he kind of re-centered. Ever since that day … He did a great job of working on the practice squad. He took that group very seriously and he worked his way back up. Him and I had a conversation. I said ‘Listen, at some point you’re going to get your opportunity again. That’s just the way things work out. When you get this opportunity, obviously you need to cash in.’ In my opinion, he’s done a really good job. I think since he’s been back, he’s made a number of plays. That particular play was an outstanding play. It was a great effort play, a great job by him and Senorise Perry because Senorise really makes the ball cut back. I would love to see Senorise get the guy on the ground in that situation, but at least we made the ball cut back. Matt Haack did a good job of not letting it beat him down the sideline. He came in a little bit out of control. We made the ball cut back. These are plays that we watch every week. We watch the big-play tape every week and we point out when the ball breaks out into the open field, how we want to attack it. Believe it or not, there’s a certain way. You see a lot of returners get to the sideline and stay down the sideline where they get everybody pinned, including the punter or the kicker. In that situation, we want to make the ball cut back and give those chase players a chance. Matt at least did that. Senorise, a hell of an effort from the back side and then Carroo did what we call a ‘sweep the ankle.’ We actually did a drill in the preseason in training camp. Just a great hustle play. Let’s be honest, he saved four points.”
(Did P Matt Haack kick it too far or is that distance fine?) – “I don’t believe in kicking the ball too far. I think the outkick the coverage thing is a lot of coach speak nonsense to be honest with you. If Matt kicks the ball 61 yards with a 4.9 (second) hang time, we should go cover the kick, bottom line. That’s what he did. He kicked the ball I think 60 yards and I think the ball was in the air for 4.9 seconds. We have to cover that kick. Even if they get 20 yards on the return, we still have a 41-yard net and you’re still where you want to be. That whole outkick the coverage thing, as you can tell, I’m not a big proponent of that. I think that’s a lot of nonsense. Now, Matt had a lousy punt (in the game). The first one, that really wasn’t the direction we wanted it to go, and he had a little bit of a shorter one later in the game; but that particular kick I thought was outstanding. I thought he crushed the ball. I thought he gave us a chance to flip the field in that situation, which was what we wanted to do. Special teams is a very unique animal because you can play 35 plays in a game and you can have 34 really good plays, and you can have one really bad play. That’s special teams. There’s not a big margin for error and there’s no second down. You get one shot. You go out there and you get one chance. It’s not like offense or defense where if you give up a little bit on first or second down, you’ve got a chance to make it up on third or something like that. Special teams is one play, success or not success. That’s really the world we live in and that’s why we have to be really locked in. I just felt, like you said earlier, we lost leverage on that play, which is uncharacteristic of us. I sat here and talked last week about fundamentals and techniques and things like that. End of the year, you see some big plays. That was a great example. Unfortunately, it happened against us. We’re looking to improve this week on it and work on that, hopefully get that corrected.”
