Darren Rizzi – December 6, 2018
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Thursday, December 6, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(Depending on the rankings, you guys are anywhere from first to fifth in special teams. The last couple of weeks, I think special teams have played a huge role. Do you take pride in those rankings? Do you believe that they’re justified? How do you think you guys have played this year?) – “As far as the rankings go, I’ve seen a bunch of different ones. I know there are some analytical ones and there’s some ones they use to stick and kind of group them together. I think that’s why there’s a bunch of different ones. Obviously, we’re striving to be at the top of that, any of that. I think you take some of it with a grain of salt and I put some more stock into others because of what I deem as more important. I think sometimes statistics might not tell the whole story. I’m very pleased so far through 12 games with the fact that we’ve made a lot of big plays that have affected a lot of games in a positive way. As a special teams coach, you’re always looking to change he game in some way, shape or form whether that’s change the field, flip the field position, make a big play, spark the team. You guys have seen enough football in your day that you know that when you watch a game, a special teams play can really change the momentum of the game, whether that’s a big return or a block or a punt that’s downed inside the 10 or whatever. That’s what we’re always looking to do. We’re looking to change a game. Sometimes, statistics don’t tell the whole story. Getting back to the rankings part of it, it’s great to get mentioned like that. To me, as long as we’re affecting the game in a positive way and we stay consistent, those are things that we really strive for. Through 12 games, we’ve been able to do that. We certainly haven’t been perfect. There’s certainly some things that I’m not pleased with. I think we can be a little bit more consistent. I don’t like the roller coaster ride as much as sometimes we’ve been on, but I think we’ve really made some positive plays. The other nice thing is when you look at our team overall, it hasn’t been one person. It hasn’t been one-sided. It’s been a lot of different people that have affected games in different ways, whether it has been the kicker, the punter, a returner, a core player. There’s been a bunch of different guys that have made plays, so I take a lot of pride in that.”
(What formula would you use to rank? You say statistics aren’t the end-all, be-all, but what criteria would you use prove?) – “There’s a lot of different ways to attack special teams. It really depends on what a team is trying to do. For example, there might be teams that are not kicking the ball into the end zone and are running down and covering more kicks than others. There might be some teams that are pulling the ball out of the end zone more than others and their kickoff return yards are going to be different. There’s different ways to go about the punt game. For example, some teams are driving the ball far and maybe their gross number is really high. Some people are striving more for a net type of deal. There’s a bunch of different ways to attack it from a schematic standpoint. A lot of that plays into it. Sometimes, statistically you may see a really big number for some team and a smaller number for another team, but that smaller number may be more effective for the way they play the game and the way they game plan. It doesn’t always tell the whole story. It tells some of the story, it just doesn’t always tell the whole story. Again, I think the good thing is if you look at our special teams throughout the year so far and we’re always striving to continue that, is we’ve made plays in all the different phases. It hasn’t been lopsided and ‘I don’t like being a great return team but our coverage has been lousy.’ We’ve had some balance there. This is one of the years, when you look at us right now through 12 games, we’ve had a lot of balance in the special teams throughout all of the different phases and that’s been a positive to this point.”
(When you went to Albuquerque in March, did you know going into that meeting that K Jason Sanders is the guy I most like among college kickers or was he merely part of a group and you had no idea if you would like him or not?) – “I knew I liked what I saw prior to the visit. You really saw a lot of explosion in his leg and different things. I was really anxious and I was really looking forward to that visit. At that point when I went there, I didn’t have a final ranking. I did know I liked what I saw. When I came out of the workout, I was even more pleased. Then I spent more time with him. It was kind of every step of the way along the journey with Jason. I kind of liked more and more and more. We brought him out here for a visit. I got a chance to spend some time with him and kind of dissect his brain a little bit and kind of his approach. I got to know the person a little bit better. When I went out there, I wasn’t really set on anything yet. Once we kind of finished the process, I think we definitely had him higher on the list than most people did.”
(Does the calm demeanor at all mean anything to you in terms of how a kicker comports himself off the field? Does that to you suggest this guy is likely going to be calm in game situations?) – “Yeah. You definitely look at a personality. I think I’ve mentioned this before with Jason. First of all, he’s a very level-headed guy. He’s never too high, never too low. I think that’s a really good mindset for a specialist. You’ve heard me liken it to a golfer before or a batter in the batter’s box and there’s some other analogies. I think it’s really good to have a calm demeanor. You’re never going to be perfect. There’s no kicker that’s ever been perfect. You’re going to have your plays where you have to be able to respond, so I think that personality is big. I do think in my spending time with him throughout the draft process, I got to know him a lot as a person. To me, coupled with his ability, that’s why we thought we’d take the risk on him. I really thought it was a pretty good situation at that point and I felt very strongly about him as a person going into it.”
(Can you explain to me all of the roles that S Walt Aikens plays and what he means to your special teams unit?) – “I’ll start with what he means. Walt’s leadership has really been – really the last two years – has picked up tremendously in terms of him being a more vocal guy. I think when Walt first got here, you certainly saw him make some plays and you certainly saw his athletic ability flash. You saw all of that. I think where Walt has taken a major step forward in the last two years is in a leadership role and starting to be kind of a role model, if you will, for the special teams room. He means an awful lot. His energy; his emotion. You see him on the field. He’s definitely a guy that’s a catalyst, if you will, on the sideline. He’s very much into the game. He’s an emotional guy. Energy, effort, all of that. That’s really what he means to the room. That’s really, really important. In terms of the different roles that he plays, Walt has done a little bit of everything for us. Certainly he’s a gunner on punt. We move him around in the punt block/return game. He can be a blocker, he can be a rusher, he can be a bunch of different things. On our kickoff team, he’s also done a bunch of different things. He’s been everything from what we call a Speed 5 to a contain player to a safety. Throughout his years here, he’s played multiple roles. It’s the same thing in the kick return game. We’re able to move him around. Sometimes it might be a matchup, a game plan. He’s very versatile. He’s certainly not a one-trick pony. He’s a guy that we can move around and do a lot of different things with, so he brings that to the table. Special teams are a little bit like a chess match in terms of you’re moving pieces around and kind of trying to predict the opponent’s next (move). It’s no different than offense and defense but special teams is a little bit more of a matchup game than offense (and) defense. You see a lot of times if you create some mismatches on special teams, you end up with either a successful or unsuccessful play, depending on which side of it you’re on. Walt gives us the ability to move him around and create some of those matchups, maybe some mismatches for us. He presents a matchup problem for the opponent.”
(So S Walt Aikens is like a Michael Jordan of your special teams unit?) – “I’m not comparing anybody to Michael Jordan. (laughter) I’m not doing it. Do you know the heat that I’m going to take if I sit here and compare Walt Aikens to Michael Jordan? (laughter) No, I’ve got a lot of respect for Michael Jordan. What he does for us is again, he’s able to play a lot of different roles for us so whatever name you want to throw out there. I’m happy as heck when we signed him in the offseason. I love having him here. I love what he does every day at practice. He’s an energizer guy. He’s a guy that gets everybody going. He gets me going some mornings, to be honest with you. He gets me fired up to get in there and get in front of everybody and get the game plan out and get everybody going in the meeting. I can’t say enough positive things about him. It’s great to have him.”
(Was it this last game that DE Charles Harris almost had a punt block?) – “It was.”
(How close was it? You seem to have a little anxiety about it.) – “Yeah, we should have blocked a punt. Forget about the scheme and all of that. Charles (Harris) ended up past the ball. I can get real technical on it but when you’re blocking a punt, you really don’t want to leave your feet. From a technique standpoint, Charles got a little giddy. I don’t know what the word is but he jumped and that caused him to kind of miss the ball. We timed it up well. It was a protection breakdown by the opponent and Charles got there. He actually … The ball went almost behind him. His arms were out and it looked like it went through them for crying out loud. I got upset because those are game-changing plays. It’s what I talked about earlier. Those are game-changing plays. I’ve been doing this long enough that if you make a game-changer like that, it completely changes the football game. If we can imagine that ball getting blocked and going the other way, whether we score or not, the field position flips. It’s going to be about 40 or 50 yards if we don’t score. That, again, creates a snowball effect and changes the entire game. That was a missed opportunity. A lot of people were all happy that we tipped the ball and I’m pissed off because we should have blocked it and went the other way with it. In my estimation, that was a missed opportunity; but so be it. That’s what I mean about we’ve made a lot of positive plays, but I feel like in some games, there have been some opportunities that we’ve left on the table. That’s just one of them. That’s really what happened on that one. We did get a piece and we did force a bad punt, but it could have been so much better. Those are the little things we just have to get better at. We’ve got a few of those.”
(You’ve been here for a number of years and you know what it’s like when you go to Gillette Stadium and how difficult it is to play the Patriots up there. You know that the Patriots in just about every NFL stadium have a pretty good record and yet down here, of late, that’s not the case. What is it you see out of your guys as they’re getting ready to play the Patriots, especially coming down in December? Is there a change? What’s going on that the Dolphins always seem to play their best game or one of their best games when they play New England down here?) – “I think the natural rivalry certainly has something to do with it. This is a division opponent that’s won the division for X amount of years, however many they’ve won it. You guys know all of the stats. It’s certainly a challenge for us every time, whether it’s there or here. I think you’re always trying to protect your home and I think if you look throughout our division … I think if you look at all of our division opponents, I think all of them are pretty darn good at their home. We’ve done a pretty good job, especially since (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has been here, of protecting our home turf. Our win percentage is pretty good at home against everybody, not just the Patriots. Certainly I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you that there’s not a little extra incentive that … Usually when they come to town, they’re in first place. That’s the way the division has gone. Let’s just call it the truth. We certainly know how important the division games are. So not only the Patriots, but the Bills and the Jets included. Any time a division opponent is coming in, you treat those division wins like they’re a couple of wins because usually those divisional wins are very, very important. So I think that certainly has something to do with it. I think our guys get a little more locked in on the divisional opponents – not just the Patriots. All division opponents, those are natural rivals because you play those teams twice. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. I know people talk about the weather and all of that good stuff but I’ve been here long enough to tell you that we’ve also lost to some northern teams here where the weather maybe didn’t affect it. It’s never one thing. There’s always a couple of factors involved. But to sit here and tell you our guys don’t get a little more amped up for the division opponents at home, I’d be fibbing. I think there’s a little bit more extra incentive there and whatever is, we’ve done fairly well against those guys the last few times here. I think our guys are locked in and usually, like I said, when they come to town they’re usually leading the division. You’re playing a first-place team and there’s a little more added incentive there.”
