Darren Rizzi – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(I know it’s obviously week to week on personnel decisions, but did RB Senorise Perry do enough to where you think he’s your kickoff returner, at this point, moving forward?) – “Well what we’ve done is actually we’ve had a couple of guys back there together every week. It started off, before (Kenyan) Drake’s offensive role became bigger, he was back there with Drake. This past week, obviously Senorise was back there, really the last couple of weeks. Senorise is a guy that I’ve always had a high opinion of and I thought he did a really good job last week with his opportunities there. Jakeem (Grant) will continue to be back there as well, but it’ll really be a double-headed monster, if you will, and that’s kind of how we’ve been rolling. There’s been two guys back.”
(This is an unusual week where it’s supposed to be the bye and now you have a game. How do you feel like the coaching staff and the team overall has handled it from the beginning up until this week?) – “It’s been a whirlwind of a season for sure, but I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has done a great job. We’re playing 16 games in a row and I think Adam’s done a great job understanding that, number one, with the schedule, with the players’ bodies, the rest, the recovery. For example, you can go back to our Thursday week, the time he gave them off afterwards, the extra time. I think he’s really been aware and cognizant of the players and that they have to play 16 games in a row. This week, obviously, coming off of a Monday game into a Sunday game and (we’re) treating this short week a little bit differently than we normally would. That’s been the biggest thing, knowing that the players have to go 16 in a row and what it does to them physically, just being aware and alert. There’s been not as much time off as they’d normally get. It’s definitely been an interesting situation, but it is what it is. (That was) the hand we were dealt, and we just deal with it.”
(How have you guys done with flipping field position so far this season?) – “That’s a multi-level question. There’s a lot of levels to it. You’ve got to look at the coverage aspect first, and I think in that aspect we’ve done very well, so far. That’s been one of our strengths in terms of guys covering on kicks, covering punts, effort, all of that stuff. I think that’s been really good. We’ve gotten our hands on a couple of punts and we’ve gotten our hands on a couple of field goals, which obviously changes field position. From the coverage game, the block game, I think that part has been our strength so far on special teams. I would like to have made more plays, certainly, in the return so far. I thought we may have taken a step forward last week in the kick return. Obviously, we didn’t have a lot of punt return opportunities last week; but it just comes down to a game-by-game thing, how many opportunities you’re going to get. It didn’t unfold that way last week. I think it’s been both. I think there’s been some things we’ve done really, really well, some things we want to improve on after looking back at nine games. I think the return part of it, we do want to set the table more for the offense when we can; but we have done a good job, like I said, of flipping the field in coverage.”
(RB Damien Williams seems to make plays every time he gets the ball in his hand on offense. Have you thought at all about putting him back there?) – “Yes, Damien’s a guy that any role we’ve ever given him since I’ve been here, he’s done well with. Whether it’s a little bit of offense, a lot of special teams or a lot of offense and a little bit of special teams, he seems to do very well with his role. He’s a great competitor. He’s one of the best competitors I’ve been around here in my time here, so you’re always looking to get him involved in anything and everything. That’s why he’s a guy that’s worn a lot of hats. He has been our kick returner in the past if you go back a couple of years. He’s part of the rotation back there and we work him in and it kind of depends. Last week, in the game, there was a point where we almost had him and (Kenyan) Drake back there depending on how the thing was going and how the rotation was going. Senorise (Perry) got dinged up for a minute, so (Damien’s) definitely part of the equation back there.”
(RB Damien Williams is a guy that’s been around forever. People forget that he was an undrafted guy. How did it come about, him ending up here, if you remember?) – “I don’t remember the specifics. All I remember is I know he had a situation at Oklahoma and then he went undrafted and all of that. I just remember from the first time, him coming out here the first couple of weeks, he flashed immediately as a guy that I thought, athletically could do a lot of different things. His toughness, he showed in that first preseason when he got here that he wasn’t afraid to block, tackle, cover and do all of those things. When you get a running back like that – an offensive player and specifically a running back – that can do those things and wear a lot of different hats, it certainly helps the special teams role, for sure.”
(You talked about the return game taking a step forward. What was it that you saw, tangibly, that made the difference or had you thinking positively?) – “I’ve mentioned this before, I think there’s been times where we’ve blocked well and maybe the returner wasn’t doing what he should do. There were times where the returner was on point and we missed the block. It just hasn’t meshed together, and I know that’s been a theme, maybe of our team, is the complementary football. I thought last week we were really on top of the game plan. They tried to kick it high and short to us a few times. I thought we did a great job of getting a hat on a hat, giving the returner a chance, and I thought Senorise (Perry) did a great job of getting downhill. He didn’t dance; he didn’t go sideways. He was really downhill, was very decisive, broke a tackle or two and the next thing you know, we’re out on the 28-yard line, not back on the 8. We know what a big difference it is when the offense goes out there and taking the field and you’re over the 25 as opposed to being back inside your 15. Whether it’s been a penalty or a missed block or a guy falling down, we’ve had a little bit of everything. It hasn’t been one thing where you’re like, ‘Wow, we’ve got to get better at that, it’s just one thing.’ We haven’t meshed it together. So I thought last week, our guys were really on point. I think we paid attention to the details, we were better technique-wise and Senorise did a good job. They really kicked away from Jakeem (Grant) last week. They kicked to Senorise every time. Maybe they were testing him; he hadn’t had a lot of reps. Whatever their game plan was, he answered the bell there, which I thought was positive.”
(Teams weren’t doing it earlier in the season and then they started to kick to WR Jakeem Grant. What can you do – obviously Jakeem is supposed to be the special teams specialist – what can you do to ensure that he gets the kickoff? Is there a fear of him running cross-field to field a kick to return it, as opposed to just letting RB Senorise Perry handle it?) – “Last week’s a great example. (Panthers kicker) Graham Gano’s a guy that we thought, going into the game, based on what he had done in the past, we really thought Jakeem was going to get more touches and they changed their entire game plan. (Gano’s) a guy that had kicked 39 out of 42 touchbacks – 39 touchbacks out of 42 attempts on the year – so we thought he was going to kick it out of the end zone, and the next thing you know, they bang four or five balls short. We’ve got to be ready for all of the situations. We go into the game maybe sometimes thinking Jakeem’s going to get touches or the other guy is going to get touches, and the other team, obviously, it’s a little bit of a chess match there, with them kicking it high and short to the corner. There was one that they almost kicked out of bounds. I can’t guarantee it, which is why, with the new rule and a lot of teams kicking it high and short, our number one job is keep the ball of the ground and make sure we field the football. That’s why we talked before about having two guys back there. Sometimes it is a deep guy and a short guy, sometimes it’s two deep guys. It depends on the team we’re playing, weather conditions and all of that. I’d love to sit here and tell you that I can guarantee Jakeem (will get the ball). I would love to say that Jakeem is going to get the ball three or four times in this game, but it’s not always (that easy), depending on what the other teams doing – their kicker and how they’re going to play it. It’s a little bit of a cat and mouse (game), for sure. There are some teams you look at in the NFL right now are kicking it high and short a lot of times, and there are other teams that aren’t. We’ve done a little bit of both. We’ve been about 50/50. We’re probably more down the middle there. There’s just no guarantees we can get (Jakeem) the ball, so we’ve got to take the opportunities and we’ve got to cash in when we do get them. There’s been a couple of times this year where we did get them and we had great looks and just didn’t cash in.”
(You’ve lost three in a row now by cumulatively not a small margin. Where do you put this team’s mindset right now?) – “You’ve got to go right back to what we’ve been doing all year. You’ve got to go right back to one game at a time. It’s easy to get lost in the past. It’s easy to get lost in the results of the last three weeks and it’s sometimes hard to keep perspective when those things happen. I think the one game mentality – the 1-0 – take care of this week (is the best approach). You look at where we are right now, where we sit in the AFC, you look at the big picture and we’re right in the middle of it. It’s a mindset. It’s a mentality you’re going to come to work with every day. Are you going to get lost in the fact that we came off of a tough loss this week or are you going to get back on the mindset of, ‘Hey, let’s take care of this game, let’s win at home, let’s get a W here and then we’re right back into the thick of things?’ That’s really how the AFC is playing out, and really the NFL is playing out that everybody (is close). There’s a lot of teams in the same position that we’re in, right in the middle of the pack. These next seven weeks are really going to determine a lot of different things. We’ve just got to take care of our in-house things, not worry about the outside things, and really just focus on one game. I know (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has been preaching that from day one. It’s really the mindset, keeping the players’ perspective in that. What’s your approach going to be? Are you going to wallow in misery over the last three weeks and all of that or are you going to say, ‘Hey we’re going to get this one and we’re going to be right back in it and we’re going to have a positive approach.’ That’s our thing, our job as coaches, as well, is we’ve got to keep these guys positive and it’s been a really positive day today. I think we’re going to move forward and, again, keep that one game (at a time) approach.”
