Darren Rizzi – November 22, 2017
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Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(How can you guys help out the offense this week or help out scoring?) – “Special teams-wise?”
(Special teams-wise, yes. Field position, what’s the best way for you?) – “That’s always our goal, whether we’re covering and preventing the opponent from getting good field position … That’s where it starts, really, with coverage. I think everybody would maybe think the other way. I think that coverage-wise, the best way to prevent your opponent from getting field position, that’s the best way to swing the field position battle. Obviously, in the return game, you could always swing the battle by popping a big play and it starts with not getting penalties. That’s really been our (Achilles heel) the last couple of games. We were really good in the beginning of the season with preventing penalties in the return game and then last week we had, obviously, a really poor week. I can promise you it’s not an emphasis thing. Between (Head Coach) Adam (Gase), myself and the rest of the coaches, it’s been an emphasis thing. I thought we had a couple of really good returns last week. Jakeem (Grant) had like a 20-something yard punt return that gets called back for a holding. We had the Jarvis (Landry) punt return when they were punting out of the end zone. Both of those plays hurt us with the penalties. It’s certainly not a lack of effort. Those guys are trying their tails off; but we’ve got to make better high-speed decisions and that’s really what we’ve been emphasizing. Like I said, it’s certainly not a lack of emphasis between myself, Adam, (Defensive Coordinator) Matt Burke, the coordinators, (Offensive Coordinator) Clyde (Christensen). It’s something we’ve been really, really harping on. Obviously, special teams is about setting the table, either setting the table for the defense or setting the table for the offense, one way or the other. You’re preventing or creating big plays and in any game, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, that’s going to be important. ”
(Looking back, I think there’s like six cases, just to be extreme, where this team played a game and had zero penalties, so obviously it can be done. How do you, as coaches, coach a team to get fewer penalties?) – “When you look at the penalties, you kind of break them down into categories. I know (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has talked a lot about pre-snap penalties. Those are things that have nothing to do with the opponent. That’s us. That’s the Miami Dolphins. What can we do to take care of the pre-snap stuff? That, to me, is more of a mental thing, a discipline thing and an accountability thing. There’s going to be some penalties sometimes when the ball is snapped that – I don’t want to say they’re unpreventable, but they’re understandable, if you will – during the play. Then there’s post-snap penalties, which, again, go back to more of a discipline thing and being smart and just playing good football. We kind of break it down into those categories. Where we need to dramatically improve, I think everybody – being Captain Obvious again this week – is in the pre-snap stuff and the pre-snap penalties. We can be better in all phases in that category. Certainly post-snap penalties are something you, obviously, control yourself as well. The penalties that occur during the play, I’m not going to say they’re completely unpreventable; but sometimes in an effort to make a better play – if you’re grabbing – some of that stuff is going to happen. We understand that. I think, for us, square one is getting rid of the pre and post-snap penalties. Anything that we can prevent ourselves, that’s where we’ve got to start. That’s a great starting point. If we get that done, we’re going to be on our way to … There’s going to be some in-snap penalties that we’re going to have weekly. From a special teams standpoint, like I said before, it’s more of a high-speed decision thing. We have tremendous effort. I haven’t found a guy yet that hasn’t been giving great effort and that’s a positive that we’ve got to keep doing and grow from; but we’ve got to make better high-speed decisions. Blocking a guy in the back at the point of attack in front of the returner is not a very good decision. Grabbing a guy and bringing a guy to the ground is not a very good decision. In this league, if you spin guys and bring guys to the ground, you’re going to get holding calls, period. So that’s what we’ve got to continue to emphasize. So going back to your original question, when you look at those three categories, I think the first and the last – the pre and post-snap – we’ve got to eliminate those period. Then we’ve got to really try to minimize those in-snap penalties.”
(From a game management perspective, the safety that wasn’t a safety that was really a safety, that lost a challenge. How much did that affect you late game trying to manage getting back into that football game?) – “Once they determined it wasn’t a safety and they were punting from the 1, you just move onto the next play.”
(Timeouts-wise though, you lost a timeout.) – “We did, we did. We just felt like, as far as the challenge itself goes – I’m not going to get into what they ruled, you can talk to (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) about that and what the league decided and all of that, I’ll defer to Adam on that one – but as far as the in-game decision making process, we thought we had enough video evidence. We thought it was at least close enough. It was a scoring play. It changes the game, it’s going to change … The risk-reward of that challenge is … You’re going to challenge that play because it’s close enough where it’s going to swing the game. You’re obviously going to get 2 points, you’re going to get the ball back, a safety and all of that. The actual process of challenging it, I don’t have any second guesses on that at all. Losing a timeout, obviously, it hurts you in the end; but the risk-reward, like I said, is a process where you feel like the reward, if you get the challenge and you win the challenge, is going to certainly swing the game. If it’s going to swing the momentum that much, then it’s worth it.”
(As you look back at seven years standing on the sideline in Foxborough, obviously it’s deflating for any team when the opponent goes down the field and scores on the first drive on the game; but do you sense anything different from your sideline’s standpoint against them? Has it been more so deflating when Patriots QB Tom Brady drives down, puts you all in an early hole? I don’t know how much you recall standing on the sideline there the last seven years, during those games.) – “Yes, it’s been nine. (laugher)”
(Nine, you’re right. Forgive me.) – “That’s okay. Really, regardless of the opponent, you always want to get off to a good start. I think back to the games that we’ve had in Foxborough, we’ve had a couple of really good starts up there. Talking about the times I’ve been here, we’ve had a couple of times where we’ve gotten the lead up there, as well. I think that’s going to be our emphasis this week is getting off (to a good start). It seems like we’ve been talking about it all season, and unfortunately, we haven’t played the football that we want to play in the first half; but regardless if it’s at Foxborough, in Hard Rock Stadium or against anybody, we’ve got to start better as a football team. That’s something that, regardless if it’s Tom Brady and the Patriots or if it’s any other team, we feel like we’ve got to get out of the gate stronger.”
(Are you ever aware of the point spread – you or the players – and if so is there ever a time when you take that personally?) – “No. Points, the last time I checked, the Russians were supposed to beat the Americans and the USA hockey team.”
(That’s the last time you checked?) – “(laughter) I watched Miracle over the summer. so I know they were a heavy favorite. Are you trying to say I’m an Italian guy from New Jersey so I should know what the point spreads are? (laughter). No. Honest to God, I can’t remember the last time I checked one. I have no idea.”
(And you would never take it personally if it was a big point spread?) – “No, only because I’ve seen it way too many times in my lifetime, in any sport, where there’s been a heavy favorite or a heavy underdog, it’s been different results.”
(Coaches don’t use that as a motivation thing, ‘Look at how they’re downgrading us?’) – “No. I’ve never heard of anybody getting into that before. Actually, might be the Georgetown, Villanova (game) might have been the last time I checked. (laughter)”
(Great game.) – “That was a great one.”
