Elandon Roberts – November 5, 2020
Thursday, November 5, 2020
LB Elandon Roberts
(You were on some great New England defenses. Is this one reminding you at all in terms of how many things you all can do, the talent you have in the back end and emerging front seven?) – “Our defense has a lot of talent. It’s not a secret and stuff like that; but every week, one thing about our defense is we play for each other and we play excited out there and have fun, and play with a lot of speed. So that’s been a great thing about this defense. We do have a lot to work on and stuff like that, so we try to get better there each week. It’s another week, another opportunity to get better at it. As a defense, we’re just still trying to put it together.”
(I wanted to ask you – you talk about the issues and things that you guys need to correct. What is the next level for this defense? I get the sense that you guys feel like you have not played up to your capabilities yet, even though you had a shutout earlier in the season, which that’s kind of as good as it gets. What’s next for this defense?) – “I think that’s on us because the mistakes that we do have, it’s a lot of us. It’s not a lot of ‘them.’ If we can just keep on eliminating the mistakes by itself and start the stuff that we do do (well) and start being able to build on that, that’ll be great. The character on the defense is high expectation. Nobody is getting a feeling of what (you) tweet and stuff like that. (laughter) We just stay trying to get better and stuff like that. I’m not saying you’re Tweeting bad stuff. I’m on your side. I’m saying the good stuff you’re Tweeting. You feel me? (laughter)”
(Even if I wanted to tweet bad stuff about the Dolphins defense right now, it’s kind of all coming up roses; but in all seriousness, one of the phrases we use a lot is “identity.” We’re trying to figure out what’s the identity of the offensive line? What’s the identity of the defense? I thought it was really interesting the Cardinals Coach Kliff Kingsbury – he said he thinks that the Dolphins defense has taken on the identity of Head Coach Brian Flores. So I’ll pick up on the identity theme, what do you think almost halfway through the season is the identity of this defense?) – “Believe it or not, me just as a person like at the end of the week after games, I always kind of try to figure out like as one of the leaders on defense, I always try to think about the identity. Like what is our identity? It’s crazy because we’re playing good defense, but we’re playing good and still trying to get that identity, if you understand what I’m saying. So that’s what I’m saying – we have so much growth on the defense to still go before we even create or understand our identity, and that comes between playing good football on first, second and third down each week; and you’ll figure out your identity.”
(I wanted to ask you about a couple of the splash plays you’ve made lately, kind of blowing up plays in the backfield. I’m curious, what’s the key to really anticipating that and playing so fast and also what kind of challenges does a quarterback like Cardinals QB Kyler Murray present with you making those types of plays?) – “I just think (Defensive Coordinator) Josh Boyer and our linebacker coach – he does a great job, (Linebackers Coach Anthony) Campanile – does a great job of getting us prepared throughout the week and just film study, certain things like that and just as a defense, playing together and know when it’s time for you to make the play that you guys have been practicing all week or that you’ve seen in practice. Defense is about anticipation. If you watch enough film, you start anticipating certain things and stuff like that. As a defense, we’re just growing in that category and as for the Cardinals, they’ve got an elite offense. The quarterback – man, he does a great job with that offense and stuff like that. It’s going to be a big challenge this week. They’re a complete offense and it doesn’t get any better than that; so as a defense we’re just going to take this game one play at a time, not get ahead, not get ahead of the downs – play a 60-minute game because that’s what it’s going to be.”
(I wanted to ask you a little bit more about Cardinals QB Kyler Murray and stopping the run on Sunday. Kyler Murray is leading all the players in the NFL in yards per carry and I think the Dolphins are also top four in yards allowed per carry, so how do you guys have to work to get that area improved in the defense to be more well-rounded?) – “Just like I said – it’s a week-to-week thing. And this week, we have to take it one play at a time because of him, because of his capability of running, because of his capability of throwing the ball. It’s going to be a complete offensive game. They’ve got great receivers. They’ve got a good back in the running back and the quarterback, plus the quarterback can throw it. So it’s just that aspect of it and it’s not going to be on the d-line, it’s not going to be on the linebackers, it’s not going to be on the back end; it’s going to be on all of us as a complete defense because to stop this type of player, this type of offense, you’re just going to have to do your job as a complete defense play-in and play-out.”
(I wanted to ask you this question about scrambling quarterbacks and the shadowing ability linebackers like you – I’m not saying that you’re going to do it because I don’t know what you’re going to do – but what is the challenge and what is the downside when you have to shadow a scrambling quarterback? Like what does it take away?) – “It just kind of depends on the defensive call. You can shadow in man, you can shadow in zone, you can shadow in all different types of things; so it’s kind of the aspect of how you play in that role and whatnot. There’s just certain levels to that.”
(I want to have a little bit of fun going back to the defensive identity theme a minute ago. Some of the great defenses throughout history have always had nicknames. How do you feel about this defense getting a nickname or do you have one that you use amongst yourselves? Is it too early to give you a nickname? What do you think?) – “(laughter) We haven’t really been on that. I know the media, I know the fans love the nicknames; but at the same time, we’ve got a job to do each week. If we’re trying to be in here creating nicknames, (you guys) will be on my head. (You’ll) be like, ‘oh, E. Rob was talking about them nicknames in the meeting and look at the defense that week.’ (laughter) So week-to-week, we just take care of what we need to take care of and that’s playing for each other, play-in and play-out.”
(Not to go off of nicknames, but we were hearing S Eric Rowe talk last week and he said y’all were hearing about the Rams D this, Rams D that all week leading up to the last game. It’s another team with the Cardinals where people talk about Cardinals QB Kyler Murray and the offense. Do you guys view these as respect games – ways to kind of get people know that y’all have a good defense and it’s different than last year?) – “To be honest, through your play, it’ll come. So if people want to view it as respect games – everybody’s going to view it off what they want to view it off. We view it off of playing good defense play-in and play-out, and all that will come. For the last couple weeks, that’s what we’ve been doing and obviously it came; but at the same time, we’ve got to continue to do it because that’s how you build as a defense.”
