Josh Boyer – December 15, 2020
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Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(I wanted to ask you about LB Jerome Baker. What was your impression of what he was able to do on Sunday, especially filling in at times in the pass rush role?) – “I think (Jerome) Baker, he’s been a very multiple guy for us all year. We’ve asked him to do a lot of things. He’s able to handle that. He works very hard at it. He’s had some success at multiple different positions, so I’m glad we have him. Hard worker. He’s been productive for us and had some good plays for us on Sunday. Just collectively as a group, we just couldn’t make enough to get it done.”
(It seemed like there were two plays in particular, especially when S Bobby McCain went out the game to be evaluated in the first half, Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill had the running touchdown and then the second injury, Tyreek Hill had the 44-yard touchdown. Just what can you say about those instances where your centerfielder, your safety, is out of the game and they just kind of take advantage of that situation?) – “I would say and like we’ve talked about all year, Bobby (McCain) has been very productive for us. He’s done a good job communicating and he is a very good football player and he’s hard to replace; but we have things in place – we need to coach it better, we need to execute it better when he’s not there and we’ll work hard to do that.”
(I wanted to ask you about the run defense. Obviously in the opener, New England got it going a little bit; but since then, your numbers are pretty good on run defense, particularly yards per game allowed. What in your mind has improved in the time since then?) – “We work on a lot of things. We work on run defense, pass defense, pass rush. You’re constantly trying to improve things and the opener of the season, there’s a lot of unknowns that go into that. There’s a lot of evaluation and stuff that go into that. New England, they’re a completely different team than we saw in Week 1 and so are we. When I throw on the tape, it’s like watching a new team and we kind of approached it that way. Obviously we’re striving for improvement on a week-to-week basis with everything that we do, and I think some of that evolves over time and a lot of it is credit to our players putting in the work. It’ll be a big test for us this week. We’re going against a group that is extremely well-coached. They’ve got great scheme. They do a good job of disguising their runs, their passes and they do a terrific job of creating angles. And they’ve got good players. Their offensive line is physical, their receivers are physical and they’ve got good backs, so it’ll be a big challenge for us this week.”
(I was going to ask what impresses you most about DT Raekwon Davis down there in the middle?) – “I think the thing that impresses me the most is his work ethic and his effort. We’ve talked about this guy a lot this year. He really loves football and he’s doing everything he can to get better and a lot of that is his work ethic and his effort. I can’t say enough good things about that. He plays really hard and he works really hard and he’s constantly striving to improve.”
(Going back to the improvement of the defense, how would you rank the improvement over the course of the season and where do you see the greatest area of improvement?) – “In terms of looking at it from a holistic view, it’s not something that you kind of go, ‘oh man…’ We just kind of look at it as, ‘here are some things that we’ve done well, we need to build on those. Here are some things that we’re not doing so well, we need to improve.’ Ultimately, you’re striving to coach a perfect game; you’re striving to play a perfect game. I don’t think that’s ever happened, but what I will say is the consistency of being able to play well down-in and down-out is something that we’re striving to do and I don’t think – there’s not a lot of time that’s spent on, ‘hey, this has gotten so much better.’ There’s a standard of where it needs to be and that’s what we’re striving to do.”
(I wanted to give you the chance to talk about the four turnovers you guys forced last week and maybe explain how you were able to turn over a team that doesn’t turn the ball over and how that kind of portends for the last few weeks of the season that it seems like you’re fearless to go after any quarterback, even the MVP.) – “Again, Kansas City – very good offense, very well-coached. They make it hard on you. You can’t give them the same looks over and over again. The turnovers – it’s a credit to our players and the way that they play and obviously turnovers, turnovers on downs or getting them to punt – ultimately again, that’s what you’re trying to do as a defense. You just want to get the ball back to the offense as quickly as you can and hopefully you eliminate points as it goes and that would be the same this week. Like I said, we’ve got a very good opponent – a division opponent – and it’s a big game for us. There’s a lot of things that we’ll have to do defensively this week to try to create turnovers and try to get ourselves off the field, so it’s a big challenge for us. We’re looking forward to it and we’ve moved on to New England so that’s kind of where we’re at.”
