Josh Boyer – October 27, 2020
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(LB Jerome Baker has mentioned that QB Tua Tagovailoa has asked defensive players questions about coverages and different sorts of things over the last few months. Has he done that with you at all? Has he either called you aside to talk about defensive looks or has he gone into any of your meetings with your defensive players?) – “I think it’s with like all young players – not exclusive to Tua (Tagovailoa) – there’s a lot of guys on the other side of the ball that are always asking you, ‘hey, what are you guys trying to do on this?’ or ‘what are your opinions or thoughts on this?’ And I think that’s a good healthy thing, and hopefully our defensive players do the same to (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) and the offensive coaching staff, asking them ways that they’re going to get attacked. So yeah, those conversations happen from time to time.”
(There was a sequence in the Rams game last night where they were going tempo and then they slowed it down all the way I think inside the 10-yard line and then five seconds left on the play clock, they ran to the line, ran the play, scored a touchdown. How cognizant are you of that kind of tempo and timing for the Rams offense, that they could play with against you guys next week?) – “I would say Coach McVay (Rams Head Coach Sean McVay) does a tremendous job using tempo, and they use it in numerous different ways. It doesn’t always show up; you don’t know exactly when it’s coming. You have to be ready for it on every snap. They’ve got a good skill group. They’ve got a good offensive line and they mesh well together as a group and a unit, and they’re really, really good at changing it up on you and not just with the tempo of the pace that they’re doing. It’s the same thing – they change the cadence, so they get a lot of guys on hard counts. They do a very, very good job. They put a lot of pressure on the defense, and we’re going to have to do a great job this week of our communication to make sure that the calls are in, guys know what we’re doing, getting lined up quickly and being ready to go and handling if the ball is snapped quick; or if they come out, survey what we’re in, change their call and go. There’s a lot of multiples this week. Coach McVay does a tremendous job with that, has for years, and he puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”
(I wanted to ask you about pre-snap motion. The Patriots obviously used it to great success in the opener. The Rams use it in different ways, but they still use a ton of it. How confident are you that you guys have a better handle on pre-snap motion than you did in the opener?) – “I would say each week is unique to what the offense is trying to do, so hopefully we’ll go out there and we’ll work, we’ll prepare for the things that we’ve seen; and some things that are unseen, we’ll prepare and try to be ready for that as best as we can on Sunday.”
(Yesterday I had a chance to talk to Head Coach Brian Flores about the way S Bobby McCain nurtures relationships and how important it is to him. I just wanted to get your take on what you’ve seen as far as the way Bobby McCain kind of interacts with his teammates and the way he cultivates those relationships.) – “I would say Bobby (McCain) number one is a great communicator, and he has a unique ability to get along with all types of personalities, which in turn helps him on the field handle multiple communications with different individuals. Bobby has been everything that you could want in a communicator. He really quarterbacks our defense, and he continues to work hard at that and he’s a really diligent worker, and that’s just part of his game and part of what we’ve really benefited from Bobby being able to one, nurture those relationships and two, be able to handle communications to numerous individuals.”
(How much do you work on letting the other team score?) – “(laughter) It’s a situation – it’s only come up once in my career. It’s not a situation that you really want to be in from a defensive perspective. Sometimes – I mean obviously it’s a last resort to give you a chance to win the game. It’s not really something that you want to find yourself in, but there are situations that call for the percentages and best odds to give your team a chance to win the game, which ultimately is what we’re all trying to do.”
(I wanted to ask about the injuries that you guys are facing right now at the linebacker unit with LB Kyle Van Noy, LB Andrew Van Ginkel, LB Kamu Grugier-Hill. How do you compensate for that? I know you’re probably hoping to get a lot of them back, but how do you compensate for that and can you talk a little bit about LB Sam Eguavoen and how he performed last time – I believe it was 49 snaps?) – “The thing that we ask all of our guys to do, whether they’re slated to play a lot or they’re slated to back up, is we ask all of our guys to prepare to play a 60-minute football game and to play every snap. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a starter or you’re not. You could be a play away from playing a lot, and I think it was really a credit to Sam (Eguavoen) who again – like I said about a lot of our guys – he comes in and puts in a great day’s work. He prepares. He prepares to play at multiple spots, and then when his number was called, he made the most of his opportunities, brought some energy to the field. I thought he did a good job for us, helped us; but we ask really all of our players whether they’re slated as, ‘hey, you’re going to be in this group, this group, this group’ or ‘you’re a backup in all these groups’ – all of them need to prepare like they’re going to play a 60-minute game, and that’s the way we kind of approach it.”
(I’d like you to play a pretend game for just a second with me. If Rams QB Jared Goff were a left-handed quarterback, how would that change your week?) – “That’s a good question. I’ve been so used to seeing Jared Goff as a right-handed quarterback and that’s where all my focus, time and energy has been. I haven’t really thought if he was left-handed. (laughter) I would say right-handed, left-handed; you’re looking for the same things. You’re looking for what teams do offensively. You’re looking if they have tendencies, the way that they try to attack defenses. You’re going to look at targets, areas where they throw on the field. There’s a lot of things that go into just scouting a particular team. Each week we go into – ‘has this receiver ever thrown a ball?’ ‘Did he throw the ball in college?’ There’s a lot of digging that goes into scouting, so right-handed, left-handed – I’m not so sure how much of that matters. It’s more what plays are they trying to do and how do they execute it and how are they trying to attack you.”
