Matt Burke – December 28, 2017
Download PDF version
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(Would you be kind enough to tell us a specific thing or two that has most pleased you and most disappointed you? If you could try to avoid words like consistency and work ethic, I’m looking for something specific like how you did against the run the first five weeks, your young corners developing. What specific things pleased you, what disappointed you?) – “You just answered it for me. (laughter)”
(I wanted to give you a couple of possible examples.) – “We like talking in vague-ities here. (laughter) I think specifically … I thought our run defense was fairly solid. Even last week, we did a decent job in the run game. A couple of speed options broke out on us; but other than that, we did a good job. We had our rocky moments obviously with some games, but I thought their commitment to that aspect of things was positive. Honestly, look, I think … I don’t know if this is too vague for you, but the guys have played hard the whole year. Even the last two weeks, we were getting stops at the end of games when obviously the outcome looked like it was kind of not going to go the way it was, and those guys kept playing. In terms of a positive from the last two weeks, for me, the fact that those guys kept going out there and getting stops and playing through the end of the game. Those are things that we look for, obviously. It’s hard. I haven’t had time to really reflect big-picture stuff and obviously go back through the cut ups. Statistically, again, the things that … Some of the things that we stress and that we spend a lot of time on that we haven’t had success in, in terms of takeaways, our red zone defense, those things that I know off hand, that’s been disappointing. Really, our only real positive statistic has been third downs and we haven’t been good in those the last two weeks. Those things are just off the top of my head; but (I) haven’t really had a chance to truly examine big picture things and go back. We’re so caught up in the moment. Some of our young players have made some strides this season and hopefully things that we can build on moving forward with them.”
(Two other concerns I wanted to ask you about, from our perspective. I’m wondering if they are disappointments to you: coverage of tight ends – and obviously a lot of the teams have trouble covering tight ends but it seems more extreme with you guys – and pass rush, 28th in sacks, towards the bottom in pressure per pass play. Are those two areas disappointing to you?) – “I think obviously everything has been disappointing for us at this point of the year. Tight end coverage, I’m not sure what (Travis) Kelce’s numbers were last week. We obviously tried to put a lot of things in to stop him. He had a couple of big plays and scored a touchdown that we were kind of draped over him, that he made a nice play on. The other one was kind of – I don’t want to call it a trick play – but kind of a rigged up play, the one they kind of shot the guy out the back end. I think, again, every week there are challenges. I think it’s just in general, in terms of tight ends, it has been a trend in the league. Those are valuable weapons that … As teams and defenses went sort of – I don’t want to say smaller – but to try to matchup spread offenses and those things, to have weapons like tight ends that can still be effective in the pass game against some of those … If you’re trying to put smaller bodies in terms of nickels and corners out there, tight ends that are hybrid weapons have been sort of a trend in the NFL in general, I think. I think that’s sort of a task for us is finding similar hybrid defenders that can do those type of things, whether it’s safeties of linebackers, that we feel can cover those guys. I think that’s just sort of an ongoing movement. Again, I was in Cincinnati with (Tyler) Eifert and he was a challenge for people and obviously in our division with ‘Gronk’ (Rob Gronkowski) and even this week with Charles Clay, who has done it for a long time and those type of things. I think in general, tight ends, I don’t know if it’s specific to us or to our defense. Apparently you think so. I think that’s just the way the league is going and we have to be able to address those issues in terms of those matchups and those type of athletes that are more and more becoming involved in offenses. What was the other question? Pass rushes? Yes, obviously, we want more sacks and more production from everybody and from our guys up front. I think Cam (Wake) has had a good season. Cam’s disruption numbers are really high. Actually, in the league, he’s one of the top 10 in the league I think in terms of our disruption numbers, which again, involves … He has obviously got nine sacks, but he has a bunch of caused holding penalties and pressures and QB hits and all those sort of things, and batted balls and whatnot. I think that has been a positive. I think Charles (Harris) has shown some progress in the last couple of weeks that he’s kind of in the same boat. I think some of his … Again, he got the sack last week, obviously. His disruption numbers have been trending positively for us, so I think that those are blocks to build on and to move forward with. Obviously any time you’re in the bottom five in the league in a stat that you value and that you put an emphasis on, it’s disappointing.”
(Does it feel like you’ve been behind almost the entire season?) – “Like in life or in … (laughter) Listen, and I know it has been said a lot, I respect (Head Coach) Adam (Gase). Adam is a lot like me in the sense that if something is not going right, the first thing he does is blames himself or looks at himself. If we’re struggling on defense, it is like, ‘What have I done?’ Adam’s first thing is, ‘I haven’t given them a lead. We haven’t played good enough.’ Listen, you guys can check the stats but I’m pretty sure no team in the NFL has ever started with a lead. That’s on us as much as anything. We spend half the year – more than half the year – deferring our coin toss and putting us on the field first. We have as much to do with getting a lead as an offense does. It’s not like, ‘We’re going to sit back and play crappy defense until Adam gets a lead and then we can go play ball.’”
(The reality is you’ve been behind a lot and it skews some of these things you’re talking about.) – “It skews it; but again, we can’t just play defense with a lead. Like I said, no game starts with a lead. That may be true, but it’s on us, it’s our responsibility to help get a lead. Again, the last … Even looking (at) the game this week, the first time we played Buffalo, if you take our first-half stats and our second-half stats, they’re pretty disparate. We can’t start games like that. That’s on us as much as an offense. Yes, that’s great. Obviously everyone plays better with a lead. It’s not like our defense is built a certain way. Every team plays better with a lead. It’s a lot easier to play football when you’re up two touchdowns. That’s just the facts of life. We’re as much a factor in that as an offense or whoever else. We have to contribute to playing better early, starting games faster and to getting those leads and then we can kind of reap the benefits of that, for sure. That’s part of what we have to do as well.”
(It has been two years now in this system. Has anything that has happened in the last two years made you re-think things schematically or do you think the system is legit?) – “I haven’t questioned much of that. Listen, schemes are constantly evolving. They’re ever evolving. Week to week, obviously, we’re adjusting what we think we need to do. Again, guys, listen, I’m still trying to win a football game this week.”
(You understand we won’t get you for six months.) – “That’s not my fault. (laughter) Listen, that’s something that obviously every offseason you address. Again, I’m in the heat of it, guys. I’m working, working, working on this week and on game-to-game situation. Obviously, you’re self-scouting throughout the season; but to really step back and evaluate schematically and say, okay now you have this body of work, whether it’s the last two years or obviously this past year with some of the stuff I’ve been trying to do, like what worked and what didn’t? What do I think is where we’re lacking or what do we have to make sure that that’s not something that we want to do moving forward? Those will be kind of questions that we’ll answer obviously in the next four, five months hopefully. I don’t think the scheme is broken per se.”
(Your rookie class, I think I’ve got them all – DE Charles Harris, DT Davon Godchaux, DT Vincent Taylor, CB Cordrea Tankersley, LB Chase Allen and CB Torry McTyer. What have you seen from them and has the contribution been a little more than you thought it would be at the start of the season?) – “Probably. We tell the guys when they come in that the best player is going to play. We always tell them – again, just look at the history of the last two years here – in terms of everyone is going to get an opportunity between injuries and things that happen. I think it has been positive for those guys to have some success, not just play them. I can play a bunch of rookies and it doesn’t matter if they don’t perform up to our standards. I think at varying levels, they’ve had sort of moments of success and done some good things that we feel good about being able to utilize some of those players moving forward. It has definitely probably been – again, off the top of my head – I’ve probably played more rookies this year than I have, and I’ve been around in a while. I’ve been on some … In Cincy, I was with some more veteran teams. Even last year, we were kind of a little more of a veteran squad. I’ve definitely probably played more than I’ve done in the past, but they’ve earned their spots. They’ve earned their time. If they showed the successes that some of them showed, then they got to continue playing. It was good. Again, I thought honestly from the draft process forward, I thought (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and those guys identified the young players that approach-wise and mindset, in terms of he wanted to bring guys in that kind of fit the culture we’re trying to build and worked hard and were all about football. I think that kind of showed and reflected in them being able to play and contribute. I think they’re kind of a mature class for a bunch of rookies. I think it wasn’t too big for them, so that was maybe easier for us to put them on the field and give them opportunities. But I think that started through the draft process and honestly up through the offseason with those guys and the way they’ve worked. That whole class has been really into … They’re just all about ball, which is kind of what we want.”
(You mentioned the hybrid player, the linebacker kind of I guess defensive back type. Isn’t that S T.J. McDonald? Isn’t that supposed to be … Can’t that be him?) – “It could be. He has obviously got a skillset that fits like that type of role. Obviously, he’s a bigger safety. Again, the issue you get into is if you have small safeties and you put them down and maybe they’re too small in the run game or if you have linebackers that can’t run with tight ends, that’s just sort of the contrast. He definitely has a skillset that we feel like we can utilize.”
(Have you not been able to expand S T.J. McDonald…?) – “We’re thin a little bit at safety right now, to be honest with you, obviously with … Nate (Allen) is out and now ‘Mike T’ (Thomas) has been a little nicked up the last couple weeks. ‘Mo’ (Maurice) Smith went on IR. We’re a little thin at safety position right now to be honest with you. I try to work some different things. It has been … Again, it’s always a big picture in terms of how you’re utilizing the roster. Again, if you try to move T.J. down into the box or wherever, you’ve got to put somebody else in. As I always say, if you’re taking somebody off the field, you’ve got to put somebody in. We haven’t necessarily had the matchups to be able to do some of those things.”
(Metrics say LB Kiko Alonso has allowed by far the most yards in pass coverage of any linebacker by a huge margin. Do you simply not have any better options against tight ends? Obviously, he’s not on tight ends or backs all of the time. You use others, but is there not a better option as a primary defender on those players, on your roster?) – “My stats on Kiko are probably different than a lot of people’s. I don’t know. Do you have a better option you want to…?”
(I don’t.) – “Okay. All of those guys … Listen, all our linebackers … Listen, our linebackers, our safeties, all those guys, it’s not just Kiko. Again, we’ve gotten ‘Steph’ (Stephone Anthony) some more work, we’ve got Lawrence (Timmons), Reshad (Jones), T.J. (McDonald). All of those guys we have different options in terms of matching guys up. Sometimes we feel Kiko is our best matchup with a back or tight end. Sometimes it’s Reshad. Sometimes it is T.J. or ‘Steph’ or whoever it may be. I know you guys try to build these narratives about who’s bad and who’s good and all of this stuff. Kiko has his moments when he makes plays; Kiko has moments when he’s in a tough matchup. It’s the same thing for all the rest of those guys. To try to correlate directly like Kiko being a major issue in pass coverage, I don’t necessarily see it that way. There are times where we feel Kiko is a good matchup with what his skillset is. There are times where we’d rather have somebody else on say a tight end or a back. That’s going to vary week to week.”
(Without casting aspersions on whether or not this player is good or bad, you tell me how has DE Andre Branch’s performance and impact this year compared to last?) – “It’s probably not that far off. He has been battling some stuff, ‘Dre’ has. He has been … I think it’s kind of one of the less talked about things that he has been battling through a lot of things and tried to tough some things out, so I don’t think he has been feeling 100 percent physically. That has probably affected a little bit of his production and those sort of things. He has kind of been right where we want him to be.”
