Matt Burke – November 1, 2018
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Thursday, November 1, 2018
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(You’ve explained very well why you think what you’re giving S Minkah Fitzpatrick is about right – about 75 percent of snaps. That said, he has the lowest passer rating against in the league of any cornerback. Have you a single time since he was drafted ever discussed playing him on the boundary and have you considered giving him some of S T.J. McDonald’s snaps at safety? Those two things.) – “Yes.”
(Yes on the first?) – “Yes to all of it.”
(And have you all determined that S Minkah Fitzpatrick could be a competent NFL corner on the boundary or is that unclear to you?) – “I think he has the skillset. I think it’s been a while since he’s done that – played on the outside. There’s a level of just going through that process with him and trying to figure out … Again, part of it (is) mental in terms of what we’ve put on his plate. Part of it is it’s another position and you’re trying to spread him a little thin at. The more he shows he’s capable, I think it’s a physical skillset. He has the ability to do that. He has performed well in coverage situations for us. Yeah, all of those things have been discussed and we’re working through some of those things right now.”
(I know obviously you’re not going to say anything from a competitive standpoint with a decision with regard to whether S Minkah Fitzpatrick picks up any of S T.J. McDonald’s safety snaps. Is that something that’s a possibility moving forward if you’re not willing to say it will or won’t happen?) – “I’m probably not willing to say any of that but everything is a possibility. Obviously we’re addressing a lot of things on defense right now so I mean everything is a possibility for us.”
(What was your approach to assessing your defense over the extended break that you had? How do you go about it?) – “Honestly, it was … Funny is probably not the right word to be using right now but (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) and I didn’t really get together. We independently kind of came to the same conclusion. I felt like our biggest issue was all of the explosive plays. We came in on Friday and just did … Everybody was in on Friday and did sort of our normal stuff and went through our grading process and that sort of thing. I met with the defensive staff before we left and kind of laid a couple of things out. So I came in independently on Saturday and just took all of our explosives from the season and went through that to try to pinpoint again whether it was schematic or just player or offensive scheme and sort of where that was becoming an issue. That’s where my starting point was. I felt like even within the bad games we’ve been having, there were good plays and stuff like that within them. So obviously (it was about) where the explosives were happening. Shoot, on Thursday night we gave up three 2-play touchdown drives. That’s just silly. That’s where I started for myself. It was funny (because) then Adam (Gase) circled back on me a little bit later on and he had kind of taken the same approach, so it was kind of interesting for me that we both kind of came to that conclusion independently. That was kind of my approach. I didn’t necessarily think it was just a consistent play after play after play after play (thing). It was these breakdowns are happening and these big plays are being created because of it. So we tried to dig in at where that was happening as a starting point.”
(Did you find common threads or did you find that it’s just everything?) – “It’s that. I mean there’s threads. The frustrating thing for me last week was … For example in the run game, we’ve had 23 explosive runs (this season) – 12-yard-plus runs. That was on our cutup reel. Twelve of them came in the last two games, so over half. We’re averaging one and a half in the first six games and we average six a game in the last two games. If there’s a trend like that or what’s going on and how that’s approaching … Some of that is there were a couple of offensive runs that were kind of similar schematically that we were getting and why we were having trouble fitting some of those runs up. So there’s threads like that. We obviously didn’t play well. We played very poorly. So I don’t think that in terms of … (It wasn’t) this one thing was the cause of all of this. (It wasn’t) if we just stop this one thing, that’s it. When you give up the yards you give up and the points you’ve been giving up, that’s systemic and there’s issues at all levels that have to be addressed. There were threads. There’s obviously commonalities in some stuff and that’s where you start to try to address things but I didn’t think it was like this one thing is what’s going on and we have to stop that.”
(Have you heard from Microsoft about any repairs?) – “(laughter) No.”
(Obviously that was a pretty emotional moment for you. What was going through your head right there?) – “Obviously I was frustrated. I was frustrated. Very frustrated. We were just cutting guys loose. He had five touchdown passes and four of them were to uncovered players. It’s not like they were contested catches or something got schemed up. We were just not even covering guys and dropping guys loose and getting out of things. So as that just kept building, it was a level of frustration. Obviously I didn’t realize I was going to get captured. I slammed one last year too and I don’t think anyone caught it. (laughter) So it was just that. It was built up and kind of an outlet. Unfortunately that was the closest thing I had in my hands and I took it out on an inanimate object.”
(Why were the receivers uncovered?) – “It wasn’t one player or one thing. It was … I wish I could answer that directly in terms of like … It was communication. Guys are miscommunicating things, not playing techniques the way they’re asking them to play techniques. It was different on every play. It wasn’t just one thing of saying every time we’re playing this thing wrong or we’re doing this. There were three different coverages on three of the touchdowns that are different coverages, different calls, different techniques and none of them are being executed the way we need to execute them. But again, the way I look at it, that’s on me. If it’s not getting done on the field then I start with myself. I have to re-examine what we’re asking those guys to do and whether it’s from a mental standpoint, a physical standpoint, a whatever standpoint. Even if in my mind a scheme is sound or a call is sound and it’s not getting executed on the field, we have to address why that’s happening. If it’s sometimes we’re asking them to do something they can’t do or things that maybe people can’t pick up or certain players can’t handle certain things, all of that stuff goes into it. That’s probably the harder part. I wish it would be a lot easier. It would have been a lot easier weekend for me if it was like this one guy can’t play this or it’s one call that’s happening here. If that’s the issue, it’s never going to be a 42-point, 500-yard game or whatever the heck that was. That would be an easier fix. There’s a lot of – at every level of the defense – miscommunication, just between groups and stuff. Really I went back to sort of big picture, how everything fits together and why we’re calling the things that we’re doing and why we’re asking you to do this job because it affects how this guy does this job and it affects how this guy covers this guy. We had to really get back to that and have everybody understand they’re not independent contractors and this thing all fits together. You can’t make a decision to say I’m going to do this to try to make this play when it trickles down and affects eight other guys or 10 other guys or whoever it is. We really got back to that part of things this week a little bit.”
(What did happen and what was supposed to happen on the long WR DeAndre Hopkins touchdown?) – “We were supposed to cover him.”
(Who’s responsibility was WR DeAndre Hopkins?) – “We’re supposed to have a corner take a vertical player out of that. It’s a hard play but obviously we don’t have any defense that’s designed to not cover anybody. That’s stupid. We were supposed to have a corner. They ran a bunch route and released him over the top of it. We’re supposed to squeeze to it. Visually we saw something different from the back end and we didn’t play it the way it was supposed to be played.”
(When we talked to Head Coach Adam Gase about defense – this is an oversimplification – but he said it’s not the scheme, it’s the players. More or less, that the plays are being called, they’re just not being executed. Is that the way you see it?) – “Look, we’re all to blame. For me, it goes back to a little bit of what I just said. Possibly … Yeah, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the scheme. Again, we’re not designing defenses to cut guys loose in the back end. We’re not designing defenses to give up 50-yard runs and not fit things right. Obviously, that’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re not scheming those things up. And I don’t think we’re just getting a hardcore scheme where they’re finding weaknesses in our defense in terms of schematic issues. But if players are having trouble executing what we’re trying to get done, then we have to find the reason behind that. We have to address all of that, whether it’s the stuff we can’t call, whether it sounds great and we call this play it’s going to be a great call for us, but if it can’t get executed, part of that’s on me. We can keep sitting there going ‘they should be able to do that, they should be able to do that, why aren’t they doing that?’ But at the end of the day, if they can’t, that’s something that has to be evaluated. It’s our job as a coaching staff to put our players in the best position to make those plays and to understand what they can and can’t do. Physically, what they can play, mentally, what they can handle and how they can execute that as a whole unit. I’m not going to blame the players. It’s my job, it’s our job to put those guys in the right spots. Again, some of it maybe it’s to that point, but I always start with myself and say ‘what am I asking these guys to do from a mental standpoint, from a physical standpoint?’ If it’s not getting done, then it has to be addressed from a coaching level all the way down to a player level. At some point, they have to learn some (expletive) and play some stuff. Excuse my language.”
(You said you were looking for common threads and just from the naked eye, it looked like some of those busts were happening with players who are veterans. They’re not new to the defense, your calls, the scheme. Is that accurate and is that concerning?) – “Everything is concerning right now, so yes to the second part. That will be the short answer. Again, it was everybody. I think a lot of factors. It’s hard to just give simple answers to this. Obviously, there’s a lot of complexity going on here. Yes, it was veterans making mistakes that shouldn’t have been made. There’s also guys pressing to make plays. The mentality of when things start kind of going off the farm a little bit and off the reservation, it’s not ‘I’m going to go make the play,’ because again, understanding how that unhinges everybody else. To me, you’re adding fuel to fire when this guy is trying to go make a play, so ‘I’m going to stop this by myself, I’m going to turn the tide here by myself.’ Now, you’re getting out of position and you’re leaving somebody else hanging out to dry and that trickles down, and that guy is saying ‘shoot, well I have to do this.’ That’s where the miscommunication or sort of one guy starting it and then all three levels of defense, it’s not meshing together properly. It’s all concerning to me. It’s all concerning that we have veteran guys that are doing things, whether the motivation is to make a play or the motivation is something else. Again, those are things that we’ve been going through and addressing and looking at. That’s all concerning to me and we’re trying to address it this week.”
(On one play, I saw CB Bobby McCain chasing a guy and S Reshad Jones is back there, the guy is going this way and he decides to go that way. And CB Bobby McCain is going … they’ve played…) – “They’ve played football for us and they’ve played together and they should be on the same page and communicating better on that, absolutely.”
(So are guys just freelancing essentially?) – “I wouldn’t call it that. I think it’s the nature … It’s the same as me throwing a tablet. Things start going bad and everyone is feeling that, and everyone wants to turn it. Again, they’re competitive players. No one wants to be doing what we were doing Thursday night. I think sometimes that they press to make plays and they try to kind of go a little bit out of the framework. I wouldn’t say they’re just doing whatever they want out there. They’re just trying to kind of jump a route or do something different. Or in the run game, ‘I’m going to just shed this guy and go make this play, I’m going to go get a TFL and that’s going to kind of spark us and get us going.’ I think the word freelancing kind of has more negative intentions to me. I don’t think they’re just saying ‘Screw this, I’m going to play whatever I want to play.’ I think sometimes, we’re pressing to make plays, especially once that gets rolling a little bit. We have to play the calls. I have to make the right calls and put them in the right spot. They have to execute the calls, the techniques we’re asking them to play and we’ll be fine.”
(Are there consequences for those who do not play the scheme repeatedly?) – “Yep.”
(Would that be a player’s starting job?) – “It could be, absolutely. We’d be remiss if we didn’t come in this weekend and Adam (Gase) and I went through a lot of stuff and study this from a personnel standpoint to a schematic standpoint to execution, all of that stuff. If we didn’t address everything and come in with answers and solutions to say ‘this is what’s going on.’ And it’s at all levels. There’s some scheme stuff that we’re tweaking and trying to do some different things. Part of that is player based, saying ‘maybe this guy can do this better than some of the stuff we’ve been asking him to do.’ But if there’s guys that can’t do what we’re doing, at some point, absolutely. At some point, they take ownership. We’re not asking them to do a lot of crazy stuff here. I think everyone is aware of where we’re at in the season. Having that mini bye week, kind of having that extended weekend – I think I talked to some of you guys. After the Detroit game, I felt like it was a blessing in disguise having a short week. I was like okay man, shoot. Sometimes it’s good to move on from that. Obviously, it wasn’t a one-time thing, so it was hard having that. It would have been great having a Thursday night game and feeling good about it and having a fun weekend and kind of refresh and rejuvenate. It was hard having to chew on that for 10 days essentially. We’re still eating that Thursday night game. It was hard; but again, at some level in terms of silver lining it, it afforded us some time to really sit down and dig into some things. We’re still going through that process.”
(How tempting is it to be like ‘what I’m doing hasn’t worked, I’m just going to call way different stuff?’ Is there danger in that? Like a big-time tendency break or whatever.) – “Yeah, there’s danger in that. We spent eight months or whatever it’s been, from March until now, training in certain techniques and doing things we want to do and trying to get these guys right and put all this work in. It would a little crazy to say ‘screw all that, let’s do all this instead.’ Now, they have to learn all new stuff. Again, I don’t see that as the issue. I really don’t. I don’t see our scheme is broken and we’re screwed up and all this. We have a fairly complex scheme and we have a lot of stuff we can call, so it’s more of maybe this part of it is something that we want to lean on more towards this area. To me, that would be akin to what I just talked about the players – ‘I’m going to make it right, I’m going to call all this crazy stuff and just fix it by doing all this stuff.’ Now, I’m putting all those guys in positions they’re not used to and getting them unhinged. That would be me contributing to the chaos. We have to get better at the stuff we’re asking them to do. Period. We have to play the stuff better. I have to make sure that we’re asking them to do things that they can do. If we have determined that they’re capable of doing that and we’re asking them to do that, and they don’t, then that’s on them. They have to execute those techniques and those schemes and get this done, because we obviously can’t live like this.”
