Matt Burke – November 10, 2017
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Friday, November 10, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(What do you remember about the time that S T.J. McDonald and S Reshad Jones were in the secondary together during camp?) – “It seems like a long time ago. Obviously we felt really good about the way that they complemented each other, played together. We were moving groups around at the time obviously with the awareness of T.J.’s situation. We were working Nate (Allen) in and some other guys; but I just remember them having a good connection and kind of being able to work together in a lot of different areas. We felt good about their skill sets complementing each other in terms of both being able to play down and being able to play back and being able to do some different things with them in that sense. We got them back out there again yesterday for the first time and kind of went right back into it, so hopefully it’s a positive sign moving forward.”
(Did S T.J. McDonald just jump in? He’s just totally good to go?) – “Yes, until someone tells me otherwise.”
(Did S T.J. McDonald look like a guy that’s been out for eight weeks?) – “No, no. He did look good. I mean physically, he’s been really working hard. One of the benefits of being able to have him in the building at least in terms of … We haven’t been able to do anything with him in terms of on-the-field stuff, but with our strength staff and conditioning and getting him ready to play, I didn’t notice personally, anything in terms of lack of fitness and that sort of thing. I think physically he’s ready to go. There’s always going to be a little bit of dust in terms of some mental stuff; but again, another benefit of having him in the building is (him) being in some of the meetings that we’ve been able to have him in and in a classroom setting. I think he’ll be ready to go.”
(Are both of those guys, S T.J. McDonald and S Reshad Jones, for those guys, is playing back the bigger challenge then playing up in the box?) – “I don’t think so, necessarily. I think that’s, especially with T.J. for example, I think that’s … I don’t want to say a stereotype but you see a big, a 6-3, 225 pound safety and you just assume those things. It was probably sort of a bias I had when we signed him. Going back to your earlier question, I thought that actually was one of the pleasant things about him we noticed in the spring. He’s a tall kid that can range back there too and do some things. I think it’s just sort of human nature to say let’s put this big guy in the box and that’s where he is, but we try to find safeties that are multi-dimensional and multi-talented that can do different things that don’t hamstring a play caller or a defensive scheme. I don’t have any reservations of putting those buys back in the back end.”
(I know some of this is dictated by how fast the ball comes out, but are you okay how much pass rush you’ve gotten out of your front four and is there any you could do to ramp that up?) – “I’ve been actually pleased with what they’ve done. I mean there’s nothing I can do to make a guy not throw the ball quick if they really want to. Really to combat those things, we have to … Teams that want to neutralize a defensive line, they’re going to run the ball, which I feel like for the most part in the big picture, we’ve done a decent job of taking that away from teams, so they can’t do that. One of our struggles in the Baltimore game was we weren’t doing that. That’s a way to neutralize a rush. The other thing is when they do throw quick throws, at a minimum we have to tackle. I think one of our failings or issues has been … I think it’s really hard, I think it’s difficult for a team, for offenses, to put together 12- to 14-play drives if you’re just throwing the ball so quick. If it’s a 2-yard pass here, a 3-yard pass there, if you’re tackling well, if you’re matching things up well, I think one of our failings has been that we’ve actually given up more sort of chunk plays in the last few weeks than we had earlier in the year. If a team wants to throw the ball in 1.4 seconds, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
(Is that what it was last week?) – “I don’t know. I’m just throwing random numbers out that sound lower than they probably are. (laughter) But no, we have to make that not a successful plan of attack, is what we have to do. That comes from tackling those quick throws and limiting a 2-yard throw to a 2-yard gain or 3-yard gain, not a 10-yard gain. Now the issue is, I thought last week for example we got pretty aggressive in our zone coverages and we were trying to … We can’t get frustrated by that plan of attack. I think it’s hard for a team to keep doing that for a whole length of a field. I thought we were a little bit over aggressive in some of the shallow routes and now we’re opening up stuff behind us. It’s kind of a fair trade there a little bit. We have to do a better a job of mixing our coverages where maybe they think this is a time I can get a quick throw off, where now we’re matching it up a little tighter versus giving up stuff behind us. That’s the sort of game you have to play. In general I’ve been pleased with our d-line. I actually thought they played really well last week. Even a guy like (Andre) Branch, who didn’t practice as much during the week, I thought he played really well. He rushed really well. Again, the message to some of the guys in the back end is I’ll pause the tape and you see the pocket collapsing, but the ball is coming out and stuff. (We have to) keep mixing up our coverages, giving different looks, getting a little bit tighter in that area of things to give those guys that extra half a second; but I’ve not been disappointed with the way line has played.”
(In Cincinnati, you had a guy in S Taylor Mays who essentially at some points, even though he was listed as a safety, played linebacker on occasion. Do you view S T.J. McDonald in the same light and can kind of do those types of things?) – “I mean he’s capable, absolutely. I’m a little cautious, again just getting him back into things – T.J. – in terms of putting too much on his plate right now in terms of multiple positions and all of that stuff; but yes, we did. Taylor was actually in my room (when I was) the linebackers coach (in Cincinnati) for some of the time. We moved him around a little bit and did some different things. I mean T.J. has that skill set for sure. It’s just a matter of, again sort of mentally and sort of learning and as we move forward, and again what other pieces (do you have)? If you’re putting him down there, you’re taking somebody else off the field and who you’re putting on, and all of those sort of issues. I think he has that ability for sure to be sub dime or linebacker, and move back, and you can do some different things with him. It’s just a matter of how it fits into the big picture.”
(What’s the biggest challenge when you’re facing an athletic mobile quarterback like Panthers QB Cam Newton who is basically a running back?) – “It’s funny. I think Cam (Newton) is a unique athlete. I mean a really unique (athlete), just probably mostly due to his size. Even then, compared to running quarterbacks, he’s just such a big man. It’s a different sort of element. It’s just, I think the biggest challenge is being disciplined in your assignments and your techniques and how we’re playing that, because it adds another element to the run game. I mean it’s one thing if they’re under center and they’re loaded up and you can just play the runs. At this point of the year, you’ve seen most of the run schemes from a normal standpoint. But when you add the quarterback element of the game, and with them there’s pitch elements and there’s all sorts of stuff going on. You just have to be disciplined in how you’re doing that and it just makes it mentally challenging over the course of the game because every play you have to be on point with who’s got the dive, who’s got the quarterback, what are we showing them? Basically all of our calls have to be able to match up versus all those elements in the run game. That makes it a challenge. I think it’s as much of a mental challenge as it is physical. The physical part with him is getting him on the ground when you do have that chance because he’s a big person and when he gets a head of steam and gets in open field, he’s tough to take down. That part physically is just something we’ve got to deal with, but the mental aspect of play in and play out, having the discipline and having the awareness of what my assignment is and what my responsibilities will be, will be the challenge this week.”
(Who are your roster do you think is best equipped in coverage – and when I say on your roster I’m speaking linebackers, safeties, CB Bobby McCain I guess you could throw in there – who’s best equipped to defend big pass-catching tight ends in coverage? Obviously it was a problem last week.) – “I feel good about a lot of our guys. Last week we were mixing guys up. I feel good about Kiko (Alonso) matching up the guys in coverage. I feel good about Lawrence (Timmons). I feel good about T.J. (McDonald) and (Reshad (Jones). Probably not Bobby (McCain) in terms of size wise (laughter). But last week, in terms of tight ends stuff, I didn’t feel we did a good job taking some of the stuff we had talked about during the week, sort of the information that we give these guys and putting it into play on the field. I thought our issue with the tight end was two-fold last week. We talked a lot about not wanting to give him free space. (Jared) Cook, when he gets going, he’s a big guy. He can run when he gets going, we felt like we wanted to disrupt him off the line a little bit more than we did when we had those opportunities. One of the things I was disappointed in is I just felt that we didn’t execute sort of that – not that it was part of the game plan in terms of schematically but in terms of a scouting issue. If he gets going as we saw, when he was climbing and got in the seams and got down field, I mean he’s a big man. He’s tough to keep up with and we wanted to take that away before it got to that point. I didn’t think we did a good job of putting hands on at the line of scrimmage and trying to disrupt his releases, which was part of what our plan of attack was. Then the second part I thought was, again we were probably getting a little too nosey on shorter routes and letting him get behind us. If we were in man or we were in something where it was a little bit more aggressive, we didn’t do a good job of getting hands on, and when we were in zone coverages, I felt like we were getting a little bit too jumpy on some shallow routes and giving him some space behind us to complete some of those balls. I honestly don’t really worry about matchups. I think we have different athletes at linebacker and safety –slightly different body types and skill sets – that I feel good about trying to give different looks to tight ends in terms of man coverages and some type of coverages. I just think that we have to execute the scouting reports out of the game plan better than not just the schematic stuff.”
(With three interceptions in the first half of the season, what are some things you’ve noticed as reasons for limited interceptions and what might be some ways to…?) – “Well we’ve got to catch the ones that come to us, first of all. Not to keep harping on last week but I mean probably the biggest disappointment for me, personally, was the 2-minute drive at the end of the (first) half. There’s 28 seconds left in the half. We should not give up points there, period. We jumped down on a shallow route and gave up a long play to start the drive. If we just let them check that ball down there in the first play of it, they probably run the half out at that point. Then the next two plays we have our hands on balls twice and we drop them both. Kiko (Alonso) kind of stumbles, it gets tipped, then (Davon) Godchaux kind of gets his hand on a tipped ball so the path redirects and Kiko stumbles and it hits him in the facemask. Then they try to take a shot and ‘Mo’ (Maurice Smith) is in really good shape and he goes up and he just doesn’t come down with it. The starting point is I’d like to catch some of the ones that come to us. That would be a plus. I think it ties into similar stuff with the rush. It’s hard to pick balls off. A lot of interceptions come – I always hear (Defensive Backs Coach) Lou (Anarumo) talk about it – on tips and overthrows. There’s that part of it but also if they’re throwing the ball quick and they’re not letting our rush affect it, most of your picks are coming on a little bit down the field throws or again, if you’re in 2-minute drive situations or have to throw it situations and they’re trying to force balls down the field in coverage, and those sort of things. We haven’t been in a lot of those situations and then we have, we haven’t taken advantage of the opportunities that come to us. It’s like anything else. I mean we preach … If you start trying to go get interceptions, you’re going to give up some other things. When the opportunities do come, you don’t know. That was pretty much my message after last week’s game was that there were probably … I mean that’s an NFL game to me. That’s a battle, right? They made some plays, we made some plays. (Ndamukong) Suh makes a hell of a play. It is 20-16 with 12 minutes left. Suh makes a hell of play to get the ball back at midfield. That’s how NFL games are going to go, but you don’t know what those five or six plays are that are going to be the difference. If you get your hands on the ball and there’s a chance to get a big turnover and change the game, then we have to be able to take advantage of those chances. Sometimes you can’t dictate when those chances come. Some of that is game situations, some of that’s sort of the byproduct of what we’re playing and things; but when they do come, we have to take advantage and we probably … they’re not easy plays but we had three or four chances at least last week to make a play on the ball; and honestly, even on the long touchdown, I’m sure if you ask Reshad (Jones), he’d say he expects himself to pick that ball off.”
(Do you have an estimate for catchable or not caught picks?) – “No, I don’t. If you remind me, I’ll try to dig that up for next week.”
(S Reshad Jones’ late hit/unnecessary roughness play, what did you think? Is that an example of something you would send to the league for explanation?) – “Yes, we did send it to the league. We do that stuff. To me it’s more about coachable moments. That’s a hard play. They ruled, and the NFL said that they felt he led with the crown of his head. That’s tough. It’s close. They also claim that they missed the facemask where his helmet got ripped off by the receiver in the aftermath. It’s a bang-bang play. To me, Reshad came over. I always try to, in the moment, get a sense of what those guys are feeling and what they are seeing. The kid caught the ball and was sort of tip-toeing the sideline trying to get more yards up the field. He was still in play. It wasn’t like it was a hit out of bounds, that the receiver had been out of bounds or anything like that. They just ruled it that Reshad kind of dipped in and led – a lot of times he’s trying to gather some force to try to pry through on the hit. I thought it was with the shoulder pad, they thought it was with the helmet. It’s kind of a judgement area. That’s how they ruled it. I think it’s just the world that we’re living in, with the defense especially. The NFL is going to error on caution on those things and error on protecting players. If we tell them to keep that head out for that much more and just make it truly a clean hit with the shoulder on the sideline, I think that’s where we’ll try to get to. It’s tough. It’s a tough call.”
