Matt Burke – November 2, 2017
Download PDF version
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(Obviously your group is not responsible for 14 of the 40 points last week but with that being said, have you seen any slippage at all in your unit the last two weeks and where specifically, if there has been?) – “I think everything we do is week to week. You’re always evaluating the goods and bads. I thought we’ve tackled poorly, especially last week – the Thursday night game, the last game. (We had) a lot of missed tackles. We had kind of some isolated incidents we talked about a little bit in the Jets week on a couple of those plays. I thought that was probably one of our bigger issues, that we’ve missed more tackles – definitely in the last game, then like I said, kind of some specific plays in the Jets (game) – that we haven’t normally been doing, so I think that’s kind of one area.”
(Obviously last week you didn’t have a full practice so was DT Davon Godchaux starting ahead of DT Jordan Phillips a function of Phillips’ ankle regressing at all or performance from the Jets game?) – “I don’t know. If you didn’t tell me that, I wouldn’t have known, probably to be honest with you. We rotate those guys through. They all play probably pretty even snaps. I think the starter for us is really more just a matter of situations in the game and what we’re thinking and what we’re trying to play, so I don’t really even … I couldn’t have told you who started to be honest with you.”
(Can you talk about Raiders WRs Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree and the challenges they pose for your two young corners?) – “Yes, they’re obviously both great receivers. They do it a little differently. They’re both bigger guys. Both do a good job on the vertical routes, going up and getting balls. I hope they don’t get mad at me for saying this but Cooper has a little bit more speed, probably; but Crabtree is really good with body control and shielding guys and contested catches and those sort of things. Both are good route runners, both are bigger bodies, both are really good at going up and getting deeper balls and vertical routes, which is a big part of what they try to do on offense. It’s a good challenge for both of those guys. It’s a good receiving corps. We’re going to have our hands full, for sure.”
(How do you feel about DE Andre Branch and DE William Hayes playing this week, practicing this week?) – “Yes, they’re going through the process. We’ll probably keep monitoring it as we go and try to keep working them in. I feel good about both of those guys in terms of their work ethic and their approach and if they’re ready to go, then they’re going to go and they’re going to give us everything they’ve got. Those are decisions that we’ll make moving forward in terms of who is ready; but if they’re both able to and healthy, I feel good about the preparation they’re putting in, even when those guys have to sit out some of the parts of practice and things. They’re into it. They’re good on the mental side of what they’re doing. If they’re ready to go, I feel good about both of those guys being able to help us.”
(How do you feel about the safety position now that S Nate Allen is gone and you’re still a week away from getting S T.J. McDonald?) – “Yes, honestly I thought ‘Mike T’ (Michael Thomas) did a really good job when he went in and was actually, probably, one of our more energetic guys out there. In the second half of the game last week, I thought he was flying around. He’s done it before for us and played some spots for us in different roles. He’s been in the system for a while. I feel pretty confident in Mike being able to step in and fill those shoes. We’ll keep trying to work some of the younger guys with ‘Mo’ (Maurice Smith) and (Jordan) Lucas and those guys, trying to find spots for them, as well; but I thought Mike stepped in admirably last week and I feel good about moving forward with him.”
(I know it’s a week-to-week thing, so you probably haven’t given it a lot of thought; but you’re really smart, so you can think about multiple things. So S T.J. McDonald, do you have a vision now specifically about what you would like him to be when he’s back on the 13th? A starter immediately? A guy who plays a lot of snaps immediately?) – “I don’t know. I can’t … I’m trying to win this game and he’s not available for it. We’ll make those decisions when he’s available and on the roster and able to go. If you want me to address something about T.J., he’s been around obviously. That’s helped him, being able to be in the building. Again, he’s been working with our strength staff and staying in shape and stuff. I know he’s itching to get back to it. It’s been sort of a long process for him. I know physically and emotionally, he’ll be ready to go on Monday for sure, and then we’ll just see how it all works out.”
(What did you think of LB Kiko Alonso’s hit on QB Joe Flacco, where it looks like he’s maybe going to slide, about to slide, starting to slide, and he does slide. Any way, we all saw it. What was your take?) – “I think what Kiko said … I’ll say this, Kiko said the same thing to me immediately after the play because I grabbed him when we came off the field and I said ‘What’s going on? What happened?’ And he said, ‘I was kind of waiting for him to slide and he wasn’t and it was getting close to the sticks.’ At one point, he kind of made that decision. We’ve obviously dealt with quarterback injuries. Nobody likes to see their quarterback get hurt. I’ve never found Kiko to be a malicious player. I think it was a bang-bang play like you said and I don’t think that was a scripted response from him. Like I said, he said it to me immediately in the aftermath of what happened. Everyone was kind of heated and stuff and he was very calm saying ‘Man, this is kind of how I saw it.’ I think the league has addressed it in how they’re going to address it and I think that’s about all I have to say about that.”
(You have quarterbacks sometimes who fake you out. They look like they’re going to slide, they look like they’re going to step out of bounds and then they lower their shoulder. What’s the teaching point?) – “It’s hard. We all know what the league is trying to do in terms of player safety, and especially that position. We have to coach and have awareness of that stuff, but it is. You see it every week. Is he running out of bounds and then all of a sudden he cuts back up inside? We try to be cautious and be aware of those rules and I think the bigger issue (on Alonso’s play) was more the head contact then necessarily it being such a late hit. I think everyone watched and it was a pretty bang-bang (play) in terms of slide, hit. I’m not sure that the lateness was as much an issue as where the contact occurred, which is hard because the target area gets sort of shrunk when you’re in that sort of situation. It’s a fine line. The league is officiating it in a certain way and we’ve had to adjust how we coach. You see it every week where, like I said, Kiko’s mentality was ‘I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, essentially. I get it, I get it, I get it,’ and then again, it is a third-and-10 and he’s a yard or two from the sticks. It’s hard. It’s hard to coach. It’s hard to officiate. It’s hard for quarterbacks to get a feel for that. Everyone is competitive. You just try to do your best in terms of understanding the situations and again, trying to avoid the helmet contact – the head contact – is probably the biggest thing.”
(Your offense is going through some changes. Can the defense carry more of a load? Should the defense be expected to carry more of a load?) – “I don’t think we look at it like that. We have our job, they have their job. That’s something that we’ve preached from Day 1. We can’t worry about anything – game situation, what the scoreboard says, what our special teams or offense is doing. We do our job and our job is to put as few points on the board for the other team as possible and get stops. Again, we can’t really worry about that stuff, so talking about ‘We have to do more,’ I think that’s where people get into trouble. To be honest with you, I think I fell into that a little bit last week. I preached to my guys about not forcing the issue and not trying to do too much and some of my calls last week, I got into the mode a little bit. I told the defense the same thing. I said I can’t do the things that I tell you guys not to do, in terms of us pressing to make plays and me trying to blitz every snap and trying to make something happen. It doesn’t work like that. If you start doing that, you get out of being a sound team. We just have to play sound defense and again, this is a good offense that’s coming into town. They’ve got good players, good weapons, good line, a good quarterback. We just have to series in and series out get stops and do our job and we’ll see where the chips fall after that.”
(You guys have been so stout most of the season but you’re last in the NFL in red zone defense – 75 percent. How does that issue get addressed? I know you’ve got so few limited opportunities in there.) – “Yes. I don’t know. It’s something – I wouldn’t say it’s an issue but the numbers have been bad for a few weeks now. It’s not like it’s been a recent thing where you had like a bad game. I think using sort of the Thursday game as like a bye week mentality for me and for our staff, trying to look at some of the issues, part of what we’re preaching is just having a little more focus down there in terms of they cross the 20(-yard line) and they start getting close, we’ve just really got to tighten everything up. It’s just a couple of things. We drop a pick in the end zone in the first week. The Jets game, we have that third-and-10 and (it’s a) scramble drill and we don’t plaster and they score the touchdown. Just little things like that. I think it comes down to … We preach and (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) scripts the way we do practice, it’s situational football in that we just have to heighten our awareness of ‘Okay, we’re in the red zone, let’s keep tightening the screws on what we’re doing down there.’ I don’t think we’re getting schemed up or anything like that. I think it’s just been some random plays like that, that have kind of hurt us. I don’t know if that sounds like a dumb answer but just really heightening our focus when we get in there and saying ‘these are critical.’ We always talk about third-down plays in the red zone, that’s a 4-point play if you think about it. If you get a stop there, you’re kicking field goals instead of touchdowns. For us, going back to (the other) question, that’s a way for us to kind of score points. Once they get into the red zone and we get a stop down there, that’s 4 points that we’ve kind of earned back for us, if not – we’ve had a knack for getting some field goals blocked and missing some field goals. Getting stops down there and just trying to heighten the focus on when we’re in those areas.”
(Putting pressure on the quarterback, that’s key every week but with the weapons Oakland has, how much more important is that this week?) – “Every week (it’s important). Again, it’s no secret. That’s part of our sort of core philosophy on defense. This is another team where (Derek) Carr is very good at getting the ball out quick. Schematically, teams that have playmakers, he wants to get the ball in their hands and try to let them go to work. Pressuring sometimes is hard against these guys. You’ve got to pick your spots because you do have enough weapons that if the ball gets out quick, you’re thin because you’re committing guys to the rush. Again, we feel pretty confident about our guys up front to be able to generate some action and hopefully we have a couple of tricks up our sleeve.”
(Did LB Rey Maualuga play more snaps than you would have liked last week? It seemed like a lot.) – “It’s just dictated by situations. They were playing a lot more base personnel groups and that’s kind of one of Rey’s roles.”
(What do you think of Raiders QB Derek Carr?) – “He’s a good player. He can make all of the throws. Like I said, he’s pretty impressive a lot of times in terms of getting the ball out quick. When you get to third downs, it (usually) changes a little bit (with other quarterbacks) and it doesn’t with him. He’s very decisive in seeing coverages and knowing where to go, so the ball is out quick. Some of it is schematic. I’ve known their offensive coordinator – Todd Downing – for a long time. We worked together (in Detroit). We’re pretty close friends. I think they do a good job of scheming that up. (Carr) is really decisive. He’s really good with seeing coverage, seeing what he wants and getting the ball out and getting it to his guys. I think that’s probably one of his best strengths. He throws a nice deep ball. They’re going to take – I don’t know a number – probably 10 to 12 shots a game. They put the ball up and can put it downfield. You saw the game a couple of weeks ago against Kansas City where he was connecting on a bunch of those and again, they’ve got bigger receivers that can make those plays. He does a good job of being decisive with where he’s going with the ball and he puts a nice ball downfield and gives his guys an opportunity to go up and get those ‘9 balls’ and stuff. It’s kind of a tough combo where you’re saying he’s really good with quick throws and getting the ball out and then he’s really good with putting the ball downfield too. It’s going to be a good challenge for us. We’re excited.”
(How is LB Stephone Anthony doing in practice?) – “He’s doing good.”
(We don’t get to see. I know LB Stephone Anthony is not able to dress all the time.) – “He’s good. All of those guys, every decision we make in terms of game-day actives and those sort of things is obviously a big-picture team thing, and where all of those guys fit in. Steph (Anthony) has done a good job. He really is. He’s big, he can run, he’s been learning the system. We settled him in a little bit. What I’ve tried to do in terms of our defense is give him a couple of spots where, if for some reason we got him up on game day, if that’s what the team dictated, that we’d have a role for him. So he’s ready to go on some things. I don’t know if you guys have talked to him at all but he’s a really energetic kid. He’s happy to be here. He’s excited. I think he’s just waiting for his opportunity but he looks good. He’s a big dude and can run out there. He’s out there and you see him a lot mostly on the scout team and stuff where he does a good job with ‘This play you’ve got to go play Bruce Irvin and rush for us and this play you’ve got to go play this, drop and be an end or a linebacker.’ They move him around (on scout team) because he’s such a versatile athlete. We’re trying to work him in and find a spot where we can get him going on Sundays.”
(You said you settled LB Stephone Anthony in. Where did you settle him in?) – “We’ve been playing him mostly at Sam – if that means anything for you guys – kind of behind ‘Law-Dog’ (Lawrence Timmons) a little bit and just trying to let him work there. Our outside guys are kind of universal so he’s got a feel for that. He feels comfortable, he really does. He’s done a good job. I actually said to him the other day … You worry as a coach about a player getting frustrated and kind of what he had been through and getting traded. I was like, ‘Hey man, your time is going to come. You’re going to have an opportunity,’ and he’s just like ‘I’m good coach. I’m ready when you call on me.’ His attitude has been great and he’ll have a chance at some point to perform and contribute for us.”
