Matt Burke – October 19, 2017
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Thursday, October 19, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(Do you mind going over your three rookie defensive linemen and how you think each of them has played one by one – DE Charles Harris, DT Davon Godchaux and DT Vincen Taylor) – “No, I wouldn’t (mind). I think on the edge, Charles has done a good job for us. Honestly, it was kind of a big play on that first little flip they tried (last week). You see his athletic ability, for a guy like that to be able to sit his weight down and re-direct. Again, when he has rush opportunities, he’s been better kind of the last few weeks of getting chances and getting closer when he has his opportunities hitting the edge. I’m happy where he is in terms of his speed starting to show up and he’s getting closer and closer. When he’s had a chance or two, he’s gotten there. I’m happy there. Both of those tackles have done a really good job. They’re both just hard-nosed, tough kids that if you stick them in there … I said this the other day, it was funny. We started one of the series and all three of them were out there at one point. I was joking with ‘T’ (Defensive Line Coach Terrell Williams), I was like, ‘Man, you’ve got three rookies. What are you doing to me?’ But I honestly don’t think about it. That, to me, shows the progress of those kids. I don’t know when Godchaux is out there or Vincent or whoever. It’s just we’re playing our calls. Both of them have done a really good job in the run game. They’re stout. They take pride in it. Godchaux is probably one of the best on the team at holding double teams. He’s just a squared off safe. He’s like an old-school safe. He just holds in there and hangs and doesn’t get moved. Vincent has a little bit more wiggle to him. He gets on edges a little bit more and can do some stuff in that sense. So a little bit different approach, there’s a little bit different technique the way they do it, but their mentality and their approach has both been kind of identical, so it’s been cool to see.”
(Regarding DE Cameron Wake, we know about the on-the-field relentless motor and off the field, the diet; but what are other reasons that, at his age, he’s playing at such a high level?) – “I don’t know. If I had that secret, I’d make a lot of money I think. (laughter) I don’t know. He’s a unique, unique talent. It’s always hard to say ‘Do what Cam does.’ Obviously you want to tell everybody to do that. You’ve got Charles (Harris) and young guys and you’re like ‘Man, just do what he does.’ But some of that stuff, I don’t know if you can. I think just the way that he prepares. When he shows up on game day, it’s like a lot of our veteran guys. He does it day in and day out. He does it every day at practice. He’s into it; it’s important to him, just the type of person he is. I don’t know if there is a secret formula. I’ve been around some guys like that. That’s why he’s playing the way he is. He’s a unique, special human being and with special talent. I don’t know. There’s not many molded like that.”
(We’re five games in. If people were to identify your imprint on this defense, what would you want that to be?) – “I don’t know. I’m just trying to put the guys in a good position to make plays. I think the guys have bought into the big picture of what we’re trying to do and being physical and being relentless and attention to detail and all of the stuff we’re doing. For me personally, I try to make a point on all of those things of why we’re doing what we’re doing and every play is important; every play matters and every technique matters. I think the focus has been really heightened and I’m happy to see that those guys are kind of feeding into that. Every practice rep counts. Every walkthrough (counts). We just came off the walkthrough field and they’re really dialed in. I don’t know that it’s necessarily me, but it’s been good to see that those guys are sort of focused. I preach a lot of just everything matters – every play, every rep in practice, every little technique we do, it all matters. Those guys are kind of buying into (it). The whole group is really kind of feeding off each other and if one little thing is wrong, they’re all over-correcting it and getting better. Hopefully we continue to just keep getting better and keep going that path.”
(Do you think they can possibly get a little bit overconfident now that people are talking about them being one of the best defenses in the NFL?) – “I don’t know who is talking about that, but nobody is reading anything in our room. No, absolutely not. There’s always stuff to get better at. We’ve definitely not played our best game by far, which is good. We always say it’s better to coach off a win and coach the mistakes. We made plenty of mistakes last week. It was a great win and a great effort, but there’s a lot of work to be done and those guys, I haven’t seen one sniff of those guys believing anything else.”
(Outside of turnovers, where else can you guys improve?) – “It’s everything. We gave up more explosive (plays) last week than we had in a while. We missed tackles last week that we hadn’t in the last couple of weeks. Again, just perfecting those crafts and getting better, continuing to tighten up in the passing game. All of those things. There’s a lot. There is plenty of work to be done across the board.”
(Does CB Xavien Howard have enough talent to be one of those sort of lock-down, shut down, shadow, matchup WR Julio Jones guys?) – “We feel he’s a pretty good player, yes. We feel he’s got that talent. He’s still a young player. I think physically he’s got all of the tools … in terms of his growth and development and learning and experience and playing some things and seeing some different things, we feel pretty confident in his abilities for sure.”
(On the long touchdown pass last week, just so I know, was that a one-on-one just got beat by speed or was it that play was actually designed to have safety help?) – “It was a little bit of a combination to be honest with you. I was thinking that it was a first down about the 40-yard line and I was thinking pass. I was thinking they might try to take a shot there. I kind of put … They had a nice play call. They kind of bought our help. (Xavien Howard’s) got to be on a little bit if I had a better call, we would have had a little bit of help there for him. They had a nice scheme for that play. They kind of caught us on that one, so it was kind of a little combination of both to be honest with you.”
(I think what the reporter was asking earlier is that Boomer Esiason said this week that you guys have a “championship defense.”) – “I’m just trying to win a ball game guys. (laughter) Look, I don’t hear that stuff. I really don’t. God bless you guys. I’m sure you’re all really good at what you do but I don’t read any of your stuff. (laughter) We don’t think like that. It’s one game at a time. These guys beat us pretty good last game so we’re not looking past anybody. We’re not thinking about defensive stats or championships or any of that crap. We’re trying to win a ball game and we’re going to do whatever it takes this week to do that. I don’t think that’s even crept into any of our guys’ minds.”
(How does the nickel defense change with LB Lawrence Timmons in there now as compared to the last time you played the Jets?) – “Again, he’s a guy that can run and hit and cover and overlap some zones. He allows us … He’s a versatile player. He allows us to pressure a little bit with him. He’s a good blitzer; but he’s also a guy that can, again, when we play some vision defenses and zone defenses, he can overlap and run and hit and tackle when throws are made, and those sort of things. He allows us to do a lot of different things.”
(Last year, you were more aware than anybody that you were putting together the linebacker room with bandages and Band-Aids. It wasn’t always the guys you really needed out there. Is that a resolved issue now? Is that group that you have on the field now, is that a group that you see as the solution?) – “Those are our starters today, yes. (laughter) You can’t account for injuries or anything else going on. We feel comfortable with the guys who are playing for us right now. We’ve kind of jelled a little bit and had some success there but, just like every other group, we’re getting the other guys ready. We’ve seen it (happen). I did experience it last year where we had to go through and move guys around and plug guys in at different roles. We feel good about our depth there too, to be honest with you. Mike Hull’s got some playing experience and Chase (Allen) has and Steph (Anthony) has been kind of getting into it a little bit and we’re getting him going. Sure, you feel good about the first snap of the game, having three linebackers that have played; but after that, who knows what’s going to happen. We’re happy with the way they’ve played but we’re getting all of those guys ready to go for whatever comes down the road.”
(What kind of season is DT Ndamukong Suh having?) – “He’s been great. He’s been really good. Really good, I don’t know if I can expound upon that. (laughter) Honestly again, he’s been really good and in-tune to what we’re doing. He’s been really giving a lot of feedback on the sidelines on game days. I come over to those guys a lot and what he’s seeing and guys like him and Cam (Wake), that have a lot of experience playing, and what they’re getting in protection and what they’re seeing in the run game. He offers suggestions. He’s been really good helping me with ‘Hey man, this is what’s going on. I think we can hit them with this or what if we did this.’ He’s really receptive to me telling him the same thing. ‘Hey man, I need to move you over here to do this.’ We’ve been trying to flip him around a little bit and take the target off him a little bit more than maybe we even did last year. I think he’s responded to that. We’re trying to keep a moving target on him so they can’t just hone in on where he’s lining up. I think he’s responded with some success there. He’s doing really well.”
(What have you seen in DT Ndamukong Suh’s evolution as sort of a leader or a teammate?) – “It’s funny. I’ve obviously known him for 10 years now or whatever it’s been. We drafted him in Detroit. I think just any time a guy like that matures and again, his experience. Probably the biggest thing I’ve seen is how he’s been with the young guys, really taking those two rookie tackles and even Jordan (Phillips) under his wing. Probably more than I’ve ever seen him, (he’s) really trying to help those guys. I think he sort of sees where he is in his career and (thinks) ‘another way I can help is to keep my legacy going with some of these guys and help them become good players.’ He’s been really, really, really good with the other tackles and even the ends and stuff, in terms of helping being another coach out there for us.”
(When you see an offense in their run game that can vary things up and have versatility as far as whether they go gap-scheme, power or zone, how is that beneficial to an offense? How can you combat that?) – “I mean obviously any time an offense can run multiple schemes, it helps them. I truly believe we’re at a point defensively that we’ve seen all that too, so I feel like we’re pretty multiple on defense. We have answers to combat whatever we’re seeing. If you go and game plan what you’re expecting to see and then things change in the first series, you’ve got to adapt. I think our guys have done a really good job of just being ready for all of that stuff. We’ve seen it all. We practice everything, every sort of scheme, over the week and again, we have some things that we can dictate what we’re doing on defense. I feel like we can match up with any run scheme that we have, to be honest with you. Some teams are better at it than others. Some teams do different things. Some teams philosophy is this is what we do. We’re going to run these three runs and that’s all we’re going to run, and we’re just going to be really good at it. Some teams are like we’re just going to throw a bunch of different stuff at you and try to keep you off-balance. But I feel like our guys have really taken to it and we’ve seen it all. We’ve just got to be able to adapt on the fly to what we’re seeing.”
