Christian Wilkins – September 18, 2023
Download PDF version
Monday, September 18, 2023
DT Christian Wilkins
(The run defense was very good last night. From Week 1 to Week 2, how much was it a strategic schematic adjustment from Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio and Defensive Line Coach Austin Clark compared to you guys just playing better?) – “I think it was a little bit of both. Zach (Sieler) kind of hit us – the d-line – with some real (expletive) before the game. I’m not going to say what he said but the message was received. We just kind of had that on our minds and we knew we had to play better. Week 1 wasn’t us as far as the run defense and our standard and what it has been around here. So it was good to definitely improve against a really good running team. Everybody knows the Patriots like to run the ball. Regardless of what’s going on, they’re a physical team. So we were able to do some solid things there which was good and it was just good to see the defense improve overall.”
(Is DT Zach Sieler a guy that talks often?) – “No, not too much. He keeps about his business but when he does talk, you listen. And like I said, message received.”
(How did it feel to go up there and get a win in that building? I know you are from the area.) – “Yeah, very nice for multiple reasons. Obviously like you said, that’s a home game for me every time I get to go up there and play in front of the home crowd. I have friends and family, people from high school and whatever. You just see a lot of people in the crowd that you know and that know you, so that’s always cool. Obviously it’s just big getting a division win on the road at night on Sunday Night Football. It makes it more fun and a little more special.”
(Two impressive wins on the road. Now to finally be back home, what does it mean to be back in front of the fan base and guys in their routine?) – “Definitely. I’m excited for that, to come back home, be in front of the fans, put on a show and do what we do at Hard Rock Stadium. That will be exciting. I’m encouraging and hoping that our fans come out and support and get loud and get crazy and make this place tough for opponents to want to come play in. Obviously there’s heat and other elements and things like that, but we want this place to raucous every time we come home and play. I think we work our butts off and we deserve that, so I definitely want to challenge the fans from that standpoint. It just makes it a lot more fun.”
(I’ve asked you several times about re-tracing screens and going down the field. You do it in conditioning and training camp. Last night, LB Bradley Chubb had a re-trace where he had a forced fumble. I just wanted to hear your perspective on that.) – “That was big. That is definitely something we emphasize and talk about a lot just getting off the stack, because oftentimes it’s the guys you don’t see. That was a perfect example of getting off the stack. Stack monsters hunting. He was just trying to make a play downfield and that was great to see. I had a perfect view on it. I was like Bradley, please get there. I didn’t know who it was. I saw a white color flash and was like, please get there. He was able to make a great play on the ball and (it was) clinic tape of a hammer down on the ball from the blindside.”
(Does this 2-0 feel like last year’s or is this one different for any reason?) – “I don’t know exactly how to answer that but it is just nice to be 2-0, especially getting two tough road wins. That’s obviously very important. Two in the conference and one in the division is huge. We definitely just want to keep building off of what we’ve done and get ready for a good Week 3 coming up.”
(From a stylistic standpoint, I couldn’t think of three different quarterbacks to start the season with now with Russell Wilson coming this weekend. What kind of challenge does he pose?) – “His resume speaks for itself and the things he’s been able to do in this league. He presents a lot of challenges, just being able to obviously be great in the pocket, run when he needs to, a great leader and things like that. I’ve gotten to play him once in my career and he was able to do some pretty impressive things throwing the ball, running, launching it down the field and different things like that. I’m excited for the challenge that he brings and looking forward to it always.”
(Did you see how their game ended yesterday?) – “I did not. I heard something was crazy. I was watching Get Up a little bit this morning but I turned it off before they got to that game.”
(It was a Hail Mary on the last play. They got it and then missed the two-point conversion on a blown defensive pass interference so they’re probably pissed off.) – “Oh, wow. Nah, I did not see that. But I’m sure they’ll definitely be motivated coming on the road and wanting to get their first win, so we’ll have to be ready.”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa calls Head Coach Mike McDaniel ‘beast.’ I was wondering if anybody else has any nicknames for him or do you call him anything besides…) – “I mean I wouldn’t go that far. (laughter) No, I don’t know what other guys have for him. I didn’t know Tua really called him ‘beast’ or anything like that, but that’s pretty funny. That’s cool. That’s part of Tua’s humor. Throwing kind of against the grain there. (laughter)”
(What did you make of the performance off the edge last night with all of the pressures, tackles for loss and sacks for the guys outside?) – “It was good definitely just for guys to be able to be active, make those plays and get that kind of pressure. It’s important because when you get that edge pressure, it makes it even that much more important for the middle guys to get that push and things like that. Just working together. I feel like we did a pretty good job of that last night. The interior guys were rushing and we were able to get some good pressures up the middle and off the edge. When we’re working like that, that’s important just to build that confidence and build that camaraderie as a defense and as rushers.”
(On wanting sacks and fumbles) – “Yeah, you definitely want to be known as an intimidating front. We’ve got the guys to do it. But it all comes down to a weekly focus and a weekly preparation, locking in on the game plan and really trusting one another. Fortunately for us, like I’ve said before, we’ve got a lot of guys who have played around each other for awhile. So it’s kind of knowing each other’s styles and just giving a guy a look and knowing what that means. That kind of helps so I just hope we can continue to build off that.”
(Have you seen that kind of pass rush from LB Andrew Van Ginkel before?) – “’Gink’ is my guy. Me and ‘Gink’ came in together as rookies back in the day. Me and ‘Gink’ have always been cool. I was happy to see him have a night like that and do some good things because we know what ‘Gink’ can do. We all mean it when we say he’s got like a horseshoe up his butt or something. (laughter) He always finds a way to be around the ball. And we joke too and say that ‘Gink’ is really one of the best football players on the team, just his ability to be versatile, smart and super reliable. That was good that he got a little shine and had a night like that last night.”
(Is that intelligence?) – “He’s always in the right spots at the right time and just knows ball. He’s really good at ball. ‘Gink’ (Andrew Van Ginkel) is just such a well-rounded athlete. Any sport he picks up, he’s really good at. Like I said, I was just happy to see ‘Gink’ have a night like that and happy to see him do his thing a little bit.”
(Can he dunk?) – “Yeah. He’s an athlete, I’m telling you. He’s the most unassuming athlete in the world there is. Don’t let the blonde hair and the nice guy demeanor fool you. ‘Gink’ (Andrew Van Ginkel) has some dawg in him.”
Braxton Berrios – September 17, 2023 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Postgame – New England
WR Braxton Berrios (Transcribed by New England)
(On the reaction of the offense to what the Patriots defense showed)
“We have to learn some things on the fly. You know things when the picture changes, pre-snap and post-snap, and we have to stick to our rules, and really just execute. It’s going to be different, so we have to figure it out as we go as well.”
(On the offensive adjustments)
“You have to play the game and see what is given to you and play that. I think this offense did an incredible job of doing that. We put together some really, really good drives, long ones, and again it was a chess match.”
Kendall Lamm – September 17, 2023 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Postgame – New England
T Kendall Lamm (Transcribed by New England)
(On the game)
“The biggest thing from our perspective is, I wish more people could actually be at practice and see what we were really truly working towards in our standard. From our perspective, when set a foundation and set a standard and that is what you want to uphold. When you’re going into a game regardless of the opponent, regardless if it’s Sunday night, Thursday night, Monday night, or whatever time of day, we try and uphold the standard. Butch [Barry] is very big on that and always preaching that to us and you can see our room starting to see and play that way.”
(On what is more important for the offensive line pass protection or run blocking)
“Not at all, as long as you see a “W” in the column, that’s all that matters. From our perspective of we just want to do, I mean every game is going to be completely different. You don’t really necessarily know what kind of type of defense you’re going to play that night, or you don’t know what they are going to run. The Patriots always have a phenomenal run defense, and they have always been a top-5 or top-10 defense in the league. So to go out and get a W against a type of defense like that, you tip your hat to them, because they are very good. We did what we were supposed to do.”
(On getting a win against a divisional opponent on the road)
“This is year nine for me and to come in here, especially in a division game at night in front of national TV, you’ve got everybody watching, and you go up against a phenomenal organization like this, and you come in here and get a W – it’s hard to get a win any day in the NFL but especially coming into an opponent’s, house and do it, it’s phenomenal. You tip your hat to those guys but you also tip hat to our group, we played really good.”
Raekwon Davis – September 17, 2023 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Postgame – New England
DT Raekwon Davis (Transcribed by New England)
(On the play of the defense)
“We were just doing our job. We knew going into the game that if we could control them up front, we could have them on our terms. We had great preparation. We just focused on our work, and took care of our work.”
(On being 2-0)
“We feel great. We just have to have the same mind set going into each and every game and it’s going to be wonderful when we look up. We are different. We are staying focused, studying our playbook and keep running day by day. We try this one game at a time. Stay focused, great preparation and study our playbook.”
David Long Jr. – September 17, 2023 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Postgame – New England
LB David Long Jr. (Transcribed by New England)
(On the play of the defense)
“We have dogs all across the board. Once we start gelling together, and playing as one, it’s going to be scary out there. I think you got a glimpse of it [tonight]. We can clean it up at the end. We can’t give them cheap stuff at the end. We are going to continue to build and become a great defense. We have energy and we feed off each other. One guy makes a play and it’s contagious. Our attitude is ‘let’s get a goose egg.’ We were feeling it. We played good football as a team. We are continuing to get a feel for each other. We’re feeling good, but it’s still early and we have some things to clean up. But we made some plays and you can see us making them.”
(On his sack)
“It really opened up for me. The play call was perfect. We tried to disguise it a little bit before the play. I came in free.”
Xavien Howard – September 17, 2023 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Postgame – New England
CB Xavien Howard (Transcribed by New England)
(On how it feels to have the defense put together a good game)
“There’s always room for improvement. We have to finish growing. Our offense helped us out a lot last week, so we had to come to play tonight.”
(On the defense causing turnovers and his interception)
“That’s one thing about the Patriots, they aren’t going to stop fighting. They’re going to keep coming but we made the special plays that needed to make and we got the job done.”
(On the pressure from the defensive line making his job easier)
“Getting pressure on the quarterback is a cornerback or safety’s dream. You get pressure on the quarterback, you get jump balls or overthrown balls to make plays on the back end.”
Christian Wilkins – September 17, 2023 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Postgame – New England
DT Christian Wilkins (Transcribed by New England)
(On how it feels to come into New England and get a win)
“It’s special for me personally because it’s nice coming back home to my home state. It’s always fun to get a win against a division opponent on the road. It was a big win tonight. Good energy. It was a lot of fun to play in this environment.”
(On what the defense improved on from Week 1 to tonight)
“We really didn’t have a choice. We’re running with the guys we’ve got and we had to get better from Week 1. We have some new defensive guys but that’s no excuse. We made some adjustments, and we were able to be better this week and hopefully we can build off of that moving forward. There’s still some stuff we can improve upon. By no means was it a perfect game. It can still be better in some situations.”
(On the defense being able to get pressure on Mac Jones tonight)
“Yeah, guys were able to do a good job, continuing rushing and winning their one-on-one individual matchups. The pressure just kept coming. Guys were relentless and again, hopefully it’s something we can build upon.”
LB Andrew Van Ginkel – September 17, 2023 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Postgame – New England
LB Andrew Van Ginkel (Transcribed by New England)
(On his versatility)
“Obviously Coach Fangio saw the versatility in me, and he knew that I could play multiple roles. In two weeks I’ve played two different roles already. Who know what the future holds? I’m just very appreciative to be back here in Miami and being able to be a part of this team.”
(On the last tackle on Cole Strange)
“It kind of reminded me of the Rob Hunt play a couple years back. It’s kind of crazy when the offensive lineman ends up with the ball in their hands. Honestly, I kind of went for the ball, I should have just tried knocking him back, but obviously it was a great play to get the stop and won the game off that.”
(On his effort)
“I think just my whole life being raised to be accountable. Being dependable so they know that they can trust me. I’m going to do what I’m asked to do, try to know the plays to the best of my abilities. With the different formations with however they may attack us. I just try to be on top of it and I think that allows me to play fast and be in the right spots.”
(On the defense bouncing back from last week)
“Obviously when you give up 34 points it’s a terrible feeling. Obviously the Chargers have a good offense, but it left a sour taste in our mouths, and we definitely came out with something to prove tonight.”
(On his sack)
“Any way you can get the quarterback down on the ground, and obviously get them backed up, putting them in a tough situation. It flips the field position any time you can do that. Any sack in the game is usually a big sack and it becomes a momentum changer.”
(On Bradley Chubb)
“He wasn’t satisfied with last week and he came prepared. He worked his tail off all week and you could see that he was determined. He was going to get to the quarterback and he came out and got the sacks and hits when we needed him to.”
