Adam Gase – November 17, 2017
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Friday, November 17, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(We noticed that WR Kenny Stills was not practicing.) – “Right.”
(Is WR Kenny Stills out for this week?) – “I’m not really sure but things are looking better than they were yesterday. We kind of got going into practice (yesterday) and he wasn’t feeling right, so we pulled him out; and then today we’re just being … trying to just get him feeling a little bit better. So we’ll kind of see. We’ve got a couple of days still.”
(What kind of season has WR Kenny Stills had? His numbers are better in recent weeks.) – “He’s been doing what we’re asking him to do. There’s been a lot of times where his job has been to clear things out to get other guys the ball. We’ve tried to work downfield on a few things. We just haven’t been getting really some of the looks that we want heading into the game. We haven’t been able to take advantage of really his vertical speed. I think it’s pretty well known that he can get behind guys. We did it a lot last year. He’s done in the past. It’s just they’re aware of him. It just makes tough. You’ve just got to call things at the right time.”
(What is your best experience with RB Damien Williams in the two years you’ve spent with him?) – “I think just watching him improve. The attention to detail that he has, the pride he has, to make sure that he’s doing things right. If he makes a mistake, you’re probably not going to see the same mistake twice. I think that Oakland game was one of the better things I’ve seen him do in a game. I think last year against Buffalo when he went about 9 yards for a touchdown in a mosh pit. He’s a relentless runner and he’s a fun guy to watch and he’s a fun guy to coach. When he goes to practice, it is full speed all the time. It doesn’t matter, or in a walkthrough he’s going a little bit faster than everybody else.”
(Do you have to have a few guys like that on your team to kind of kick start the rest sometimes?) – “I think it’s always good to have as many of those guys as you can find. It’s just one of those things where this is it. This is what he loves doing. He doesn’t want to do anything else. He has no interest in anything else and it’s fun to be around a guy like that.”
(If WR Kenny Stills can’t go, does WR Leonte Carroo step into that spot?) – “I’ll worry about that if that’s the case. I mean we’re always going to have contingency plans on what to do.”
(You were talking about RB Kenyan Drake in the offseason and I think you said that he makes you crazy. Does he make you less crazy now?) – “I think he’s done a good job of …”
(What are some things that have changed?) – “He’s made a lot of improvements. A lot of improvements.”
(Such as?) – “Just being … the mistakes are way, way down and I don’t know if it’s … He’s playing so much more and he’s getting more reps. It helps him to where he gets to take all the walkthrough reps and he’s getting so many more reps in practice and then he’s getting the live action reps in games. (I don’t know) if that’s just kind of made everything kind of make sense to him. I see a guy that’s very attention to detail in meetings. He’s always taking notes, good eye contact, asking good questions. Sometimes it’s just when you get thrust in that role, it seems like you know what to do real fast.”
(When you’ve lost three straight, do you rely on the vets to keep the mindset positive and upbeat to guide the younger players how to navigate through this?) – “I mean this is, it’s kind of the NFL. It is ups and down. Every week is like either disaster or you’re the best team ever. You just keep plugging along. You have so much time. You want to just keep getting better and doing things right. That’s the key to everything and if you do that, that gives you your best chance for the next week. The hardest thing for anybody is just realizing once that game is over, you make your corrections and you better move on quick. If you sit there and linger and think about things, what went wrong, what you needed to do and you either don’t like play calls or guys aren’t executing, if you keep worrying about it, one loss becomes two. We’ve had certain things we’ve done better. We just need to put a full game together with all three phases.”
(Do you find the young players, that if they make an egregious mistake, they tend to dwell more than say a veteran and let that linger?) – “Sometimes. I think every guy is different. Some guys, they start over real fast. I think vets have a better understanding of how to do it because they’ve been through it so many times. I think anybody’s that been in the NFL long enough has had some really rough years and had some good years. I know I’ve had my fair share of seasons where it wasn’t very fun. So at the time, going through it, it’s a terrible, terrible feeling; but it helps you. It helps you down the road because when you hit (a skid and) lose a couple in a row, you know to handle it. You know what you need to try to do to get better.”
(T Laremy Tunsil can be very hard on himself when he’s not playing up to his standards earlier in the year. Have you had pep talks with him this year and how has he played the last couple of weeks?) – “He’s played better. He’s been getting better throughout the year. I do think he is extremely hard on himself, but we have very high expectations for him and we’ve made that known to him. He’s always been very confident since he got here, especially when he got bumped out there (to tackle). I think one of the first things he ever told me was, ‘Don’t worry about my side.’ That kind of confidence is what you want and it’s the same thing as when we talk about corners or wide outs if you have a drop. You better have a short-term memory because every guy you go against is good. They’re all good. Every defensive end you face, there’s probably an elite guy that’s going against him. So if he gets beat, you’ve just got to have short-term memory and come back. That’s why it’s a full group effort. Everybody’s got to be doing their job, quarterback getting rid of the ball, guys getting open fast. If you do that, that gives us our best chance as a full group.”
(Did you see DT Ndamukong Suh being hindered at all by that knee when you watched the Carolina game? Did he seem any different?) – “I don’t know if I’ve ever talked to him after a game where he said he played really well, so every game he’s going to be very critical of himself. When I look at it, I always see a really tough guy to block, you see a guy constantly getting double-teamed. You rarely see one guy trying to block him. If you can imagine, that’s your whole day is going against two guys. It’s just a tough way to make a living and he still finds a way to shake free, get in there and be disruptive. I guess I just don’t see anything that’s … It’s hard to see visually. I just know he wasn’t feeling great. He gave us everything he had. He was trying to do everything he could to help us stop those guys.”
(Your defensive line as a whole, when you look at things that need to change on your defense, is that group playing to the level of expectation or do you need more from that group as well?) – “It’s tough to point out one group because on defense, it takes that whole unit. You have to do a good job of taking that first progression away in the coverage, because it’s hard when the ball comes out as fast as it does usually on us, we’ve got to make that quarterback get to the second progression for those guys to really have a legitimate opportunity to affect the quarterback. It’s hard to just win when the ball comes out that fast. I think those guys are working to affect the quarterback as much as possible. There’s only so much they can control. They just have to make sure that we stay in that group mindset of, ‘Everybody do their job,’ because even if they’re not getting home, that means the ball’s coming out quick. We’ve just got to get tighter in coverage. When we do that and start batting balls down and try to create some kind of turnovers, whether it be fumbles or interceptions, that helps everybody. It helps the back end, linebackers and the front.”
(What does CB Xavien Howard have to do to improve his confidence with turning his head and locating the football and challenging vertically?) – “Some of those are tough plays no matter who it is. It’s a feel thing. You’ve just got to have that feel of the receiver’s body language, route concepts, splits. There’s a lot of factors that go in it. What’s your responsibility at the same time? A lot of it is experience. Just keep going through this process and when you see something, you understand how to fix it and how to make tighter coverage or when to turn your head around. It’s one of those things when you try to gamble one time and all of the sudden they double move you, now it’s worse than what it was before. I think he’s doing a good job. Every time we come out to practice, he’s trying to find a way to get better. He stays tight on coverage. He’s right there. I know there was a time when I think we were talking about body last year. He had tight coverage and hadn’t gotten his hands on any balls and this year we’re seeing him knock balls down. We’re seeing him … Quarterbacks are forced to throw the ball outside because he’s doing such a good job staying tight inside. It’s the same thing. Just keep playing. When you get on that run when you get your hands on the ball, it just kind of avalanches.”
(A lot of coaches have their stats or their numbers that they think are very telling or that they put a lot of value on. Where do you put giveaway/takeaway? I think you guys are -4, if I’m not mistaken. How has that affected the season?) – “That is something that’s important to us. I think part of the reason we haven’t had as many takeaways is it feels like – it’s just reality – we haven’t had any leads, which we can’t use our pass rush to our advantage. Instead, teams are able to stay balanced, able to run the ball throughout the entire game instead of giving our guys some kind of lead so our pass rushers can get after it, the quarterback has to hold onto the ball a little bit longer because he needs to try to make up some yards in some chunks. If we did that, you’d see more sack fumbles, you’d see more forced throws, you’d see a better chance for interceptions. It’s really an offense-defense thing. At the end of the day, both sides have to do their job and if you get some kind of a lead, that’s when you can really start forcing turnovers.”
(I liked your idea about 30 plays a game for LB Rey Maualuga at fullback. Have you explored other avenues in the offense where he can help you?) – “No, we’re just trying to find somebody to play a little bit of fullback for us. It’s good. It’s a good change up for us, something that we really hadn’t done a whole bunch of.”
Damien Williams – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Running Back Damien Williams
(How would you assess the mood of the team after having lost three straight?) – “I feel like everybody, if you look around, everybody is still kind of the same – laughing, playful. I think everybody is still in it.”
(How important is it to have that kind of mindset?) – “It’s very important. I’ve been on teams where if you lose two games, everybody thinks it is downhill from there. I feel like we have the right guys in here who have the right mindset to come here every day to keep working and wanting to get better.”
(Are you one of those guys that keeps people up?) – “I’d like to think so. (laughter)”
(Your personality kind of speaks for itself but is it something that can be helpful in times like this when you’re going through a tough spot?) – “Oh, for sure. I feel like guys look for energy, wherever it comes from, whether it’s a coach, whether it’s from the housekeeping guy that’s always here, ‘Hugh’ (Hubert). He’s a good guy. At the end of the day, you just need guys who have that energy that I can feed off of that.”
(How do you manage to stay upbeat yourself?) – “I guess I love what I do. This is my profession. If I don’t love what I do, then how would I come here and want to get better?”
(Has that been something that’s been the case your entire football life, that you’re always that upbeat guy?) – “I think if you ask anybody who knows me, they would tell you that’s Damien. That’s just who he is. That’s just me.”
(Where does that come from?) – “I don’t know. I can’t really tell you. That’s just who I am.”
(Is that why you’re so happy that the celebration rules have been relaxed?) – “For sure. I don’t have to worry about that fine (any) more. At the end of the day, they see that we want to have fun and it makes the game (more fun) when we’re out there celebrating with each other with the fans or whatever it is. It’s fun.”
(What kind of challenge has it been for you to still do your special teams work and then split duties at running back with RB Kenyan Drake?) – “I feel like I’ve kind of had that role since my rookie year. I’ve always kind of been thrown in the mix in offense and I have a big role on special teams, so now it’s kind of split half and half. I’ve been doing it since my rookie year, so I kind of know how to prepare and kind of how to separate the two.”
(One thing that I think we touched on last year when you and I were talking was how you managed to make the most of the opportunities that you get, the touchdowns to touches ratio you had last year. Can you describe the pride you take in maximizing that?) – “I feel like once any coach throws you on the field, they’re letting you know and the organization is letting you know that they trust you. Once you get on that field, it’s what you do with your opportunity. Every opportunity I get, I like to take it to the fullest because who knows when that will be the last time.”
(What was your mindset when you first came in here as an undrafted free agent? Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen was talking earlier today how he noticed it right away that there was something about you.) – “Just being undrafted and feeling like and knowing that I should have been drafted. At the end of the day, that’s all behind me. I always kept that dog in me – that underdog in me – that you don’t have to see me, you don’t have to hear me, but I’m going to be there at the end of the day.”
(What about in terms of starting and not starting? One thing that Head Coach Adam Gase said today is at least from the coach’s standpoint, is that they don’t put a lot of stock into which running back starts because both of you are going to get opportunities. For you, maybe you look at it differently. I don’t know.) – “I feel like how the game goes on – because I’m still on special teams and a lot of it – I feel like the coaches do a good job of kind of mixing us in in different game situations and certain downs. I feel like they’re doing good at rotating us.”
(How have you and RB Kenyan Drake’s camaraderie developed the last two weeks being that you’re both kind of doing the split backfield in the game together? How has it changed?) – “I feel like nothing has really changed since Day 1. The running back room and how we are, we’ve always been close, whether it’s here or outside of here. We’re always together; we’re always on the phone. We’re always talking, period. I don’t see how we haven’t gotten tired of each other yet, to be honest. (laughter)”
(What did you see on RB Kenyan Drake’s 66-yard run?) – “I was … If you watch film or the TV copy, I’m the 12th man on the field. We could have gotten a penalty. (laughter) I’m running full speed right behind him. As soon as he turned around, I was there.”
(Since you’ve been here, there have been a few running backs that have come and gone and you’re now the longest tenured guy at the position. How do you describe the feeling of still being here?) – “It’s a great feeling. At the end of the day, I’ve seen a lot of guys come through here and I’ve been close with them. Every guy that has come through here, whether they were here – I’ve seen a guy come here for a day – but at the end of the day, our group is so welcoming to whoever comes through. At the end of the day, whoever comes through – we’ve got Senorise (Perry), we’ve got ‘D-Smit’ (De’Veon Smith) – ‘D-Smit’ was an undrafted guy. Senorise was an undrafted guy. And we’re all here.”
(On comparing rushing averages with RB Kenyan Drake) – “No, we don’t ever look at averages. At the end of the day, it’s always a competitive thing with us. I let him know that … Obviously, he’s faster than me; but I let him know, ‘If you slip up, I’m going to be in front of you. So just know that.’ There’s always something competitive with us.”
Ndamukong Suh – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
DT Ndamukong Suh
(As you guys watched the tape this week on defense specifically, what stood out to you as the reasons why it hasn’t been quite as good the last couple of weeks as earlier in the season?) – “Missed assignments and not tackling. I think it’s as simple as that. That’s what I assumed after the game and that’s what showed up on the film.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke and Head Coach Adam Gase were talking about the defense has not had a lead so that it could unleash it’s pass rush this season and it would be so much better if you guys did have a lead and you could unleash that pass rush. What kind of a difference does that make when you don’t have the lead and you’re kind of playing from behind?) – “I mean I think it’s always great to have a lead and have the best scenario for you to be in; but I don’t know what life people live in through that to be expected and unfortunately some times we don’t have leads, some times we do have leads, and it’s been to our own detriment, especially the last three weeks for us not to keep those leads on the defensive side of the ball. We have to continually, at all times, make sure we eliminate points and touchdowns, and if we have to give up some points let it be field goals at most.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase and Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke both brought up the idea about communication and being on the same page. Can you take me a little bit inside the game to understand how it is that the defensive line and linebackers, the linebackers and the d-backs, how do you all actually communicate to each other during the game, in between series to make sure that the same page occurs?) – “I think it’s … I mean I can go through a million different examples but at the end of the day, it’s all about being on the same page, and one of the best ways to be on that same page is communicating. Starting from our middle linebackers, starting from usually our free safety, that gives the down and distance, things that we anticipate obviously, and the calls that are being called where guys need be at, where guys need to be lined up. We obviously have different checks that we have. For example, when we have unbalance we call it ‘tank’ and we move into different situations like that where we have different alignments that we need to be in. So for me, communicating that to my linebackers – because a lot of times I see it first because I look for different things in the pass game, pass rushing, seeing where the formations are, all the different stuff like that – I can communicate those things to my teammates and vice versa, they can communicate those things for me. I missed some things last week and I blame that on myself; but at the end of the day, if we’re all collectively looking for the same things, anticipating things and communicating, hopefully we have a limited amount of those, because we’re never going to be perfect.”
(Do you expect to be available on Sunday and what is it extra that you’re having to do to be able to be available as far as the dings and nicks and the bruises that you’re dealing with?) – “I’ve prided myself on always being prepared to play on Sunday, so whatever it takes – whether it’s within the training room, in the weight room, as we have great staffs on both sides of those for me to get prepared – that’s what I’m going to do. If I’ve got to stay up late at night and do extra things, that’s what I’m going to do, and at the end of the day it’s Coach Gase’s decision how much I play and all these different things, and if I even actually play. So, we’ll go from there.”
(Do you have a new injury or is it a lingering situation?) – “I think playing in between the tackles, things are always going to happen, no matter what. I don’t know of anybody in the sport of football that’s come out clean of a game of not having some sort of nick or bruise. At the end of the day, I don’t really pay attention to them, I just address them and go about my business.”
(When I was looking at the film, there was one play where I saw you try to go in between the center and the guard and it looked as though they each grabbed one of your legs and lifted you up off the ground. I’m wondering how helpless that must feel when two men, literally each man has their arm around your leg?) – “There’s plays like that, and at the end of the day, it’s usually a guard that’s pulling, a center blocking back and a tackle blocking down. For me, at the end of the day, I have to squeeze between those two or run through one of the men and figure it out. My job is to create havoc and my job is to continue to do that. If it so happens to be that one particular play I get grabbed, I have to find a way to fight out of it and get to the ball.”
(Is it actually within the rules for them to lift you up off the ground?) – “I would consider it holding, but I’m not sure whenever that’ll be called. It’s happened in many years past and I’m not concerned with it.”
(I know we ask you a lot about the mood of the team, but how is the mood of the team right now with the three-game losing streak and seven games to go?) – “I don’t think anybody’s happy, but I think we understand as professionals we need to get back to work and understand that (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase is taking care of our bodies in a lot of ways, especially with our situation and what we have going on, and take advantage of that, of a coach looking out and more or less putting you in a good position. So when you come into work today – which is technically our first day of work even though guys have been in here in days before, preparing for film and different things like that – when we get to the physical stuff and then we’re in meetings together, make the most of that time and really just put those things in the past. Unfortunately that happened, with our three-game losing streak; but let’s break that and take care of business with the next opponent that we have.”
(If I can double back to playing with a lead, is it possible for a defensive front to generate as much pass rush on first down as third down, behind as ahead?) – “Yes, I think there’s opportunities at any particular level. Understanding this game and being around it a long time, if you understand how people want to block you and really when offenses really get out of the first 15 (scripted plays) and usually stick to their plan and go back to things that they like, there’s ways to create pass rush, get after the quarterback and put them off-kilter. That’s our job as guys up front and the front seven to get that done, really honing in with our coaches, having in-game changes to make sure that we do affect the quarterback and affect their offense so they’re not successful.”
Jay Cutler – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
QB Jay Cutler
(Head Coach Adam Gase and Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke were talking about how much better it would be for the defense if the offense could get them an early lead and I’m sure it’s better for the offense also. Has there been any particular problem? I think you guys have been outscored 114-43 in the first halves. Has there been any particular thing or has it always been something different?) – “It’s things that make offenses not go. You can have penalties, third-and-longs, turnovers, basic stuff that inhibits you from moving the football. A little feedback.”
(Yes, I’m very thrown by that.) – “I can work through it.”
(Is there something that you saw after you were able to review the film that maybe wasn’t so obvious and immediate after the game?) – “No. We had a turnover, some penalties that hurt us, we didn’t execute. It’s stuff that’s been occurring all year long for us on offense.”
(Everyone knows a throw is better or easier if you keep your feet set and throw. Sometimes pressure forces you to drift a little bit. Have you been drifting too much or too often?) – “(laughter) It seems like you already have an answer for that.”
(I’m wondering what you think.) – “It’s always a constant battle. You’re always fighting it.”
(Are you having fun?) – “Am I having fun? Like at this very second? (laughter)”
(Playing football again.) – “Yes, it’s good being here. It’s a really good group in there. It’s a good locker room.”
(What is that “fight” about?) – “Whether to drift or not to drift.”
(Right.) – “You’ve got four to five guys coming at your at all times, so it’s a constant battle.”
(Could you talk about Sunday’s game, the Bucs and what the priorities are in your mind?) – “(They have a) good defense, a good front seven, (their) linebackers can go sideline to sideline, (a) smart secondary. I think they do a really good job of keeping things in front of them. They take gambles from time to time, create turnovers. ‘93’ (Gerald McCoy’s) an animal in there. We’ve got to account for him really at all times. They’re going to mix it up. They’re going to hold their coverages, they’re going to roll late, they’re going to disguise some things and they’re not afraid to bring zero, really anywhere on the field.”
(As WR DeVante Parker ramps up in his return from injury, do you sense him coming around? How aware would you like to be to get him as many targets as possible?) – “That would be great. I think you said it right. Him ramping back up from that injury and building week in and week out and getting back to where he feels 100 percent comfortable in himself and what we’re doing offensively. He’s a guy that we should be able to put him on the back side and if it’s one-on-one, we should be able to go to him.”
Adam Gase – November 16, 2017 (Conference Call)
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Tampa Bay Media
(How do you feel RBs Kenyan Drake and Damien Williams have played in place of RB Jay Ajayi? Are you getting what you expected out of them?) – “Yes, I think they’ve done a good job. They’ve really exceeded my expectations with how easy the transition has been when one guy takes a series and then another guy comes in. I wasn’t 100 percent sure of how smooth that would go, if things would change up for us; but those guys do a good of playing off of each other from series to series. They’re both looking out for each other because they still have some special teams responsibilities. Damien does a little bit more on special teams. They pay attention to that throughout the game, so if one of them is a little bit tired, the other one will pop in there for a few plays and give the guy a rest.”
(RB Kenyan Drake has had a couple of real break away runs the last two weeks. Does he give you that on a consistent basis, you think, that threat?) – “We saw it off of our kickoff return team, that speed he has. The thing about him that makes him unique is that for a speed guy, he hits the hole extremely hard. If he pops through that secondary, that’s where he becomes an issue.”
(Are you planning to continue with a committee there at running back, using both guys evenly because of the special teams issue? Or do you see one guy emerging as the lead back?) – “No, I like both of those guys being in there. I feel comfortable with both of them in there. I know the quarterback feels comfortable with both of them in there. Really, the way that we’re playing it right now, we still have a long ways to go and both of these guys really haven’t had that kind of work as running backs in the NFL, so I’m just looking at this as we’re probably going to need them both to stay involved.”
(Last year you guys got off to a slow start and then turned it around and had a great season, and I know you’ve had a few losses here now; but in the NFL, how difficult is it to reverse momentum during a season?) – “It’s really not that hard because if guys just focus on one week at a time, it swings so fast. If you put one good game together, it’s really easy to carry that over. The confidence can really pop for you just from one week to the next. I just see our guys that have experienced a little bit of not playing so well and then we have one good game, and all of a sudden we go on a run. If we can just somehow put it together as a team … We keep picking our spots where one side of the ball plays okay and the other side doesn’t, and we’ve kind of flipped roles here so far in the last couple of games. If we can somehow play some complementary football with each other, that’s going to give us our best chance to have some consistency.”
(From what you’ve seen of him on tape, how does LB Lavonte David look to you for the Buccaneers? If just seems like he’s making plays all over the field. Are you seeing the same thing?) – “Yes, he’s a tough guy to go against. He covers a lot of ground. He’s physical. Last game you saw some looks where they had some two-back, bringing the fullback out of the backfield trying to lead up on those guys and he was taking those guys on, getting rid of them and still making plays. When you start going sideline to sideline, he covers a lot of ground. He’s good in the passing game. He’s just one of those guys that you have to be aware of. You have to make sure that you have a plan for him because he can really disrupt both your run game and your passing game.”
(I know it was a scary situation when QB Ryan Tannehill went down, but how has QB Jay Cutler adapted to coming back and playing and doing the things you hoped he would do?) – “I think we started off well in the preseason, feeling good about things. In that first game, we really felt like we were going to be able to move the ball this year and then we had a couple of games where we really struggled. It just seemed like we started pressing there for a little bit and then finally got a little more back on track against Oakland. This last game, we did some things better than we did the week before, and it wasn’t really the result we wanted as a team; but we made some little strides there. The biggest thing for our guys is just keep working and find ways to get better and I think Jay’s just trying to be a part of that solution. He’s done a good job of just trying to develop and work on little things to improve his game.”
(You had LB Rey Maualuga as a fullback on a few plays last week, is that something you’re going to continue to do? What does he bring for you there?) – “I think with a guy that size that’s willing to go in there and lead up on linebackers, that’s something that a lot of teams really have gone away from and we’ve been one of them. I like that fact that when you have a guy that can do it and play both ways and contribute for us on offense as well, it’s really a benefit to us. It’s one of those situations where a lot of teams don’t get to work on that a lot. If we can kind of use that every once in a while and have some success with it, that’s all we are looking to do.”
(There’s a lot of great corners in this leagues. As an offensive play caller, what do you think of CB Brent Grimes and certain guys, whether they’re guys not that you don’t go at them, but do you try to be aware of where they’re at?) – “Yes, when I watch him … I think the last time that I actually played against him was in 2014. He was hot going into that game when I was in Denver. I remember we were really cautious about certain routes that we threw and how we wanted to attack when we did go to his side, how we wanted to attack him route-wise, because he does such a good of both playing with vision and being able to play in man coverage as well. The thing that is always scary about him is when the ball is near him, his ball skills are outstanding. He does a good job of putting himself in a position where the quarterback thinks he has an open throw and then all of a sudden he gets his hands on the ball. A lot of times if that happens, he ends up getting the interception. You saw that last week where most quarterbacks would see exactly what (Jets quarterback) Josh McCown saw where you think you have the right coverage for what they were running and he goes to throw that post and Brent played it perfect. That was really all him because he baited him into throwing that thing and he made a really nice play by catching it.”
Clyde Christensen – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(RB Kenyan Drake has the two big runs the last couple of games. How do you view his overall contribution, being able to move the chains, and what do you want from Kenyan?) – “I think when we first talked about him a couple of weeks ago, we just said that both of these guys (Drake and Damien Williams) have a chance to make big plays. They’re home run hitters. They can go at any time and so I’m not surprised. I mean that’s what he’s done. He’s probably one of the highest ratio big plays to snaps (guys), since he’s been here, on the offense. It’s probably not a surprise whatsoever. Those guys have done, him and Damien, have done a great job with that plus the check downs. That’s the other thing that jumps out at me, taking check downs and averaging 8 or 9 yards with those things. That’s big. That’s helped us on third down. That’s helped us shorten our third downs, which has happened the last couple of weeks, and so that part of it’s been really good. They both have exceptional hands and they’re very good with the ball in their hands after the catch.”
(Have RB Kenyan Drake and RB Damien Williams done a good job of moving the chains and keeping drives going?) – “They have. I think they have. I think they have and we’re getting better with the protections and that’s always a challenge for the backs. There’s a ton of schemes, especially all of a sudden when you’re playing every third down and the third downs in this league get complicated. Defenses are darn good at it and the blitz packages are sophisticated. They prey on getting you picked off or showing you something that it isn’t, so I think that will be an experience issue and a concentration issue; but they’re getting better and better at it.”
(Has RB Kenyan Drake done enough to warrant more carries?) – “No. I don’t think so yet. I think we just keep doing it. We keep doing it with the two of them both doing it and we’d love to get him more carries. It’s not that he doesn’t deserve more carries, but I don’t see us changing the formula right now. I do think that keeping him fresh, that helps. It does change it. All of a sudden, if you play an extra 20 snaps … I think we’ve got a luxury that we have confidence. Coach (Head Coach Adam Gase) has confidence in both of those guys. You don’t have to call the game any different when one of them is in than the other, and that helps. I think it will stay the same formula.”
(Several of QB Jay Cutler’s passes in the last game weren’t close. They were well off target, from my perspective. I’m not a coach. When that happens, what does Jay need to be aware of? What are some coaching points to avoid that?) – “Coach (Head Coach Adam Gase) kind of handles Jay (Cutler), but I think he would be the first one to say ‘Hey, I’ve got to hit that. I’ve got to hit that.’ You can’t give away completions. If you get a guy open, it’s hard to get a guy open in this league. If you get him open, we have to hit him and Jay knows that. Just the coaching points, I’ll let Coach (Gase) deal with that just because he’s kind of handling him; but those are big. They’re not small things. There are no small things in this league that all of a sudden a miss, a drop, an offsides, and the drive stops. You don’t recover from the drive and there aren’t enough of those things. You can’t stop drives and that’s probably been, if there’s one issue for us, it’s been that. We’ve had drive stoppers. It’s a holding call, it’s an offsides, it’s a second-and-20, it’s a drop, it’s a third down miss of guy – a miss of guy on the first third down. You don’t get that drive back. They’re crucial and they’re precious. You’ve got to treat them as such.”
(How would you evaluate T Jesse Davis’s first start at right tackle?) – “I thought Jesse did a solid job. I thought for the magnitude of the game and Monday Night Football and being in a different position out there for him, I thought he played solid. I think he would love to have five or six plays back; but overall, I don’t think he was a factor. The game got away from us a little bit in the second half, where you were throwing the ball, and to go zero sacks for the offensive line against a team that always – I think it’s the first … I don’t know that many folks have gone zero sacks on them. If you reach for positives, there is one. There is one that that’s a very good defense and a good rush team and they didn’t sack us. There’s a positive as you look hard for one.”
(I would hate for people to go back and take things I’ve said in the past that haven’t come true; but I want to ask you about WR DeVante Parker because you had such high hopes for him back in the spring. We haven’t seen that dynamic-ism that you were expecting. How do you explain it?) – “I think just the injury; but I think even this morning, we had a good discussion that we’ve got to get him right back to where he was coming out of training camp. I just thought he was so darn hungry. I thought he looked like a guy who wanted to be great and there’s nothing worse than being a receiver and having some nagging injury that you just don’t feel great. I haven’t given up on that. I haven’t changed my opinion of a guy who can be a really, really fine player, and he is still doing some things really well. I do agree with your assessment, that he doesn’t have the edge that he had coming out of training camp; but I think sometimes with those guys who are speed guys and outside guys, that you get a nagging thing and even if it’s little, you just don’t feel 100 percent. I’d say that that’s the reason; but again, there’s still seven more games. We talked about it this morning that we’ve got to get him right back to that level and he still could do some great things before this year is over. He still could make it into a heck of a season.”
(You guys have predominately been more of a zone-blocking scheme type team. Some of your larger runs are gap scheme. Have you guys taken note of that? Is there any thought of doing gap scheme a little bit more?) – “Yes, we talk about it every week, although the 60-plus yarder was a zone scheme this week. So it was zone scheme on the long run; but yes, every week we kind of assess it. Every week it kind of depends on their personnel and the run pod – the run division – looks at that and assesses it, so we’re always constantly talking about that.”
(How did C/G Ted Larsen grade out?) – “Ted was solid. I think (it’s the) same thing, that he wasn’t a huge factor in the game, which is a compliment. I was probably more worried about him than Jesse (Davis) just because you can’t simulate the contact and the physical-ness of playing inside there, and especially with (the Panthers) having such a good inside player (Kawann Short). For him to hold up in there was really good. This time of year, you don’t get many padded practices anymore. You can’t find those days to get him ready physically, so I think if he wasn’t a veteran like he was, that would have been a rough day. For him to go in there and just kind of hold his own and again, the same thing, I think he probably has five or 10 plays that he’d love to have back; but for a guy coming off of IR, that’s a big stage. That’s good inside players, big good inside players (on the other team) and I thought he held his own and did okay. I was encouraged and I think it will get better and better and better – him and Jesse – just the more they settle in there.”
(Earlier you talked about the two running backs’ ability to hit the home run, which I don’t think anybody would say RB Jay Ajayi couldn’t do that.) – “No, I wouldn’t say that.”
(But the criticism was settling for 3 or 4 yards when that was all that there. How do you see these two guys, RB Kenyan Drake and RB Damien Williams, in terms of patience, when there’s only 3 or 4 yards to get?) – “Yes, I think so far so good. I do think even with (Jay) Ajayi that him having those couple a hundred, 200-yard games, all of a sudden you think that’s the norm and that can be a curse sometimes. Just getting back to just settling, just keep pushing pockets, pushing piles for 2-, 3-, 2-, 3-(yard gains) and then all of a sudden it pops. So far so good. I think sometimes that the impatience comes with success or a gross failure, and all of a sudden you’re trying too hard to make something happen; but these guys have been excellent so far and we’ll see. Again, it’s getting their feet wet as starters and regular players in the position, and so I think there’s a ways to go. I do think platooning them maybe helps you too because you stay fresher and sometimes that helps you stay more patient. You don’t go ‘X’ number of plays in a row and start feeling some pressure to hit a grand slam to knock one out of the park.”
(C Mike Pouncey has an extra day of practice. Did you see any tangible results whether it’s communication with C/G Ted Larsen or with the no sacks or anything like that? Or can you measure it like that?) – “I think you can measure it and there were some things we did better; but there were some disappointing things that again we set some people free on some runs where our communication wasn’t up to snuff, and so I don’t think that … I thought it was five steps forward, five steps back kind of. I thought that for everything we improved at, we also again had an issue with communication, and so that’s one of the priorities this week. We have to get the communication right. We have to all be on the same page and then that’s a chance to go do something fast and hard and with leverage and pad level and all of those things, and then this thing will go. But the communication is the starting point. It’s the starting point and there was some improvement in some areas, but there were some disappointing ones also that we should be beyond at this point.”
Adam Gase – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Didn’t have a chance to ask Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke this, but without calling out individual guys, do you think the division that we’ve seen defensively as far as against the run and pass rush the past few weeks, do you think it’s equal parts ends, tackles, linebackers or has there been a particular area – without naming names – a group that needs to particularly play better?) – “We’ve talked about this before: when you play defense, it’s a group deal, it’s 11 guys. Really at the end of the day, everybody has to be on the same page. Everybody needs to do their job, because it’s hard to be successful on defense if guys are trying to cover for other guys or doing things that aren’t meant to be done in that particular call. Really, the quickest way to get things going in the right direction is getting 11 guys doing their job and everybody trusting each other as far as what they’re doing.”
(The package with LB Rey Maualuga offensively, has it exceeded what you thought? Obviously, it has been limited. It has just been a handful of plays. Is two or three plays pretty much the realistic max you can do that offensively in your eyes?) – “You can do it 30 plays if you want. That was just kind of the situation that we felt like it was good for us with what we wanted to do, what we had in. We didn’t get to a couple things that we liked. We’ll just kind of keep seeing where that goes.”
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen was talking about WR DeVante Parker not having the same, “edge” is the word he used, now as what he did maybe in training camp or coming out of training camp. Why is that? What’s he missing? What’s his problem?) – “I think a little bit of it is when you miss that time and you’re away from that group, you miss some value in the reps, game experience, those type of things. With where we were at before he got injured, we were relying on him heavily in a lot of different situations. Some of it we never got to it, what we would be practicing. I think him coming back, he’s trying to feel, ‘Alright, what’s my role?’ Offense has changed throughout the season, and you start getting into a flow and guys start getting better at certain things that they do. I think he had a really good target as far as what he was doing, and now he’s trying to feel his way out a little bit. I think he has got a better feel. Last week we started really seeing him get going in practice. He made some plays for us this last game. I think we’ve just got to get him going a little more, whether it be giving him more opportunities earlier in the game to see if we can get him to make a play, whether it be down the field or in that intermediate area. Some of it is on opportunities. I think if we give him some more opportunities, we’ll see what we were doing earlier in the season.”
(I don’t mean to disparage WR DeVante Parker or anything, but an alpha receiver will say, “I’m the guy. I’m the guy before I got injured, and I’m going to be the guy after I got injured.” Shouldn’t he be – instead of waiting for someone to give him a role – imposing himself?) – “You always want that, but you’re still dealing with a very young player. You’re dealing with a guy that has missed time in his career, early in his career. I’ve been around this before. I’ve seen situations like this where you’re kind of waiting for a guy to take that step. Sometimes it takes longer than other guys. Some guys just grab it right away and take it over. He just has to keep getting better and then get that feel of, ‘I can dominate, and I can consistently make the plays that we need to make.’ It really starts with growing that confidence in practice, being consistent every day, giving that quarterback that reliability of when he puts that ball up there’s one guy coming down with it.”
(RB Kenyan Drake has quite an impressive yards per carry average based on two runs. Can you explain to the average Dolphin fan who looks at RB Damien Williams’ average and sees RB Kenyan Drake’s average and explain to them why you value two backs and why Damien is the starter?) – “We look at it as really they’re both starters. They’re both going to play. Who’s out there on the first play of the game is really irrelevant a lot of the times, because we go three wide receivers, one tight end or two tight ends and two wide receivers. We could put them both out there one game. What does that mean? It’s really irrelevant. We have a good feel of how we want to roll those two guys. Damien’s value, whether it be in the run game, pass game … We look at everything very closelu. It’s all equal to each other. It’s about getting yards, putting us in position to get third down conversions. I think that’s one of the things that both those guys have done a good job of is we’re converting more on third down, because we’re in third-and-manageable. That’s really the whole goal – which we set at the beginning of the year – of how many times can we get in third-and-6 or less, give ourselves run-pass options, make it hard for the defense to defend us. Last week was a good example. We had a lot of third-and-shorter distances. This last week was the first time that we were converting on third-and-7-to-10. That’s what we needed to do. The value that both of those guys have, we like, because they can do multiple things.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke talked about the challenge of regrouping defensively after Monday night. With the personalities you have on this defense, what sort of response do you think you’ll get from them?) – “I expect that group to come out ready to perform and play well. That’s the best thing about playing defense. It’s really about a mindset of 11 guys doing their job and playing with energy and emotion and playing fast and physical. It’s sometimes less about … On offense, it’s about lining up right and all those type of things and doing all pre-snap stuff before you even really get the play off. Sometimes it just takes a guy shooting up the middle and stroking somebody. That’s the (most fun) part about defense. That’s what I think our guys need to get back to doing – having fun and playing with emotion.”
(This is the first time you guys have seen Buccaneers CB Brent Grimes since obviously you guys moved on. Are you surprised at age 34 that he’s still playing at the level he is?) – “No. He does a good job and makes it really, really tough on the quarterback. The thing he does best is he makes quarterbacks feel like somebody is open. That’s why you see guys throw the ball at him and all of a sudden he has the ball. It happened last game. They were playing a coverage and the concept they ran, I’m pretty sure almost every quarterback would’ve thrown that ball. He was in such good positon. The toughest thing he did was make that catch. He does that consistently. He makes it tough, because you think a guy is open. He has a really good break on the ball. When he plays with vision, it’s a tough throw to make. You better be very accurate. You can’t miss by much.”
(Several of QB Jay Cutler’s throws from the last game seemed pretty far off target. When he is far off target, what are some things you notice that he needs to be aware of?) – “A couple of them, we weren’t on the same page. We took the wrong angle on one of the routes. He thought one of the guys were going high and he flattened it out. That was just one of those ones where he saw it one way, they saw it a different way. Some of them are not setting your feet properly, alignment and just some basic stuff. That’s one of the things that we’re consistently working on is trying to keep him in that … make that pocket firm, let him sit in there, work his feet and when he’s ready to turn it loose, have his proper mechanics. That’s when we get accuracy. There were some throws there in the second quarter, some in the fourth, that were really, really nice, especially to Kenny (Stills), that were 12-yard out routes that were very accurate. A lot of it is just mechanically being in the right position.”
(You guys have predominantly been a zone blocking team, outside zone; but some of your larger runs have been gap scheme. What’s your thought process on that – gap scheme versus zone – at this point in time?) – “It’s really what’s best for that game. This last game, if you want to run sideline to sideline with Thomas Davis and (Luke) Kuechly, have at it. It’s always going to be … It’ll be fun. We had a good mix. We were just trying to do everything we can to not let Kuechly just point out where everything was going, which when you watch his film against other teams, he’s pointing where the run is going. It’s really amazing to watch him play, because he’s a tough guy to play chess with. For me, I’m on the sideline and he’s on the field, so it makes it really tough. He makes it hard and we had to keep mixing it up. That’s really what we’re trying to do every week is what’s best for that game.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke was saying this defense hasn’t been able to really cut it loose. If they were given 14-, 17-point leads, 10-point leads, how different would they look?) – “That’s what we built it for. We haven’t really come through on offense in two years. That’s the part that has really been more disappointing for myself is we haven’t been able to put those guys in the position that we wanted to. That needs to be something that … If we get anything clicking, getting off to a faster start and having some consecutive drives early to where our defense doesn’t feel like they’re in four-minute mode for the entire second half, that’s really what we want to do. The hard part is going out there and executing early. Instead of feeling the game out, let’s be right early and not wait to the third quarter to actually do something.”
(We saw DT Ndamukong Suh pop up in the injury report again. Is that just last week carrying over?) – “Every week could be different for him (based on) how he’s feeling and whether or not we practice him. I know whatever he has, he’s giving it. When you play inside there, you’re going take some nasty hits and get cut all of the time. It’s a tough position to play. He gets doubled almost every play. He’s trying to fight through some things and hopefully, as the season goes on, we can get him a little healthier and healthier every week. That’s why we try to give him as much time off from practice as we can, just to take a little bit off of him.”
(Not to act as a jinx, but DT Ndamukong Suh hasn’t missed a game since 2011. What does that say for a player in that position to have that kind of durability?) – “I think a lot of it starts with the way that he trains. It starts in the spring when he goes up to Oregon. He’s unbelievable in his preparation during the week. You see him around all of the time. He’s always doing something. The day off, he’s the guy here early and he’s here for so long just doing things to make sure that his body’s ready to go on Sunday. It’s very impressive to witness.”
(Not every running back can run behind an upback. It’s difficult for some guys. What are the qualities of a running back that can have that vision for creases in the defense…) – “Running behind a fullback you’re saying? What are you asking?”
(For a running back, not every running back can really run that well behind an upback. What are some of the qualities that RB Kenyan Drake possesses that allows him to do that?) – “Really both of those guys (Drake and RB Damien Williams) can do it. I think Drake probably had a little bit more experience in college doing it, because they did multiple things (at Alabama). They had those fullback looks and they had those spread looks. I think Damien was probably a little less in what he did. It’s a different vantage point, it’s a different view and contact happens a little closer to the line of scrimmage. It’s tight, it’s a bang-bang deal and you’ve got to make a decision and roll with it. I think it’s just an instinct thing. Some guys can do it, some guys can’t. It’s no different than gun-run type things.”
(How’s the plan gone to try to get guys days back losing the bye? You guys obviously didn’t practice yesterday, right? So that’s one less day of practice this week. How do you feel the whole plan is?) – “We were going to do this anyways. This is what we do with Monday night games. We’re trying to get our guys recovered instead of rushing a plan in and rushing guys onto the field. We had set something up to where today and tomorrow we load it up pretty good. We look at it as when you play on Thursday night, for some reason you can get everything put in there and do all of these walkthroughs and then throw it out there on Thursday. We planned it the way we needed to plan it and we felt like giving ourselves time as coaches and then giving our players the proper amount of time to recover for the next game was important to us. I think that after the Thursday game, what we did was good for our guys to recharge a little bit. It went quick; but really, at the end of the day, we’ve got four days, which is what they normally get off that bye week.”
(I’m sure you’d like to see more numbers, obviously, tangible numbers from DE Charles Harris if you had the lead more, for reasons that you talked about. That said, how would you assess his rookie year?) – “He’s doing a lot of things good and anytime he’s ever had any kinds of struggles, it’s things that he’s never seen before. In this league, every week, you get the full gamut of plays. Coaches have a lot of time to put things together and try to take advantage of certain defenses and certain ways guys play. It’s just always going to be a learning experience for him and that’s why some of the veteran players … If you watch William Hayes, he does a great job. He’s seen so much and he knows how to play so many different things, it’s a little easier for him because it’s more of a reaction than thinking about, ‘This is coming so I’ve got to play it like this.’ That’s time. You try to get the process going as fast as possible and get him caught up as much as you can; but at the end of the day, he’s got to see it and react to it. The guys that are good players usually react a little quicker than others.”
Matt Burke – November 16, 2017
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(I’m sure you’ll get questions today about stopping the run but on a different issue, as far as the pass rush goes, 16 sacks in nine games and 26th in the league. With the quality of defensive line that you have, shouldn’t it be better and why hasn’t it been better?) – “I think it’s the same story every time I come up here. I think situationally, we haven’t had a chance to really cut it loose. I think games haven’t dictated us to truly cut it free and go rush and stuff. We’re always either in 50/50 downs or stuff, so that’s a whole team, a whole defense thing for us to address that. I just don’t feel like we’ve had opportunities, true rush opportunities, where we can just cut it loose and let those guys go actually do work for extended periods of time. No one played well the other night. Let’s not hide that fact, but I think we’ve got to do a better job of giving those guys chances to truly go rush.”
(How difficult has it been to pick up the pieces from that?) – “That’s not an easy game to swallow. Two things: one, I appreciate the schedule Adam (Gase) put together where we actually brought the guys back in on Tuesday afternoon. I didn’t sleep. We got back here (after the game Monday) and I just went right to work. We had a chance to really look at it. As a defense, we watched the entire second half together as a whole group. Again, it wasn’t easy to look at it; but there are things that had to be addressed, so we did that together as a group. Honestly, second-fold, things happen in mysterious ways I guess. Not having the bye week, to me, honestly helps us. If we had to sit two weeks and chew on that for a ‘bye weekend’ and not play for another two weeks … As a coach, it always helps being able to dive back in to ‘We’ve got to go back to work here and we can’t wallow in it. We’ve got to correct what we need to correct and get things adjusted.’ We went right back to it in the morning Tuesday and after the players were gone Tuesday and all day yesterday. We had to start really getting into our game plan for this week. In hindsight, having a game this weekend and having a short week gives us a chance to move on and let’s go play another game and hopefully get things righted.”
(How optimistic are you that will happen?) – “Good. I’m a pretty confident person and pretty positive. I think we have to address some things; but I always tell the guys that to me, the greatest thing about this league is that every week you have another opportunity. Every week is a separate entity and there’s different challenges and different issues. You don’t get a lot of second chances in life but you get 16 chances to keep playing and keep trying to get things right. I’m excited to get back to work and have a chance to get things back on track.”
(Being in nickel as often as you were at Carolina, did that have any impact on the ability to stop the run?) – “I don’t think so. The run game stuff, I felt like we were trying to take the ball out of the quarterback’s hands, especially early on. He had the one long run. The quarterback draws, they were stuff … They didn’t kill us. They broke out a couple and obviously the long run when they were backed up. That was a 70-yard run. The one at the end of the game, we were in 4-minute mode and missed like eight tackles. That’s 150 yards of offense right there in two runs. That’s kind of how it has been all year in terms of being in a sub defense and having to play run against sub defense. I don’t think that really affected anything.”
(Bucs QB Ryan Fitzpatrick instead of QB Jameis Winston, how does that change things for you?) – “From what I’ve seen … I actually coached at Harvard during Ryan’s junior year, so I’ve known Ryan for a long time. I haven’t seen their offense, in terms of schematically, really change drastically. Ryan has always been a – how do I say this – sneaky athlete. He’s underestimated. He’s not afraid to pull it down and he moves around really well in the pocket. He’s somewhat unpredictable in the way that he escapes in those sort of things. There’s still an element of the run game. Even when Winston was playing, they weren’t a huge, truly zone-read quarterback run team. That wasn’t necessarily part of their design. Schematically, it’s the same. Their skill players are still the same and who they’re trying to get the ball to and those sort of things. I don’t think there’s a ton of difference, to be honest with you, in terms of schematically and how we’re preparing.”
(How often do you watch the game back as a group and what do you hope to accomplish?) – “It’s kind of a fine line. Usually I will pull out some plays that I feel like we need to hit. I’m always conscientious of giving the coaches … It’s hard, especially on defense. There are different issues that have to be corrected a lot of times at the different levels. Usually I’ll pull out either good or bad plays that I want to make sure we all see and hit, and then I’ll break it up and let the coaches really kind of get into the details of their position groups. To be honest with you, I felt that one of our issues – Monday night and possibly in the last couple weeks – there’s been a little disconnect I felt between the different levels of the defense. I felt it was important for everybody to be in there together and talking it out. I just didn’t feel the communication was there. I didn’t feel the understanding of how the front fits with the linebackers and how the coverage in the back end fits the linebackers and that sort of thing. I felt it was important this week to really take most of the meeting together. I’ll sit in the room. Again, we all own that. I told those guys. I put all of the stats up on the board. None of them are pretty. Not a single one. I said ‘We own this together. Every man in this room has a piece of this and we’ve got to get it sorted out because I feel like we’re not playing together as a unit, which we were better at earlier in the year.’ Normally I don’t spend a ton of time, because I like those guys to be able to hone in on the details of their position groups and there are coaching points that have to be made on a micro scale; but I just felt that this was time for us to really sit in there and everyone needed to understand how all of the pieces are fitting together or how they haven’t been fitting together. We pretty much spent the whole meeting together as a defense this week.”
(You had high praise for your young cornerbacks about a month ago. The last month, at least to our eyes, they haven’t played as well as they were at the beginning of the season. Is that in your eyes as well?) – “I think nobody has played well. There is no positive to take out of last week, so let’s dig in and start there. I don’t want to blame specific players. I think it’s two-fold. ‘Tank’ (Cordrea Tankersley) is a rookie and he’s going to have his ups and downs. That’s kind of built in. Then ‘X’ (Xavien Howard), it’s funny. ‘X’s’ next step for me has to be locating the ball and getting the ball out, because if you actually pause the film, it’s not like you look at what ‘X’ is doing and saying ‘Man, he’s just getting roasted all over the place.’ He’s in good coverage, he’s just having trouble locating and getting balls out. I think that’s sort of his next step. A little bit schematically, I put a lot on those guys. We put them in some spots to play coverage and some of the challenges last week of the multifaceted run game, we kind of left those guys isolated a little bit. Part of that is schematic that I can help those guys a little bit more and just take some of the straight burden off those guys of just being isolated as much. I don’t think it’s been better or worse in terms of specifically to (Tankersley and Howard) in terms of the last week or two. I think it’s just every week we’re aware there are challenges that every guy has to face and those guys are going to have their ups and downs and we’ll keep working through them.”
(On the screen touchdown to Panthers WR Devin Funchess, our understanding is the quarterback is at the line, he obviously knows a blitz is coming, he’s making a change. Is there time for players on the field to back out of that blitz?) – “There is. We didn’t have that call up in that specific play. That was a good call against the blitz we had run. We do have audibles where we can check out if we feel something like that, but that wasn’t a play that we had that option in. There are cases when we show pressure and we have the ability to bail out of it if we feel like they’re checking to something to beat the pressure; but we didn’t have that up in that instance. It was a good call for them (and) a bad call for me.”
(You only have three interceptions. Is that part of what you were talking about before? You just haven’t been able to cut loose?) – “A little bit. I think that ties in. Again, I think interceptions, part of it comes from those sort of situations that are the same situations you’re going to get sacks in. When you know the team has to throw, whether they’re down or whatnot, or they’re trying to force throws in to tighter coverage because they have to get back in the game or whatever the situation is – 2-minute modes and all of those sort of things. So that’s part of it. Again, some of the last couple weeks we played matchup coverage stuff. A lot of times your interceptions come more from vision defenses, where you can see the ball being thrown and break on things, and we haven’t been in that as much the last couple of weeks, just some of the stuff schematically that’s been dictated. Part of it is scheme, part of it is a game situation. Again, we had two more chances last week. I know I said it in here last week but T.J. (McDonald) would have made a hell of a play on that if he gets his hands underneath it and the first drive of the second half, Bobby (McCain) kind of distracts it and it tips right back to Reshad (Jones) and hits off his chest too. We’re having chances when we get them. You’re going to get … Even a good quarterback is going to give you a couple of chances a game, and we’ve got to make them. We haven’t been doing that.”
