CB Nik Needham
(One thing that’s a little different this year, we were talking to Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer about this, is more players are being used in the defensive backfield than last November/December. Obviously you and CB Justin Coleman are sharing slot duties and four safeties are playing. Last year it was just S Bobby McCain McCain, S Eric Rowe and S Brandon Jones. I’m curious if you tin that has had any impact at all in terms of third down defense being a lot worse as a group this year. I know it’s a small sample size, but is that a factor a lot of guys playing which could lead to confusion or is it unrelated?) – “I don’t think that’s the issue. I think we have to do a better job on first and second down. We got a lot of teams getting in third-and-2, third-and-1, which are real manageable third downs. When they’re in that situation, it’s like 50/50 for them to get it. If we can just execute better on first and second down, we’ll be able to keep them in backed up situations like second-and-10-plus. Just doing that will create a third-and-10 and we are more likely to get off the field with that. It has nothing to do with confusion.”
(How much time in practice do you spend splitting boundary and slot? Do you spend time at both?) – “Wherever they put me, whenever they do that, yeah. I think it’s all gameplan and matchup-wise. I’m more in the slot but like you’ve seen last game, I will go outside as well, because when I first came here, I played outside corner so I have that available with me. I think just wherever they need me or wherever they think this week someone will fit, that’s where they plug a guy.”
(How frustrating does it get when offenses are moving the chains on you like they have in the past couple of games?) – “It’s very frustrating because we know we are better than that. We got too many talented guys on the team to be giving up all of them third downs. We’re just back to the drawing board. We’ve been going over it with Coach (Josh) Boyer and focusing on the minor things as far as execution and communication. That’s really what that comes down to as well.”
(In addition to trying to force more third-and-long situations, what are some other things that were definitely happening last year on third downs that lead to the team being first in the league in that category, that you would love to see start to happen again?) – “I think we just have to make more plays on the ball. Win our one-on-ones. We’ve got to win our one-on-one matchups. I think that’s what it’s come down to as well, D-line and DBs. Like I said, if we can all start doing that and really focusing on that, winning our one-on-ones on third down, this guy is not going to make the play to get the first down. If we can all think like that and move like that, I think it will be more successful.”
(I know they have a new offensive coordinator but has QB Jacoby Brissett shared anything about the Colts offense with you guys?) – “No, I actually haven’t asked him but that’s a good idea. (laughter) I might need to go talk to him and see what he knows about over there. But no, I haven’t asked him yet. I like your shirt, by the way.”
(It’s only been three games but how do you feel like you are performing overall?) – “I think I’m playing alright. I’ve got a lot more work to do. I would say I’m off to a better start than last season, I just feel a little bit more comfortable. Like I said, I’ve got way more work to do. I just need to focus on one play at a time. Like I said earlier about the one-on-one matchups, like last game, I gave up a catch. Me, personally, I don’t want to give up anything so just to have that mindset every game. I think if you stack those on top of week on week on week, you’ll just get better every week. That’s my goal and the overall focus for me.”
(Thinking back to a play last game. I’m wondering from your perspective if you saw it the same way. There was a high pass to TE Darren Waller and you were deeper in coverage. Did it look like that ball was going to get to you and Waller just comes in and leaped?) – “We were in Cover 3. The seven route, I had a fade on me and I was kind of in between because Derek Carr is a good quarterback and he had already tricked me kind of with his gameplay in the game. I saw him looking at Waller but I didn’t know. He might double-pump it and then throw it to the fade. You have to always protect the go ball, so that’s why. But I did for a second think it might go over his head, so I was kind of a little hesitant. That dude is big. He’s big as hell.”
LB Jaelan Phillips
(Good to see you get a lot of snaps last week. How did it go? What were your thoughts after watching the tape?) – “Man, it was incredible. Just the experience as a whole. I don’t want to give the Raiders too much credit, but their stadium is whew. (laughter) Their stadium is crazy. We had a great experience as a team just going through adversity, staying together. It’s always good to get those kind of games. Obviously you always want to come out with a victory, but at the end of the day, I think it was really good experience for me personally and for us as a team. So yeah, definitely happy about that.”
(And pleased with the sort of rush that you were able to get? You seemed to pressure well on a few plays. Were you pleased with how you did from that standpoint?) – “I’m never totally pleased, but I feel like I’m almost there. I feel like I’m starting to get some pressures and I need to find a way myself to convert those pressures into sacks, into negative plays. But it definitely felt good.”
(Did Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer tell you during the week or was it the game morning or was it just how the game went along that you were going to be used in more of a pass-rushing role. When did that become apparent?) – “I pretty much knew all week. The game plan changes every week, so it really just depends on their personnel, on what they’re doing, the matchups that we want to get. It just so happened that this week I was able to get some advantageous matchups, so it was good. It was a really good experience.”
(What was your reaction when he told you?) – “Like I said, it’s the same every week. It’s just – I like doing everything. It was fun. It was fun.”
(Do you think beyond the matchups that you also have shown something to coaches to allow them to trust you a bit more?) – “I think if anything, they’re just starting to notice that I’m getting it more. I think they’re starting to have a little bit more trust in me and I think that kind of equates to more playing time or being used in different positions. So I think for me, I’ve said it before: my focus has just been to get more comfortable in the scheme and then just keep improving every week on the things that I need to improve on.”
(Is there a particular vet that maybe you’ve leaned on just in terms of kind of getting the ropes and kind of understanding what it takes week to week to be successful?) – “I’ve definitely gotten close, especially the d-line – Emmanuel Ogbah, Christian Wilkins in particular, Zach Sieler. These are all guys that I definitely pick their brain a lot. Ogbah especially, just obviously he’s an end. He’s somebody that I kind of aspire to be like so I definitely try to talk as much as I can and what they do that I can appreciate. (John) Jenkins does this as well, ‘E. Rob’ (Elandon Roberts) does this as well. They hold me accountable, regardless of it’s a good play or a bad play. They’re just going to keep it 100 with me. It’s never good when someone is just blowing smoke at you and saying, ‘oh yeah, that’s great, that’s great.’ You want someone who’s going to keep it real with you, so I definitely think I have that on this team.”
(There’s been a lot of talk about third-down defense and getting back to where the team was last year. I know you weren’t here but what do you think separates third down from first and second, and what’s kind of the key to having success from your experience on third down?) – “I think the philosophy of the offense changes, right? When it’s third-and-10, they’re most likely going to air the ball out just because they obviously need to get the first down and they need to gain yards. So as a defense, you don’t want to place more importance on any particular down because the bottom line is if you don’t do well on first and second down you’re not even going to be able to get to that third down. So third down is just an opportunity to get off the field, get the offense back on the field to score points and at the end of the game, whoever has the most points wins. So it’s definitely paramount for us to get out there and be great on third down like we were last year. We’re just going to continue working on that. It’s definitely been a point of emphasis though.”
RB Myles Gaskin
(You’ve consistently been at about five yards a carry. What do you think is the key to that?) – “Just trusting my blocks. Just trusting those guys up front. I think that Jacoby (Brissett) did a great job last week, so it kind of opened up some holes for me. Like I said, just trusting and believing in the play call, and then the guys up front.”
(Blitz pick up I know is something you’ve worked on. You’ve talked about improvement there. Are you happy with where that is at for you and for the running back room right now?) – “I think I can do a lot better, just being a smaller guy, I’ve told you guys that before. I’m just always trying to work on that. But yeah, I think as a running group, I think Malcolm (Brown) is the head of that because he’s an older guy. He always gives us little nuggets for myself, Salvon (Ahmed). Yeah, I think we can get better. For myself, I think I can get a lot better and as a running back group, I think we still got a little more room to grow.”
(When you guys have a day where you produce 133 rushing yards, which basically equates to, if you average it out it is 2,100 rushing yards a season. Do you think that should ultimately lead to success for the team?) – “The success of the team doesn’t just come from one thing at all. If you just have that and then no passing yards, then hell no. I think everything needs to be balanced. I feel like ‘E’ (Eric Studesville) and George (Godsey) have been taking good care of that. We’re figuring it out as we go. Obviously we’re trying to find out our strengths as a team still and running the ball has been good for us at times. But in different games, we’ve got different things we need to do.”
DT John Jenkins
(How has it been to have increased minutes? What’s that like for you?) – “I don’t know what to say. It’s a good feeling. I’m just working, coming in day and night, late nights and early mornings and just working. Whatever my job entails, I just do it to the best of my ability.”
(This is the question specifically about you guys as a defense but as a defensive player, when a team is running on you and getting a consistent 4.5 yards per carry and you can’t stop them, what does that feel like?) – “It’s not a good feeling. I can just tell by your facial expression that it wasn’t a good question. It was just one of those situations where it was like, ‘Y’all got to do better,’ right? Everyday we are getting better and better and better. To answer your question, it’s not a good feeling, especially for me being a first and second down defensive player. I take that really serious and that’s the reason why I’ve been around for so long because I take that job extremely serious. When you say that, it hits me personally because that lets me know I got to go do something and I got to go get better and put in more film and put in more time to become a better player. You know what I mean? It sucks but at the end of the day, it’s the NFL, everybody gets paid, everybody has a job to do and sometimes it doesn’t go in our favor, but we continue to work and come together tight as a team to prevent that from happening another time.”
(Most defenses, they always say we have to stop the run first. What’s it like when you – I’ve looked at this so many times in so many different years, you guys focus on so much else that it seems as if the run has fallen between the cracks.) – “We focus on everything. We focus on being a better defense. I don’t know what you are focused on or what you see out of your eyes. I just know from being within these walls, we focus on being a great defense. We work on everything. Not everybody is perfect but we work hard. That’s the best I can – I know we all want to be great and you can see that if you are around us more, that we want to be great and we take this serious.”
(What jumps out at you on film when you watch RB Jonathan Taylor?) – “He’s a strong runner. Shifty. I had the opportunity to play with a lot of good running backs. Pierre Thomas, Saquon (Barkley) in his rookie year in New York and this guy is of that caliber. He’s a great, great runner. We just have to be more in-tune with our blocks, with our eyes and stay stout.”
(I asked CB Nik Needham about this but have you picked QB Jacoby Brissett’s brain about the Colts at all?) – “No, actually I haven’t. Every year is different, man. I can sit there and say hey this, that and the third and ask all these questions but every year, the mindset is different. I’m not in those walls. I’m not in that building so I don’t know how they are going to play us. When Jacoby was there, it was a whole different philosophy so therefore, I just take every week no differently.”
G/T Robert Hunt
(Obviously, despite it being a loss, when you looked at the film as an offensive line, did you come out a little bit more pleased with your performance compared to the Buffalo game?) – “Yeah. I think we did. We had an emphasis that week – last week – to come out and prepare better and do what we can do better. Taking it a play at a time, I think we did that. It definitely wasn’t a perfect game. We can still improve, which we are trying to do and which we will do. But yeah, it felt better than it did the Buffalo week.”
(We didn’t see C/G Michael Deiter out there today, so obviously that raises questions about whether he’ll be available on Sunday. If you are to go with OL Greg Mancz at center, how does that affect the line play? How does that affect communication?) – “I think we’ll be ok. Greg practices just like the rest of us. We’re all in the same meeting room learning the same deals. He’s a center so he’s definitely in-tune with everything that’s going on. I think we’ll be fine.”
(You guys did rush for over 100 yards. We’ve asked you guys a lot about pass protection, but as offensive linemen and kind of getting those five guys together, are there any nuances to maybe run blocking that the average person doesn’t know about?) – “Yeah, as an O-line, that’s what you want to do. You want to run the ball so you won’t be in third-and-10s and they bring the house. We want to run the ball and we want to be good at it so we can manage the down-and-distance, so we can be third-and-2, third-and-3 and third-and-5. So yeah, it’s a big emphasis to run the football. That’s what we want to do.”
(Do you all feel like that can be your identity as a run team?) – “I think so. I think we’ve got the backs. I think we’ve got the guys to do it. It’s just up to us to do it.”
(You’re talking about creating the holes?) – “Yeah.”
(What was different this week as opposed to what you guys have done the first two weeks?) – “I wouldn’t say anything was different. I think we just had to step back and look ourselves in the mirror and hone-in and focus in on our individual selves and then as a unit. We just knew what we did. At Buffalo, everybody knew how that week went and we just wanted to improve on that week.”
(With the tandem blocks that you guys do, how much of that is a technique thing versus practice?) – “Tandem blocks? What do you mean?”
(In terms of working on two guys.) – “How much of that is technique than…?”
(Chemistry or…) – “I mean I don’t know. As an offensive lineman, you’ve been doing this for a while so you know where the B-block is, you know where the C-block is. You’ve just got to – you’ve got to practice it. So if that’s what you’re asking, then yeah you have to practice it, I would say, to be better at it and continue to get good at it. I think we’ve been hitting it a lot. We’ve made an emphasis on double teams since the beginning of camp. That’s something that we want to do is run the ball.”
(When you don’t – and this is just a question for the technical aspect. When you don’t go live in practice, do you get the real looks of those tandem blocks in the run game?) – “Yeah, I think so. I think so. I mean of course it’s not a game rep block but you can definitely make it as close as you can. With pads on or without pads on, we focus on the guys holding the bag, get out on them and stay low. If we’ve got pads on then you’ve got to try to fit the gap. We aren’t D-linemen but we try to play like we are D-linemen. It’s an emphasis for not just us to get the block but the guy that’s on defense doing a block for us, acting like he’s the defender, it’s an emphasis for him to give us a good look. We try to get as close as we can.”
(As an offensive lineman, is it just kind of natural and naturally easier to block on a regular called run play as opposed to an RPO because you know that you can’t go more than like one yard down the field?) – “Yeah, I think so. It’s a normal run play. You’ve got to go. You pin your ears back and let’s go. RPOs, being downfield, you’ve got to be kind of careful with it.”
(Did Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre sort of say or stress anything throughout last week that was particularly helpful or showed up on Sunday that you remember?) – “Just like we’re all stressing, just take it one play at a time. Just take it one play at a time. We know what we can do. We’ve got to play with confidence and we’ve got to play fast. That’s what we’ve got to do. We knew that. There wasn’t nothing that he stressed that we didn’t already know.”
(Was the RB Malcolm Brown touchdown run as perfect as you could draw it up?) – “That was exciting. That was a good run. That was beautiful to see actually. That was really good. Hopefully we can keep that up.”
LB Jerome Baker
(We saw you limited on the injury report yesterday – listed you as limited – could you go full today and do you expect to play Sunday?) – “Yeah, I was fine. I don’t know why I was on there. But yeah, I was fine. (laughter)”
(Just a quick question before I ask my real question. Are you communicating – do you have the green dot helmet to relay the defensive calls?) – “Do I have the green dot? Is that what you’re asking? Yeah, I have it.”
(So I guess you know this week we’ve been asking a lot about the third-down defense and you guys not being able to get off the field as easily as last year. I guess third down, what are you looking at and what are you trying to relay? How do you maybe make checks especially on a third-down play?) – “It truly depends on what defense we’re in, but I can tell you like the simple things, just being aware of where the down-and-distance is at – if it’s third-and-long, is it third-and-short, are they trying to pick us? It’s truly just figuring out what we’re in and what they’re trying to do against us. There’s no secret we play a lot of man, so a lot of teams are just trying to pick us. That’s the main thing, so when we do play zone just being aware of where the sticks are at. I think we’re truly just at the end of the day as a defense, we’ve just got to execute and that’s knowing your leverage, that’s eliminating yards after the catch. Just those things we truly preach on and that’s how you get off the field in this league.”
(It’s a weird question to ask, but I think you would know because you have some context. What’s missing from this defense? You guys were so good last year and it doesn’t seem to be clicking yet and maybe it didn’t click early last year, too, because you guys were like 1-3.) – “What’s missing? I wouldn’t say anything is missing. I think it’s just a lack of truly just executing. I think guys last year, we just executed better and this year I think we’re just not having that focus of – we’re just not executing. We’re not getting it done. Now we’re preaching that every third down, if it’s in practice, if it’s in walkthrough – whatever it is, we’re preaching execute, execute, execute. What I mean by execute is knowing your leverage, it’s getting back on your breaks on zone drops. Whatever it is, you’ve truly got to execute your job and having trust in the guys around you to do their job. I think guys – it’s not a sense of they’re trying to do bad or do wrong. It’s they’re trying to make the play for themselves and not be wrong and that’s not how our defense is. Our defense is truly a team defense. I think that’s the main thing. We’ve got guys that want to do right, want to make the play. But in this defense, plays come to you if you just do your job. I think that’s the one thing we’ve got to just lock in on.”
(Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer said that earlier this week that it’s not guys doing bad for making the bad play. They’re just trying to make that extra play. Do you find yourself in that situation where…?) – “Yeah, there’s been times I definitely am a part of that group. I’m not going to sit there and say I’m not. I can think of a few times it was me and it’s not just in a game. It’s times in practice, walkthroughs, whatever it is. It’s usually if it happens in practice, it’s kind of hard to just fix it game time, so you are going to get it right today or yesterday. So I think for me, we all make our mistakes. We all try too hard and we end up being out of the play and hurting us more than helping us. I would definitely say I was in that group, too.”
(You faced RB Johnathan Taylor your last year at Ohio State and when he was a freshman. He carried the ball 15 times that game. Did anything stand out to you about him at that time thinking, “yeah I’m going to see that guy in the pros in a few years?”) – “Yeah, just the way he runs. He’s a strong, physical, center of gravity guy. He’s just been like that. He’s got all the tools to be a great back in the league and I saw that early on. Even this past offseason, we worked out at the same place and he’s still the same way. He’s a strong, physical guy. He just competes his ass off.”
(Was there any difference in terms of how it was for you not having either linebacker coach last Sunday with you and are they back this week?) – “Was it a difference? I wouldn’t say there was a difference. ‘Camp’ (Anthony Campanile) brings that energy. He’s a guy that no matter what day it is, if it’s a walkthrough, if it’s a gameday or whatever, he’s going to bring the same exact energy every day. I think that was the only difference, the true difference. He’ll be fine. He’ll be back soon and we’re waiting on him.”
(You mentioned RB Jonathan Taylor, obviously it’s going to be important to stop him. In what ways can this team’s run defense improve?) – “It’s the same thing, just doing your job. You don’t have to try to make the play by yourself. Our defense is truly built on setting the edge, tackling well and playing your fundamentals and technique. That’s truly our defense. All of us are smart, all of us understand what we are doing. It’s about just doing that every single play, every down, every quarter. Not just doing it in the beginning of the game and later in the game it shows up. It’s truly about every single snap, locking in and truly doing it as a defense. Our defense is truly built on ‘together.’ We’ve got to do it together and nobody can just make the play by themselves so I guess that’s what we need to do.”
