How are you? What's you know on Sunday and what happens run? Yeah, well, a lot of bad things. Um. First of all, we were bad at all three levels, let's put it four levels. Um. We were bad at the defensive line, we were bad at the linebackers, we were bad at the secondary, and we're bad at the defensive coordinator position. Um. You know, and it was It wasn't just one thing in that game. You know, Like there was cracked toss and one time we were short
on all the blocks and it got our edge. Next time they ran a crack toss, everybody overran it, overplaying for that and the ball cut back on us. Um, you know, we missed tackles in the back end, we didn't get off blocks in the front end. We were bad with leverage at times. Um. Yeah, that was. There's there's a reason that, uh it looked so bad us because we were so bad. You say bad, it defendsive coordinate the position to me scheme wise, what you mean
to do execution? Now you know I think, well, executions, not the defense coordinate, And I think, well, I'm in charge of execution. I guess you'd say, well, like you you would say, um, I think it's my job to find a way to put a fire out and to find something that when we're not having to be able to have a change over the Unfortunately, my changeups didn't work either, and it didn't matter like our four man pass rush wasn't. If I'm going off of run defense,
I'm just going to the game in general. But we got no sacks in the game. That's not us. We got to have pressure. Our front four has to carry us. We got good players up there and they got to do it when they're not having a good day rushing. Our blitz package has to be able to come through, and we didn't. You know, we weren't successful in that. We had a couple of plays we made in there, but not enough. Um. You know, third down percentage means a lot for us. A couple of those drives we
had a chance. We had them backed up on a third down in nine, did a good job in coverage, got leaky in our past rush quarterback scramble for a first down. You know those things. Those things keep drives alive. If we're playing at our best, we're rushing the quarterback, we're getting off the field on third down. And we had opportunities to get off the field on some third downs. Started with the very first one of the game. There was no points on the drive, but I think that
set the tone. We did a poor job in a blitz on that when they were able to throw the ball outside converted. We got him stop later in that drive, but I think the damage was done there. So mentioned the scramble on that third and eight or third lined. Did you notice what was it a pattern that you had maybe not discipline pass rush. I wouldn't call it on discipline. I mean those guys are trying to sack the quarterback and we displaced him. Usually, as a general rule,
you don't want quarterbacks escaping to their throwing hand side. Okay, if they're going to escape, you want to try to dictate away, which which we were able to do. But there was just too much air in there, and then we took a bad angle on the quarterback. UH didn't know we had a chance to get him down. Even after the d line laws contain, we still had another chance to get him down and didn't get it done. But I thought that was a critical play in the game.
We have to play that better. We got to get pressure with our with our front and then we have to be able to match coverage in the back end and uh and keep that quarterback on the clock. Great disparity between what you guys have done in the first half and the second. If even in this last game, you guys were better this in terms of keeping points off the board. Is there something about your scheme what
you call the game that lends to playing from a head? Yeah, I don't know if it lends from playing from a head. I mean, it's always easier to play with the lead. Um, I don't know how to read that, to tell you the truth. I mean, I think you can look at it. You can look at it a lot of different ways. You can be positive and say, um, yeah, we've made some adjustments. We've been able to, you know, put some fires out, even know, I don't I don't think that
was the case against the Redskins. I think that, you know, even though we were able to hold the score down in the second half and give us a chance, we didn't play our best football. I think that was obvious. But then if you want to look at it negative, you can say, hey, we've given up some plays early and had fires to put out, so um, you know, we need to strive to be more consistent. And like I said, that goes for all three levels of the defense,
it goes for coaching as well. Yeah, penalties. Penalties have cost us eight points the last two games. Both of them have been on Flesh, who's one of our better players. Um, you know, if we don't learn from them, we're doomed to repeat those mistakes. And you know, we had Detroit held to a field goal attempt and we had Washington held to a field goal attempt and we got penalties on both plays. On Roughen the quarterback. You can't hit
the quarterback high. I mean, I mean, I get you're reaching out and you end up grabbing a face mask or something like that, and you've got to get off of it quick. We noticed a strike zone on the quarterback. And as much as we want to get after the quarterback and we want to we want to affect his throws and we want to get sacks, you can't hit him in the head. You can't hit him with your head, and um, you know, it's a strike zone. It's it's tough for those big guys, but we got to do it.
It's it's cost us. Um, a couple of all sides penalties that put us behind the eight ball. You know, it's tough to play it first and five. You know, they got three downs to game five yards. That's a hard way to start a drive. And those are those are certainly issues that we need to do better. When we were playing our best early in the season, we weren't getting very many fouls. We weren't we weren't taking many penalties. And the last couple of the last couple
of games in particularly, we've taken way too many. We got to get a frustration line effective. Without Benny Logan in there, Betty was playing well. One of the few guys in this game we had that was playing well. Benny was Um. Yeah, you know, it'll be more reps for guys like bo Um and then maybe even a little bit more on a guy like Fletch. Um. You know, we'd like to rotate those guys as much, but sometimes
you're not able to Um. And then a guy like Destiny who's been a part time player and he's made a couple of plays, but also he's given up a couple Um, you know, he needs to be more consistent. Um. You know, we've also used some defensive ends inside the rush on third down that that helps alleviate a little bit. You have to follow up the Fletcher thing, you see that. I mean, you know they're they're ganging up on him
every every week. Do you see those penalties as kind of the offshoot of a guy fighting so hard just to get to the point. I think you might be able to say that against Detroit. I mean, he had a hold of the guy's jersey, was spinning him around. He's just reaching to grab He's not trying to grab a face mask there. I mean, you know, I think that just falls into stuff happens. But when you're free coming around the edge, our defensive end did a good job shaving the end and and he's come And that's
a situation at every defensive lineman ends up in. I don't think that's anything to do with him being double or him trying to be Actually he's trying to get to the quarterback. But you can't go low. You can't hit him in the head, you can't hit him with your head with the crown of the helmet. You just you know, we just got to get his head out of it. Effective of finally getting there after I didn't do so much. Do they get too engle? Did they get to buck fever? Um, yeah, I don't. I don't.
I don't buy it. I don't buy it. We got it. We got to be more disciplined. Um, you know, penalties of you know that again, I think that was part of our formula. In the first three games. We weren't penalized very much. And you know these last couple of games, we need to take that off our resume, so to speak. We need to see it on outside. I need to
kind of get them away from them. Well, you know, if you watch if you watch our all twenty two, which I know a lot of you guys do, you'll see him aligned out there a decent amount of times, just in our in our rushed package, in some of our some of our bliss packages, some of the matchup stuff. Um, he's a defensive tackle, but there are some changeups where
we move him around a little bit. What do you need to see out of your linebackers relative to what you gotta particularly Onsiday with with what I think just every week, it's it's the same thing. Those guys need to fill gaps in the run game and need to take good angles and uh and play the pass. I think the challenge this week is a rootolf the tight end. He might not be their leading receiver, but he's a
security blanker for the quarterback. All good tight ends are and um catches a lot of balls over in the middle, and a lot of those matchups are going to be linebacker matchups. I mean, there's gonna be some safeties involved also, but it's not just going to be stopping they're run. They're gonna have to do a good job playing playing the inside passing game. And we just like it again. We need to, we need to. We need to redeem ourselves from last week when it comes to linebacker play.
From some angles and some mistackles and some some bad technique, we shouldered too many blocks in the run game and as a result, those guys are just going to grab you. I mean, there's you guys know thee holding on every play. But if you give them a chance to get their arms and hold you, it's your own fault. You know. We can't blay him anybody but ourselves. When you go up and just stick a shoulder in m you're going to stick the blocks. We got a hat in hands
when we did it. We did it well, but we didn't do it enough, and we need to see more of that tackles. How do you correct that issue during the season. Yeah, I mean it's I think most of it begins with angles, and when your angles are good, you don't miss very many tackles, and our angles weren't very good. And I think the other part of it in this game, and again one of our one of our failures in this game is we let one play
affect the next. And I think that in the first three games, even parts of the Detroit game, we didn't let a bad play affect our next play. And I've referenced one of the tall sweeps. We were short on the block and then the next play we came up and everybody overran it and the ball cut all the way back on us. In other words, we overcorrected. And you know, guys were trying rather than just doing their job. You know, the oldest adage in the NFL, do your job.
I think we got guilty of trying to cover up and trying to do a little too much. They need to, um, you know, just concentrate on theirs and in good accles. And like I said, it wasn't just linebackers. Our dbs didn't tackle very well. And you know some of those runs that in the past might be an eight yard run, all of a sudden, we're breaking us for twenty nine and forty five and stuff like that, and you know, we got we got to get those guys down. They
were prepared. And I asked that because Benny, when the radio said that, he didn't even think that number thirty two Rob Kelly was on the scouting before. I mean, I'm sure he was. But did you think that the guys were probably prepare for what they threw him and run because there was a lot of a lot of run plays that they threw at you. No, I don't think there was. There was no new runs that they
ran at US. Um. You know, they ran the inside zone week or the zone Stretch week, the z own stretch Strong actually did a fairly decent job of stop in the zone stretch strong. The ZWN stretch week was a problem for US. Crack toss Um. You know, they were all plays were prepared for. But practicing and preparing for him and talking about them and going on in the practice field, Um, that doesn't mean anything if you don't do it on Sunday. We didn't do a good
enough job on Sunday. M R. Kelly was on the scouting report, lease the teams and snaps play believe his nine tackles in the sack. Is he doing things? Um? Well, yeah, I think he played. Um it was like a lot of other our other guys, didn't play his best game this last game. UM. We probably he's got a guy that can probably benefit from lesser reps and had maybe
more production with lesser reps. We've been talking about that. Um, it's just tough in game situations when when you when you're not doing well, everybody starts pressing you start trying to do too much. Um, maybe that includes playing too many reps. Um. Connor's a good player when he's fresh and going, and he's no different than the rest of our guys that way. But UM, you know, I don't
think we're not disappointed in him. Last week you kind of talked about getting many carried more part time, because that's something you can see when it comes to the routine. That about. Yeah, I mean I just think and at last in the Detroit game, I think he played eighteen. It just wasn't it just wasn't enough and we didn't get a lot of chances to rush him inside. And you know, and some of those drives were long. It was harder to get substitutions and different packages they were using.
Every game is going to be different as far as number of reps that guys play. But just as a general rule, you know what, just any it was bo we needed to play those guys a little bit more. Um, you know, I think he certainly played a lot more in this in this last game. Um, you know, he's gonna he's one of our better players. He's gonna have to be productive, and we gotta find a way to get those guys on the field. Quarterback that you're going up against Jim, what's what have you seen from what
he's done in Minnesota so far? And what's going to be key for you guys? You know, I think a little bit like you know, with you'd look at the success I mean, their numbers aren't going to boggle you offensively, with the exception of turnovers. I think they have one turnover rule in the years, right, just one right, So I mean it's there's no interceptions, um, and that goes a long way. But you look at their you look at their you know stats across the board. They're not
rushing for a very big average. I mean, I don't know if you would expect losing Adrian Peterson. Um, but the quarterbacks completing a lot of passes, a real high completion percentage. Um. You know, they're not afraid to you know, take a check down. You know, they haven't made very many mistakes, and I think that has led in as well as their defense is playing. That's been a good formula for those guys. Um. You know, I think a
lot goes into that. We've got to find ways to take their security blankets away, make them be more aggressive in attacking a defense. And then also it would help you know, you make them play from behind. All those things to go together, and they haven't done that this year. They've they've done a good job of playing from ahead. And uh, you know, takeaways mean a big, big thing. Um. You know the one that we had in that game. As poorly as we played against the Redskins, um, that
one big play takeaway kept us in the ballgame. Um. You know, we need to find a way to get more of those, not just takeaways, but some lost yardage. Plays and being after the quarterback. He's not the most mobile guy in the world. Everybody understands that, Um, you know, so I think there's some opportunities for us to be able to be able to stay after him maybe a little bit. I mean, I think you could probably look at it the other way. I mean, he's in a
new offense, he's in a different offensive scheme. So as much as we know his skill set, I mean, it doesn't take it. It doesn't take four months to know that Sam's not a scrampoint quarterback. I mean a news flash. But he's a good pocket quarterback and he's a very accurate passer. I mean we saw that in training camp. We see you've seen that from these things. I think you could probably even look at the other way. He had four months to look at us, you know, and
we haven't changed schemes. We're gonna have to do a little bit with some of our calls and change some of them up, because you know, a training camp time time, everybody's you know, listening to the words that the offense and the defense says. It says everybody's competitive. Um, you know, there's a little bit of insight. But I think that works both ways very well, but they still run it a lot. How does that impact the play action as
far as you guys having to be aware of it? Well, I think that has been I think that's a defensive coach's mentality as a head coach, they've just stayed committed to it. It's opened up some tight end stuff in the passing game, and you know it's also you know, probably helped their defense out a little bit. I think that all probably goes into it. But after watching us on film last year last week, I mean, I mean, we're we're they're gonna, they're gonna, they're gonna test us.
I mean, I don't care if they're averaging one yard or rush. You watch what we did on film last week. You know they're they're in their game plan saying right now, we're gonna run it sixty five times, and it's our job to make sure that they don't have success doing that. And if they're not having success doing that, I think it's not open enough to play action game. And it's also not slowing down our pass rush. And um, you know a lot of that comes from you know that
that's our responsibility. Okay, Podcast