Press Pass: Jim Schwartz

ball back twice. Um. But anyway, yeah, doesn't you know, I think a little bit of Um, we were blitz in an awful lot and a couple of plays we gave up where blitz And you know, I think there is a there's a little bit of truth to the old adage lived by the sword, died by the sword. Um. You know, they made a couple of plays, and it's just a matter of time sometimes when they do. We gotta we had chances to be able to get off

the field, particularly the overtime drive. Um. You know, we stopped him on the third down and one, and then we got a chance to get off the field on the fourth down in one, and I think that would have been a great chance to win the game, right, there because they go for it, we stop them, and now field goal wins the game. But um, you know, you'd do a couple of good things in the game, but it doesn't matter because we didn't do enough to win the game. We didn't make that play we needed,

you know, to make one of those interceptions. We needed, um, you know, to strip the ball out. We need a couple of those balls that were floating. We need to find a way to pick one of those balls off. We didn't make that game change and play in the game, and as a result, we didn't win it. At the last two games, is your forming rush getting home enough for you? Well, it's been different, U in the games. I mean this game, um was a lot more man blitz. The week before that was a lot more zone blitz.

You know, it's different quarterbacks, it's different game situations, it's different personnel. Um. You know, so every week it's going to be a little bit different. But um, you know, I thought our four man pass rush it was it was it's difficult to get pressure and also contained the quarterback. And there were times where you know, we got pressure, but we spilled him out of the pocket and we didn't do a good job of containing him after that,

and he made some plays with his feet. One of the ways that you can keep guys or try to keep guys from making plays with their feet as the pressure room in blitz and sort of take that option away from him. Um, it goes hand in hand. We got to do a better job in coverage when we did, and you know, pass rush, we got to be able to chase that guy down. That's that's tough duty, but it's our job to do it. The receiver lack room, Um, you know, he's tough. We've had some good receivers this year. Um,

you know, really starting with prior. You know, I think he flew a little bit below the radar in that first game, but you know, I made a couple of plays. I think that maybe we sort of looked at his flute plays and now we've seen over the course of the the season they weren't flute plays. But you know, whether it was him alshon Jeffrey Antonio Brown, it seems like every week there's a guy like that. Um. You know, Beckham's you know, similar to Brown in some ways. He's

got extreme quickness. Um, he can take a short pass and go to distance with it. He can threaten every every inch of the field lengthwise and width wise. And it's not just him down the field. We got to do a great job of tackle on him. I said before he this, this guy might be the best hitch runner in the NFL, um just meaning a three step hitch.

And he's strong, he can stop on a dime, he's strong coming back to make the catch, and then he can run after the catch, and all those things make him very dangerous, not just down the field, which a lot of people see, but in that short area. So you know, we have our work cut out for us, and um, we're going to mix our coverages up. We're gonna have to tackle when he does catch the ball because you know sometimes he is going to catch it and we have to limit those big plays. He makes

plays all over the field. And it's not just him though. Um, you know, they've their receiving crew has made a lot of plays and they obviously have a Super Bowl winning quarterback that that you know that puts those guys in position,

So it's not just him. Apart from just the schematics of trying to defend Beckham, is there anything do you take any consideration that there have been times where it looks like he's been agitated, that opposing defensive backs defenses kind of got him frustrated, and that maybe you can use that to give to your advantage. Yeah, you know, the only thing. I mean, we certainly want to frustrate every receiver and the way we do that is keep him from catching the ball and limited his ability after

the ball. But that's the only thing that or after the catch. That's the only thing we've talked about with him. And that's no different than you know, like every week when we talk about guys, particularly guys that are marquee players, you certainly want to take them out of the game plan. You want to make the quarterback press to have to throw it to him, you know, And I think that goes into everybody. But the rest of it, it hasn't been an item of conversation this week. Defensive played against

stars thing I'm just worried about this week. Um, you know, I think that you know, those guys are going to make plays and it's our job to find ways to stop them from making plays. Um, I think we're Um, the way we played receivers is four and three, you know, I mean, that's that's our record, and that's the only thing that really matters. It doesn't matter how many yards you give up, it doesn't matter how many points you give up. It's how many times you've won the game.

And we're four and three right now. Offensive A lot of the path lays talk about trying to make teams one dimension is if you were there, that's different. Well, I think it is. It's a little bit different. They have some skilled players that can make plays. They obviously had an injury at running back and I think that um affected them a little bit. UM, But I think their running game has been more than choosing to pass

rather than not being able to run. I mean, there are no huddle team, there are a call to play at the line of scrimmage team um, you know, and Elie is going to almost called him Peyton, but there's a lot of similarities, you know, different offense, but similarities in that he's going to try to put the offense in the right play. They have very few third down and extra longs, you know, which is a lot of times the sign of a quarterback staying out at bad plays.

And you know, sometimes a run for one or two yards isn't a isn't a bad play, it's better than a sack. It's better than a lost yardage run stuff like that. And I think that the quarterback has done a really good job of keeping them on track and they've made enough plays in the passing game to, you know,

to make up for the lack of run. But a little bit before with Beckham and it's not just him, but you know, all those guys Crews and Cheff and all those guys are good short pass runners, and the ball comes out of the quarterback's hand fast, and some of their passing game is an extension of the run game. And you know, you can be in a good position to stop the run. They can throw a short pass and you know, even if they get four or five yards,

that's really a good run. But Eli is so good at getting that ball out quick and eliminate and avoiding the bad plays that it's what it makes up for their lack of run game. And um, you know, I think that that's probably you know, that's just as important. It doesn't matter how they gain yards. Um, it's a matter of gaining yards and scoring points. And if you do it all passing, you know, there's no there's no extra points or you know, anything else for running it.

But I think it's more of a decision they've made and their number of run attempts than it is lack of confidence or lack of production in their run game. Feels a chance to play a lot, play some nickel last week? How is he coming along? How's he developing in your rice? Yeah, you know, he's he's Uh, he's done a good job of just about everything that we've asked him to do. And it is we're starting to

spread him. I don't want to say spread him, spread him thin, but his role is increased just because of some of our injuries and you know, rich and we wanted to keep him in one position. He played a lot of nickel at LSU, so it's a position he's played before. But um, you know, we wanted to leave him at one position, let him settle in. I thought that was a good Uh, that was a good philosophy and it served him well to develop. But now he's going to be asked to do different things and I

think he's ready for it. Um. Jalen is extremely competitive, and you know that's the thing that probably serves him the best as he goes forward, not just this year, but in his career, if Jalen's in the slot or Malcolm, Yeah, you know that game, there was a lot of difference. We were using Malcolm the blitz, um, and he was also in some of our run fronts and you know some of our man coverage. They were going for wide

receivers at times. When I say that, I mean Dallas Cowboys. Um. You know, so there was different matchups with you know, trying to get um, you know, different wide receivers and things like that. So, yes, that that that goes into it. There's other things that go into it too, whether it's the call all um, you know what you're doing. You know, even um Jalen Watkins played some nickel in that last game too. He was down covering some of those guys. And you know, it's just where we are when we

lost Brooks. We got to sort of compartmentalize it and you know, eventually it'll settle down. But right now we're sort of handling it with three, maybe even four different guys in there. As he continued, it seems like you're giving a little more playing time. Has he has he earned it? And has he earned it anymore? Um? You know, Marcus has been a consistent player when it comes to rushing into pass or for us this year, it's just been, you know, it's been hard to get playing time. It's

been hard, hard to get a lot of reps. First of all, early in the season, we weren't playing a lot of reps. But these last couple of games we have played more and therefore a snap count's gone up. Um. But he has been productive when he's been out there. It's made some tackles for loss and uh and had had that sack which was you know, which was you know, big and getting a drive stopped as Jordan Hicks's playoff

made the last two weeks. What you said, yeah, at the game he played against Minnesota was was big and he played well last week. Um, so I think that's fair to say. I mean, I think he's been a consistent player this year. But um, you know, he's he's he's made us. He's made a definite impact these last couple of games. And there's probably a difference between doing your job and doing your job well and making an impact, and he has made an impact these last couple of weeks,

and we look forward to him doing more of it. Um. He has a lot on his plate. We've said that before, not just physically but mentally, and um, you know there's been no challenge that he hasn't been up for. How difficult. There's two questions. Get ready to pass on this one, so go ahead. Yeah, you guys got me on that one in the spring. So like how physical visites to deal with, like off the deal and stuff. Oh, not touching that one. Thanks yeah, thanks. Line. You know, with

Benny being out, how did they hold up? Allowing and Dusty BLI. Yeah, you know, we we had a couple of plays and it's tough. We went in with three defensive tackles, which we had the week before. Um, you know it starts to you know, it's tough when you're in there and you've got two guys pushing on you every play. You can wear it down a little bit. Um. I thought bos played well the last couple of weeks. Um, you know, it puts a little bit more pressure on

those guys that are in there. Um. You know, our running game against Dallas was a mixed bag. You know, there were times we stopped to run very well for a team that was leading the NFL and rushing we got after it good, but then there were a couple of times they got some ten yard runs in there, and you know, um, we can do we can do those things better. So I probably just put our defensive

tackles as everybody else. We're four and three right now, so there's been some good and there's been some bad. And for us to get where we want to we need to even out. We need to even out the rough spots and uh and and find a way to improve over the course of the year. Thanks h