Press Pass: Jim Schwartz

third downs. Sometimes it's a defense. It's easy to complain about an offense keeping you on the field, but if you're out there for twelve and fifteen play drives, sometimes you're gonna get yourself to blame. You know, that's not the offense is fault if you're out there for twelve or fifteen play drives. So I think that it's been a combination. The offense has certainly done a good job not turning the ball over and also, um, you know,

keeping drives alive. And then we've done a good job of getting off the field on third down or creating turnovers. And you know that combinations work. So far, you guys have gotten more and more effective in both games as the game has gone along. How much is that? It is just kind of wearing people down physically and how much these maybe adjustments and scheme. Yeah, I mean you adjust after every series. I mean I've said this before.

People talk about halftime adjustments. There's there's really no such thing in this league. You adjust after every series, and you know, depending on what injuries happened, what an offense is having success with, where they're breaking their tendencies, where they're playing ended their tendencies. Those things are discussed after every drive. So the idea, obviously as the game goes on is you have to figure out ways to you know, put out fires and also not go too far away

from you know what you're what you're strong at. Alshon Jeffrey gave us a couple big plays, and you know we were able to get that fire put out a little bit. You know, I think that some of our coverage stuff had to do with it. You know, some of it had to do with physical play. I mean till we put a big hit on him, and um, you know that tends to take a toll on opponents. Also, Dway Jaellen played when watching the film, Um, you know

he was out there. Um, you know, and again I'll leave the evaluation stuff you guys can reference Pro Football Focus for stuff like that. I never Yeah, well, um, here's the one thing I would like. And I've already told him this, this is no secret. The only thing I was disappointed with him is finding the football in the air. And that's something he did a really good job of in training camp. And that's sort of a calling card for a corner. You can't play with your

back to the ball too much. You're gonna get beat on a double move. Yeah, if you're aggressive and you're covering. Guess what. You know that that's that's something that happens. And you know he needs to learn from it. And you know, we need to get a little more safety help and everything else. But the whole thing of locating the ball and keeping your technique, I think that's the

most important thing that to come out of this game. Um. You know, he heat one and and I just another thing in general, Um, he showed a short memory in a good way. You know, there's some guys that you know, give up a play, miss a tackle and all of a sudden become tentative and become um conservative out there. And he kept his kept a stinger up, so to speak. And we'd like to see him that. Yeah, we know what number he wears, so we want to have problem

find them. Um, but it's not just him. I mean, you know they got they got a track meet at wide receiver. They got some guys that can fly, they can take the top off defense. Um, seventeen's a really shifty guy in the slot. They're tight ends, you know, big, they got a couple of different tight ends they can work in there. Or running back that's leading the NFL and rushing and um, you know, future Hall of Fame quarterback.

You know. So if we concentrate too much on eighty four, and he's going to get a lot of our attention for sure, But there's a lot of other guys that can make us play. We're gonna have to to play a good total team um game, We're gonna play total team defense. It's not just going to be about stopping one guy. There's a lot of other matchups that we need to win in this game. Back Daniel Williams is thirty three years old. Does he look like a thirty three year

old running back? Only? Only I can only go by what goes on tape. They don't ask for birth certificate before the game. And um, if you gain a yard, you don't get you I mean, you don't pick up. They don't give you nine yards to go. If you're over thirty, he's still got to get ten. And you know he's he's he's patient runner, he's compact, he's strong. Um, he can test every area of your run gaps. If we're nosy, if we um, if we get out of our gaps, he's a guy that can make you pay.

And a lot of that comes from his um, from his experience, you know. So I think that that served him well. He's been in the league for a while. Um, he understands the run game and he's gonna it's not just where the ball supposed to go. He can test every gap. And we have to play sound defense use only for seven snaps. Yeah, and that was a that was a critical point of the game. And you know

we've said this before. We haven't had to rotate as much upfront as you know you'd anticipate, just because of our snaps being so low. And you know, we've been lucky a little bit with the weather hasn't been terribly hot for any of those so he hasn't had you know, we haven't had to rotate those gays enough. But when you're out there, it doesn't matter what the situation is. They might be third and ten, it might be fourth

and one. Um, you know that you have to be relied on to be able to make plays to come to you. The thing I was proud us of him with that play is he was blocked pretty good on that play, but that was really a second effort play that he made, you know, to keep coming. You know, Cutler extended to play Vinny sort of got him flow ushed a little bit, and then he stepped up and finished it. Um. You know, some players, you know, might have a tendency to stop if they if they got

blocked on a play. He played with great effort. And we need that from guys, and that's one of the reasons we have those guys in there. They have to be relied on to make the play that happens. And that might have been the most critical play the game because they were driving a little bit and that stopped it and um and shifted momentum to us. For sure. Decision when you when you go with three d d ns by moving Vinnie inside, what kind of kind of

trouble is that need to go to give all offenses. Yeah, I mean, it just goes week by week. Um, you know, Vinnie was coming off of the knee the week before. We like him inside, we like him outside. Um, it's just trying to find our best matchups on a weekly basis. There might be some weeks we do it, there might be some we don't. Um, you know, I mean there'll be times where you'll see three defensive tackles out there, you know. I mean, it just depends on what the

matchups are and and and how they go. But Vinnie's a multidimensional guy that can rush inside and outside. And you know it hasn't shown on the stafboard yet, but he's rushed very effectively forced these first two games. It was coaching decision. Um, you know, he made big hit on that on that play. Just leave it at that. Well, we see his role maybe increase. I don't, Well, we'll see, guys. You know one thing I'm not I'm not big on you know, who's gonna who's going to play, who's in

which package. You know, hey, we're just trying to do whatever we can that best helps us win that game. And you know, I just I just leave it at that I try not to, you know, talk too much about who's going to be matched up on who or you know, what packages we want to feature and things like that. I mean, I'm sorry, It's not that I'm trying to keep stuff from you. I just feel like that's, uh, that's stuff that's best for the opponent to figure out.

On Sunday, he didn't lets a bunch of kids the ground and what when it did the decision to just send Jenkins on the second play. Again, we just thought it was best at the time. I can't give you any Well, well, I mean if we if we if we sit here and pat ourselves on the back about what a what a smart move that was, then the opponents know what we were looking at. So so yeah, I mean, and again I don't mean to be coy or anything else. But if it, if it worked, it worked,

and that's the proof of the pudding. If he got blocked, y'all would have been said, well, what do you call that was to blitz him? You know, the tight end blocked his and he gave up a big play. You know, what were you thinking. I was thinking the same thing as when he came free and got the sack. You know, and Um, you know again, I don't like to go too far into reasons behind stuff. I mean, obviously there are reasons behind, but you know, I think that the

whole thing is did it work or not? And you know, if it worked, it was a good call. If it didn't, it was a crappy call for you. Um started seeing him in practice in terms of evaluating the film from last year and also from previously when he was in a similar scheme, although he really didn't get the opportunity in that scheme. He's always been a good rusher. I don't want to jump ahead of your question there, but he's compact, he's strong, he plays with great effort. UM

got to coach him at the Senior Bowl. We saw it firsthand. Um, he's tough matchup for some offensive tackles. You know, just watching the film last year, he gave some of them. The offensive lineman, our offensive tackles in our own division, he gave those guys a handful. Um. I think his biggest thing is the tempo he plays with his effort. He's a tough guy and and he's he's one of our tempo setters, you know, up front,

And as for our whole team. He's been that way since um Ota, since training camps, in preseason games and in the first two games, much more than just rushed the I mean he's run defending has been pretty Yeah. I mean we got played a run too. Yeah. I mean he's not a one trick pony, and all our guys up front we expected to do both. Um, you know, I mean that's been a little bit more just the way teams have played and stuff like that. There are some things he's not in there for. I mean, he

was a couple of plays he was out. Um. He's been good against the run, been good against the Platt pass. Um made a big play in the game. A little more on Sunday about sticking on their man since Roethlisberger has ten to extend play so much. Yeah, we emphasize sticking on our man at all times, so, you know, but but I do get your point, Um, you have to cover longer against Roethlisberger because he is capable of extending plays. He doesn't do it outside of the pocket

very much anymore. But he is, if not the best, he's one of the best in the business at sliding and picking and just working his way around the pocket. You know, he's a giant man and he's not afraid of contact in there, and you know a lot of the plays get extended and it does put more pressure on coverage. And it's not just coverage. Our pass rush has to keep going. He doesn't have a clock when

he throws. Some guys you know, throw it quick and the ball is delivered on time all the time he can, but he also has the ability to extend, so we need to keep our rush going. It's not just two seconds you're rushing for. You've got to keep going. And he's not coming down on an arm tackle. You know, you can grab a jersey and he's still going to throw it. Yeah. You know three X plays in the two games, all three have been on scoring drives. Those

are your only scoring drives you've allowed. How much emphasis is there? I know there are all different circumstances on the three plays, but how much emphasis not eliminating those kind of plants. Yeah, you know I think that you look at it just what our job is to keep scoring down the best we can. You know, sometimes you run I don't want to call him risky, but more aggressive schemes and you know they can look really good,

and you could potentially give up a big play. Big plays do equal scoring, It's like twenty yard plays equal scoring. But we could also overreact the other way. And and and I've you know, you've seen a lot of times guys say, hey, we can't give up to big play. Well, hell, then you just keep up giving up you know, first down churners, first down churners and third down conversions. Well, you go through a drive, you haven't given up a big play, but you know, they still got eighty yards

and they still scored a touchdown. The thing with the thing with the plays we have given up. I like the fact that we've gotten those guys on the ground and given us a chance to play again. We held one to a field goal, and we've got a couple penalties in the end zone that that sort of led to our touchdowns. I thought we had a chance to be able to get off the field with those. You know, if he give us a chance to play again, I like that. But you got to balance both of those.

You know, you gotta you know, you gotta keep your edge, you gotta stay aggressive. I don't think, um, I don't think we want to lose that edge. And you know and and just be able to know that there are going to be times where we're going to be in difficult positions. And as long as it's not very many. I mean again, you know points, a touchdown still counts as seven, whether they did it on a twelve play drive, running at every snap, or they did it on one play.

You know, um going to eighty yards. You know, our jobs keep scoring down whatever way we can. We're gonna try to do that, all right,