Yeah, Yes, talked a lot today about what went wrong with the run defense Sunday. He said the Vikings were probably watching that tape thinking they're gonna run it sixty five times this week. Uh, you know, what do you what do you think about that? What happened and what you need to fix? Well, a lot happened, um, But to put it plainly, we uh missed a lot of our our gaps and got um. Really, you know, we have bad fundamentals going into it. And really it's it
was all on us. You know. If this is this type of defense, if one person is out of their gap, gets split, you know, and and it and it gets split in a hurry. Um. There were times when we had multiple people out of our gaps. And that's, if you can imagine, you know, not a good situation of being so um. You know, it's it's dialing back to the basics. And I think we've done a good job.
The Temple A practice has been really good. Um. And you know we've taken you know, first, you know, first and foremost you have to stop the running this league, um, And we understand that and we've taken those those run um, those rundowns and practice and those run periods and practice seriously, you know, and and um gotten back to what we do, and you know that's that's uh, you know how we're preparing. It's it's been a good week at this point of
the season. How to correct those things because they don't think you probably a lot of time during practice actually practice tath. I think a lot of its angles UM efforts there. Man, it's you know, you see guys running to the ball, but you know, we've we've got to have angles, We've got to have gang tackling UM. And you know, when you shoot your gun, you gotta you gotta, you gotta hit, you know, and you can't you can't
miss um. You know. It's we're at this point in the season where you know you're you're going up against these guys and your body might feel a certain way or whatever, but that's you have no excuses at this point, you know. And and we understand that we've we've worked a lot on tackling UM. We have really this whole time. So you know, it's it's uh, obviously a point of emphasis from the past two games, UM, and something we
definitely are correcting. That's really trail defense different you need play, you know, I think it's it's a matter of it's a matter of stopping the run. You look at these past two games. If you don't stop the run, you see the type of momentium offense has. It keeps them off the field. They convert third downs, you know, they get in good situations if we stop the run our defense, that's that's what our defense is meant to do. Our defense is meant to pass rush, you know, stop the running.
Then let your d line eat. I say that all the time, but that's the way it is, you know. And when when you're d line, when you give them the ability to just go and do what they get paid to do. Um, you know, it takes the pressure off of everybody in our defense is it's running the way it does and the way it's supposed to. So, you know, first things first, stopped to run and everything follows.
Were obviously one of the biggest advocates for saying when he was here, excited about how well he's playing, excited about to saying him again, Yeah, I'm really exciting, you know. Um. The main thing that as a friend, you know, when I knew that the trade was going down, I wanted to know what situation he was going to, you know, because beyond football, you know, he's obviously my friend first, so UM, I wanted to make sure, you know, I want to know if he was going to a good
situation where he could go and compete. And then not only did he get to go to a team in Minnesota, but um, I know coach Sherman's there and him and Kach Sherman had a great relationship. He was even actually a Sam's wedding, so you know, so him being able to go there and have somebody he knows and then go to a team that I feel like fits him, fits his demeanor. You know, I don't know if there's a lot of media guys in Minnesota, so I think
that's right up, say Zalley. So, um, you know, I guess I was happy to see him go that situation, and of course I'm excited to see him when he comes back. You know, you guys had such a great chemistry, and I know you're a big fan of of of Carson, but you would seem like you and Sam by maybe week nine last year week or not, it really has something special going. Um looking back at that is that was that unique. I know you've had different quarterbacks really
every year in your life. Um, did you guys have something special that you haven't had with with anyone else? Um? You know, I don't want to do that line too long because obviously, like you said, you know, uh, you know, I'm playing with Carson now, so that's where you know, my main focus is. I'm trying to build, you know, continue to build our chemistry. But you know, I said, I think the biggest thing with Sam is it's undeniable that his accuracy is at the type of the league.
You know, people can say whatever they want thinking right, whatever article they want about his play back. At the end of the day, when he's on the field, he puts the ball where it has to be. And you know, if you would have told somebody that he was going to Mansota Vikings and as it was gonna be their best player, you know you would have thought maybe ap probably may mine thought, digs, my thoughts, all these other people,
Harrison Smith. But the guy who is a focal point of that team right now, Sam and Sam's the reason why they're going where they're going right now. So you know, he has the ability to make a lot of receivers look good. And so my biggest thing was, you know, us building us, building a relationship to where I was like, Okay, where do you want me to be? What's the timing? Things like that, And then I had enough time really
to actually go through that with him. So once we were able to build that, it was really easy because he could put the ball with that to be I mean, when you look at your career, you had eight games with Nick, I think, ten games with Sanchez, fourteen games with Sam and I five games with Carson. Do you think I've told you about that? You really haven't had a guy for more than fourteen games? Is you know
it's in your career, don't. I don't like to say the word held me back, and I played with great guys. You know, it'd be one thing. One of those quarterbacks, you know, it wasn't a quarterback who could in the NFL or was extremely competitive, you know. So I've been fortunate to have you know, a lot of good quarterbacks. You know. Obviously there is you know a process of always changing that you have to kind of work through.
But at the end of the day too, you know, still as a receiver's job, I just got to go out there and make play. So you know, I'm fortunate, you know, to be with all those guys. I think it's made me, you know, the receiver that I am now, and obviously having Carson here, who I know, it's gonna be here for a long time. I think just going through that for so long helped me to this point, and I think it's helped me continuing to go on him same practice against you. Is there any advantage or
either side of the balls are really canceled out? You watched some film, Um, obviously you have a good feel for you know what Sam does good does well at and some things that hopefully we could try to take advantage of. Um, you know, I don't. I think he knows what we do. We know kind of how he is. I think at the end of the day, it kind of bounces out, you know that this game does. Carson first saying, how do you think the way on both this?
I know both of their demeanors. I'm I think Carson doesn't care, and I think Sam cares even less so, to be honest, I don't think it's anything that they're really worried about. You just gotta I've been around both of them like to be honest, like they would want to answer at least questions about each other as possible. Y'all can probably tell about their answers, So they just
want to go out and play. Even when Carson came, you know, that was the ultimate, you know, and Okay, let's try and see if something happens with this friction, And there was still no friction in the building when Sam and Carson here. That's just the type of guys they are. So both of them get to be the captains of their ships on two teams that are really like competing in this league. I think the last thing they're worried about is each other or any of the
outside stuff. They're worried about each other's offense and going in competing. Like I said, I'm here with eleven every day, and I know he's getting ready. He's excited to be able to come back and play in the link after a couple of role games. So we're decided to go out there and try and get to win Chlos Are you to reaching that level with Carson? Now? Do you feel like that that you're right was saying about the
end of the last year. Um, you know, it's It's hard to say because obviously more games, you know, we're still you know, early on and m But at the same time, like said, Carson is a beast. You know, I could talk all day about you know, his talent and things that he's able to do and things that he's able to bring. But I mean, you guys watch the games. I mean there's plays that that he's making with his arm that it's just like like the balls fallen in our laps. I mean, the balls where it
has to be. And then not only can he make plays you know obviously from the pocket, but his ability to move around too and make plays for us on the run. It's gonna be huge moving forward to especially being a guy who sometimes when I go into the slide, I'm like the third fourth option. When a quarterback can move around, that helps a lot because he can buy time and find his you know, the second third option.
So I think it's going to continue to build. I'm really excited where me and Carson want to go, as as as well as all the other receivers in tight ends. Jordan, Uh, yeah, I'm sorry, Uh, this is hard. Jim talked today about the linebackers in particular, shouldering too many blocks last week? Yeah, how does that? How is that bad? And how do you not do that? Well? The offensive linemen, um ultimately want you know, as much surface as they can possibly
grab onto. That's their goal. They want to go one for one, put a hat on a hat and roll from there. But you know it's on us to not get in that situation. We worked using your hat and hands, um, ripping off of blocks. When you give a shoulder, you know they're just gonna lean into you and just absorb you, you know, at the end of the day and hold you technically, um. And you know you don't get holding calls. So it's it's the way it is. And it's linebackers,
linebackers joys. We get paid to do. Get off a block, go make attack. UM. DGB has been getting increasingly more snaps. What does it do for an offense, for you guys when he's out on the field more and maybe even for you specifically having come out there. I think it helps. I mean, I think you know, all the guys have been uh, you know, progressing and playing better. I think, um, you know, Nelson did some really good things for us
in the last game. I think you know, the more we can get everybody out there and doing different things, the more ability our third down percentage can go. I mean, that's one area that we've been stressing, like we gotta do better on third now. And we got some more touchdowns in the red zone, you know, and so having DGB in there, you know, give us that element on third down. He can help us out with that and
especially in the red zone. So I'm excited to see, you know, his compact, his package continue to grow, him be able to get more plays. Thank you, Thanks guys,