Press Pass: Jordan Matthews

obviously I was kind of extremely shocked. You know. I think even if you looked at the last couple of speeches, um, Trump's kind of narrative was a lot of nostalgia, obviously talking about the things he had accomplished, leaping up to it, and then but it was still kind of like if I don't win, it's rigged. So he was already coming up with a plan. Was like it was not rigged now, I guess, you know, so that's kind of funny to me.

And then obviously Hillary had already moved on to things that she was planning on doing, you know, post winning the election, so I think everything you know, had set up and everything just kind of looked like it was gonna be Hillary. But you know, I woke up this morning found out down one, so you know, definitely disbelief. But hey, I think Malcolm hit on it. This is America. People have a choice, Um, We're gonna to live with

our choice. So hey, you know, go with it. How woach I've watched it, um, I mean there's no there's no telling because the rewind play rewind play around I played I mean a countless um and then we actually went back in the red zone, uh did today and we hit it for a touchdown UM today, So we just had to go back rap it. We've talked about it and me and Carson had extensive conversation about it. So you know, we've like from the quote unquote disappointment

of it. We moved on from that because it's a play that we've hit plenty of times. Like I said, we hit the same throw earlier that game. It just happen to be in the field. So in the field, it's a totally different field for that throw as opposed

to the red zone. But as far as you know, getting better at it and making sure it's something that we could perfect, it's definitely something that we're still staying on because that needs to be one of our throws that's like got to be a stable for us, the same way you know Aaron Rodger and Jordy Nelson have that back shoulder I mean slot fade things like that. That has to be something that me and him due to a T So he's willing to work on it. I'm going to work on it. It's gonna be something

that we're going to just continue to get better at. Okay, he still has a great deal of faith to the Receiver Corps as a whole in terms of being able to get the job done, and he singled out DGV as a guy who he sees maybe not the catches, we sees incremental improvement on the field, routes getting crisper, that kind of stuff. Are you seeing that too, that he's fitting in better and better? Yeah, I think lots of times. That has to do with a lot of culture.

Lots of times. And when you know, I don't know how I wasn't in Tennessee, you know, with him, but

I know when he was in Tennessee. You know, some of the guys who receivers there aren't there, you know anymore, and so and then maybe some of the older guys they were older, so those vets, maybe we're in the back half of their career where you know, they don't have to put as much out in the field to go perform you know, in games, and so I mean to be honest, I felt a large responsibility for it when I was out, because when I'm in there, like games,

we're gonna get done in games, but practice is gonna be on a whole nother level. Like we're gonna go out in practice like and we're gonna get better. It's gonna be full till and when I was out, you know, I felt like we weren't able to get that same you know, intensity and practice sometimes. So we're getting Crisper, we're doing those things, but the intensity just had to

be hired, you know. And so I feel like, you know, now with all hands on deck, everybody's back, that's just the next thing that's going to take DGB to the next level. I think he's definitely his rossal guy, Crisper. He's more focused, learned the plays, doing those things. But now it's just him bringing that dog out and I just feel like that's just something that we got to continue doing practice. That's something I'm gonna want to motivate

him to do. I know, Nelly comes out and works his butt off every single day, and it has to be that whole. That has to be the field and I said this before when I got like, people can say whatever they want about this Receiver Corps. I'm gonna be honest. I on re Twitter, So I don't know what people think about me. They may think out good,

they might think I sucked. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna go grind and especially now that I'm healthy, I'm gonna make sure that this Receiver Corps understands that we got responsibility to do, especially every day in practice, We're gonna go to work and then we're gonna go put the product out there on the field. I was wondering, like, do you ever watch other receivers like Yea, such as Julio Joe and what kind of things you can well? I you know, um, I used

to tell Pya all the time. You know, there's only so much you can watch guys like Julio and Calvin. You can't learn to be six five two sixty, you know what I'm saying. I don't know how. But at the same time, though being a big receiver, I love watching Julio the way he gets in out of his breaks. I think him and aj Green, I mean, when it comes to getting in and out of their breaks as taller receivers. They do it as if they were like a five ten slot guy. He's strong, he's powerful on

deep balls. The way he picks up his knees and where he gets going is I mean, second to do in this league. And then just when it comes to the screen game quick slants getting the ball in his hands and then turn into like a running back. It's something that I admire by his game. He's definitely going to be, you know, a big person out know our team is going to be looking as far as defense, but you know, just as another receiver in the league, I definitely can admire a lot of things about his game.

I think that's why he's one of the best in it. It seems like passes in this pass game that we're off and maybe receivers and Carson not on the exact same page. That's what I almost felt like watching. Do you guys get that sense where it seems a little off right now than where it was. Let's take the first few games, okay. I think sometimes you can't take like the first stampshot of something and then think, okay,

there is like that. I think you find out how something is over time and the consistency is going to show you, Okay, this is where we are and this is where we need to get to. So right now, we're at the halfway point the game. Before the halfway point, Carson through for three to sixty, which is great, but we also had some things that didn't look right. So if we're still throwing for three to sixty with things not looking right, that means we have something good in place,

which I think everybody knows. We understand that. I know the coaches understand that. That's why even with Carson's first couple of throws in the game, at no point do we take our gas foot off the pedal. We're going to let Carson throw because he has the ability, he has the swagger, so we're always gonna let him do that.

But as far as some of those little things, like I said, you know, I'm not big on excuses, but it still was weak one when you first got to get to working with everybody, Like, there's still some things that we have to work out, but like I said, it's not these big gaping things I feel like are going to be the difference between all. We gotta wait till you know, two years from now. The figure howt is gonna loo. No, it's something we can fix right now.

And we even worked on some things that's today in practice, so I'm confident in it. I know he can make the throws. Now, it's just getting the time and down and make sure everybody needs to be, you know, where they need to be on certain plays. And I think we're gonna get to be able to do that. You know. It's it's crazy because obviously, um we do have the running backs, you know, and I feel like offensive line has played, you know well, especially the last few weeks.

I mean it seems like I know we mentioned it, but you know, somebody's gone. It's like outside out of mind. But obviously Lane Johnson losing lane huge and still is huge, So that shows up obviously some in the running game. Now, do we want to just come out there and throw the ball like crazy? I mean, I like it, but at the same time, you know, we want to make

sure it's balanced. We want we got too me great running backs were not to be balanced between ken y'all, Smallwood Ron and we already know what spros can do. I mean, we need to be able to run the ball and we need to be able to run effectively and then throw the ball off of that. Get our tight ends more involved. That's why I was extremely happiest exact get involved in the past game the way he did. I think that's going to be something that's going to

continue to get better. But I think that it definitely is going to get more balanced. I think that's coach Peterson's goal to have as balanced as possible and then to win on both run and pass are great. You'd love to watch them for going against the Falcons? Is there any more added the pressure to do big plays and to make big plays? Um? I would? I would say, uh, you know, when you see a team putting up the

numbers the way they are, you know. The first thing though, is I don't put anything past how good our defense is. So I don't look at it like, Okay, this team is going to put a lot of points now, so we got to put up a lot of points. I don't. I don't speak that. I know our defensn't go out there and shut down anybody. But for me, I know when the office is coming in who has played well, you know, especially a receiver like a Julio, I tell guys,

we gotta you gotta feed off that. You don't want somebody just to come in here and go off and then we're the guys over here not even trying to compete, just trying to do our thing. We gotta put that chip on our shoulder and go out there and compete. Two. So, I mean, even when we went to UH Atlanta last year, we came out and I just felt like we were competing offensively in the second half the way we should have the whole game. But I felt like we fed

off a lot of what they were doing too. They came out the first half, they were swinging the ball around, Julio was doing this thing, and then they were just Roddy was playing streaming. Well. I was like, guys, we gotta picked this up. And then we were able to get some of that going. So I think there is a little bit of Adam motivation for the offense. But at the same time, I'm not going to sit out here and say, oh, they're going to put up a lot of points. So we got to too. I got

extreme faith in our defense. I know they didn't go out there and stopped them, and we just gotta got them do we gotta do when you look at their secondary the physicality from from Neil, how they have three smaller fights corners. What are some of the things that stand out when you look at them, and especially for you personally in the slot position, you have the size advantage.

Is that's something that too, I can take advantage. Yeah, that's something that obviously having that size advantage in the slot and I have played against Pool in college before too, so that's something that that we are looking to. But also they do play a lot more zone. So sometimes just getting like, Okay, I'm really ready for this match, I don't know how many times I'm actually going to get that. You know, they run a lot more zone, so it's something that I've been getting ready for us,

finding like the different holes in the defense. But as far as on the outside, which is always pretty much man and man, the way they play defense, a lot of respect for their corners. I think Trufant is one of the most underrated corners probably in the game. I don't know why he doesn't get talked about more. But as far as like physicality getting in and out of his breaks, recovery on past plays, I feel like he's got the total package when it comes out and he's

extremely consistent. So um, I guess people don't talk about and don't talk much. Very quiet guy. So um, he's just a guy that everybody has to be ready for. I know the guys are excited about it. We watched a little bit of filming him today. We're gonna watch more um this afternoon. So he's just another guy we gotta be ready for. Also, Alfred is another corner who's who's very very capable to of gom out there and

making plays. He had a big player I think versus Oakland, big pig might get got called back, but he's definitely has ability. Even gotta be ready for him too. Three and O at home, one and four on a road, which been a difference. And how do you I just feel like you're a different team at home. We have we have played better at home, and I know it's something that we've been able to feed off of as far as you know, the fans. And it's just a

I mean atmosphere's links second and nine. But like I don't like to get up here and like do like we just got to go out and win. Like it can be a home away thing at the end of the day, there's made one game where I felt like, Okay, when I look back, we got out played. The other games we gave away, So we gotta just go back detail our word and say we're not going to give up these games anymore. Especially later games. We got to really focus in and hone in and feel like, Okay,

what do we need to accomplish. Let's get it done so we can stop giving up these wins. And I think that's something that we're gonna do