BB: I know everybody has the
announcement on the personnel and roster. We have a couple of open roster
spots, so we'll evaluate that and make some decision that we feel like is in
the best interest of the team going forward. Obviously, one of those players
will be a punter. Again, we'll look at our options and make a decision on
that when we feel like the time is right. I really don't have much other
comment on that other than that's the situation there.
Jacksonville is a
really good football team. In going back and looking at the playoff game
with them last year, that game was 7-3 late in the third quarter and kind of
got broken open with two big plays, [Benjamin] Watson's long touchdown, the
catch-and-run, and Asante [Samuel's] interception return. It was a very
competitive game. We had four fumbles that day, luckily we didn't lose any
of them and four sacks. They're a really good football team. Defensively
they're good at everything. They stop the run. They rush the passer. They
turn the ball over. They're good on third down. They're good in the red
area. They're good everywhere. They're good up front. They're good in the
secondary. They're good on special teams. They lead the league in field
position. Good returners. A good kicker. Blocked kicks. Cover them well.
They're strong in that phase of the game. Offensively they run the ball
better than any team in the league, in terms of running the ball. Now, Atlanta might have a few more yards, we know a lot of that goes with the
quarterback, but just in terms of running it. These guys can block. They're
big. They're physical. They have a whole stable of runners. They can all
run. The receivers are big. The quarterback is athletic. They make a lot of
big plays in the passing game, like getting the ball down the field to their
big-play receivers, however they do it, whether they throw it up there to
them or have catch-and-run plays or things like that. They have a lot of
different ways of doing it. It's a big team, physically, probably as big as
any team in the league. They're big at every position, and fast. They play a
physical game and we know what our situation is. We need to win to get into
the playoffs and so that's all that really matters. It's in our control and
we'll try to have the best week of practice and preparation that we can and
be ready to go down there against the Jaguars and they'll be tough. We know
that. That's where we are this week.
Q: How much does the holding aspect
factor in to losing Ken [Walter] and going into your next move?
BB: It's a factor. Yes, it's a factor. We'll have to take all things into
consideration, but that is one of them.
Q: Does [Sean] Landeta hold? Has he held?
BB: I don't know. You'd have to ask him.
Q: When he was at the Giants?
BB: He didn't hold at the Giants, but he's had a long career.
Q: Is there a quarterback on the roster that can hold?
BB: I think every player that has ever played quarterback has held at
some point. High school. College. Look, we'll look at what our options are
and we'll take everything into consideration and do what we think is best
for the football team. That's really about all I have to say about it.
Q: How difference dynamic is it with Jacksonville when Fred Taylor is in
there, when [Maurice] Jones-Drew and all of them are in there?
BB: All of them. All of them. [Greg] Jones when he was healthy. [Alvin] Pearman. [LaBrandon] Toefield. It's just a stable of backs. Honestly, when
you look at their running game, it's hard to even tell who is in there
because they're all good and they're strong. They break tackles. They run
over people. They're quick and they make guys miss in the open field. A lot
of times you have to run the play back and say, 'Was that 33? Was that 34?
Was that 25? Was that 28? Who was the back?' Because, man, they all look
good. It doesn't make a difference who gets the ball. Screen passes. The
backs are really their leading receivers, when you combine the catches that
they've had at that position. Those guys get the ball on a lot of plays – running plays and passes, basically short passes that are just versions of
runs, and they do a great job with the ball in their hands. They make a lot
of people miss. They break a lot of tackles. Cut the ball back. Find
openings. Find holes. And the fullback, [Derrick] Wimbush, is probably as
good as anybody that we've played this year in terms of leading the back
through the hole. He's like the running back and some of the cuts that he
makes, which then the running back follows those cuts. They're really good.
Really good.
Q: Do you see [Rashean] Mathis man up a lot on the receiver?
BB: Well, they have. They've matched him on receivers at times, but for
the most part he would be on our right. That's where he's played most of the
year. He doesn't match up a whole lot. From time to time, but I would say
that he's less matched up than matched up.
Q: Do they play a lot of man coverage?
BB: They play some. They're really mainly a cover-two team. But they do a
little bit of everything. I wouldn't say they just sit in one thing, but
they're mainly a cover-two team. It's hard to throw the ball against them.
They double the receivers a lot. They have a really good pass rush. They
have some inside guys that can push the pocket. They have some speed rushers
outside that zone blitz. They mix it up on you. They're good. They're really
good on defense.
Q: How is Rodney [Harrison] progressing, and ideally would you like him to play
in at least one of the last two regular season games?
BB: Well, we'd like to have all of our players available. We'd like to
have everybody out there full strength. I know everybody is working hard to
be at that point and I'm not sure what everybody's exact situation is, but
they're all working hard to be back out there. I'd love to have him back out
there.
Q: Is he progressing?
BB: Yes. Sure. We had a lot of guys that were getting close last week,
Saturday or a game day decision. We'll see how they are tomorrow, if they've
improved or how much they've improved and where they are relative to being
able to practice today. We'll let you know those after practice.
Q: Can you practice a two-minute defense?
BB: We practice it every week. At least once, sometimes twice and
occasionally three times. We always do it. It's scheduled to be practiced on
Friday every week, but a lot of times, we do it on Thursday and sometimes we
add it in there on Wednesday's practice, too.
Q: What goes into being successful in that situation?
BB: Number one, it's knowing what the situation is and playing to the
situation. That's very important. A combination of executing your coverages,
having a good pass rush and executing your coverages based on the situation
and based on what they do. Sometimes they're looking for big chunks of
yardage. Sometimes they really don't have to do it that way. They have
enough time or timeouts or field position. What type of plays they run in
that situation, most teams have kind of a standard grouping of plays that
they run when their hurry up at the line and being able to defend those
plays properly and get matched up on them correctly whatever the coverage or
defense you're playing, that's an important part of it. The situation is
important too, knowing what they need and what their options are and making
sure that you take away the most dangerous of those options and try to force
them to go where they least want to go. You can't stop everything, but you
want to stop the things that are most important. Communication is important
in that situation because you're going quick, they're going quick, you have
to find the formation, get the call, get lined up and figure out where
everybody is and get communicated whatever it is you're doing. Get all 11
guys playing the same defense.
Q: Were you a little disappointed that Ty Warren didn't make the Pro
Bowl?
BB: I think that there are a lot of players that probably deserve that
consideration, but in the end it's totally out of my control.
Q: Do you think he's had that type of year?
BB: I think that Ty has played well, yes.
Q: How has the practice squad punter [Danny Baugher] been kicking in
practice since he's gotten here? Is he a possibility?
BB: Possibly. Possibly. I would say if there here, they're doing positive
things. If they're not here, then somebody is doing something better, or
maybe there's more of a need somewhere else. That's possible too. So if
they're here working, then they're getting better and they're doing well. If
they're not, then somebody else who's here probably is doing more.
Q: Is this the first time in your career that you've had to put two
punters on the reserve list?
BB: I'd say we've been pretty durable at that position. At the Giants, we
went through some kickers, but no. No, I think this is the first one. This
breaks new ground.
Q: How concerned are you at the lack of playmakers on offense due to some
injuries you've had there?
BB: Every week we have three units of the team, and every unit, we're
trying to get as much production out of them as we possibly can. It's no
different this week than it is any other week. We want to play our best
football on offense, defense, and special teams. Offensively that means
scoring points. Defensively that means not giving them up and on special
teams it means controlling vertical field position and making big plays and
taking advantage of our scoring opportunities on special teams. It's the
same every week. You try to base it on how you match up against the other
team and you try to come out with what you feel like is the best matchup and
best players, game plans, plays, adjustments that you can make against that
team. That's what we've done all year and that's what we'll do this week.
Q: Do you find that teams are playing you any differently on defense with
[Laurence] Maroney and Watson not in there?
BB: I think you have to ask those teams. It isn't like we've seen
wide-tackle-six or anything. Basically we see things that those teams have
been running. The percentages may fluctuate a little bit, but I don't think
we saw anything last week, or in the last couple of weeks that Miami or Houston hadn't run before. You'd have to ask them what their strategy was in
calling what they called. I don't really know.
Q: Can you talk about Richard Seymour making it to the Pro Bowl and the
year he's had and Laurence Maroney being voted Shaw's 12th Man Award winner?
BB: Well, Richard, that's five straight Pro Bowls. I think his play
speaks for itself. Last week was a good example. The play he made in the
first quarter on the inception was kind of a typical Richard Seymour play –
a big guy who can get his hands up, he took the ball. It shows a lot of
athleticism to turn around and find it and make that play kind of over his
shoulder. We have defensive backs and linebackers, and the gets thrown to
them and hits them right in the hands and we don't catch it and just bat it
up in the air. I think that Richard is a guy that is a force out there in
every phase of the game. Runs to him. Runs away from him. In the passing
game. He's a versatile player. He's blocked kicks for us. He's one of our
captains, so I think he's a guy that's obviously well respected on his team,
both on and off the field. He's a smart guy. He's an experienced player and
he's made a lot of big plays for us. Laurence has come in and established
himself as a dependable player. He's worked hard. He's a tough kid. I think
everybody on the team respects him and likes him and he's fun to work with,
but he works hard. He has a great attitude. I'm glad we have both of those
players.
Q: Does Jacksonville develop some protection plays to get [David] Garrard out of the pocket?
BB: They do a little bit, but he gets out plenty on his own. I don't
think he needs a whole lot of help. He's very athletic. We saw an athletic
quarterback last week and we are seeing another one this week. He can run.
He strong. He's hard to tackle. He has some quickness. He's one of those
kind of guys that when he scrambles, I'd say probably most of the time he
looks down the field and a lot of times throws it down there for big plays.
Some quarterbacks, when they scramble, and I'd say more last week [David] Carr would probably fall into the other category, scrambled kind of either
look to run or look to find somebody to get the ball to and avoid a negative
play. With Garrard, you definitely have to be concerned with him running
around back there and heaping it into the end zone. A little different, I
would say, preference when they start running, but Garrard is a tough guy to
tackle and he's fast and he's strong.
Q: How much does the passing game change with [Byron] Leftwich out?
BB: I wouldn't say so. I think they pretty much call the same plays. They
have a big group of receivers. They're big at every position on the field,
but they're very big at receiver – 6'3", 6'4" – with good vertical speed, that
play strong. Whatever they are – 215, 220, 225 – I don't know, but they're
huge. They look like tight ends. The tight end, [Kyle] Brady, he looks like
a tackle. They're big. They throw it up to them, a lot of times it looks
like they're covered, or at least it looks like they're covered and then
throw it up to him and give him a chance to go up there and rebound it. They
have good hands. They're strong and they go for the ball and get it. All of
them. [Ernest] Wilford. [Matt] Jones. [Reggie] Williams. They're strong.
They're tough guys.
Q: Because of all of the skill guys, tackling has to be important.
BB: Tackling is huge. Tackling is huge. Every single guy. Yes. And they
can take those short passes and turn them into long gains. The backs are
really good. Like I said, I don't care which one you want to pick out,
they're all good. The receivers, they run down the field and go up and take
the ball away from the defensive backs and then teams that lay off of them,
they hit them on those short plays and they catch it and run over guys.
They're hard to tackle. They're big. They have some quickness and they're
strong. They kind of have their own style of passing game, but it's a very
effective one. It certainly complements their running game. They're tough to
stop.
Q: With tackling, is that especially true for a guy like Jones-Drew,
especially because he's short, but he's stocky?
BB: He's short, but he's strong. He's compact and he has great quickness.
Again, we watched him at length this morning. He runs over guys. He has a
low center of gravity. He has really good balance. Guys hit him and he
doesn't really even break stride sometimes. It's not like he has to regain
his balance. Sometimes he does bounces right off of them and keeps going. He
has good quickness, can find the hole. There's a lot of times where he runs
up into the line and you think he's going into one gap and he jumps one or
two gaps over, jump cuts right at the line of scrimmage, just like Fred
Taylor does and then he's through there. He catches the ball well. He can
get outside and cut back. They're good. Nobody runs the ball better than
these guys. They block them, but their backs make a ton of yards on their
own too. With Brady, it's like playing against an unbalanced line when he's
in there. He's really a tackle. He must be 285 or whatever he is. He's a
huge guy. Strong. Powerful. He could play tackle in this league. That's a
problem too. Everything is a problem. The backs are a problem. Wimbush is a
problem. The tight end is a problem. The offensive line is a problem. The
receivers come in there, they block. They're part of the running game. And
you load them up in the running game and you get one-on-one coverage out
there, and they go back and lob it up there to them and they come down with
it. They have their way of doing it and it works for them.
Q: What is your general feeling about the way the quarterbacks are being
protected these days and the way the rule is being interpreted today versus
years ago?
BB: My background is as a defensive coach, so you can probably figure out
the answer to that question. But the bottom line is that nobody cares what I
think. It doesn't make any difference.
Q: I care what you think.
[Laughter]
BB: [Laughter] You got me on that one. I'm telling you. You got me on
that one. But again, that's one of those things that I don't have any
control over – do you want replay, do you not want replay? Pass
interference at the point, a 15-yard penalty? I would say go talk to the
geniuses that make the rule, because really they're the ones who make it and
they have all the answers, 'Here's why we do it this way. Here's why we
don't do it that way.' They want to sit in there and talk about how much
money all the quarterbacks are making and we don't want to see those guys on
injured/reserve. They have all of the answers, so really I think that they
could explain it a lot better than I can. Whatever the rules are, we need to
understand them and play within those boundaries. That's all I know.
Q: I was just asking in a theoretical sense to somebody that has been in
the league for more than 30 years.
BB: Look, nobody wants to see a quarterback hurt and the quarterback is
in the position, a lot of times, where he can't defend himself. He's looking
at a receiver, he's stepping, he's trying to throw the ball and he really
can't protect himself from somebody who is trying to knock his head off.
That's different from a running back and for the most part it's different
even than a receiver, although once in awhile we see a receiver try to catch
a poorly thrown ball usually, and they get laid out by a defensive player,
but that's more of a result of where the ball is thrown. Defensively you're
protected on crack-back blocks and things like that. I think the concept of
protecting a guy, whether it be a returner who can fair catch, giving the
quarterback protection in the pocket, hey once he gets out of the pocket
there's a little bit less protection, although he gets plenty out there too,
the slides and all of that, there's a million rules that of all been put in
there basically to help him when he can't protect himself, which is when
he's trying to look downfield and deliver the ball. We all know that's an
exciting part of the game, the passing game in the National Football League.
That's one of the things that make this the greatest game and the best part
of it is the skill of those players and then the guys they throw to. I think
we're all on board with that. Now as it goes to each specific rule and
point, the one-step rule and sliding, below the knees, and above the
shoulders, helmet to helmet and all of that. There's a point to everything
and how much is too much and what's not enough. Hey, I tell you right now
when they meet again this year there will be another one in this year, too.
They'll talk about it, I don't know whether they'll pass it or not, but
there will be some other rule. Like I said, I think you should talk to the
guys who make the rules. There are plenty of people on that committee and
they love to talk about the rules that they've made and how great they are
and all that, honestly. The Charley Casserly's of the world, that have all
the answers to everything. Talk to them. They've spent a lot of time
studying it, a lot more than I have and I'm sure they have all the answers.
Q: Surely, the pendulum can't swing any further than it already has.
BB: Why not?
Q: Well because the defensive players don't even know what they can and
can't do.
BB: They don't make the rules either. The pendulum can swing as far as
the people who make and pass the rules. I'm not just saying it's the
competition committee. The league votes on all of that too, so there must be
enough of a sentiment within the league to pass those rules. 32 teams vote
on them and I don't know however many they need to vote, whatever the number
is, you have to have enough people to want the rule for it to be a rule.
Q: Is it two-thirds?
BB: I don't know. Look, I'm not on any of those NFL committees. I don't
want to be on any of them. I just want to coach the Patriots and see if we
can beat Jacksonville. That's really all I'm interested in.
Q: Do they ask you to be on those committees and you turn them down?
BB: Look, all I want to do is coach the Patriots and try to win a
football game here. I'm not trying to conquer the world. I just want to win
one game. |
