| |
BB: How is everybody doing this
morning? We're rolling on the Lions here. This is a team that we really
don't know very much about but we're getting to know them pretty quickly
here. They're a very exciting team to watch. They have a real good front
with [Shaun] Rogers back, and [Cory] Redding and [Marcus] Bell, they're
pretty active up there. Some fast linebackers like [Ernie] Sims and [Boss] Bailey. A ball-hawking secondary
– [Dré] Bly had a tremendous year last
year, he's very active back there, and [Terrence] Holt and [Fernando] Bryant and [Jamar] Fletcher. So they're
pretty fast, pretty good on defense upfront. And offensively
with [Mike] Martz, it's always a challenge with Mike. He has
so many formations and looks. They throw the ball downfield
as well as anybody in the league. [Jon] Kitna's gone on some
amazing streaks – 20 in a row and stuff
like that. [Roy] Williams is having a tremendous
year. And [Mike] Furrey and [Dan] Campbell. Of course Kevin
Jones is really one of the better backs we've seen this season. They have
really a good group of backs, all five of them play and contribute. [They] block a
lot of kicks, have a real good returner, good kickers. So they have a very
talented team. I can see them kind of getting a little better each week as
they get more comfortable with their system. They were really a play or two
away from winning a lot more games. Each game seems like it's a key play
here, a turnover, a penalty, or something like that, but they're
playing very competitively. I have a lot of respect for their organization,
the staff and what they're doing. So we know we have to play better than we
played last week. Hopefully we can have a good week of practice and perform
better on Sunday, and do a little better job of coaching this week.
Q: The Lions' defense is allowing opposing quarterbacks to have a 68 percent
pass completion. Is that part of them learning the new defense?
BB: I think anytime you play a lot of zone coverage like they do, the
completion percentages are going to be higher. I don't think that's the most
important statistic at all. But they have good coverage people. All of their
corners are quick. Fletcher plays inside. Bryant and Bly, they're very
quick. Holt is a really good safety. They have another young kid playing
back there, [Daniel] Bullocks, that they took from Nebraska. He's been in
for [Kenoy] Kennedy. They're very fast at linebacker with Bailey and Sims,
the two outside guys. You have to be careful there. Bly had nine or 10
interceptions last year, whatever it was. I think you have to be careful
throwing the ball around them. Any team that plays a lot of zone is going to
give up a high completion percentage. That's a given, but they rally to the
ball and they tackle well. I think you have to be careful with the ball
against them.
Q: Furrey was a safety last year.
BB: Yes, he was. He's an interesting guy. Obviously Mike had a really good
knowledge of the player from St. Louis and brought him with him to Detroit.
He is very quick. He plays a lot in the slot and he has that explosive
quickness that a good slot receiver has. [He] catches the ball well with his
hands away from his body and can get open and creates a lot of separation
between himself and the defender. That's the kind of pass offense where they
stretch the field, again, probably as well as anybody in the league does.
They run a lot of deep patterns. They're very aggressive throwing the ball
down there, but he's done a nice job and of course Roy Williams is having an
outstanding year. He's been as productive as any receiver in football. Kitna is obviously an experienced quarterback, he's gotten on some tremendous
streaks and these guys can score. It seems like every game they have about
three or four play, minute-and-20-second touchdown drive. They slap one out of
every single game. They hit two or three plays and boom, boom, boom, they're
right down the field. That's what you have to defend against. You can't let
those things happen. They're going to hit one of them, or maybe two of them,
but when they hit three or four in the same drive, you can pretty much
forget about it.
Q: As a defensive coach, how does Mike Martz put pressure on a defense?
BB: Every time the ball is snapped, there's pressure on the defense. First of
all, they run every personnel group that there is. They run unbalanced line.
They line up in spread formations and shift into tight formations. They line
up in tight ones and motion and shift into spread ones. They attack
vertically down the field. Down and distance, most teams you can play a
little bit of their down and distance tendencies, but not with Mike.
Third-and-18, it doesn't bother them. Everybody else, and me, I shudder at
the thought of being in third-and-18. Third-and-18, they throw 20-yard incuts and hit them. They run 20-yard seam routes. Slim post. They don't
care. They run a screen on the 3-yard line. They run a shovel pass down
there inside the 10. They go empty. First-and-goal to go, they go empty
backfield, line up in shotgun on the one-yard line. You just don't know what
you're going to get and you have to be ready for everything. The running
game, they do run a lot of counter, misdirection plays which makes it really
hard to key on, again, a lot of times by formation you can kind of have a
formation of where the runs are going to go, you still have to stop them and
they have some complementary release guys. The ball could be on this
sideline, that sideline. Draw plays out of two tight end formations where
you think they're going to run it. They keep you off balance and they never
run the same play twice. If they repeat a play, it's out of a different
personnel group or a different formation that's disguised differently so you
really can't key in on the play until after the ball is snapped. That's when
you have to recognize the play, is once the ball is snapped and it puts a
lot of pressure on you every single time the ball is snapped. It doesn't
matter whether it's on their one-yard line, your one-yard line, or the
50-yard line. Honest to God, you have to defend everything in the book.
Q: How has be been able to make it work with that personnel? How similar is
it to what he did in St. Louis?
BB: I think it's similar. Clearly their personnel is different, but they have
a good group of backs. Campbell has done a good job for them at tight end.
[Marcus] Pollard. They use the tight ends a lot and they have the multiple
receiver groups. They've gotten Mike Williams back into the picture a little
bit here last week. Furrey and Roy Williams. They have all of their multiple
receiver groups, multiple tight end groups, two back groups. [Cory] Schlesinger is a good lead-blocking fullback and can catch the ball out of
the backfield. A tough guy. He's been a good player for them for quite a
while. They have all the different skill combination groups. Their offensive
line is a very experienced group as well with [Ross] Tucker and [Ross] Verba and [Dominic] Raiola in there at center. [Jeff] Backus is a very talented
player at left tackle. And they play a lot of guys on the line. They've used
[Rick] DeMulling in there. He's been in there some and [Jonathan] Scott, the
rookie from Texas. He's played some. [Blaine] Saipaia. They have good depth
on the offensive line as well. I'm telling you, they're not afraid to throw
it now.
Q: How rare is it to have a player like [Mike] Vrabel who is an outside
linebacker but if you need him he can play inside?
BB: I think we've had them through the years.
Q: Who would be some examples?
BB: Clay Matthews was very, very good at both. A lot of 4-3 teams, especially
going back a ways, the outside guys played inside in different fronts.
[Carl] Banks played inside in all of the nickel sets when we were at the Giants, so he was really an inside linebacker in nickel and an outside
linebacker when we were in 3-4. We always thought that he could play inside.
[Lawrence] Taylor played inside when [Harry] Carson got hurt his second year
in the league. Taylor played inside and [Andy] Headen played outside.
Playing off the line and playing on the line, that's two different things.
Players that are versatile that have some experience and can see the game in
there – Clay Matthews was very, very good at both.
Probably in terms
of doing both well, obviously Taylor was better outside. Junior [Seau] is
another guy who had played both on and off the line, more off the line than
on. He's done both in his career, too. [Willie] McGinest played middle
linebacker at USC, believe it or not.
Q: Does [Tully] Banta-Cain's development this year make that move that much
less nerve wracking for you, sliding Mike inside?
BB: I don't know. I don't know. I couldn't really evaluate it. Tully has
played a lot for us all year. He's played since the beginning of training
camp and before Junior came. Then, when Tedy got hurt in training camp, Mike worked inside then. Mike was inside for a good, I don't know, three or four
weeks in training camp, with a lot of those double practices. Tully and Rosey [Colvin] were the outside linebackers. Then Mike moved back outside
and then Junior got here and then Tedy came back and Mike's been working
there in practice. We've kind of had five to play four since maybe the
second or third game of the season. We started it the other way after that
first, maybe, week-and-a-half of training camp when Mike and Tedy were
inside and then Mike and Junior were inside when Tedy was injured. So we've
been playing that way all year.
Q: Who slides into Tully's old role?
BB: What role is that?
Q: Being sort of the first guy off the bench.
BB: That could change from week-to-week. It would be a gameplan decision. We
have multiple guys that can do different things out there. Pierre [Woods]
has played outside. Eric [Alexander] has played outside. Don [Davis]
has some experience out there. Another defensive lineman that we could put
in the game. There are a lot of different things we can do.
Q: Statistically, your third down defensive is average. Would you
characterize it that way?
BB: I guess you can't argue with the stats. If that's what the numbers are, I
can't argue with those. You always want it to be better.
Q: Can those numbers be skewed a little bit on defense?
BB: The shorter the distance, the higher the percentage the offense generally
has at picking it up. For the most part those numbers will hold, not 100
percent of the time, but for the most part. I'd like for us to be at the top
of the league on third down defense. That means we're getting off the field
quicker and turning the ball over to the offense and having better field
position. There's certainly room for improvement there and the longer the
yardage the more you'd like to think that you could stop them in those
situations. Sometimes we have. Sometimes we haven't.
Q: It doesn't seem to be a question of stopping them on first down. It seems
like there are a lot of third-and-longs.
BB: Again, there are both. There are both. The longer the yardage statistically,
the better chance you should have of getting them off the field. But you
still have to go out there and make the play in that situation. That's what
it always comes down to. At that point, it's a one-play series.
Q: Can you talk about Kevin Faulk and what he brings?
BB: Well, Kevin, first of all he brings a great attitude and a great approach
to the game. He is very professional, well-prepared, smart kid, he can play
a lot of different position, do a lot of different things. Returns. He
handles a lot of different blitz assignments in the passing game. Routes.
He's a good change of pace runner. He's a very versatile guy that can help
us and do a lot of different things for us. We have a lot of confidence in
him. He's a playmaker. We like to see the ball in his hands. He's very
professional and, again, he has a lot of roles and a lot of assignments. He
works hard at them and he's a very dependable player and he doesn't make
very many mistakes. He's a smart football player on the field. He knows the
situations. If it's third-and-four, if you throw it to him, you can pretty
much count on him to be able to get the yardage, or a third-and-seven. He
kind of knows what you need and what he needs to do to get it.
Q: There was a situation where he was having problems holding onto the ball
four or five years ago. Was that something that he really worked on?
BB: Yes, I think Kevin has worked very hard on it. Kevin works hard on
anything you tell him to work on. If you pull Kevin aside and say, 'Kevin,
here's what I want you to do,' then he'll be doing it. He'll be working hard
at it. He's a great kid to coach and I think he sets a great example for all
of us; obviously younger players, but for every player. He's very unselfish,
team oriented, he's always trying to help out his teammates, whether it be a
defensive guy, 'Hey, you're giving this away,' and, 'Here's what I can get
on you.' Or one of his offensive players about, 'Hey did you see this,' or,
'Did you see that,' and try to help them perform a little bit better. He's
very unselfish and works hard and is always prepared. You can count on him
to do his best, really, in any situation. We've used him in a lot of
different roles and he readily adapts and accepts and performs in those
roles whatever they are. They can be fluid and change from week to week or
sometimes even within a game.
Q: Was the tape from the Thanksgiving game doubly beneficial?
BB: Well, we haven't really spent much time on Miami here. We're focused on Detroit. But, I do think that watching Detroit play Miami has some...it
applies to some of the things that we do. There are some similarities
defensively and offensively for that matter. It kind of gives you a similar
look at probably what you would be seeing if those plays happen to match up
against that particular call. That's good. We're familiar with Miami's
system, so offensively we can kind of see how they were attacking Detroit
and what was successful and what wasn't and how they were defending them and
what was good and what they had problems with and that type of thing. I
think from that standpoint it's helpful.
Q: Roy Williams was on pace for 400 yards that game. What did Miami do
defensively to slow him down after that first quarter?
BB: They really played pretty much the same defenses. They had him doubled on
two of the catches that he had in the first quarter. They continued to
double him a lot in the game, which he sees a lot of double coverage. He
probably sees as much double coverage as any receiver in the league, if you
can find him. That's part of the problem. He's all over the place and,
again, they shift and motion and change formations and personnel groups.
It's easy for you to sit here say, 'Double him,' but then you don't know
where he's going to line up in any given formation or any situation...you
might be able to get him, but then a lot of people have to make adjustments
in the coverage too. But they doubled him. He had that one catch there on
the incut. The ball was thrown right into tight coverage. Williams batted it
up in the air and came down with it for about a 25-yard gain. I'm sure Nick [Saban] didn't feel like, 'Well we had a bad coverage on there.' He just
made a great play on the ball. I don't know. I don't think they did it
really a whole lot different. Once they got ahead, then the pass rush... Miami rushed them well. They have some good pass rushers as we know. They
were able to put some pressure on the quarterback and that was a factor in
the passing game, which it always is.
Q: You talked about [Ellis] Hobbs and [Asante] Samuel switching sides. When
you're playing an offense that moves its receivers around as much, does it
matter as much whether Hobbs is on the left or Samuel is on the left?
BB: It depends on what you're trying to do. It could, but when they move
around, it's a lot harder for you to move around a lot. You can do it, but
it's just harder. If you stay where you are, then they know where you are.
Maybe it's easier for them to attack when they know that this guy is here
and that guy is there. That's a little bit of a cat and mouse game. Anytime
you do a lot of shifting offensively, when you shift and motion offensively,
it certainly creates a lot of issues for the defense. It creates
communication issues and it creates adjustments and depending on what you
have called on defense, you could have to change your call or adjust it and
that involves a lot of people getting on the same page and doing the same
thing. The flipside of it offensively is a lot of times you don't get a real
good read on the defense because they're not exactly where they're supposed
to be or they're kind of late getting there or they're not really in an
alignment that is that easy to read. As opposed to the offenses, the Indianapolis-type of offenses, that just kind of come out and set it one
formation and they let you look at it and they let you see it and okay what
do you want to do about it, and then they read that. It's just a little bit
of a different philosophy and the emphasis on Mike's offense, obviously, is
reading it after the ball is snapped. Once the ball is snapped then
everybody has to go to where they have to go to and the quarterback takes
his keys and after the snap, he's able to deliver the ball into the proper
area in the passing game. That's how it's setup. It creates some problems,
different than the stationary offense. It's run a little bit differently and
it takes different skills by the offensive players that are utilizing it.
Q: What are your thoughts on Kitna?
BB: I think he's had some amazing streaks with 15, 20 in a row, just throwing
the ball down the field 20 yards a clip. He's gotten some amazing streaks
this year going on. He had a play even against Miami on an interception
where he blew up a defensive back that was coming over and trying block him,
which you don't see that very often from the quarterback. I think he's a
really solid guy, very experienced and knows obviously what he's looking for
and has adapted well to Martz's offense and can get the ball down the field
to the receivers. The receivers are very productive, but at the same time
he's used the tight ends and backs quite a bit. Kevin Jones is a guy who is
the second-leading receiver or whatever it is. He has 50 catches or
something like that. He understands certainly how to go to his outlet
receivers and get the ball to the playmaker, like Jones. He's done a pretty
good job. He's had a real productive year. As we've seen him do before, go
from one system into another and then come in and have a good year in a new
system. He's certainly a smart guy and a guy that can adjust to a new
offense.
Q: Any roster moves to announce?
BB: No.
Q: When do you anticipate filling Junior's spot?
BB: Nothing to announce. |
|
