BB: Well, it was nice to watch the
film this morning. It was a real good, solid team effort. I thought our
players really played hard and they executed well against a good football
team. Cincinnati is a good team. But I think you really just have to
give a lot of credit to our football players. They did a real good job in
all three phases. The team complemented each other in each phase of the
game. Offensively, we had a couple of bad field position situations and we
drove the ball out. Defensively, we created some field position for our
offense and some scoring opportunities. We finally got a little bit of a
return game going on the punts. Kickoff coverage and the kicking gave us
some field position there. So I thought that the units really complemented
each other. The players did an excellent job against, like I said, against a
good football team. I'm proud of the way they played. It's time to move on
to Miami. We know this will be a big challenge for us. I know that
they're coming off a tough loss to Houston and I'm sure Nick [Saban]
will have them ready to go. Probably similar to the same scenario we had
last week coming off the Denver game. So that will be our challenge
this week. It's good to win, it's good to go out there on the road and put a
good football game together. It's the closest to 60 minutes that we've
played this year, so that was good.
Q: Were you guys blocking differently
yesterday?
BB: No, not really. I don't think we
really had any new plays. I think they were all ones that we've run. Each
week you have to block them a little bit differently based on the front and
the way they read the plays, linebackers running through, linebackers
playing over the top, backside chasers, backside flow plays, things like
that. The reverse, we haven't run that one in a little while. But, no,
they're all of our plays.
Q: How important was consistency
yesterday? You talked about playing for 60 minutes.
BB: Well, I think there have been
points in each of the games that we've played this year where we've, at
times, done things well for a short period of time or for maybe a half. Then
there were other times in the game where it wasn't very good. I just thought
we were more consistent and closer to a full game than we had been in the
other ones. Yes, it's all about consistency. Anybody in this league can go
out and make a play or two plays. There's plenty of talent on the field and
every team to do that but, if you want to be a good team, you have to
sustain it play-after-play, week-after-week. That's the big challenge.
Q: In a way, did some of the
breakdowns that you had before teach this team something about consistency?
BB: Well, I don't know. We've been
talking about it all year. It starts in practice. It starts in the preseason
games. It goes right through the regular season. We have a lot of plays out
there in practice everyday, some better than others. It's a theme that we
probably talk about every single day.
Q: How much does it help to be able
to call on veterans like Chad [Scott] and Hank [Poteat]?
BB: Yeah, well they really did a good
job. It was good to have Artrell [Hawkins] back too. Chad, Hank and Artrell of course, Asante [Samuel], Rodney [Harrison], those guys did a good job. Troy [Brown]. I
think that Cincinnati ran a number of plays, I think it was around
10, where they had four receivers in the game and that kind of forced
another defensive back on the field for us, which was Troy. It was a good
strategy on their part. We were thin in the secondary and it made us play
more of them. Those guys really answered the bell. They did a good job.
Cincinnati runs some tough pattern combinations and they kind of make some
of their patterns look the same, but then they unfold differently, so you
really have to do a good job of matching them and reading them properly.
But, for the most part, we did a pretty good job of that. Like you said,
they're all veterans. They are all able to at least have some familiarity
with what we're doing and they worked hard during the week. We had a good
week of practice and luckily it carried over into the game.
Q: Can you just talk about what you
like about Chad Scott?
BB: Chad is a very smart guy.
He works hard. He's very professional. He's in top condition. Physically,
he's a well conditioned athlete. He studies the game hard. He's always
looking for and asking questions on how to do it, how he can improve on it
and what he needs to work on. We've worked him at corner. We've worked him
at safety. He's played a lot in the kicking game for us, so he's had a lot
of different responsibilities and he's very conscientious. He works very
hard at it and tries to get everything right. He's very professional. He is
very professional. He's a tough kid. He tackles well. He jams the receivers.
He has a good wingspan. He has a good frame. Height. Long arms. He plays
strong. He adds a physical presence to a secondary.
Q: When Reche Caldwell got hit
hard, on that penalty play, and then got up off the field, you could see him
on the sideline ready to go back in. What does that say about him?
BB: I think it says a lot. I think it
says a lot. That was a pretty vicious hit. He did. He bounced back. He
bounced back in a hurry. I talked to him at the game. I talked to him after
the game. Reche is a great competitor. I've learned that from the
time that he's been with us, whether it's in practice or in a preseason
game. He's very competitive. He really wants to do well. He won't back down
from anybody or anything or any situation and I really admire and respect
that about him. You could really see his competitive nature in that game
after what happened to him there.
Q: How many plays did Troy play on defense and did you think those days were over?
BB: I thought they were and I'd hoped
they were. I really haven't wanted to use him on defense in either of the
last two years, but we've just gotten into some situations where we were
thin and what I thought was best for the football team was for him to be a
part of the secondary in those situations. Troy is always ready.
Again, he's very, very professional. Nobody is more team oriented than Troy
is. Yesterday was a great example. He was playing on offense, defense and
special teams. You can really count on him in pretty much whatever situation
you put him in there on. I don't want to play him on defense, but he's one
of our best players and if we need to we have to use him.
Q: So, he played just a handful of
plays?
BB: It was around maybe 12. Something
like that.
Q: How much time has he been spending
on defense in practice?
BB: This week he got the most work at
defensive back. He's done a little bit up to this week, but this week he
probably got the most work.
Q: Did you make any big adjustments
after that first drive?
BB: No, I just think that they did a
good job. They have a good quarterback. They have good receivers. They have
a good running game. They hit some plays. A couple of times the coverage was
pretty good, but [Carson] Palmer threw it in there. It was
tight, but they're hard to stop. We knew they were going to complete some
passes. You just kind of have to accept that. You just hope they're not the
80-yarders and that you don't get them thrown over your head. You can try to
stop everything, but it's hard to stop everything against them.
Q: In terms of third down conversions
on defense, you guys had one of your best days. Is that traced down to
execution?
BB: Yes, I think that's a big part of
it. Obviously we've been frustrated with our overall third down conversion
percentage. We really put a lot of a emphasis…we've been emphasizing it,
don't get me wrong. It's not like we just started talking about it. We put
even a heavier emphasis on it this week. I think Dean [Pees]
really did a good job of just taking the players and going over situations
and putting a few more plays in practice on it and just getting a few more
reps and trying to coordinate the pass rush and the coverage and just tie in
everything up so that we could have it as good as we can have it going into
the game. A couple of times we were able to get just enough pressure on the
quarterback so that he kind of had to reload the ball or had to step up and
adjust his drop a little bit. They had two really close catches there on the
sideline that ended up being incomplete that had he gotten the ball out of
there on time he might have hit them. It was just a matter of inches, one
way or the other. Then there were a couple of times where I thought the
coverage was pretty good and it was just enough to make him hold the ball
and then our rush got there. Jarvis [Green] knocked the ball
out one time. Ty [Warren] and Tedy [Bruschi]
came around and got him another time where he had to step up into the
pocket. It was good team defense where we were able to get either just
enough rush, or just enough coverage to give the other part of the defense
an opportunity to make the play.
Q: How encouraging was it to see your
guys put them away the way they did?
BB: I'm happy to win. I'm happy to
win. It's tough win in this league. It's tough to win on the road. It's
certainly tough to win against a good team like Cincinnati. To be
able to come out of there with a win, that's the most important thing. Like
I said, I'm proud of the way the players played. They played hard for 60
minutes, all three units, and they complemented each other. We were able to
take advantage of opportunities. The players, they did a great job. They
really did. They did a great job yesterday.
Q: You haven't lost back-to-back
games in quite some time. What does that say about the kind of core veteran
guys you have? Does that come up in the course of preparation?
BB: No, I think what's coming up is
trying to win consecutive games. We'd like to see if we could win two in a
row here.
Q: What is it about Hank Poteat and how he is able to come off the street and contribute right away?
BB: Well, again, I think it starts
with Hank being a smart guy. He's experienced in the league and he's
been in a couple of different systems, but now he's been around here for
quite and while and he knows what we're doing. He's smart. He has some
versatility. He can play in the kicking game. He can play inside in the slot
on third down. He has good instincts. He's been able to get thrown into the
fire, pick it up in a hurry and basically execute it at a pretty competitive
level. We were fortunate that he was still available and we were able to get
him back on the roster here. Obviously he's been on the team and has been a
part of the team and was close to being added at the beginning of the year
this year. We were fortunate that he was still out there for us.
Q: What goes into deciding when to
use trick plays, reverses, trick snaps?
BB: I think anytime you run plays
like that, you try to play the percentages. You're hoping for a certain look
or a certain type of defense and if you get it, you probably have a good
play. If you don't get it, it might not be so good. A lot of times, the
bigger risk you take, the bigger chance there is for a big play and the
bigger chance there is for a bad play or a loss. The more conservative you
are with those plays, like you could run a reverse and kind of block
everybody, but that doesn't have as much draw as if you don't block that
backside and you hope that they all chase them down and then you get around
behind him. So it might be a bigger play, but a little bit more downside to
it is they're not chasing as hard if they happen to be running up the field.
You just kind of play the percentages there and you hope you get it called
at the right time against the right defense.
Q: With catching a direct snap like
that, is that as simple as it looks?
BB: I don't know about simple, but I
don't think we're talking about splitting the atom here. It's just timing.
He has to move when the ball is snapped and basically be at where the
quarterback was or slightly in front of him when the ball gets there. I
think it's a little bit of timing. We've seen it run plenty of times by us
and by other teams. The guy you don't want to change is the center, where
you're snapping it over this guard on this play and over that guard on that
play and back to the quarterback on another play. You basically want him to
make the same snap every time so he doesn't have to change and then adjust
the back so that he can get there to catch it and run the play.
Q: Is Dan [Koppen]
pretty good at making those plays?
BB: Yeah, Dan is good. You've
seen all of the games like I have. There are not many of them where you walk
out of there and say…we all know when it's a bad snap. That's one thing we
all know. It's 60,000 people in the stands and they all can see it at the
same time – 'Uh-oh, that was a bad snap.' Having made a couple of those, I
can tell you from first hand experience.
Q: Can you talk about how you've seen Ty Warren develop over the years?
BB: Very consistently. Ty works hard. Football is really important to him. He's very attentive and
receptive to coaching. If you would tell Ty to do something or to work on
something or to change it and do it a little bit differently because that's
what the defense calls for, or it will help him play the technique better,
he'll work at it. He'll work early. He'll work late. He'll study extra film.
He's a well conditioned athlete. He spends a lot of time in the weight room.
You never really see Ty out of breath or tired. He has good endurance and
he's tough. He has a lot of things going for him. He works hard and he's
very conscientious and determined to improve. It's been very steady with
him. Like I said, you tell Ty to work on something, it's not going to be too
long before that's going to be better. He'll make improvement on it if you
tell him what you want him to do.
Q: It seems like the four-man front
is generating a lot of pressure. Why is that?
BB: Well, a lot of times you're in a
four-man front in a passing situation. The only time you want to rush the
passer is when it's a pass. So, if you can get them in passing situations,
no matter what front you are in, you should be able to rush better, whatever
it is. Four man front is usually the best to rush from because it gives you
a balanced rush.
Q: Can those guys generate pressure
by themselves or is that over simplifying it?
BB: Who else would generate it?
Q: The linebackers coming. I'm
talking about just the four guys on the line.
BB: Sure. Sure. That's what they are
there for. Yeah. I mean, I hope so. If you're going to rush the passer, it's
going to have to come from them. Somebody has to cover. You can't blitz all
the time. Well you could, but we don't. Most teams don't. So, yes, it has to
come from them. That's their job. It's five on four. Three of them are
one-on-one. One guy might be getting doubled or the center might slide to
one of those guys, but most of the time it's five on four, so you have three
guys rushing one-on-one and one guy who probably has one of the uncovered
people helping on him. That's usually the way it goes, unless they're a max
protection team and they're keeping more in than that, which does happen,
but that's not normal. There wasn't a lot of that yesterday.
Q: Can you envision a scenario where
you were in an all four-man front?
BB: Going forward?
Q: Yes.
BB: I don't know. We've been in it.
There were times around here when that would be played pretty much
exclusively, that all four man front. Then there were other years when we
played pretty much all three man front on early downs and played sub defense
differently. There were times when we have mixed them. Really, they're all
part of our system. I don't really have any big preference for one or the
other, other than whichever one we feel like is best for that situation or
that game.
Q: Was Jarvis singled up on
all three occasions where he got to the quarterback?
BB: I think it was on the second
sack, after Richard [Seymour] kind of came in there and
flushed him out, and then he stepped up and Jarvis got him. The first one, Mike [Vrabel] walked up and faked the blitz and the guard kind
of stepped down at Mike and then Jarvis beat [Bobbie] Williams on the edge, the one he kind of slapped the ball out. But the
second one, when he stepped up on Richard's rush, the center actually slid
to his side and came off of it.
Q: Were you at all concerned at the
lack of take-aways or were you sure that it would happen eventually?
BB: I don't know that anything is
going to happen eventually. I wish I did. Stock market. The price of gas. I
don't know. You go into every game trying to protect the ball and trying to
take it away. There is no game that we've played where we haven't talked
about that and we talk each week about our turnover opportunities, who we
think we can get the ball off of or what type of situations could we
possibly get our hands on the ball or get it loose. The type of passes they
throw. The way the guys carry it. There's a number of different things and
we talk about that every week. It's a point of emphasis during the week when
we give them the scouting report on Wednesday. It's a point of emphasis
later on in the week, on Friday and Saturday, and we show specific tapes and
films of it. So we're always talking about turnovers. Do I know we're going
to get them? Do I know they're coming? I wish I did. I have no idea. I think
we want to get them every week, because I think there are opportunities
there. We had a couple of plays yesterday where we had our hands on the ball
and weren't able to come up with it. A couple of weeks ago, we get a fumbled
punt back there and the ball is rolling around, laying there in the middle
of the field, and we couldn't get it. Yesterday, the ball was in a pile
twice, it's hard to tell who has it and we get it. Who knows? But, we're
always working for them, I can tell you that. Offensively, we're always
talking about how to protect the ball and how to give them the fewest
possible opportunities to get it out of our hands, one way or the other.
Those are points of emphasis every single week.
Q: Does Jarvis have a greater
role against teams with a powerful passing game? He seems to always have a
lot of success against teams like that.
BB: Jarvis is a good football
player. He's a good football player. He plays well in a lot of situations. I
wouldn't limit it to just the passing game, although he rushes the passer
well. He rushes the passer well outside. He rushes him inside well. He can
play the run. He's a good football player. I don't think there is a player
or coach on this team that doesn't like seeing him in the game. That being
said, we have other defensive linemen and other linebackers that I feel the
same way about.
Q: You talked about Mike faking the blitz on one of the sacks. How much of that is by design or how
much of that is strictly by feel, like he's been doing it for a long time?
BB: Both. I think both. When we watch
films, we talk about it during the week. Situations where it looks like it
would affect the line. Then there are other times out in the game where a
player like Mike or Tedy, players that are just good, smart
football players that instinctively might feel like this is a good time to
get up there and bluff it, plus it does disguise it so when you are coming
you're not always up there when you're coming. You're up there sometimes and
you're not coming and that helps you when you do rush. We talk about it.
There are definitely times that you want to do it and then really there's
other times that you don't want to do it and I think we need to know the
difference between those, but sometimes it's gray and it could go either
way. It's kind of up to the player to mix it up. The big thing about
disguising defenses is you have to disguise them when you get a chance to
disguise them. If they get a formation where you have a responsibility and
you have to go get to it, then you have to go get to it. If you're too
worried about disguising it, then you're not going to cover your man or
cover the responsibility you have. But then there are other times when your
responsibility is pretty close by and that's a good time to disguise and
move around a little bit and try to get them to think you're one place when
you could actually be somewhere else. That's one of the reasons why offenses
spread out so much though is to try make it harder for you to do that, make
it harder for you to disguise because you have to declare who has who and
where you're going. |
