LG Joel Bitonio (9.21.23)
I know you’d never completely get over a loss of a teammate like Nick (Chubb), but you’ve had a couple of days and everything to process. I mean, how have how do you guys go through that process?
“I mean, every human being, football or not, goes through a grieving process. We did with Jack (Conklin), seeing the guy with Nick go down like that, it was a brutal injury. So it was one of those ones that you took Tuesday and really thought back and thought about it and just kind of sat down and you come in Wednesday and you realize, like, we have a job to do now and he’d want us to do our job. So it was big of us to really try. And obviously we’re doing this stuff for Nick. We know he’d want us to go out there and work and practice and do all those things. So it’s really easy to turn that page in that sense. But he’s always in the back of your mind because type of person he is.”
Did you talk to him?
“I did text him and I saw him today, actually, and he was in the building. So I got to see him just for a quick, brief interaction. And he’s on crutches and stuff, so it’s tough. But I just told him we love him and we’re thinking about him. If he needs anything, let me know. It’s really all you could do in those situations because it’s obviously a long process for him.”
How close can the running game look to what it should be even without 24?
“Yeah, you can’t replace 24, but I have a lot of faith in (Jerome) Ford and Pierre (Strong Jr.), and we brought Kareem (Hunt) back. Deshaun (Watson) does a lot of running as well, so there’s some aspects that we can add to it. And do you know, he’s a great player, but I think you saw Ford, the explosiveness that he has. You see Kareem, he seems like he’s come back in great shape and he’s ready to run and work. So I think we have pieces that we can try and put together, a puzzle that can look similar to what we did with Nick.”
Does it feel like just more pressure and responsibility on everybody else now without Nick, right? The coaches, like the play calls probably have to better. He’s not going to save the offensive line if you miss a block, things like that.
“Yeah. I mean, everybody needs to step up. Football – the worst part about it – injuries. So you have a guy go down like that. We’re trying to pick up that slack, but you don’t want to do too much. Sometimes you catch yourself doing too much and you don’t do enough. You know what I mean? You get a little out of control. So for us, a lot of it’s doing your job to your best ability. We have the right guys back there that can make the plays for us.”
Joel, Deshaun was saying that one of the problems so far has been just kind of not being on the same page with everybody coaches, line, receivers, etc. Is that kind of normal at the beginning of the year? Especially given that you guys had to replace your right tackle, had some other changes, guys out during training camp, et cetera?
“Yeah, it’s part of the process of getting the right offense out there. You lose a guy like Jack, who’s very good at communicating, really understands his job. You bring a rookie in who’s fighting his butt off and doing everything he can and learning the playbook. But Jack brings eight years of experience to the position. So that’s one guy that you see Nick go down. I think last game, there was a little bit of panic. You throw a pick early and press on the gate. At one point, I’m looking at the clock, I’m like, we’re winning this game. It feels like we’re not. You know what I mean? So there was just a little bit of panic, and I think we learned from that. I think everybody comes in and takes a deep breath and realizes, ‘hey, our defense is playing really well right now. Gives us a chance on offense to figure out what we need to figure out and do what we need to do.'”
(Jeffrey) Simmons, is he one of the more disruptive linemen you guys will face this year?
“Yeah, very good. I feel like now every week, I’m like, ‘where are these three techs coming from?’ You know what I mean? Like, they’re everywhere. It used to be the D-end, and now the three techs are taking over, but their whole line is really good. But he leads the way, (Denico) Autry comes in and plays man-to-man, three-technique. They move around. They have a lot of games, but he does a lot of good things. I mean, he gets to run against the pass. He’s physical. They do a lot of good things, and we got to have our A game to compete with their defense. Jeffry is a strength of their team for sure.”
Joel, do you see a little of the Steelers in their defensive scheme?
“Yeah. The first three weeks for us, I mean, base defense has been semi similar. A lot of them run the three down, the two outside linebackers, 3-2-5 (325), they run a little bit more jam than the Steelers, maybe, but it’s a lot of similarities. And then when they get into their pass rush group, they run a lot of games, they have a lot of movements. Yeah, some similarities, for sure.”
Autry, when I was watching, he goes back and forth from your side to Wyatt (Teller). Is there any rhyme or reason to that?
“No, I think they want him to play the three technique in base, you know what I mean? So sometimes he has to flip sides, but in sub, I think they move around. I think that’s one of their positive things, too, is they’re so versatile. Like I said, Autry can play inside or out. He can play. I mean even last game, he was standing up on the center a couple of times he can stand up over the guard. He’s gone out to the edge in like four-minute situations. So they just have so much versatility. They can kind of move guys around and help, something you can’t really key on one guy.”
We got to see how fast Jerome was on that long run against Monday night. Is that something that you’ve seen in practice over the last couple of years?
“I knew he was fast, but I hadn’t ever seen him break away like that in a game situation. So he was moving, he was flying, and it was impressive to see. I knew speed was one of his high attributes, but no, it was cool to see him break away and hopefully get a few more of those.”
Does the similarities between defenses like you just mentioned, help in the process of preparation between weeks?
“Yeah, when you go from a three down to a four down, we pretty much went against a four down all training camp when were playing against our defense. But especially in our division, like Pittsburgh, Ravens, Cincinnati, they all run kind of similar base defenses. So it helps when you stay in the same kind of ballpark.”
Is there anything you can do, say, to Jed (Wills Jr.) after a play like that strip sack? “Yeah, it’s tough, but you talk to him and you say, obviously, like, lost the count or something like that. It wasn’t like he got beat clean in that sense. It was just a little bit late off the ball, against those two guys who can’t be late off the ball. I tell him to keep his head up. I’m like, we have a long season. Even in the game, we have a chance to go down there and win. And the thing about him is he cares so much, it hurt him. You know what I mean? He cares. He wants to win, and so it definitely mattered to him. But I think for him it’s like, hey, we got 15 more of these games. We’re not going to let that happen again and we’re going to go and improve from it. But it’s like everybody else, we all just want to be a little bit better so we can pull those wins out.”
Is it just a reminder that every play matters, right, that it can’t be you get off the ball late one time and then they’re just back in the game?
“Yeah, no, I mean, I think that’s football. You look back on most games and most games are decided by like, in that sense, one play. But a lot of times it’s like five to eight plays a game and you don’t know what plays those are, so you always have to be locked in.”
Does it help – I mean, kind off of that, that it’s a shorter week?
“Yeah, no, we’re back at it. We had one less day to think about it, so we’re back in here working, it’s already Thursday, and I think the guys have a good mindset this week, though. We understood what happened, but we’re going to learn from that. We’re moving on to Tennessee and we know we have a big challenge for them. If you think about it too much, you’re going to let it turn into more than one loss.”
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