LB Anthony Walker Jr. (10.25.23)
What was it like going against your old team?
“It was fun. A lot of competitive spirits out there, but good to see a lot of guys. Obviously created a lot of families on that team. Four years of being there in that building with a lot of similar guys, especially defensively. So obviously didn’t get a chance to go against those guys. But to see those guys pregame and post-game was pretty dope.”
How bad do you want that last pick?
“Yeah, sorry. If we could refrain from those questions. No, obviously, a play that I should have made, would have ended the game. Would have been sweet to get that one. But Za’Darius (Smith) was able to get his first strip-sack this year, so we’ll take that. I was being nice.”
You were in protocol at the start of last week. The Indianapolis game, it seemed like, was there no way you were not going to play.
“I think there was no way I was not playing. No matter who the opponent was, if I’m healthy, I want to go out there and play and help my team as much as I can. Obviously, I won’t say that Indy didn’t play a big factor in that.
Were you concerned at that point?
“No. Yeah, I know I was playing.”
How is Jim Schwartz different when the defense comes off a performance like you guys had against Indy where you weren’t where you wanted to be?
“No, I think that’s one of the best parts about him. He’s the same guy every day. Whether you win and you play great defense, whether you lose, win and you play terribly like we did the other day, the message was still the same. We got to be the same guys. We got to play with more effort. We got to play with that swag that we normally have, that passion and just badassery, and we got to better. In that aspect, I don’t think we’re all the way ourselves, and that happens, obviously, it’s the NFL. You play against good teams. Just the ebb and the flow of the season that it happened that way, and it’s easier to learn from a win than it is from a loss. So, we’ll take it.”
When you guys went through that film, was there one specific thing or that you guys looked at and felt like you got to fix, or was there a couple of things? What did you guys take away collectively after you had to watch that film? Considering the yards and the points that you allowed?
“Yeah, just come back to fundamentals in detail in everything that we do. I think that’s the thing. When you play great defense, you do fundamentals well and you’re detail-oriented. We weren’t that way this week in a lot of aspects. I won’t get into detail about each one, but I think we learned that. We learned that if we’re not fundamentally sound, we don’t execute, we can get beat. And that’s what happened.”
There’s been a couple of plays this year in games where a flag has been thrown and it’s like the defense pauses for a millisecond and unfortunately, it ends up hurting you. How do you guys fix that? Obviously, you don’t want to get penalized or whatever, but just those pauses. How do you make sure that those don’t come back to be like a double mistake?
“No doubt the easiest way is we don’t tell our guys to just be aggressive. Obviously, we have an attack front, so they’re going to jump off sometimes, and we don’t want that. But if it happens once or twice, it happens honestly, just keep going and make them blow the play dead. But we also got to finish on the back end as well. We can’t get lax, and like you said, it’s easy to think, ‘Oh, the play is going to get blown and it doesn’t.’ And then obviously, like you said, that split second is when a big play happens. So, we got to better in all aspects of it. But it starts with just finishing the down.”
How much different is the Seattle offense than what the Colts do?
“I think they’re going to try to do the same thing. They have a great back. Kenneth Walker, they give him the ball in various ways. Kind of got a little levy on belt to him is what I saw on film. Very patient, very explosive. Can make any cut, can catch the ball out the backfield as well. So, we got our hands full with that. And then I think they’re just going to again, their thing is marry the run in the pass, and they’re going to try to make plays down the field with explosive plays, just like the Colts did. So it’s not really much. Like I said, football is football. You want to run the ball, you want to stop the run, and you want to take shots when you get a chance. And I think they’re going to do that. And at the end of the day, that’s what the Colts did as well.”
(Gardner) Minshew executed a couple of RPOs. Think back to Lamarr (Jackson). Is that an effective play against the (Jim) Schwartz defense?
“When we’re not fundamentally sound yes. One of them, I got to get back out to the quarterback, trust that BN is going to get there to the dive, and that takes away one of them. The other one very similar aspect. The person who has a quarterback has to get out. Again, it goes back to fundamentals and details, and when you’re not fundamentally locked in and detail-oriented, you get beat. And we got beat on those couple RPOs because weren’t locked in.”
Next week you’re playing a quarterback that kind of had a resurgence last year. Geno (Smith) had a really good season. When you watch him on tape, what stands out to you about the way he plays? What’s his best quality?
“Yeah, I think he can make every throw. I think he can make the outside throws better than a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL. He can throw on the move. He can use his legs. Very deceptively. Obviously, I’m biased. I’ve known Geno for a very long time being from the same area, been watching him since he played Little League football. Obviously, he’s older than me but always been a fan so I always thought he was a good quarterback so I’m biased. That’s a question that, resurges, I don’t think it was that. I think he got in the right system where it benefits him. Got a run game that marries with the pass, and I think he’s a good quarterback when you can put those two together.”
Hey look, you guys have already had your share of setbacks this season and shown some resiliency and resolve. What does that do for a team when you give wins like you have the last couple of weeks despite being without your starting quarterback and some other guys?
“Yeah. Sometimes in this league you got to win ugly and whatever it takes you got to get it done. We’re not going to make excuses because other team isn’t going to make excuses for us. So, we got to go out there and like I said, a band of us, especially being on the road this week, last week we pack this team, and we travel and take some of y’all and we go in there trying to get a win and whatever it takes to get it done, we believe in that.”
Is there an art to winning ugly?
“Yeah. You have more points at the end of the day.”
Kevin (Stefanski) was saying on Monday that Deshaun (Watson) is still a leader of this team. And last year you were in a similar situation, you were injured, and you had to show those leadership abilities. How difficult is that to do though. When you’re not contributing on the field to be that kind of a guy?
“Yeah, it’s tough, he understands that. But he’s a tough-minded person. I talked to him the last couple of days just about his role and he understands that and we want him healthy. So, he’s fine. Trust me, he’s a tough-minded guy. He’s going to do everything to battle and get back as soon as possible and when that is we’ll need him. Obviously, he’s our franchise quarterback. We all believe in him in his locker room, defensively, offensively, special teams, we all believe in him, and he understands that.”
How you describe Jim Schwartz as staying even keeled, does that helps you guys defensively too just kind of as you head into the week of not overreacting or underreacting to whatever happened the previous Sunday?
“No doubt. I think as a defense, you never want to get too high or too low, as a football player overall but definitely when you play defense. The beauty of playing at this elite level and playing professional football is you get a chance to go against some of the best players and the other team has that. Our team has that. So, players make plays in practice against us. Teams make plays against us in the game, and we got to be able to respond. And I think we’ve shown that. We’ve shown that resilience, giving up the first touchdown last week against San Fran, then being able to battle back and really settle down and get situated. And then last week, I think it was more, even more. We get hit in the mouth, we come back, we make a couple plays, we get hit in the mouth again, like, just the resilience of this team, of this defense has really shown.”
We always hear, offense on the road, they have to deal with the impact of the crowd and stuff like that. And obviously, Seattle is one of the more raucous environments in this league. Just for the defense playing on the road. Does that affect you guys at all, or are they a little quieter because they’re helping their offense operate?
“I hope they’re loud when their offense is on the field. Obviously, I don’t think that would be the case, but again, we got to go out and execute our stuff. We can’t worry about the other team. Obviously, we do, when we got to play their sets and everything like that, but we can’t worry about the crowd noise. We can’t worry about when our offense is on the field. I think Coach did a good job talking about that today. We got to worry about us when we’re on the field and us fixing assignments on the sideline. We got to worry about that.”
What’s the Deshaun’s (Watson) message been to you and the rest of the guys as he fights through this.
“Yeah. I haven’t even honestly let him talk. I told him that we have his back, and that’s my message to him. That’s the whole team’s message to him. That’s Kevin’s (Stefanski) message to him. The whole team has his back. This whole building has his back, and he understands that.”
Is this the best you’ve seen Myles (Garrett) play since you’ve been here?
“That’s a tough question. Myles is Myles, man. You can’t really say that. Myles has always played well since I’ve been here. He’s always been that dominant force that we need. I think if you want to say the field go block kind of puts it over the top. It does. But he’s always been that dominant force, and obviously that’s what you have in Myles, and he’s a special player.”
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