Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Bubba Ventrone (12.5.24)
When you look back at guys you’ve played against and coached against, how high does (Cordarrelle) Patterson kind of rank on that list of returners?
“Very high. Very high. He’s an incredible player, has had a ton of production. I think he has the most kick return touchdowns in NFL history. Strong runner, really good speed, tough. Yeah, he’s the real deal.”
When you have this quick of a turnaround in terms of facing a team. Are you looking for what they did differently in that one game or is it more building off what you guys did or didn’t do in the first matchup?
“Yeah, so I would say for this game specifically, and having played one team in between, the first game was played in a lot of different conditions than we’re anticipating we’re going to get on Sunday. So, the game is going to be called way different in all three phases of the game.”
What happened with that kick Dustin (Hopkins) missed on Monday and then just the way he rebounded after that?
“Yeah, I think he did a good job of just obviously self-correcting what had happened. Looked like he came across his body a little bit on the swing. So, it was good that he got the correction applied and made the rest of the kicks.”
Is there something that he identified that he has been sort of doing wrong from a technique standpoint this season that he’s been working on in particular?
“I think he’s figured it out. I know he’s gone back and looked at his film from previous weeks and previous seasons, like looking mostly at last year’s tape to figure out what’s going on. So, I think that he has a pretty good grasp on where he needs to improve.”
I know he’s pretty even-keeled and he sticks to his processes, but have the misses and trying to figure that out this season, has that led to any frustration for him? Has he had to work through that too or has he really just been process driven?
“No, I don’t think when you’re getting the results that you want, obviously you’re going to have some type of frustration. I think he’s done a good job of honing it in and trying to apply the correction to the next rep. Thankfully in this past game we had the miss and then he goes back and makes the rest of his kicks. But like I said, I mean, any player at any position is going to be frustrated if you’re not having a good result. So, I would anticipate he’s definitely had some frustration, but he hasn’t shown it. And I think he’s done a pretty good job of bouncing back.”
Do you anticipate Kadarius (Toney) getting some opportunities in the return game over these last five games?
“Yeah, I think he’ll factor in here at some point. He’s done a good job in practice, so just trying to, I would say, keep getting consistency in practice and then hopefully take it to the game at some point.”
Talk about Corey (Bojorquez) and just how nice of a job he’s done with his placement and just the length and everything this season.
“Yeah, I thought Corey executed really well this past week in Denver. That was a really good returner in (Marvin) Mims. He’s had a lot of production, a lot of explosive returns and really, I mean, the last two years and this year, obviously he’s only been in the league two years, but he’s had some big returns. It feels like when we watched Denver’s tape every week, you’re turning it on, and he’s got an explosive return. I thought Corey did a really good job. I thought we covered well. I thought the gunners did a nice job, Mike (Ford Jr.) and Pierre (Strong Jr.), and then the guys on the interior covered hard. But no, credit to Corey. I thought he played well this week. We’re going to need him to play well this week as well going against another explosive guy in Calvin Austin. I know that he’s coming off the concussion, so we’re monitoring that, anticipating we could get Jamal Agnew or somebody else on the roster that could factor in there for them.”
A few weeks back where they dropped the pass, a fake punt. Do you consider them like a high fake team? Like you have to be on alert all the time or was that kind of a one off?
“Well, in that game, that play specifically, Washington wasn’t covering the gunner. So, a lot of teams have it in where you’re just going to direct snap it to the PP or punter and he’s going to make the throw. So, I mean, the guy is literally uncovered with no one even remotely close to him. So gutsy to throw it that deep in your own territory, but I mean, kid made a good throw. The gunner just dropped the ball.”
(Chris) Boswell for them, what kind of a weapon is he for them in terms of the way they… once they kind of get across and get in plus territory, the way that he can impact the game?
“Boswell’s done a good job in his career. He’s had a nice career. It’s a tough place to kick. There haven’t been, I know at one point in that, being from Pittsburgh, and having followed the Steelers for a long time, at one point, there wasn’t a lot of kicks in that stadium that were made over 50 yards. He’s done a really good job this year, obviously, hitting a high percentage of his kicks overall and then obviously he’s had a bunch of kicks over 50 this year. But, no, he’s done a great job for them and there’s been a lot of games where, especially early in the season where they weren’t scoring a lot of touchdowns, and a lot of their points were coming off of his foot. And they won a few games with, I think, six field goals in two games from what I remember. He’s a good player and obviously you want to have consistency there.”
They’ve reconfigured that one end zone, the closed one. How much of a difference has that made in terms of being able to make the longer kicks and cutting down the wind off the river and everything?
“I don’t know. As far as like what they’ve done to that stadium with the renovations, I’m not exactly sure how that has played into it, but I’m sure that it’s probably cut some of the wind down if it’s been built up that much. I honestly can’t remember how it used to look or what it looks like now.”
The Browns haven’t tried a fake or anything gimmicky on special teams since 2020. Only Chicago has gone longer in that stretch without doing so. Obviously, you did some stuff in Indy. Is the coach traumatized by what happened in one try it was a fake punt that Jamie Gillan had botched?
“The punter keep, yeah, you’d have to ask Kevin (Stefanski). No, you’d have to ask him on that. We talk through things every week.”
How do you approach the chippiness that always seems to ensue between these two football teams as you head over there?
“I think Kevin does a really good job of expressing to our players don’t do dumb s***. Don’t do something that’s going to hurt the team. Don’t entertain things after the whistle. Let the opponent talk all they want. Let’s do our talking in between the whistles. At the end of the day, like it is frustrating when you see dumb things post-whistle to me that ends up like really hurting the team.”
Just kicking in that stadium is there anything Dustin does preparation wise to sort of account for — I mean, I know obviously your guys stadium is tough kicking a little bit too, but is there any way he kind of goes into it preparing for it being a tougher environment?
“Going into Pittsburgh? I would say every game, every day, every place is different. The wind could be different one day from the previous day where it’s showing that the weather is going to be…I think like could be in like even in the 50s with moderate wind. Who knows? I mean everything’s different, and you really don’t get a feel for how it’s going to be until you’re on the field that day. And even from like when you first get to the stadium at like 10:00 until 1:00, the wind changes, patterns change. So, there’s always ongoing communication on the distance, what hash we like better depending on what the wind’s doing going into different ends of the field. So, I think once we get there on game day, he’ll have a plan on how we’re going to attack it.”
Year to year, because we all remember how great Dustin was obviously last year in terms of kicking and like you can, I guess you can even use like Justin Tucker as an example for this year too, like just how he’s kind of had some struggles. Just what changes that makes sometimes kicking so volatile year to year for some of these guys, especially knowing that they’re creatures of habit where they have such a routine as to how they do things?
“Yeah, it’s an extremely difficult position to play. It’s one that I would not want to take part in, honestly. It’s a very tough position. There’s a lot of variables and factors that go into it. Obviously, we’ve gone from a veteran snapper to a younger snapper. Those things, everything factors into the kick, to the operation, the timing, the speed, the placement, the conditions. So, we haven’t had the, I would say the results at a high enough level. I think that he’s done a solid job trying to fix it. So hopefully in the next five weeks we can do that.”