Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz (12.19.24)
I know you didn’t get the result you wanted, but were you pleased with the way you guys followed the scheme played last week, holding Kansas City to 300 total yards, I think?
“I mean, it’s really not about yards, it’s about points. Gave up the one drive. The rest of the time I think we had six three and outs. I think we had three other drives where it was one first down and we were off, and I think maybe three or four others that were only two first downs. So, that was the top third down team in the NFL. We knew that was going to be a good matchup. I think we won that matchup. But when it’s all said and done, we got to come up with a couple more plays in that. Had our hands on a couple interceptions, had a couple other plays where the DB had a guy boxed out and could have made a play on the ball, we didn’t make those. And when your offense is struggling a little bit, we got to provide the spark. There were some good things, I mean we forced nine punts. I’m not 100% sure, you guys always have to fact check me, but I think that might be a high-water mark for Andy Reid and K.C. I think they were averaging like three a game coming into this game. But when it’s all said and done, you got to hold them to less points than you score and wish we could have held them to a couple field goals after some of those plus territories and made it a one score game at the end. Maybe we wouldn’t have felt as pressed to try to make a play on offense and maybe not turn it over. So, good things, always is, there’s bad things, always are, but certainly not looking for consolation prizes.”
I don’t know if it was the last game or the game before that, (Joe) Burrow targeted (Ja’Marr) Chase 18 times. How does a defense allow that to happen?
“I don’t know. I mean, I had Calvin Johnson, and he was doubled like every single play and, I think it was New Orleans, he had like 280 yards. So, Myles (Garrett) gets double teamed on just about every play and still has double digit sacks.”
Was Chase doubled a lot in that game?
“Everybody has their little versions of it and Burrow has the ability to fit balls in even if you do take it away. Going back to our first game, I thought our guys did a pretty good job of holding down. We let our guard down on one play, a single-high play in the fringe and caught a fade stop for a touchdown. And then we had the third down where (Tee) Higgins caught a slant and scored. And on that one, we had Chase doubled on that one. So, it’s not so much holding one player down, it’s holding the offense down. Whoever it is in there, Higgins, he’s leaning on his running back a little bit more now, Chase Brown. He’s a smart quarterback. I think one of the things that’s happened over the last, since we played them the first time, you’re seeing Burrow extend more plays and make more plays with his feet. Early in the season, that really wasn’t part of what they were trying to do. But as they’ve been trying to outscore opponents and things like that, he’s taken a little bit more. He’s taken some hits as a result, so we got to limit his scrambling, also.”
Can you talk about Myles getting poked in the eye and how frustrating that that that wasn’t called?
“Well, I mean, I’m sure nobody was doing that on purpose. It’s just like on defense, you get a facemask, I mean 99% of them, nobody’s trying to get a facemask. The guy has hands that get high, and you poke somebody in the eye. I mean that guy’s not a dirty player, he wasn’t trying to do that on purpose. But it did affect us. I mean, obviously on that play, the quarterback was able to extend the play for a long time and we had really, really good coverage. But, when it ends up, you’re rushing basically three guys there, somebody’s going to break open. So, it did affect us in the game, and it affected us a little bit toward the end. There were sometimes we wanted to move Myles over to the left side, but felt like he couldn’t get off and really key the ball that side with where his eye was. He came back and did what he could for us, and we still pressured at a really high rate last week. Didn’t get any sacks, but held (Patrick) Mahomes, I think, to his lowest career completion percentage. We had one of the highest pressure rates that K.C. has given up in the last three, four, five years, whatever it is. So, Myles did a lot in that game, but obviously losing him for that play and that extension, it certainly affects us.”
Denzel Ward said he would love to be shadowing (Ja’Marr) Chase in this game, considering you got two young guys left at cornerback. Is that a possibility?
“Yeah, it’s always possible and we’ll have stuff where he’s on him we will have some stuff where he’s not. He shadowed (Xavier) Worthy a lot last week. I thought he really did a good job handling that. That was a matchup they were relying on Worthy for a lot of those plays down the field and one of the things that we had struggled with a little bit early in the year was some big plays allowed in the passing game, and KC (Kansas-City) certainly took their shots. They kept trying to get these balls down the field and our guys were there to defend them. And Denzel had a lot to do with that. So, again, this isn’t a game, though, that you can just take one player out. You can take Chase out and, they have good players around and they got a quarterback (Joe Burrow) that knows what he’s doing and like I said, a quarterback that can make some plays with his feet, too. So it’s going to take a team effort on defense. But Cam (Cameron Mitchell) stepped in, hasn’t played a lot of outside corner for us. Stepped in and did an admirable job. And Myles Harden had his first real playing experience, hadn’t played for a month, had some mixed results. But, you know, those guys battled.”
So what do you expect Jim? Now this might be a tougher challenge with Burrow and those receivers with (Martin) Emerson and (Greg) Newsome out.
“Well, we’ll see where MJ (Emerson) goes as he’s working through. See if he’s available to us and if he is, then it’s good to have a good player out there. And he gives us a good size matchup too, for guys like Chase and (Tee) Higgins on the outside part of the field. And we’ll just see where those guys are. We’ll have a plan, whoever’s available to us.”
I know we talked about Burrow a ton and you guys had some good success against him even in the first game, but I think it’s three touchdowns in six straight games, some crazy runs…
“Yeah. Scoring a lot of points.”
What’s he doing even maybe better now than he has in his career besides the scrambling?
“Well, I mean, he’s always been a scrambler. His mobility and ability to extend plays has always been an asset for him, but it’s also maybe sometimes led to some injuries and some of the things that he’s had. Quarterbacks feel tremendous responsibility to score a touchdown on every single drive and things like that. His command, he gets rid of the ball quickly, recognizes, but he’s really good against the blitz and he knows where to go with the football. He’s seen a lot of things people do to try to take one receiver out. He knows where his answers are. Good command at a run game, they’re not running at a high percentage, but they’re running it effectively and playing to their strengths a little bit. So it’s a challenge every week, but particularly when you got a guy like Burrow, you got a guy like Chase out there, we’re going to have to play our best.”
Off of that, the way they’ve run the ball effectively, just what have you seen out of Chase Brown for them in the last few weeks as he seems to have gotten going a little bit more and become more of a key piece of that team?
“Yeah, a lot of plays he’s made has been in the scramble game. He made a couple plays last week, scored a touchdown on extended play scramble by Burrow and another time there was an extended play and he broke open down the field and Tennessee (Titans) got a DPI on the play. Has really good feet, really good speed, hits the hole really fast and he’s been increasing in his production in the passing game. Yeah, good player.”
Myles (Garrett) has historically destroyed their left tackle, no matter who it is. It looks like Cody Ford will be back there for them. What about that matchup?
“Yeah, I’m in favor of that. Yeah. I mean everybody has a plan. They’ve been using a lot more tight ends in the backfield, particularly on third down. There’s a lot of third downs where there’s no running back in the game and they’re using their tight ends to protect and the chip and help them in blitzes and also help versus edge rushers. So it’s not just going to be a one-on-one battle. It’ll be coverage, it’ll be beating protections, it’ll be winning one-on-one matchups. Sort of the way it always is.”