Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Bubba Ventrone (11.29.24)
How did you spend it (Thanksgiving)?
“It’s my favorite holiday, I love it. Very thankful for everything I have.”
Did you watch all of those games yesterday?
“I watched a good bit of them. Yeah, I watched a good bit of them. Some good games. A lot of situational football in a bunch of them.”
Bubba, I wanted to ask about. I think there was a block out of bounds penalty on the (Pittsburgh) Steelers, in the last game, on Mike Ford. I was kind of curious about the spirit of the rule and kind of like what the thinking is there. Is there any leeway with when you have to kind of disengage and what you kind of teach your players with that?
“Yeah, that penalty was pretty egregious. It was excessive, I would say. And for us, we teach our players once the gunner is out of bounds, you’re not even allowed to contact the opponent once they’re out of bounds. So, I mean, he clearly was way out of bounds. He was on the bench.”
When you looked at (Marvin) Mims, how dangerous is he? And when you’re talking about your coverage units, what do you have to do to make sure he’s contained?
“Yeah, really good returner, smooth runner, long stride, very, very good top end speed. It almost looks like he’s just effortlessly running and he just outruns everyone. Consistently does a good job getting to the edge. So, we’re going to have to do a good job of leveraging the football. And obviously it’s a big game for our punter.”
How about your punt rush on that final punt up there? Can you just talk about how pivotal that was for you guys?
“Yeah, we got good pressure. Obviously, with the conditions and the game is played a lot different once the footing ends up being like that. So, the protection becomes an issue, the operation takes longer. So, we felt that that was the best option for us at that point. And those guys executed well. So forced a mishit and then give our offense good field position. Credit our defense, obviously, for the stop, and then our offense went down and we scored on that drive. So, it was a good, I would say, example of complimentary football from O, D and special teams all contributing together.”
Dustin (Hopkins) told us after the New Orleans (Saints) game that he thought he had kind of figured something out at halftime of that game and he made the field goal against Pittsburgh. So, I mean, do you guys kind of think he figured out what was causing him problems?
“Yeah, I think he did. I mean, he communicated with me after that and said that he felt like he knew what was going on as far as his, I would say, his footwork. So, he applied that to the next game. We did a good job against Pittsburgh hitting our kick.”
Is kicking field goals any different in that Denver air than it is elsewhere?
“I mean, the ball carries further with the elevation. I remember we were out there when I was coaching in New England and Steve Gostkowski we were practicing at Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy, and he hit a 70-yard field goal in pre-practice. Tom Brady was supposed to buy him a car and he never did [laughter]. I have it on video, too.”
When you look at your coverage units, I’m sure that when you give up one you’re not happy about it, so when you look at some of the ones you’ve given up, is there a common theme to what the issues have been?
“Yeah, I mean, on the ones that we’ve given up some yards on, I would say that our leverage overall has to be better. Playing outside into the ball, getting your leverage earlier in the down. And if you get your leverage too late in the down, you’re just in a bad spot. You’re working out to get back in. Ideally, you’d like to work outside in on the rep. So, we got to do a better job of eliminating those types of plays.”
Going back to Dustin, when he has a stretch like this, he always talks about the process, he seems like a very processed driven guy. Is that how most kickers are? Is he different at all from guys you’ve worked with?
“No, I think most guys have their, quote, ‘process’. His is pretty extensive. I think he’s very routinized with how he practices and the rhythm that he gets into. He doesn’t hit a million balls in practice like that. He does a good job monitoring himself with his reps, and I think we’ve done a good job in being strategic in his practice reps and volume throughout the week. And I think that’s enabled him to have pretty good results. Yeah, he’s missed some kicks this year, it hasn’t been as consistent as we would want, but I think right now he’s in a good spot. Especially after making the corrections from the New Orleans game into the next game, and then hopefully the rest of the way we just hit our stride.”
Bubba, you elevated Kadarius (Toney) up for the New Orleans game, but it was Elijah (Moore) who was back returning punts. Was Kadarius up basically as a receiver and do you feel like there’s a chance that he could work into the return game more going forward?
“Yeah, he can definitely factor in. He’s done it at times in his career, and I think in that game specifically, we felt like Elijah was a better option for the situation in the game. But I think he gives you a threat back there with the ball. He’s a good runner with the ball, has good vision, quickness. I mean, KT’s (Kadarius Toney) does a really good job of being able to make guys miss in a short area and then burst out of that. And I think that he would definitely be an option moving forward if he were at the game.”
Kevin said you weren’t ready to try a field goal before that fourth down against Pittsburgh, late in the snow. How difficult is that to decide where you’re comfortable with Dustin kicking in those kinds of conditions?
“Well, first it was hard to see the area of the field. So, I was — you’re counting the lines to see where the ball’s at, and obviously it has it on the scoreboard, but you’re trying to see it on the field, how many more yards you need. Obviously, there’s a wind coming at us. The field conditions are a concern, obviously, with the snow and the footing of the actual kick, naturally, all that affects the kick. It affects the elevation of the kick; it affects the timing of the operation. So, a lot of things factor into it. I think that had we gained a handful more yards, we would have been in a better spot to attempt it. Could we have attempted it at that distance? Yeah, but I think that we were more comfortable of how we handled it, and then we’re ready to kick if we needed it.”
How difficult is it for Corey (Bojorquez) to catch that ball and place it when the wind’s blowing and the snow’s flying like that?
“That’s why you have to practice in the elements. When we practice outside, I love it because it gives your guys a true feel on how the ball feels. Even watching the Green Bay game last night , and I know Miami, obviously, they played in the South, and it’s warm and all that stuff, they don’t see a lot of elements. But the ball feels different whenever you’re playing in cold weather, in windy weather. It just does. And the way that the ball feels when it’s wet is different than obviously when it’s dry. So, the reps that you can get in the elements, I think help you in those situations. And fortunately, we practice outside, we’ve handled the ball. Even at the end of the week, Kevin (Stefanski) had our whole team do wet ball drills post practice. I think it was Thursday, everybody had to get ‘X’ amount of balls caught on both sides, offense, defense, kicking game. So, everybody was handling the ball and we got it in our private session as well with the kickers.”
Speaking of elements, how do you adjust for the ball traveling farther in Denver? How do you adjust for that in terms of coverage, return, all of those things. How do you take that into account as you game plan?
“Yeah, I mean, to your question, we take it into account, and we understand that the ball could carry further, so you may have to have a different type of call up or return up because of those things. Those are always things that we’ll always factor in. We stay on top of the weather, the conditions where we’re playing. Obviously, you play outside and it’s colder, you play inside, there’s no weather. Everything factors in and every decision is made based off of what you’re going to get in those game situations.”