Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz (12.14-23)
Unfortunately, the injuries, losing Mo (Maurice Hurst), possibly Ogbo (Okoronkwo) and Grant (Delpit).
“Yeah. We’ve taken our fair share of injuries over the last few weeks, particularly in this last game. It’s the NFL, it’s a physical game and you know, you got to be able to plug guys in and still have good performances, and that’s what our goal is going to be. We’ll miss those guys, but we have other players that can pick up that slack and they’ll give great opportunities for other guys. It was a challenge in the game, particularly the safety position. We lost Juan (Thornhill) in pregame warm up and then we lose Grant. We were out of a lot of our sub packages where we play extra safeties and Cam Mitchell came in, played really well for us at the nickel, but he left the game and then lost Jordan Elliott early in the game and then lost Mo and lost Ogbo. Ogbo came back and played, God bless him. He had one arm. I mean, I didn’t even realize it as the game was going on. I watched a film, know, almost threw up that he was out there. He’s a tough guy and he actually did his job in the scheme. He was out there and felt a tremendous responsibility and some of those guys are energy guys for us. Ogbo and Mo in particular, Grant, you know, they’re tempo setters for us and we’re going to need to replace that on our defense also.”
Have you ever been part of a coaching staff with this many season-ending injuries?
“I don’t know. I’d never really counted them. It’s something that we work through every single week. And early in the year we were pretty fortunate to be relatively healthy. Been playing without Denzel (Ward) for almost a month now also. Hopefully we can get him back soon and get him back on the field for us. It is what it is. The game doesn’t care. Obviously, the opponents don’t care, but the game is Sunday for 60 minutes and it doesn’t care if you’re playing rookies. It doesn’t care if you have injuries. It doesn’t care if you’re at full strength. And that’s our focus.”
Just knowing what the snap counts have been like for those guys and how you like to rotate the eight up front. How do you manage that when you have some of these younger guys that are untested and not wanting to up Myles (Garrett) or Z’s (Za’Darius Smith) load too much?
“Well, some of the discipline from early in the year, we talked about Myles. I can’t remember which game it was, but he played a really high number of snaps. It was before his shoulder was injured. But he said you can do that if you have the discipline to pace yourself at times early in the season. So I think we have benefited from that. We’ve tried to keep some reps off of those guys, and as you get late into December and January football, those guys can click up. But we have a lot of confidence in the guys that will get in there and play for us. Isaiah McGuire has played and made plays for us when he played, forced an interception. Siaki (Ika) hasn’t played yet, but I have great confidence that he’ll play well. It’s really just been a numbers game for him. It has nothing to do with his availability and him being ready because he’s ready to play, he’s ready to contribute, and that’s what this game is. Get an opportunity and make the most of it. So excited for those guys.”
Is Myles just going to have to deal the rest of the way with quick releases, chips, double teams and all those kind of things?
“Well, I mean, that’s what defensive ends deal with in general anyway. I mean, I feel his frustration because so much of what we do is just trying to get Myles one one-on-one. And when you can get one one-on-one and you get held and doesn’t get called and things like that can be a frustrating thing for a player. It can be a frustrating thing for a play caller, but that’s what those guys deal with. I used to say it about Calvin Johnson. You can move him around, try to get him away from the jam. Problem is, he’s 6-5 and 235 pounds and wears number 81. He’s pretty easy to find. And Myles, same way you guys know we move Myles around a lot. I would say this, particularly the last drive of that game, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him rush so well. It didn’t translate to a sack until the two point play, but his win percentage, probably the last two drives was unbelievable. It was really inspiring to watch, and you could tell he was mad and he was everything else, but he was more determined and just kept on coming. I was really proud of that. It didn’t translate to a sack, but I think it really showed his determination and we’re going to continue to work to try to get him one on one. You can’t get him free, but try to create one on ones. If we can get Denzel back, that’ll probably have a lot to do with it because we said before, there’s some things you can do in man coverage that can free up from some running back chips and things. He saw running back chips, he saw wide receiver chips, he saw tight end chips and he saw center slide and he saw the ball coming out quick. I mean, (Trevor) Lawrence has – played him his first couple of years when I was in Tennessee. He’s really an improved player. His command, his decision making, getting rid of the know. He always had good mobility, but all that. So that was a tough matchup, or it was a tough matchup for rushing the passer. Still managed to get the sacks, I know Myles doesn’t count because it’s a two point play. I still don’t get that whole thing, but it is what it is. But I think he’ll carry us down the line and find a way to be successful regardless of guys getting held or double teams and everything else.”
Did you hear his comments postgame? Real quick follow up on that.
“I honestly didn’t see it. But again, I can feel that frustration because as a pass rusher, you relish those one one-on-ones. NFL officials are very loathed to call holding versus double teams, and I’ve heard from officials in the past where they say, well, you’ve devoted a double team to that guy, so they – I don’t want to say turn a blind eye, but just as part of their mechanics, their eyes are supposed to go away from the double team, right? So they’re looking other places in double team. I understand those mechanics and everything else, but when you do get one and you’re a premier guy and you feel like you’ve been held, I think that’s certainly frustrating. Here’s the thing that nothing to do with the end of the game, but during the game, he did not let that affect his next rush, right. And that last drive, go back and watch that last was. It was pretty impressive to watch him rush faster.”
Dual-threat Justin Fields. You seem to do better against Lamar (Jackson) the second time around in that regard.
“Yeah, obviously a gifted athlete, unbelievable arm. Maybe the most arm strength we’ve seen all year. I mean, just an absolute cannon for an arm. And he can throw those individual routes on the outside part of the field, and he does have strength and speed to be able to run. They’re highly ranked as a run offense, but he’s dangerous in the passing game just because of his mobility and to be able to find guys later down the field and stuff like that. We have certain schemes that we run against scrambling quarterbacks, and we’ve used those at different times over the course of the year we’ll probably break some of those out in this game. Also, just because his legs present such a challenge, that defense, it’s not just about getting them covered through the timing of the pass, it’s getting them covered on extended plays. And he’s near the top of the league as far as time to throw. And it’s not necessarily protection. It’s time to throw, it’s him buying time with his legs. So, it puts a little bit more on our coverage and then different ways to rush to pass or maybe with extra guys, maybe with second level guys, different pressure packages. All that ties together.”
How do you think your young safeties played when they had to get in there against Jacksonville? Does that change anything from your play calling perspective when you have new guys in?
“The only thing that really changed in the game was the packages that we used because all our three safety packages were out the window and we used that a lot on the third downs, so that was sort of out. But Ronnie (Hickman) was different than D Bell (D’Anthony Bell) in that Ronnie knew going into the game he was going to be starting. And I thought you saw some really good things from Ronnie as far as overlapping in coverage. He made some plays from the half field, made some plays from the middle. He didn’t play a perfectly clean game. Like to see him wrap up on the one wildcat play that he came up to make a hit. I really think he thought he was closer to the goal line than he was. When you’re real close to the goal line, it’s just all about taking that big shot. You don’t have to wrap up because you either stop him or you don’t. But he had a little bit of space. I’d like to see him wrap there, but I thought he did a really good job executing the defense. He played with a lot of the communication. And then you know, DBell came in and that was tough matchup. Evan Engram is arguably their best receiver. I think their number one receiver as far as attempts or targets and things like that, gave up one completion to him. But I’d like to see D Bell finish that game with that interception. You know when you’re in those games, you’re up two scores and you’re willing to exchange yards for time off the clock and things like that when they do get impatient and Lawrence was very patient through that drive, but when they do get impatient and try to take that shot, you got to be able to finish that game. And he had a couple. The one we had the penalty on, but I thought we saw some good things. D Bell is a very physical player. We’ll probably have (Duron) Harmon up also. He’s a veteran player and we’ll get all those guys involved.”
How important is having kind of that veteran there? I know Rodney’s (McLeod) been around and helped out, but what can Duron (Harmon) add as well?
“Yeah, that guy’s done a lot in the league. He’s played a lot of football. He’s seen a lot of things. His eyes are important to us and then his ability to go in and execute. He’s fairly new to us, but he was able to pick our system up and veteran players do. It’s just a matter of everything that we do he’s done at some point of his career. He’s just putting in new terminology and we’ll have him ready in certain time. You’ll see him on the field and we’ll have a lot of confidence in him going out and getting the job done. He’s a physical player and like you said, that leadership. We lost guys like Rodney and Grant (Delpit) and then playing without Juan (Thornhill) these last couple weeks, not having Denzel, (Ward) there’s a lot of leadership that there’s, you know. It’s harder for those younger guys, you know, like Hickman and DBell that we mentioned. It’s a little bit more natural for the guys that have been around and played ten years and, you know, played in Super Bowls and things like that.”
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