Transcript: Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell

Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell
September 11, 2014

Q: Coach told us to ask you why Damontré Moore didn’t play more?
A: Tough questions first, huh? We had several packages for him, but we never got back to those packages because of the state of the game. It was not an oversight or anything like that. We had several specialized packages for not only [Damontré] but some other players. One of the other guys got dinged in the game, so we had to put that package to shelf and etc. Hopefully we will do better this week.

Q: When [Damontré] was out there how do you think he did?
A: I thought he played with good energy. We wished he would’ve capitalized on that one sack. I can tell you the number he had, so out of that number of plays he had, which was about 10-12, he only had the minus on that missed sack. There are good things to come, I believe, from him.

Q: Were the big plays people missing assignments or was it people trying to do too much?
A: A little bit of both. It was some missed assignments and it was a little bit of [the defense] trying to do too much. Trying to help another guy when they really should have gotten tighter to their coverage. The first touchdown, I cannot explain. I haven’t seen two guys run into each other like that. It was just a comedy of errors.

Q: Did you like the fact that your new secondary affords you to blitz some guys that you weren’t able to in the past?
A: We think that we have the ability to bring a lot different people now with the guys that we have. We are going to try to explore that more and more. Definitely we have that capability to do that and we will try to do that.

Q: In the past when sacks weren’t coming, teams would say ‘we got the quarterback off his spot’… Now with so many mobile quarterbacks, do you have to get the sack?
A: Yeah. I think the quarterbacks have done a better job of using their mobility. For instance, we are playing Carson Palmer this week. He is not known as a scrambler, but he is a 4.7 [40-yard dash] guy. He made a big play on Monday night getting out of the pocket and got a critical first down. I think that quarterbacks today are more athletic and they are using their legs more and it causes a problem for the defense.

Q: How do you combat that?
A: Obviously you have to win some one-on-ones. That is the main thing. You have to fill up some of those gaps. You want to try and get the fifth guy involved. You can also use a spy at times for the really athletic and mobile quarterback. The quarterbacks, they pick and choose. It is a chess game. Based on down and distance, if they think they can run and get that down and distance, then if you have the spy, you are the smarter team. If it is a 3rd and 4 or something of that nature and you don’t have a spy on him, then they feel confident they can pick up four yards before you can get to them. It is a little bit of a chess game so to speak that we are playing with the quarterbacks.

Q: Aside from the early touchdown, how do you feel Dominique [Rodgers-Cromartie] played?
A: I thought he had a rough go after the early touchdown. Then Calvin [Johnson] made a really nice catch on an out cut and I thought [Rodgers-Cromartie] competed for the ball on that. I thought he competed throughout the game. It was easier to say he could get frustrated and not compete, but he made a nice play down in the red zone and pulled one out on him. Calvin really had a good day. I thought Dominique competed well after that first touchdown. I was not disappointed in that he didn’t hang his head. He went out and kept challenging himself to do better. [Johnson] beat [Rodgers-Cromartie] on a slant route, zero pressure, he beat him on a slant route when [Rodgers-Cromartie] tried to quick jam [Johnson] on the line of scrimmage and Calvin got away from him. I think that was for 24 [yards]. Dominique ran him down, tackled him and really he could of used better judgment on that particular style of defense we were playing in order to play it better. He will learn and get better from that.

Q: You can look at the stats and say, ‘400 yards given up, 35 points,’ but do you see other things that are encouraging?
A: I saw some very encouraging things. As we looked at it, from missed assignments, people trying to help and do too much… we probably gave up about 167. We could tackle better, that’s another 36, so if we can correct those things there and play better together as a defensive unit and as a secondary, then yes, there are some encouraging things there. We did a good job I thought in the run game. I expected us to force some more turnovers and that’s going to be an emphasis and that’s always been an emphasis. You can improve from Week 1 to Week 2 and I definitely, we want to improve from our first outing.

Q: Was that something you were counting on going into that game? It’s not like the Lions were known for being protective of the football, it’s actually been the opposite. It’s pretty impressive about what they did with holding onto it. Were you counting on that in terms of…?
A: Yeah, we thought we could be able to force some turnovers. We thought we could create some field position for our offense and for our football team through the turnover game. They were very impressive. My hats off to them, they did a fine job in protecting the football. 81 had a monster game.

Q: What did you see from JPP? I know he was hurt part of the time but he’s coming off two seasons where he’s… How did he look to you?
A: He flashed; he flashed some old JPP at times. There was one run play when he went right down the line of scrimmage and he scooped the guy up. He played with some power and strength before he got hurt. He had really good energy before he was dinged, so you can feel his presence out there. And then I was very pleased that he came back into the ballgame and finished the ballgame. Was he as effective as he was when he wasn’t dinged? I can’t say he was as effective. You couldn’t feel his energy as much as you did before he was dinged but I think the mental part of him going back out saying, ‘Oh yeah, I can do this,’ I thought that was encouraging.

Q: With Mathias Kiwanuka and Robert Ayers, are they situational when they flip in and out or do you almost ride the hot hand with one of those two?
A: We ask them to play hard, play fast and then if they need a blow, we’ll rotate them. We kind of rotate them sometimes by series. Sometimes we have different packages for them based on what some of our calls are. It’s not rocket science, it’s not anything that’s… we just have some different ways that we rotate.

Q: Did you get what you thought you were going to get out of Beason and are you concerned now that he wasn’t able to go back out there today in practice or is that just part of the process getting ready again for Sunday?
A: We really didn’t know how much we could get out of Jon because that was his first game. If you’re in a preseason game, starters usually play, what, 15 to 19 plays, so he is in excellent condition but he’s in the condition where the trainers have been working with him and he hasn’t played a lot of snaps of football. We weren’t real sure about how many plays he could play, how long he could go and all that type thing. I thought he was rested initially because you have to play the game but then I thought he got into the groove and played better as the game went on. I think he played maybe 45 snaps, so that probably exceeded what we thought he could do.

Q: Do you expect him to play on Sunday or…?
A: I wish I could answer that question with a definitive answer, that’s a question for Tom and the trainers. But I’m banking on having him. If I had to answer that question, I’m banking on having him, but you have to ask Tom and the trainers.

Q: How disappointing was it not to have Devon Kennard? He got hurt early.
A: Knocked us out of some packages. When that occurs and you have a 53 and a 45-man and you build some different things and some different looks that you want to get into then you have to go to plan B or wipe out that particular thing that you would like to do. I think he didn’t play very many plays before he had the hamstring. That’s the breaks of the game.

Q: Just to get back to Damontre Moore for a second, you said he had just the one negative play that he graded out on.
A: Well, that’s the one that stands out the most, yes.

Q: Up until that moment, though, it was probably a positive play, right?
A: Yeah, he had positive plays, yes.

Q: But I mean the stem of that play until he missed would have graded out as a very positive play.
A: Oh, it would have, yes, because it would have been a sack. No doubt.