LB Devon Kennard
Conference Call, September 21, 2015
Q: After watching Eli do well last season, how strange is it to see how many errors he’s had in the first two games?
A: Being a defensive guy, that’s not something I really think about or worry about. I worry about things we’re doing on the defensive side of the ball, but I have full confidence in Eli and the offense that they’ll keep on progressing and doing well throughout the season.
Q: How much of Washington have you gotten to watch already and what do you see in the run game?
A: Late last night I was watching a little bit and some this morning and they have a good running game. They played really good against St. Louis yesterday and it’s something we’ve got to definitely address early and make sure we’re ready to stop.
Q: When you lose a player like Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, how much does that trickle down or forward to the linebackers and defensive line?
A: I mean, it’s hard to replace DRC. He’s a spectacular player, a freak of an athlete and definitely one of the best players on our team and one of the leaders on the team. But it’s a next-man-up type of league and it’s not something we can worry about. It’s something we’ve got to bounce back from and everybody has to pick up slack in other areas.
Q: Eli Manning was saying before that the team has to learn how to finish and win and, as simple as it sounds, how exactly do you do that? Is there a formula? Do you rely on guys that have been there? What can you do to learn how to win?
A: I mean, from my perspective, it just comes down to finishing games towards the end of games and making plays in critical moments. Every game is going to be a tight game. We feel like we can play with anybody, but when those moments come in the games, we’ve got to make more plays than the other team and that’s what it comes down to.
Q: You were unable to do that, Devon, two weeks in a row. Does that shake your confidence?
A: I think we’ve got a resilient team and I don’t think it kills anybody’s confidence. It’s most definitely frustrating, but you’ve got to move on. It’s a short week this week and we’re already on to Washington and not worrying about the last two weeks and what could’ve, would’ve, should’ve been. We have a great opportunity to win a divisional game.
Q: Does it help you to look around the division and see that pretty much every team is having issues and nobody is really threatening to pull away?
A: It’s a division where anybody can win it and we can compete with all the teams and that’s what we want to do. We want to do our best and come out and be ready for Washington. Seeing what everybody else is doing, as well, we definitely have all the opportunity in the world.
Q: What did you see from yesterday’s game from the defense? What do you take away from that?
A: I think we’re progressing, but again, at the end of the day, in critical moments we’ve got to find ways to make plays on the field. Being a defensive guy, if they don’t score, they don’t win, and they’re getting points on us late in the games and we’ve got to find a way to stop them.
Q: What did you see? Why does this change for you guys? Did you see anything different? Is there anything you are doing differently late in the game?
A: Not necessarily. I just think at end of the day, we had the offense making some plays on us later in the game and we’ve got to find a way to make those stops and get some critical stops in a different situation.
Q: Offenses have done a lot of attacking you guys underneath. It seems to be what the Falcons did, especially early. Guys flipping across formation and stuff. What do you guys need to do to try and be able to stop that moving forward and what kind of adjustments do you make?
A: I think our communication is key, just to make sure if they’re going to be doing crossing across the field and stuff, we’ve got to be able to communicate, linebackers, secondary and all that so we can pick those guys up and make sure they’re not rinking and dinking us down the field. At the end of the day, if they’re throwing short passes, overall we’d rather that than those deep balls. Keep it in front of us, make tackles and we get off the field.
Q: Have there been things scheme-wise that you haven’t been able to do because Jon [Beason] hasn’t been on the field yet?
A: No, I don’t think that affects what the plan is for me necessarily at all. It’s definitely—whenever Jon is back, it’ll be definitely a huge plus for us. He’s a great player, but Uani (‘Unga) has been stepping up for us and has been doing a great job these last two weeks and really running the show well. We’ve just got to keep progressing.
Q: How much more will Jon Beason be a benefit, especially late in these games? I know Uani is playing well, but at the end of the game Jon’s leadership and experience, how much can that come in handy?
A: I think it’ll definitely benefit us just because he’s such a leader, he really knows how to control the defense and get things under control. Like I said, Uani is doing a great job and I think he’s being very effective, so I don’t know how much it would or wouldn’t change.
Q: I know Coach Spagnuolo talked about it last week about how Tony Romo kind of got you to show your hand early a lot of times on the blitz. Did you see that again yesterday at all or is that something you have to talk about or work on moving forward from here?
A: I don’t necessarily think they got our hand on as many blitzes as necessarily as it happened in Dallas, and I think it’s something we’re continuing to improve and progress on in our blitz packages and different things where we can bring pressure and get hits on the quarterback. I think we made a step in the right direction on that.
