Thursday Transcript: Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo

Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo

October 1, 2015

I’m just going to start it out this way, seems like forever ago we played a game. I thought the guys came out, fought hard, happy to get the win. Little disappointed, again, of the way it ended. Was really excited about possibly seeing a six up there at the end but that didn’t happen. We did win the football game and we’re happy about that. Having said that, I will open it up.

Q: The disparity between the rush defense and the pass defense, I mean I’m sure on one hand you can be thrilled with the way you’ve played so far against the run but then against the pass, when you see the yardage numbers. Is that part of the process of being able to…?

A: I don’t know if I’d call that part of the process, it’s not really the plan. I will be truthful with you, I haven’t looked at any of the numbers. I’m not a stat guy, I don’t do it, I don’t do it on purpose, I don’t do it when I think they’re good, I try not to do it when I have a feeling they’re not so good. My senses, we’ve played pretty good against the run statistically and I know that—one thing I review at the end of the games is the total yards and I know a lot of that happens to be pass yards. Look, we’ve just got to continue doing what we’re doing. What we’re trying to do is win the game and—how’s the best way to say this—I think some of those yards at the end that were added. We played two really good quarterbacks and a team that was a really good football team that ran the ball, and I thought Cousins threw the ball around pretty good, too. We just need to finish some things. I think third down, if we could get off the field a little bit better on third down, I think some of that would change. I’m going around and I’m not really answering your question and I know that, but I would hope that our pass defense gets better and we continue to play good run defense. I will say this, sometimes I think it’s more concerning when it’s the other way around. Yeah, we don’t even worry about the way it’s been, but I think I would be more concerned about that. We’ll keep focusing on it and hopefully we’ll get better. But I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Q: What do you think you can get out of Owa (Odighizuwa)? He’s a rookie and you saw his skills in the training camp and preseason, what do you envision…?

A: The first thing is a set of fresh legs, because, really, when you watch him out at practice, there’s a difference. He hasn’t been out there, he’s well-rested, but we’re going to have to live with some growing pains, we can see that already in practice because he’s not up to speed with some of the things we’ve been doing since he’s been out…I think he’s a strong edge player, I think he can play tight ends well, so I hope that helps us in the run defense and certainly when we get to a throwing down, some of those third downs, I’m hopeful, we’re all hopeful, that he can bring something to the pass rush.

Q: How important is being disciplined in a case like this week when you’re going against a guy like Tyrod Taylor, who wants to tuck-and-run a little bit?

A: Yeah, well we’ve all got to be disciplined against him. I’ve got a great deal of respect for Tyrod Taylor. I watched him for two years down at Baltimore give the Baltimore starting defense headaches every day, especially on Friday when it was a red zone day. If he tucked it and put it in, he was getting in the end zone. Used to drive those guys nuts. He’s a good football player, he’s smart, he’s going to be a challenge, but getting back to the discipline of pass rushing, we’re all talking about that all week. It won’t be just Owa, it’ll be all four guys or five guys or six or however many we play. He challenges you that way, no question.

Q: That was a point of emphasis in the summer, the tackling and yards after contact….

A: We need to be a little bit better in our yards after catch on a pass play. We’ve been pretty good with rushing yards after contact, which has been encouraging. I think that’s a reflection of the guys buying into it, relying on relentless, getting a lot of guys around the ball. I hope that continues. There was a preseason game when it was really bad because I remember throwing it out and putting it on the screen and having guys look at it. I think it’s been relatively good. I know at least for the last two weeks, I can’t remember the Dallas game. That is an emphasis.

Q: Just relying on it, it seems that guys aren’t breaking tackles and making big plays… What are the numbers showing? Or both? I know you tally it all up and it was like 1,507 last year.

A: From the standpoint of rushing yards after contact? Oh you’re talking about when I—yeah, in the spring, when we did the prior season. That was everything, though, that was the yards after missed tackles, after missed sacks, if we dropped an interception and they had three more plays and they got 15 yards out of that, was all kin of accumulated later. So it’s hard to know that right now, but my sense is we’re tackling the ball carrier, the runner, and getting him on the ground mostly when we make it to initial contact. The yards after catch has not always been good, so we’re not always tackling at the completion point like we want to and I think we need to improve on that.

Q: Since we last talked, Jayron Hosley basically played two games for you. What do you think of what he has done?

A: Impressed. I was very encouraged with the way Hose played. He’s one of those guys that’s not afraid of a challenge. He accepted the challenge of last week, getting up pressing receivers and trying to keep them out of the game. He’s one of those guys, which I’m encouraged by, that if he gets beat on a play, he just comes right back and plays football. He’s got some really good skills. I saw that way back in training camp, pulled him aside and said if he just kept buying into the pressing part of it and what Coach Walton’s been telling them, then I think he’d be a really good football player and he showed that when he played.

Q: The physical part of it, you really need to see more out of it to get to the next level to really be a decent player?

A: Yeah, but I mean anybody that plays on the edge, physicality is important. I didn’t see any non-physical out of him in the reps that he played. I thought he attacked and played aggressive on wide receivers and kind of focused on that right now really because we need to get those guys pressing wide outs and I thought he did a good job on that.

Q: The use of Jon Beason and Uani ‘Unga, was that dictated last game based on Jon just coming back?

A: Last week it had a lot to do with that. We didn’t want to make the mistake, look Jon hadn’t played in a couple games and had been sidelined for three weeks, to have him go right out there and play 60 plays. That, coupled with the fact that Uani’ has played some good football. He’s been around the ball, he’s been very productive. So we’ll see where we are at the end of the week for this game, but it’s nice to have two guys that can go in and play. It’s not always that, I like it when, if you’ve got 22 guys active on defense for game day, I think it’s always nice if all 22 can be involved.

Q: Did it present challenges with communication with both of those guys going in and out?

A: Yeah, because Uani doesn’t have the helmet on at that point, but I thought we worked through that pretty good.

Q: Is the goal eventually to get Jon to 100 percent or is that something you’re still open to a possibility of rotating them long-term?

A: The goal is to get Jon to 100 percent. He’s a good football player and he’s our leader. I love him in front of the huddle. You’re talking about a rookie versus a 8, 9-year vet, so there’s some value there. But we will just play it by ear on the way. We’ll see how each week goes. I know we need them all. I know we’re going to need them all.

Q: What are some challenges Tyrod Taylor brings?

A: Anytime you’re asked to cover guys longer than the 2.5 or the 3 is a challenge for the guys. So the way to piece this together is the guys up there rushing him have to have a pass rush plan, which we’re developing right now. We’ve got to find a way to get to him. He’s a tough tackle, too, he’s a strong guy. People say he’s not big but Tyrod is really put together. Best athlete I’ve seen on a football field. Again, I watched him for two years. He was the best athlete on that team down there. He just had fun playing and now he’s taking that into a starting role in Buffalo and I’m happy for him. I don’t want him to do too good this Sunday but I’m happy for him.

Q: Did you say best athlete you’ve ever seen on a field?

A: Well, on that football team, which we know has a lot of good football players, but when you go out there and watch practice and he’d be doing his deal playing, you’d say, wow. It was evident. He could’ve done anything. I kept trying to get him to play safety and corner. I’d have played him at corner, every day. He was smart enough to know he was a quarterback.

Q: In years past, a lot of defensive coordinators would shadow a guy like that. Is that still done?

A: If you do it, I think it’s a mix and match and you pick your spots. I think you can still do it but I’m not sure where we’ll go with that. We might have a wrinkle of that, extra pass rushers, they’ll do a lot of different things.

Q: Was it obvious to you every day down there that Taylor was going to be a starting quarterback?

A: Kind of thought so. You know, given the right situation, someone puts the right package together. I think Greg Roman has done a great job, it’s been a great fit for them as hard as he’s worked. He’s a good football player.

Q: A term that you guys bring up a lot is ‘relentless.’ What does that mean to you when you get on the field? How does that translate? Does that account for the turnovers you’ve created this year?

A: I think that’s part of it. We talk about production at the ball, we’ve got to get to the ball, you’ve got to be relentless to the ball. It’s unwavering, it’s persistent, it’s constant. It’s got to be—the guys have embraced it, it’s got to be part of your thread and what you do and every player has to buy into it and I think right now that has happened. We’ve been in football games and guys have continued to play all the way through four quarters. We haven’t done as well at the end of the game and that’s for a lot of different reasons but I think the defensive game of football has to be played that way. Especially in this day and age, the game is so wide open and athletic people, like Buffalo has, get out io the perimeter and out in space, one guy tackling that athletic guy out in space is hard to do. You need everybody there. I think our d-line and linebackers have done a great job of that when the ball is out, turning and getting themselves to it.

Q: How do you teach that?

A: We’ve been doing it every day here. It’s just a constant reminder. Really, what it comes back to is the guys buying in and they bought in here and they continue to buy in and I hope that continues to happen.