Special Teams Coordinator Tom Quinn
November 5, 2015
Re: last punt at New Orleans
A: Tackling, tackling is the number one thing…guys getting off blocks. When you’re in that situation, you’re going to roll up and come with a block, which they did against Atlanta, or they’re going to double bison, so it’s eight on six, and so we have to get down there with the core and make tackles. We missed two, but we had poor releases, so it’s disappointing. We had two or three guys that could have pushed it further down the field.
Q: You’ve been pretty good at that this year.
A: Yeah.
Q: Something you wanted to improve, though, in general about that punt?
A: Yeah, I mean the punt was good, and two guys that you trust to make tackles just didn’t, but then the second wave behind them was too far, so that’s what it was. Then you have the facemask penalty, which just makes it worst, which defending Brad [Wing], he couldn’t see because he was getting pushed back, you know that stiff arm in the helmet.
Q: That’s obviously instinctive in that moment. The fumble happens and it’s tackle the guy who picks it up.
A: Yeah.
Q: Is it ever taught the idea that they can’t advance the fumble so don’t even bother, let them run?
A: No.
Q: Because you don’t want to take away the instinct, right?
A: Yeah, yeah, that’s, instinctively you’re going to go.
Q: On that punt, was it meant to go to the sideline? The Desean Jackson play, the ball was supposed to go out of bounds, was the one last week?
A: No, we always try and put the ball out by the numbers. If you can get it outside the numbers, great and that was a good punt there. It wasn’t a mishit punt, it was a good punt, so it just comes down to covering it.
Q: What comes into the decision for you guys in a spot like that, whether you want to punt it out of bounds, whether you want to keep it at the numbers?
A: You don’t want to hit it short out of bounds and give them the ball with time to complete a pass, then kick a field goal. They still had some time and timeouts, so you have to try and put them as far down. They got what, 10, 12, however many seconds left because there’s going to be another offensive play.
Q: How short were you on personnel on that play? I know Dwayne [Harris] wasn’t in the game, Orleans [Darkwa] got hurt earlier in the game, were you shuffling a lot of people in and out or was it just those two?
A: Those two and we had a couple guys playing different positions, but that’s no [excuse], they played earlier in the game there. We work two groups and they’re ready to go.
Q: Josh [Brown], you had talked about the kickoffs, you have to be a little happier.
A: Yeah, six out of the seven deep kicks were touchbacks, and that was good.
Q: Anything different? I mean was there anything you guys worked on specifically?
A: I think it’s tempo. We talked a lot about tempo and he was there. It’s nice to be able to need to work on something and go play inside. You take away wind, and you take away other things, and you can just work on your stroke. He did a good job with that.
Q: What’s the percentage you shoot for on touchbacks?
A: For touchbacks? You know it’s usually higher earlier and then comes down later. Usually we’re a little bit higher, we’ve had to cover more kickoffs earlier than we did last year. He hasn’t been striking it as good, but usually 50-60 percent early and dwindles down. I think we were in the 50’s last year.
Q: What have you liked about what Brad Wing has done since he’s gotten here?
A: He’s a talented punter. He had two really good punts early with hang, distance, and location. He started off really well with the plus 10’s but we’ve had three touchbacks. It’s like he’s getting a little too aggressive in that area. I’d rather have him kick to the eight or the 10 [yard-line] with a fair catch than bounce it at the three and if you can make the fantastic play, keep it out, but last week we didn’t. You give up field position that way.
Q: He did have that beautiful punt.
A: A couple of them, yeah.
Q: He is capable of that sort of thing. Is that what you saw in him?
A: Yeah, I mean he’s talented. He was that way in college.
Q: He has a way with the ball that it’s able to move inward because of that end over end. Does that make it difficult to return kicks?
A: Being left-footed is a different spin than being right-footed. In our division, it’s all lefty’s so that’s one thing. He does have an Aussie punt, he’s got like a boomerang punt that kind of moves differently, but again, they’re all based on how far you can kick…that type of thing.
