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Thursday Transcript: Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo

Eric from BBI : Admin : 12/3/2015 5:25 pm
Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo

December 3, 2015

The Jets. We’re looking forward to playing a game. Anytime you lose a game, at least in my mind, you want to play another game as quick as you can so you can find a way to win. Other than that, I’ll just open it up and answer any questions you have.

Q: The Dolphins used a lot of single coverage on Brandon Marshall and the Texans before that. Do you expect to do that a good amount?

A: I probably answer this question the same way all the time, we’ll mix it up. I think there are going to be times when we’re going to have to do that, then we’ll have to rely on DRC and Prince or whatever corner is out there to cover. Along with that, it’s not always just the guy covering the threat. It’s also somebody getting to the quarterback, so he doesn’t have all day.

Q: How much confidence do you have though in DRC or Prince to go up against Marshall in those situations?

A: Oh yeah, I’ve got a lot of confidence. He’s a really good football player, don’t get me wrong. He’s one of the top in the league, but I think our guys will battle him. We certainly don’t want to have a lot of snaps where those guys are all by themselves with a four-man rush. I think if we can combine a decent pass rush and put somebody over there to help them or have somebody there that has their eye on him, I think we’ll be fine.

Q: Because of that size, is that something you would maybe want to get the bigger player on him as much as possible?

A: Which would be the bigger guy?

Q: I think DRC is a little taller.

A: No look it, there are thoughts of that. I’m not going to obviously give away the game plan. But I do think both Prince and DRC are competitive guys and somewhere in the game they’re going to find themselves covering a pretty good threat.

Q: Do you like that when you have two guys like DRC and Prince and you can say, “Here’s the challenge, guys.”

A: Absolutely. And you know, we talked earlier in the week, “Do we want to match? Do we want to do that?” Again, I’m not going to say what we’re doing, but I talk with those guys all the time and see what their comfort level is and then we’ll usually go with it.

Q: You still gave up 300 yards passing, almost all of it didn’t come against those two guys. How do you sort of solve that middle area?

A: Yeah, I mean look, it’s 108 yards on two plays. You’re talking about last game? Yeah, it’s a screen play and then obviously the one. And that’s kind of been the Achilles heel, at least in the last two games. Obviously the New England game had the one big pass play to Gronk. Look, it gets solved by making those particular plays. If we can get rid of those, I think our guys are battling. We’ve got other areas we need to get better at. When you give up the big play, if it’s that big, it usually comes back to bite you. And it kind of did in that game, too.

Q: With Chris Ivory, is he one of those old-fashioned runners? You’ve got to stop him before he gets started?

A: I wouldn’t use the word ‘old’ with him. He’s really good. I was with him in New Orleans for a year. And he’s a real competitive guy that loves football, and you can see that when he plays. He’s a violent runner and when he gets to the edge, he’s scary, we talked a lot about that. But build a wall, set the edge, try to track the hip when he cuts it back, but he’s going to be a challenge for us.

Q: What do you with the headset now? Devon Kennard, it looks like he’s probably not going to be ready this week.

A: Yeah, what we usually try to do is pick the—we’ve got a bunch of different packages, right? So we’ll pick the linebacker that’s going to be in the most packages and try to put it on him. We’ll figure that out by Sunday.

Q: So it’s likely either Jasper Brinkley or Jonathan Casillas?

A: Those would be probably the two candidates, yeah.

Q: You going to need Cooper Taylor this week maybe?

A: Yeah, with Brandon a little hobbled, hasn’t practiced the last two days, so if Coop finds his way in there, that’s what he’s got to do. It’s the old next man up in the NFL, so if we have a package with him in there, we’ll use him.

Q: Just a couple weeks ago you cut him.

A: Yeah, it happens a bunch in the league. I remember going back a few years, Corey Webster was deactivated for like two, three games. Sometimes that lights a spark, but it’s always good to see how guys react to that. I think Cooper has reacted really well. He’s come out and worked real hard.

Q: Do you maybe alter your playcalling, go maybe more two safeties and extra linebacker than maybe you have been in the last couple weeks?

A: We could do that. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of different thoughts. We got Craig (Dahl) and Landon (Collins) and obviously Craig has gone down and been in a linebacker spot and had three safeties out there. So we’ve had a mixture in there, we’ll mix it up.

Q: If JPP is willing to try or is trying to put his right hand down, is that just another step to his normalcy?

A: Yeah, he’s kind of working that out. Again, you guys have probably talked to him. Although, he looks a lot more comfortable to me, I think there are times, and we even talked about it, I think if he thinks less about it and let’s it go, I think he’s a better player. I think he’d tell you that’s what he’s trying to do right now, but it’s not an easy thing to overcome. And especially, the thing we forget is he hadn’t played football in whatever the last time it was, a year ago. It takes a little while.

Q: You haven’t gotten to the quarterback, they haven’t given up many sacks. Is there a middle ground?

A: I don’t know if the middle ground would be good, want the ground to be the other way. Look it, they’ve got a good offensive line. I think this quarterback is really very intelligent. He makes some really smart moves on film and you sit there and go, “Wow, a lot of guys wouldn’t have thought of that.” I think he gets rid of the football, so it’s a combination, I think, of him and that’s a good offensive line. Look it, this doesn’t change, this is the same as any other game, we’ve got to find ways to get there. And talking about JPP, we hope with his third game under his belt, maybe we start to see the guy that I know he wants to be.

Q: With DRC, do you kind of just get used to him kind of coming off the field for a handful of plays and going back out there?

A: Yeah, I think something got him.

Q: But he always seems to come back.

A: Yeah, I mean look, it’s nice to have Hose (Jayron Hosley)…guys that jump right in there that want to compete. I think that happens a lot around the league, just keep working through it.

Q: I guess there’s no way to prepare for that, but opposing offenses caught you twice when he has come off for one play.

A: I’m trying to remember, it was back a few. I want to say one was in Tampa.

Q: New Orleans.

A: I think this past one there was a change in offensive personnel…we changed defenses, then we were going back to another one and it didn’t quite get there quick enough. We don’t want to do that, we don’t want to cost that team timeouts, we don’t. I take that personally myself. That’s my job, so we’ll try to find a way to figure it out.
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Eric from BBI : Admin : 12/3/2015 5:26 pm : link
No one bothered to ask, "Do you have any regrets the way you played that 3rd-and-5 against the Redskins?"
Great question Eric  
moaltch : 12/3/2015 5:39 pm : link
I thought for sure he'd take a chance and bring pressure. Does anyone know Cousins qb rating vs. the blitz last game? It seemed that although we never got home, he was forced to get rid of the ball prematurely.
Look it.  
FranknWeezer : 12/3/2015 5:41 pm : link
Look.
RE: ...  
Randy in CT : 12/3/2015 5:44 pm : link
In comment 12660002 Eric from BBI said:
Quote:
No one bothered to ask, "Do you have any regrets the way you played that 3rd-and-5 against the Redskins?"
I think you are going to get awful responses to those types of questions at this point.
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