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Wednesday Transcript: Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo

Eric from BBI : Admin : 12/23/2015 5:14 pm
Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo

December 23, 2015

Unbelievable challenge this week. Obviously coming off of last week, we got some work to do. I’ll tell you what – this running back we’re getting ready to play and this football team is one of the best obviously in the league. We had a good practice today. I thought the guys ran around real well. Of course we don’t have pads on, we don’t do any tackling anymore. So we just got to find a way to stop the run first and then see what happens from there. Because if we don’t do that, it will be a long day. Having said that, I’ll open it up.

Q: They’re like 61 offensive snaps a game, the lowest in the league. What does look like on film and what effect does it have?

A: It might be a little bit of a product of when they are running the ball, the clock is running. I’d have to look, does their opponent have less plays too?

Q: Yes, they do.

A: I would think that’d be a direct result of running the football quite a bit. We don’t count plays; I’ve felt like during this year we’ve had too many plays. And that’s our fault. We got to get off the field. It really doesn’t factor in terms of game planning, other than I hope they don’t have any more than that. I think it’s good if they don’t.

Q: I guess I’m just wondering, do they do things to slow the game down?

A: I’m not watching—like Coach Coughlin would know with the big picture, like what they’re doing defensively and do they manage the game and the whole thing. When you’re watching cutups and you’re not watching the game, it’s hard for me to get a feel for that. My guess is—knowing Mike and knowing Norv—that that’s probably behind it. They got a great running game, got a quarterback that’s managing the game. He’s been really efficient and they got a really good defense. It would make sense, but without looking at the whole thing, I’m not really sure.

Q: What’s the challenge with Adrian Peterson? How different is it than every other running back?

A: First of all, because he’s so talented, that’s the big challenge. When you watch him, he’s really good at if you make one mistake up front, he’s really good at finding it. And when he finds it, he finds it so quick—and he is obviously talented—and he’s out and he makes you pay for it. Defensive football against the run is gap-sound, that never changes. But they’re not real tricky in what they do, they’re just really good at doing it. I think he makes all the offensive lineman really good, like a really good back does. He’ll make you pay for sneaking in a gap where you’re not supposed to be, and he’s gone. So we can’t let that happen.

Q: Does Brinkley play perhaps a bigger role here because the run-tackling linebacker against the great runner?

A: That’s a good statement. I would have to agree with that. He did play up there, so I think he’ll be juiced up for it. I don’t know if you know, he just had a baby. I’m saying that because god bless him. Tackling, and I’m all over him about doing this and that, but there’s more important things in life. I think he’ll play a key part in this game. He knows them a little bit. Anytime you’re playing a good running team, the guy right in the middle obviously is really important.

Q: Wrapping up a big talking point for you this week?

A: “Multiple-wrap tacklers” is how we said it. To get this guy on the ground, it’s not just one guy, it takes multiple. And I say multiple-wrap tacklers because it’s not multiple run in there throw a shoulder pad, duck down low—you got wrap this guy up because he’ll bounce, he’ll spin, you guys have all seen it. He’s a quality back.

Q: How about Bridgewater? What kind of steps has he taken?

A: Of course like any good quarterback with a running game, he’s aided by that. They’ve become really good—Norv has done a great job—with the play action concepts that they have. They don’t do a lot, but what they do, they do it really well. Because you’re so focused on 28, everybody gets [sucked up]. That’s the whole deal with a good running game and play action pass off of it. We’re hopeful that we can play good on first and second down and get into some unmanageable third downs for them, it’d be better for us. That’ll be the intent.

Q: They had a big game last week, Cam, obviously against your defense. Why do you think they had so much success passing the ball?

A: Talent’s one thing, but certainly there were a number of things we could have done better. The drive that sticks out in my mind is the one at the end of the half where the coverage’s should have been tighter. I just felt like we should have got off the field there and got the ball back to the offense. The pass, he was chipping away. We really wanted to stop that running game first, too. So there were run calls in there that they end up throwing the ball in play action and we didn’t defend very well. I know you’re asking about the pass, but the one that sticks out to me is the quarterback long run. It was a new play, but it was a defendable play. It was just a matter of our eyes getting in the wrong spot. We talk a lot, and it will be big against Adrian Peterson, that when they run the football, the guys on the backside got to track the hip. If you overrun it and he cuts back, it’s a long play. That’s what happened on that quarterback run. We had a couple of guys that needed to track the hip and that’s maybe an eight-yard gain. You don’t want eight-yard gains, but when it’s a new play that’s sprung on you, it would have been survivable. I was trying to go to Minnesota, you know that was going to be my attempt. I go back to that game, it crushes me, it kills me. That one hurt more than any one. Too much pressure put on the offense when it’s 35 whenever that was. That’s a lot of pressure on those guys. Somehow, someway, that’s got to be limited and then we’ll win a football game. The defensive guys are all disappointed, I’m disappointed. Hopefully that’s behind us.

Q: When you say “that kills me”, you mean the game itself or that play?

A: The game. The game kills me. I just would have hoped to have had certain parts of that game played better, I know the players feel the same way. Had that happened, with the way our offense got going at the end, we’d be sitting here with a win instead of a crushing loss.

Q: Back to the late game thing and end of games—they went down the field and got the field goal when they needed it. I know we’ve talked about this before, but what do you do moving forward to try and fix that part of it?

A: We blitzed on the first play. He got it out, we get a knockdown. I’m sure if you look around the league—and even when we did it in a couple games, San Francisco and some others—somewhere in that drive, a big play has to be made for us. Whether it’s a sack, whether it’s even a pass breakup to get them behind schedule, whether it’s obviously an interception that ends the thing. Somewhere in there, a play has to have been made. The concern was Cam running it so you spy him. I don’t know if you remember, there was a long down there because you commit only three rushers instead of four because you don’t want the quarterback to get out. Well it was a long down, and eventually, people get open on a long down. So you change it up and go to a four-man rush and the coverage is better, then he gets out and scrambles. It was that kind of cat and mouse game. We just made a couple mistakes in there that hurt us. It’s preventing a field goal not a touchdown, and you can’t let them get to the 38 or whatever yard line they got to, 30-yard line.

Q: A couple of his plays where he ran through a certain gap, and it was the same gap, they even had some running backs run through that same gap.

A: On the running play? Not the scramble, right?

Q: I think there was a designed scramble, I think behind the right guard.

A: There was a draw play down in the backed up, when we had them backed up, that he called. What he saw was two-man under. When the guys are in man, he’ll go to that. He actually avoided where he was supposed to go, and got out the other end. Not 100 percent sure, but I think we had a game put on there that didn’t get executed. We were supposed to come around on a man, and that gap would have been secured. So it was a missed-fit and a mistake on the part of one guy. When you make mistakes like that with a player like that, they are going to be plays that are going to hurt you a little bit. I think that’s what you’re talking about. The long run again, had not been a play they had run. We have an end squeeze which we worked on all week, and if we just don’t overrun it, it’s a survivable play.

Q: What’d you see from Barry Cofield?

A: Well he got 10 plays in—rusty, obviously. He did a nice job today. We get him in there more and more. Obviously he’s very smart, he did some things in practice today and it was a no-brainer for him, he adjusted. Hopefully, and I think he will, we got a whole week of practice, didn’t really have that last week. He missed a day last week by the time we got him in here. But I think he’ll help us.

Q: He had a nice play by the goal line last week, didn’t he?

A: I don’t recall. You might be right.

Q: There was a run play that was stopped.

A: Yeah. He’s played a lot of football, so we value the experience.

Q: Do you need from your cornerbacks in your estimation? It was supposed to be your strength.

A: We really need more from everybody in the pass game. That’s everybody, I say all 11. You can’t let a quarterback in this league sit back there, anybody is going to have trouble covering. Yeah, there were moments in there where I think our guys can be playing things a little bit tighter. They know that, we’ve talked about it. Maybe I got to call something different to get them tighter, I don’t know. It’s all those things.
Always like reading these from Spags  
exiled : 12/23/2015 5:33 pm : link
Wish he had a better unit to work with.
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