DE Olivier Vernon
September 15, 2016
Q: Is this the kind of game that you think you were brought in here for?
A: I just came here to contribute. I came here to contribute in all phases of the game, whatever is needed, just help contribute and help win.
Q: With Brees, he gets rid of the ball so fast. Do you ever sit there and say, ‘We may not get to him this weekend?’
A: That is just a part of the game. It is on us, as a defense, to put pressure on him. We can’t let that deviate us from doing what we are good at, so we just have to put as much pressure on him as we can.
Q: Has Spags mentioned last year or is he saying, ‘Let’s look ahead to this week and that’s it’?
A: Each week is the opponent. This week is the Saints. That is all we are focused on right now.
Q: It is easy with all the hype about Brees to forget about Ingram. He is a pretty good back.
A: Yeah, he is a pretty good back. He is going to run that ball. He is a powerful runner. You can’t sleep on him. He can make big plays and when they do run the ball, you have to look out for him. They have other guys on that offense that can burn you deep, too, so right now, we just have to get ready and prepare for them.
Q: When you play a team that wants to wing it down the field, do you have a philosophy to stop a team that is so explosive and so high-powered on offense?
A: They have the weapons. They have the weapons to do it. They have a lot of fast guys and they have the quarterback that can make the throws, so as far as the defense, everybody has to be on the P’s and Q’s, dotting their I’s and crossing their T’s and preparing for this weekend.
Q: Can you talk about how you look to improve on last week’s performance?
A: We got the win. We got the win, but you can never be satisfied. There is always room for improvement. There were a lot of times that we should have gotten off the field on third down and we didn’t, I know that is one thing we need to improve on and as far as getting more pressure on the quarterback.
Q: If you do stop the run, how much easier does it make the game for you guys?
A: Stopping the run is a priority. That is the one thing you have to do to set up the pass. One thing coming in with this team this weekend is that they love passing the ball. They love passing the ball, they love mixing it up, they have a lot of weapons on the offensive side and they have the great quarterback, so the biggest thing is putting pressure on Brees. You have to try and force him into some sort of error and just come in and be ready because it is going to be a fight.
Q: Since he gets rid of it so quick, do you also have to try and get your hands up to bat down some of those passes?
A: That helps. You have to do it as much as you can to get into those passing lanes because sometimes the ball gets out so fast, that you have to put your hands up sometimes, so whatever we can do to get the pressure on them or just deviate some of the throws.
If we stop the pass, they're just going to keep passing.