DT Damon Harrison
Conference Call, September 27, 2016
Q: How are you feeling? It looked like you were a little banged up on Sunday.
A: I feel good. I just had some issues with being a little bit dehydrated, but that is it. It wasn’t really anything serious at all.
Q: Have you guys decided how you will proceed in the area of a team wide protest to raise awareness for the issues going on?
A: Not at the moment, but it is something that has been talked about in depth, but nothing as of yet.
Q: Did you watch Monday Night Football last night?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you see what the Saints and Falcons did? All of their players held hands after the anthem. Do you think that what you guys are planning is going in that direction or can you not say?
A: I can’t really say at the moment, because again, we haven’t really decided on anything yet, so I don’t want to speak for the group as a whole. But if that is what happened last night, then I think that was pretty good on the part of both teams, being something that wouldn’t necessarily cause a stir.
Q: How do you make sure that last week’s game is sort of an aberration and that it isn’t the true personality of this team?
A: Just get back to work and work hard and stay focused. It is the National Football League, so you are going to have weeks like that, but it is just all about how the guys respond and take it to next week’s game, which is what is pretty cool about the NFL – you always have the following week to prove yourself, especially early on in the year. We have some pretty good football players and some pretty good coaches and I think that everyone is doing a good job of refocusing on the task at hand.
Q: What have you seen from Sam Bradford so far?
A: I haven’t gotten any tape yet, but I know that he is a veteran quarterback with a lot of experience in this league and anytime you have a guy with experience, it is always a good thing.
Q: When you see what is coming up with Eli [Apple] and DRC potentially not being out there, what is the confidence level that you have in Trevin [Wade]?
A: I have a lot of confidence in Wade. He has been in the league and he is in the NFL. We all go through our struggles, but it is never as bad as people make it seem. But, DRC and Eli, those are two pretty good football players and we also have some other good corners waiting in the wings to have their opportunity and make the most of it, so if the coaching staff is comfortable putting those guys out there, then I have the utmost confidence in them.
Q: What makes Orleans Darkwa a good running back?
A: He is big and he is fast. You wouldn’t expect him to be as fast and as quick as he is with his size and he also has some good vision, so I knew once he got his opportunity – the same with all the other backs that we have. We have a lot of very, very capable running backs on this football team, so it is the whole next man up thing. We have a really good running back coach and also, the offensive line has been doing an excellent job of opening up holes that even I could run through, so you add that to the talent that we have at the running back position and it wasn’t surprising at all to see; Orleans and Bobby Rainey and Shane and Rashad having success running the ball.
Q: You saying that we will see you at running back, Snacks?
A: Hopefully Coach McAdoo needs that solid inch or that one yard, I think that if I put my head down I would be able to get it.
Q: You guys were on the field a lot at the end of the game against Washington. Did they do anything different in their run game?
A: No, they didn’t do anything different. That was just self-inflicted wounds. Some people were out of position, somebody didn’t do something a certain way, but no, it wasn’t anything that they did that was the reason why they had a little success in the fourth running the ball. It was all on us.
Q: Why do you think you have been successful stopping the run this year?
A: Well, you have got two very good defensive ends who set a firm edge and that is the number one thing in the game of football today, especially the way that these running backs are running straight towards the sidelines, trying to get the edge, so to have two very good defensive ends that can set the edge as well as JPP and Olivier do, it helps. Also, having Johnathan Hankins at the three technique. If you talk to a lot of football coaches and football minds, they will tell you that the three technique is probably the most important position in terms of stopping the run along the defensive line, because the three technique can set the edge by himself. That is what Johnathan Hankins is doing a very good job of and as well as all the linebackers; Kelvin Sheppard, Keenan Robinson, JC. Those guys have been doing an excellent job of scraping over the top and running up and filling up holes.
Q: If there was one thing that the defense did poorly on Sunday, what is it?
A: I would have to say tackling and finishing. No matter what position we are put in defensively, our job is to go out there and defend the grass behind us and prevent points and we didn’t do that as well as we have done in the previous weeks this past Sunday. All of the stuff that we did wrong is correctable. It is nothing that anyone should be panicking or worrying about. We just have to go back out this week, have a great week of practice and get back to the basics.
Q: Are you happy with the interior pressure that you guys are getting in the pass rush?
A: I wouldn’t say happy because it can always be better, but I think the guys along the interior, myself included, we did a pretty good job of pushing the pocket. Not as consistently as we wanted to, but I think we did a pretty good job.
And, I imagine this could happen (if the league allowed running starts he'd be difficult to stop!)