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Thursday Transcript: Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo

Eric from BBI : Admin : 11/2/2017 4:53 pm
Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo

November 2, 2017

Opening Statement: I’m going to open it up and let it fly. Whatever you got. Whatever is on your mind, fire away and hopefully I can at least give you something to work with.

Q: Who do you envision is going to have a heavier workload without CB Janoris Jenkins?

A: All of them. All. It gives us really four corners right now and look, you’re going to go into a lot of games depending on packages – I’m not going to reveal all the packages we got. But, we’re going to need all four corners. We’re going to need them on special teams. We’re going to need them to play coverage-wise especially when you get to third down.

Q: What do you do if CB Donte Deayon isn’t in?

A: I got a couple of plays in me. I told him the other day, I asked him the other day, ‘Who weighs more? You or me?’ So, if I weigh a little bit more. That’s an interesting one. We’ll find out. Hopefully, he’ll be okay there, but Ross (Cockrell) has done a nice job moving inside. If I can talk about Ross Cockrell for a second. He comes in. Help me out, I know it was after we were into the season somewhere along the way or right at the 53. I can’t remember exactly. We didn’t have him in OTA’s. You don’t have him in training camp. That’s difficult for a player to do, but he has done a great job picking up our system, playing outside when we’ve asked him to, which is really where he’s been and then moving inside and doing things that we needed him to do in there and I think Tim Walton and Ross have done a great job getting himself ready to be an inside player, which is not a natural position for him. He didn’t do a lot of that with some of the teams he was with. So, he could slide in there. DRC (Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie) could slide. We got some options, so we’ll see.

Q: Will you mix and match, or will you have just one of them designated outside?

A: Not necessarily. No. I think we’ll move. There will be a lot of moving pieces and we may match people that they have too, so you could see it all ways really.

Q: Why do you think CB Eli Apple turned a corner?

A: Good point. I don’t know that. I don’t know. Even when you all ask, would ask, because he was struggling and had a couple bad plays here and there. I still thought – I would always go to the plays that I thought he was doing really well where you don’t notice it because it takes somebody out of the play. But, he’s a solid player. Look, he’s got size, speed. He’s got all natural ability and I think he’s a focused football player now. He’s always been a really good tackler. Maybe confidence, you know, a couple plays and I forget which game but I remember one game saying, ‘That’s the best game he’s played.’ I don’t know if it was this past one or the one before, but just if he can build on it and stack good plays, guys get confidence.

Q: Do you think his benching helped?

A: I don’t know. Yeah, you’d have to ask him if he feels that way.

Q: Have you seen a difference after his benching?

A: If that was the reason, then we did the right thing. But, to be honest with you, nobody ever classified it as a benching. We juggled some things around at that particular time. We had a lot of guys playing and he’s been playing better, which is good. It’s good for us.

Q: Other than the change at quarterback, what has been the biggest change in the Rams offense compared to last year?

A: They’re real efficient. I think what [Los Angeles Head Coach] Sean [McVay] does with them is good football. The challenge for us is, there’s a lot going on back there that – they try to distract guys. And on defense, you’ve got to be good with your eyes. There’s a lot of distractions back there, from our standpoint. We have to be disciplined enough not to let that be distracting and play the keys that we’re supposed to be looking at. But I think that part of the offense has made them really efficient. The runner is a good football player. Obviously, they’ve changed a bunch of offensive linemen from last year and I think they’re all kind of in sync. But, they’ve put together a pretty good system with some pretty good players and they’re kind of clicking right now. They’ve found a groove, they’ve got some confidence. So, they’re a tough offense to defend because of that.

Q: What is your level of frustration, losing another veteran cornerback due to suspension?

A: Yeah, it makes it tough. But look, I’ve been in this business long enough to know that these things happen during the year. By that I mean, you lose guys, they come, they go, whether it’s injury, whatever it is. I know you get sick of hearing it, but the next guy up. We’ve got to keep moving up. It doesn’t change what we have to do here as coaches and players, we’ve just got to keep going forward.

Q: Do you have to keep an eye on the cornerbacks room?

A: Not at all. I know that [Head Coach] Ben [McAdoo] has already addressed this, so I’m going to leave it at that. But I feel very confident in the guys in there, the coaches in there, the players. The way we function, who they are, how we feel about each other, I’ve never lost any confidence in that.

Q: How do you feel with how the defense has performed overall this season?

A: Right now, it just doesn’t feel like we have been in sync. The only game I think we’ve had all the pieces, quote unquote, together – and even then, I think [linebacker] Keenan [Robinson] was hurt in the Dallas game – was the first game. That was the closest we were. And it’s been, we gain a couple guys and we lose a couple, gain a couple. So, it’s a little bit out of sync, that’s tough. You’re talking about your signal callers, [linebacker] B.J [Goodson] is not in there now, that’s the guy in the center of the defense that does a lot of the talking. So, we’ve got to get somebody else in there, different voice, different ways. So, that’s been the most frustrating part. And yet, all that aside, you’ve got to go out and just play defensive football. That’s flying around, tackling people, being relentless and doing what we do, So, hopefully we can get back to where we were.

Q: Who will you have calling the plays on defense this week?

A: It’ll be a mixture of Keenan, Curtis Grant will be in there, Calvin [Munson]. We have a couple different packages, so we’ve got different guys. And again, when you have to do that, when it’s not one guy in the middle all the time, and we just don’t have that situation right now, it makes it a little bit tough. But, we’ve got to be better as coaches, limit it, make sure that everybody does get on the same page and just let them go play.

Q: So does it seem like Goodson will not play on Sunday?

A: I don’t know that now, but right now, we’re trying to work some other guys in there just in case.

Q: When you self-scouted during the bye week, did you find that you ran more zone this season?

A: That didn’t stick out. You know, a number of our zone coverage calls really have man concepts in there. So, sometimes it’s going to look like man and not be man. I can’t remember that being an overall assessment. There are things that we did look at and felt like – I will say this, I’m going back in my mind, my Rolodex and when we went through it a week ago, some of our more successful plays have been in man. And maybe what you’re seeing is some of the unsuccessful plays where we were zone.

Q: Some of the guys mentioned there have been more miscommunication in zone plays.

A: A little of that goes back to the pieces changing all of the time. Last year when we were rolling, we were very fortunate last year, we stayed pretty healthy. You only get so many reps out here on the practice field during the week to work what the next opponent is going to give you. You want the guys that are going to be able to play in the game to get those. When guys have to go in who haven’t gotten those reps, it makes it hard. It’s been a little bit of that.

Q: How much does RB Todd Gurley impact the game not only in the running game, but catching the ball out of the backfield as well?

A: They’ve really featured him a lot more. At one time, I was watching one of the TV broadcasts of a Rams game last week and I remember the announcer saying that he was at one time the leading receiver for the Rams. I don’t think that’s the case now, but it shows you how versatile he is and the confidence they have in getting him the football in different ways. The quarterback is really good with underneath and inside throws. A lot of them have been to the backs and tight ends and what not. So they methodically make their way downfield, find ways to score and don’t put themselves in a lot of bad situations and I think that’s what’s made them really efficient. They’re the top scoring team in the NFL I believe.

Q: Have you analyzed the reason why you have given up eight touchdowns to tight ends this season?

A: There are different ways to look at it. Does that mean we’re taking away what’s going on outside and they have to throw it inside? Does that mean there’s a weakness inside? I don’t know. I don’t remember what downs and distances those were, but it’s hard sometimes to say that you’re going to take away a tight end and not weaken yourself somewhere else whether it is in the run game or somewhere else. I don’t know what we were in. I remember certain ones, but not all of them. But we have to do some other different things and we have installed those to help us a little bit.

Q: But it is something that you’ve looked at and analyzed?

A: Yeah, we’re aware of it. I worry more about the guys out there to be quite honest with you. Unless you have a tight end that can run a 4.4 straight downfield and keep beating you on 40, 50 yard plays. You give me the eight touchdowns with the tight ends, certainly they’re in the red zone. Maybe we have to do a better job on our red zone defense. I think in the couple that I remember, the Philadelphia one in particular, they had three tight ends in there. One of those guys was going to get the ball, right?

Q: It looked like some zone concepts in the red zone and on the goal line.

A: We had a little bit of both. A little bit of both. Zone and man to man within zone. So we’ve mixed it up a little bit. We’ll see where we go this week.
Sorry for Spags  
TMS : 11/2/2017 5:50 pm : link
one of the best DCs in the league. This shit shop, at the top, has hurt many. He and ELI the most. MO.
Why's that?  
jcn56 : 11/2/2017 5:58 pm : link
He's got virtually the same roster as last year and they've been playing like shit. The O hasn't done them any favors, but it's not like the O was gangbusters last year.

Spags is part of the problem, just like the rest of them.
Much better questions...  
Dan in the Springs : 11/2/2017 6:20 pm : link
like how they focused more on football and tried to get him to talk about the self-scouting stuff.

I would have brought up what Collins said yesterday, about how the league seemed to have figured out what they were doing in their red-zone coverages and how the defense took a few weeks to figure that out and counter it. I would have loved him to follow up Collins' response with more detail about how they might be able to recognize those tendencies quicker, before they've given up so many important plays.

One thing about Spags, love him or not, is that he tends to be more open and direct in answering questions during his media sessions. McAdoo could benefit by taking a note from Spags in this regard.
RE: Why's that?  
TMS : 11/3/2017 12:00 am : link
In comment 13673611 jcn56 said:
Quote:
He's got virtually the same roster as last year and they've been playing like shit. The O hasn't done them any favors, but it's not like the O was gangbusters last year.

Spags is part of the problem, just like the rest of them.
Because the HC is still in the learning process learning to be a HC not an OC which is what he is . They should have kept TC for at least another year. MO
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