Secondary Coach Lou Anarumo
September 21, 2018
Q: How’s Eli Apple been?
A: He’s been good so far, small sample size - only two games, but not only Eli, all of our guys are just striving for consistency and so far he’s done that.
Q: How big of a void will it be if he’s not able to play on Sunday?
A: That’s this league, right? The next man up principle and if he’s not ready to go the next guy will step up and go play.
Q: How much of a stress does that (Texans) wide receivers core put on the secondary? You got (Will) Fuller who can go deep, you got (DeAndre) Hopkins obviously, (Deshaun) Watson is a mobile quarterback.
A: Yeah, they have two really special receivers and as you mention, Hopkins is one of the most targeted guys in the league over the last few years and certainly a great player, and the other guy can really take the top off the coverage so we’ll be aware of where both those guys are and it seems every week in this league you’re going to get different challenges from guys that are really elite at that position. We’re fortunate we get to defend guys like that everyday so that helps us.
Q: Watching their game last week against the Titans, it seemed like any chance they got to attack vertically - they’re not bashful about going up the field. Does that change anything philosophically when you’re going against a team that wants to attack you vertically all the time?
A: Yeah I think it puts stress on the different coverages that you’re trying to do and you have to make sure, obviously, that you’re accountable for that and we do every week and we’re aware of it, but it adds to it when you got receivers of that caliber that are doing those type of routes so we want to make sure that hey, 15 (Fuller), he’s going deep and certainly 10 (Hopkins) is great at the point of attack with the ball. We’re aware of it.
Q: Janoris Jenkins has been beat on a couple of deep balls. Anything that you see there, a common thread?
A: Well you’re right, a couple is two. I think that if you ask him and would it be one or two things at the line of scrimmage that he could’ve done better and I think that’s what kind of got him in a bad spot. You saw last week he stumbled out of his break and then really in the Jacksonville game was just more of an alignment issue so we’ve talked about it with him and worked on it. He’s a guy that has had great success in this league and is a very competitive guy. He doesn’t want to give up anything so we’ve been working hard on that and he has and I think it won’t be an issue going forward.
Q: When a player is dealing with anything personal, how do you as a coach help them lock back in?
A: I think always as a coach, I think you always try to build relationships with the guys so that when times get hard, both on the field and in life, whether it be the coaches or the players that are going through something, that they know that I have their back and it’s not just about what’s going on on the grass, it’s about what’s going on in their lives. I think that if they feel that and they believe that then it’s going to be a better relationship. Again when things are rocky both on and off the field and that’s kind of what I’ve always done. If somebody’s going through something, it’s going to be important to me because we spend more time as a staff with these guys than we do with our own families so I want it to be a relationship where they can trust and believe I care about what’s going on with them on and off the field.
Q: Was it a challenge to get him back up for that game coming off a tough day?
A: No, Janoris is a professional and I think that he knows that when he steps out on the grass it’s time to play football and we all have things we have to deal with, but when we go and its time to turn on the lights, I think he knows, hey, it’s go time. He did a good job with that.
Q: Philosophically, how do you feel about your best cornerback traveling verses just staying straight up in your scheme?
A: I think there’ll be, not talking specifically about schemes, I think over the years with guys that I’ve had, you can do both. There’s merit to doing both. It’s not something that you’re going to say, ‘hey this is what we’re doing this week’, but I think there’s merit to both where you have a guy travel and whether they just play left or right, so we’ll kind of vary that by game plan.
Q: This is our first time talking to you since you added a few guys after camp. What have you seen from (Antonio) Hamilton and (Mike) Jordan?
A: Just competitive guys. As you said, they just got here so we’re still kind of getting a feel for what they can and can’t do, but hard working guys. They stay around extra, kind of catching them up to speed with what our scheme is and those type of things. So far so good and I like what I’ve seen from them.
What did you say to Donte Deayon after that play in the end zone?
A: Catch the ball.
