Defensive Coordinator James Bettcher -- November 9, 2018
Opening: When you have the bye week, it’s a good chance to go – we constantly self-scout and we’re constantly looking at what we do and when we do it, but it’s a good time to kind of go back and not only reflect on some of the things you didn’t do well, but some of the things you did do well. Overall, we kind of had a couple of things: one, I got to call some better calls in some situations and we got to execute a little bit better. I know those are really kind of vague statements, but the truth is when you try to find things that aren’t there, you end up lying to yourself, so when you look at the tape and it reveals something, trust what you’re seeing when you see the tape. That’s something they reveal to us and we have that mentality. We got to keep having that mentality and just play one play. Just execute on one play. When the play’s over, let’s play the next play and have it be simple-minded in that manner. The second thing is the last half of the fourth quarter, we got to play better. We had some breakdowns, giving up some big runs. Some runs we actually had shown up earlier in those games and that we played those runs well, so that doesn’t talk about the inability to execute. Just talks about execution (inaudible) which leads to first downs. Those are a couple of things we talked about, had some good practices bye week, had two good ones this week so far, encouraged. We’re playing an offense that whether it’s (Marquise) Goodwin and his speed on the perimeter, (Pierre) Garçon and his route running ability, (George) Kittle at the tight end position. (Matt) Breida is a tough running back, have a lot of respect for the way he carries the ball. Doesn’t matter who’s at the quarterback position. Those are the guys that they’re going to feature in the offense and coach (Kyle) Shanahan has done a great job, going back to Atlanta, keeping you on your heels a little bit with lots of motions. Going to try to mess with your eyes, outside stretch run game, play action passes and the boot game. Some of that, even when you look last week with (Nick) Mullens, some of the stuff they did, those are still the core of who they are even though he’s the quarterback. When C.J. (Beathard) was playing quarterback, it was the same things the previous three or four weeks so we would expect them to do those things that are the core to their offense and getting to have two really good days of practice and encouraged. Guys, I think, are looking forward to a new season being the second half of the season.
Q: With that in mind, though, at 1-7 and defense is so much about effort and commitment and all those things, how do you guard against maybe guys seeing that record and things not going your way, some of that kind of tailing off?
A: I think the first thing is the character of the guys in the room. I think our guys have great character. There hasn’t been a time this year, and I can honestly say this, there hasn’t been a time this year that I’ve had to challenge their effort, that I’ve had to show clips in the room after a game and say we’re not playing hard enough. I think that speaks to the character of the position coaches on defense. As the coordinators and position coaches, we’re not going to allow that and our leaders in the room aren’t going to allow it. When you have that mindset and mentality in the room, that’s the first thing that has to happen. Then the second thing to that question is when we started putting this together all the way back in April, the things that we said were going to be core to what we did on defense, one was relentless effort and that’s in our room, that’s a sign we put up and it’s not a bumper sticker. It’s not something you stick on there and don’t talk about. It’s the core to what we believe in and play good defense, so all those things considered, that’s what I won’t let happen here.
Q: You mentioned, when you look back, there were some calls that you need to call better. Is there a consistency to that when you look at this and say I need to be more aggressive as a general rule or I need to be less aggressive as a general rule?
A: There’s certainly some points in which both of those could be the case. I kind of leave those for my mind as the play caller, kind of keep that under my hat, but I think no one that is a very good leader only points the finger when everyone else needs to do better. The first thing I evaluate is myself and the first person our position coaches evaluate is, they’re good men of character, they’re going to evaluate themselves and how we’re teaching and how we’re doing what we’re doing. Then we’re going to evaluate our players on how they’re doing what we’re doing and that’s really the order in which it happens.
Q: What have you seen in (RJ) McIntosh in practices that you think that he’s ready to play and he’s going to make an impact?
A: I think he’s a young player that’s coming along that we realize that this is like the second week of OTA worth of practices for him and we know that. There’s going to fundamentals and techniques and some of those things everyday that we’re just going to keep hitting him with and keep hitting him with and the thing that I’ve been the most encouraged with him about is just his work mentality. He’s been studying film, he’s been great with what Gary’s (Emanuel) been asking him to do and you could see some of the things that we’re really trying to work on in individual carry over and he’s very aware of the things that he needs to continue to work. I think that’s what makes a young player in this league have a chance to play for a long time is when they come in and have a mindset like that.
Q: Can you see him getting onto the field?
A: I can see him this week or next or here in the near future being the guy playing for us, yeah.
Q: You mentioned you guys need to play better second half of the fourth quarter. Why has that been a problem or do you know why it is a problem?
A: When you look at execution over four quarters, having been doing this for a while as a coach, whether it’s a position coach or coordinator, it all comes back to playing one play. Whether it’s the first play of the game, the first play of the fourth quarter, the first play in overtime, the last play of the game, just having your eyes where they need to be, being aligned correctly, communicating the same whether the score is 13-7, 13-6, 20-3, the score doesn’t matter. We don’t judge the scoreboard in those moments and that’s one of the things that we’re continuing to focus on and to me that’s what leaves a consistent play through four quarters.
Q: Is that a question of maybe players trying to do too much? If they have already done it earlier in the game, they’re trying to do too much and kind of not using –
A: I would never tell our players or try and do too much, but I think sometimes you press and you press as a play caller too. You press at times as a guy playing the game. You understand that because that’s the human nature of the game and we just got to focus on one play at a time. That really truly is the answer.
Q: How do you think you can generate better pressure on the quarterback? Are the calls that you’re making part of what you’re referring to as far as disrupting the QB and along with that, Kerry Wynn has seemed to be one of your more disruptive players, but is not always on the field all the time. Will a change in personnel or upping personnel like that be one of the changes you’re trying to get more pressure?
A: I think the first thing to speak with Kerry – love how Kerry’s playing, I really do, but I also love the rotation we have. Sometimes hidden in the fact of someone’s production and the plays they get is the actual rotation that allows him to play that tempo and speed throughout the course of the game, particularly talking about guys upfront. That’s not to speak to what Kerry can’t do if he plays more snaps, but that speaks to what he is when he gets his snaps. I think our rotation is part of that and I believe in a great rotation upfront and bringing guys in, keeping guys fresh. In terms of disrupting the quarterback more, whether that’s with pressure or a four-man rush, I think one of the things that I learned a long time ago and it’s one of the reasons I believe in bringing pressures or bringing things that look like pressures that aren’t is just trying to create one-on-one matchups. When we get one-on-one matchups, we got to be better winning those matchups, whether that’s a matchup on a back, whether that’s a matchup on a guard or tackle. When you get one-on-ones, we got to be more disruptive in winning those one-on-ones.
Q: In terms of Sean Chandler, how much improvement have you seen and how much can his role grow over the last eight games?
A: I think a guy that when you get to this point in time of the season, it’s eight games in. Rookies that are involved in your rotation, they’re not rookies anymore. They don’t need to look at themselves like rookies because now they’ve had OTAs, they’ve had training camp. Some of these guys have had game experience and whether it’s a motion and having their eyes right or whether it’s an alignment or something that you would maybe say, ‘oh, he’s a rookie, he’ll get it.’ There’s no more. We’re at a point in time where there’s no more getting it and the thing I like about Sean is he doesn’t practice that way. He’s practicing at a point where he’s communicating, he’s starting to really be in rhythm at the backend both as a safety, as a nickel where we’ve played him at times, as a guy that’s blitzed off the edge a few times for us and done some different things. We’ll be excited to see how he plays along with some of the other young guys down the stretch.
