DT Dalvin Tomlinson -- December 5, 2018
Q: With limited recent tape on Mark Sanchez, how are you guys preparing to see him?
A: You just have to go with the tendencies of the offense and just for the quarterback like Sanchez, you know they’re going to try to switch things up just because he hasn’t been there that long to get used to the offense.
Q: Mathematically, you’re technically still alive, but it’s a long shot and you’re still playing hard these last couple of games. What is it about this team that you continue to play so hard to finish out the season?
A: Just the adversity we’ve been through, we don’t have any quitters on the team. We just all want to just take it one week at a time and go out there and get a win.
Q: Coach talks about learning to win. Do you feel that this team is coming along in that lesson?
A: Yes. We learned you have to play all 60 minutes and some cases a little bit longer like last week, so you have to go out there with the mindset that you’re not going to be denied.
Q: Is it difficult, especially if you’re down, or do you just say we’re going to fight out of this?
A: Just sometimes you can’t look at the scoreboard. You just have to go out there and play football because if you look at the scoreboard, it’ll mess you up.
Q: Adrian Peterson was a legend to you the first time you guys played the Redskins. Now he’s a real person because you’ve gone up against him. Was anything different than the perception you had of him going in? What do you think of him now that you’ve played him?
A: It’s still crazy because when I was in high school and college, I was an AP fan, that’s the crazy part. Just playing against him, you just know how explosive he is and you know he’s a little bit older now, he still has it. You have to come prepared just knowing you have to be gap leverage and disciplined out there just so you can make sure you can stop him.
Q: One thing coach was telling us is when a team goes through its third quarterback like the Redskins have, he said his experience is always you have to pare down to the stuff he can do well and it can be difficult from an offensive perspective. Do you guys as a defense alter your philosophy in terms of how you attack him?
A: We’re still going to attack him in the same manner, it’s just we know it’s going to be a little bit more running with AP in the backfield. We have to make sure we can stop the run so they won’t have the opportunity with the play action passes and boots and screens and whatever Mark Sanchez may do.
Q: What do you remember about the first game against the Redskins other than the fact that it was an ugly game for you guys with a lot of mistakes that you can use to turn things around this time?
A: Just like you said, we had a lot of (inaudible) the first game and like the big run that AP broke out on, we just have to make sure we stop things like that. We can’t allow those big plays in this game.
Q: They have a lot of rotating pieces on the offensive line. A lot of injuries, guys coming in and out so you don’t have a lot of game film on the guys that might play on Sunday. How does that affect your preparation or is it just more about how they use their linemen than who the guys actually are?
A: It’s mainly, in this situation, how they use their offensive linemen and things we’re good at upfront, so we have to make sure we attack anybody who lines up in front of us. They may be rotating O-Linemen, they may just have a certain person at one spot the whole game, we don’t know. We just have to prepare with the tendencies they have on offense.
Q: Are they still moving them a lot and using a lot of those zone stretch plays and stuff like that or with the changes are they doing more stuff between the tackles?
A: They’re still moving with the zone stretch plays, all the things like that.
Q: Even though you’re not apart of the secondary, Landon Collins is such a vocal member of the defensive huddle. How do you guys kind of replace that void because he’s such a big part of what you guys do?
A: Landon is a huge part of our defense and it’s tough to replace that void. We have to have another guy step up. That’s the biggest thing, you have to ask somebody to step up in that position and just take on the role.
Q: Is it vocal as well as just making the plays on the field? Somebody to fire you guys up emotionally as well?
A: I don’t feel like we have to be fired up vocally. I feel like somebody just has to step up and make those plays because we have other leaders across the defense that can step up and take the vocal part.
