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Thursday Media Transcript: DC James Bettcher

Eric from BBI : Admin : 12/13/2018 2:46 pm
Defensive Coordinator James Bettcher -- December 13, 2018

Opening Remarks: It’s great to go to a practice like today and see our guys flying around, breaking up balls, highly competitive at practice and I think that speaks to how we’ve been playing as of late and what Coach Shurmur has done to keep this going with our team overall. With that being said, we’ve got a great opponent this week, an opponent that will run the ball, they love to run the ball and I know that’s a mindset of Mike (Vrabel), their head coach. Mike’s mindset is he wants to be able to run the ball and you can see that’s a point of emphasis with him. Had a really explosive game in the run game a week ago and I think it’s going to be a great test of where we are as a run defense. The quarterback scrambling and creating plays that are off-schedule is certainly something we’re going to have to be great with, the perimeter passing game, the screens, and the shots down the field. Again, we’ve stacked two really good days, I’m excited to go to meetings with this group. I love coaching these guys, I love working with them, and I can’t say that enough about this group right now. They’ve just been resilient and kept working. Can’t wait to see these guys go play Sunday.

Q: (Derrick) Henry’s run – is that a coach’s dream, the next week just put that up on the screen and say, ‘do you want that to happen to you?’
A: Yeah, I don’t know if you luck out when you say you get to see that the week before but we’ve been fortunate two weeks in a row. Adrian (Peterson) had one of those runs the week before we played him in Washington, and had one against us the first time we played, so when that stuff’s on tape, it’s certainly a great example about maintaining gap integrity, playing with great leverage, and finding a way to get someone on the ground when you’ve got to tackle him in space.

Q: Is that about going low? Because it seems like a lot of guys were trying to tackle a big guy high.
A: Sure, one thing with him is he’s a great stiff-armer, and you’ve got to be able to handle that. He’s going to stiff-arm on the perimeter, he’s going to stiff-arm in open space. Sure, some of those guys went high on him but at the end of the day, getting down and don’t finish the down blocked, and it’s going to take 11 guys in the run game to be successful.

Q: What has Kareem Martin done the last couple of weeks? Seems like he’s made more of an impact.
A: I think it’s the same thing. He’s working, he’s disruptive, he’s playing fast. Probably about three or four weeks ago, Kareem and I had a conversation just, hey, let’s start cutting loose, let’s start disrupting, getting off the ball, playing vertical, and I think we’ve been doing that better as an overall defensive front seven. We’ve played more vertical both in the run game and in the pass game, You see some of that leads to disruption. It’s not just the third down disruption in the pass game, it’s the first and second down where we’re kind of disrupting the quarterback a little bit now and I think Kareem’s following that with the rest of the guys up front.

Q: When Snacks was traded, was there a sense of urgency amongst the guys that we’ve got to step up? How has that sort of evolved?
A: I don’t know if I would say a sense of urgency. These are really good players, but at the same time, just like when guys get hurt, it’s opportunities for other guys. It’s unfortunate like we talked about a week ago with Landon (Collins) – I love Landon and Landon knows that, but it’s an opportunity for the next guy. So it’s (the Snacks trade) been an opportunity not just for Dalvin (Tomlinson) but opportunity for about three or four other guys that were maybe playing eight snaps or five snaps or 10 snaps a game. All those guys are getting more and getting more opportunities. With RJ (McIntosh) coming back now, RJ’s getting more and more opportunities and he’s getting better each week. Whether it’s Mario (Edwards) or whoever it is in that room, it’s just opportunity for other guys.

Q: When you talk about making plays off-schedule, what’s the key for a defense playing against a quarterback who likes to make plays off-schedule?
A: Number one is integrity of the rushes, and that’s first and second down, that’s third down. It happened to us in the game Sunday, we lost the edge and the quarterback scrambles in, and we really got a third down stop. Great coverage, but the rushes have to have great integrity and that’s both on the edges and the perimeter, because he’s going to scramble both places. Really, the second thing is those off-schedule downs, you’ve got to cover a few more seconds longer. It might be, we use the word ‘plaster’ like a lot of people do, we’ve got to plaster in coverages, downs, extend themselves, and understand how and where different receivers are going to break. Everybody has a scramble thought process to them, where they want to break and how receivers want to break, and we’ve got to be aware of where those guys are going to break.

Q: You talked about Kareem kind of cutting loose. What makes that the right time to say ‘go for it’?
A: I just think, overall, this group is playing with great energy, playing hard, and we keep talking about that with them. Sometimes conversations are just drive-bys and sometimes they’re, ‘hey, it’s time for you to play better’. With Kareem, I’m always in his ear because I’ve been around him so long. I’m always trying to push him. I probably may be in his ear more than some other guys.


Sounds like he has gotten these guys  
TMS : 12/13/2018 3:59 pm : link
on the same page and looks like they are responding. Mark of a top developmental coach. Making his team better every week, now that that they are learning the scheme. The player pick ups and turn arounds have been impressive as well. Grade A. MO
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arcarsenal : 12/13/2018 5:02 pm : link
I like Bettcher. I think he's doing a nice job considering the talent he's working with here.
Interesting that he mentioned RJ by name...  
Dan in the Springs : 12/13/2018 5:30 pm : link
when talking about the "other guys" on the DL. I really think we might see him get a bunch more snaps on the line this game, just because of his athleticism in pursuit. That could be really helpful against Mariotta and the TEN run game.

Then again, if they are worried about his gap discipline and playing assignment football as a rookie, maybe not.

Will be really interesting to see. The quote makes me think he may be an early rotation in and if he stays true to his assignments while still pursuing, he stays on the field more.

A guy like Wynn or Edwards can play assignment football and pursue, but I don't think either has the athleticism that RJ seems to have.
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