Wide Receiver Darius Slayton
October 23, 2024
Q: You've obviously been in this league a long time, the idea of the roller coasters back and forth, up and down. Two weeks ago, you were on top of the world flying back from Seattle, and now two weeks later, it's, ‘what's wrong, what happened, everything is falling apart.’ You've gotten used to this, unfortunately, the ebbs and flows, but from your perspective, what have you seen, and how do you keep this and get this back rolling the right way?
DARIUS SLAYTON: Just taking it day by day. I think the most important thing is getting back to work this week at practice and executing in practice and building good habits and then allowing those habits to roll over into Sunday. You can't live in the past, what's happened has happened, we can't do anything about it, but what we can do is attack this week with a great mindset and go out there Sunday and play to the best of our ability.
Q: One thing (Head) Coach (Brian) Daboll said after the Eagles game the other day was that he thinks one of the reasons that (quarterback) Daniel Jones can create more explosive plays is that he has some guys around him that can create explosive plays, so I'm wondering just what do you guys as a receiving room think right now that you need to do better?
DARIUS SLAYTON: Make them when we get the chance. You don't control when your shots come, but you control how they go when you get them. I think that just from a receiver standpoint, all you can do is catch the ball when it comes your way and then try to do something with it when you get it in your hands. And like you said, we have a lot of capable guys on this team, and we just have to do a better job of doing that going forward.
Q: What goes into yards after the catch and trying to do more in space when you guys get the ball? What do you guys do in practice to work on that?
DARIUS SLAYTON: Yeah, I mean some of it is scheme. Certain routes are easier to catch and run with the ball than others. Mostly just starts as a receiver just attacking the ball and having a mindset that you're going to not just go down or not just catch and fall or not just catch and look to be conservative and having that attacking mindset as a wideout kind of helps you build that habit and then once you have that habit, it just starts to show up more and more.
Q: Do you have any theory or explanation as to why your team is so much better on the road than at home? Especially the offense?
DARIUS SLAYTON: Other than coincidence, I couldn't necessarily point to anything specific. It's just so happened this year that we've played better on the road than we have at home. Obviously, we want to play better at home. That's the fun part, is being able to play in front of your own fans and score and be able to celebrate with your 70,000-plus strong. But obviously, this week we're on the road again. So hopefully we do continue to play at a high level on the road that will bode well for us. But whenever it does come time for us to play at home again obviously, we plan and hope to put a better performance out there.
Q: You've been on the road for many games, and you've been at home. You know what the road entails, the hostile crowd, the waving towels, you can't hear on offense, all that stuff. Do you feel differently? At home, does some of that, the fans getting on their own team, does that pressure you? When you take the field at home, on the road, is there a difference that maybe weighs on you?
DARIUS SLAYTON: Me specifically?
Q: Yeah. I mean you can speak for yourself more than the team…
DARIUS SLAYTON: No, not really. I guess when you're on the road, the mindset is definitely different because it literally is just us and then fans have traveled to the game. So obviously, we're significantly outnumbered. It’s more of ‘a back against the wall’ feeling when you're on the road. It kind of brings you together as a team in that mindset and just kind of building around that. And then obviously, when you have a home game, it’s kind of like, ‘we’re at home, it's our people, our fans, we know they're going to be on our side.’ It’s definitely two different mindsets, but at the end of the day, none of that has anything to do with running, blocking, catching and tackling. At the end of the day, we have to do those things better if we want to win. That’s kind of why I say it’s a coincidence, because cheering or booing doesn't help you catch or throw any better, so that's what we’ve got to do to win.
Q: I don't believe you’ve played in Pittsburgh, if I'm not mistaken. It’s historically a very difficult place for road teams to play. I'm curious what your impression is from what you know of it? Can you talk about their defense and how difficult they are to deal with?
DARIUS SLAYTON: Yeah, from what I've heard, it's an intense football environment, obviously very hostile. They're very passionate fans over there in Pittsburgh. That's what I've heard from all accounts and obviously on film their defense is very talented. They have a really good front. They’ve got talent and youth in the back end. They’ve got backers that fit aggressive, and I think probably for the past…before even some of y'all were born, the Steelers have lived up to a standard on defense and they've maintained that for a really long time, and they still hold that true. It’s obviously going to take a physical four quarter game for us to be able to beat them.
Q: If you were to look at the Pittsburgh offense which you just did. Number-wise, they’re very good against the run. I think they’re second in scoring defense. They’re 22nd in pass defense. Is it that simple that’s where you attack?
DARIUS SLAYTON: Not necessarily. I mean you have run the ball in order to – you can’t just go out there and throw the ball every play. Regardless of how bad a team against the pass or run, you have to do both. You have to be balanced. Like I said, they’re a physical unit, they’re a good unit. But obviously we’ve got to attack them in the ground and attack them in the air. Hitting people on the ground helps with the pass game, helps with pass protection and helps linebackers further up which allows for bigger passing lanes. So obviously, we’re going to have to do a variety things to keep them off balance.
