Cam Heyward, Kyle Dugger, Jabrill Peppers Media Availability (Oct. 30) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Cam Heyward, Kyle Dugger, Jabrill Peppers Media Availability (Oct. 30) | Pittsburgh Steelers

more than Mario. Well, my son was Mario. Uh I think my wife was Luigi and then like I think my daughters were too young. But uh yeah, we had fun with it. Like the villains or what? Not always. Cam, you guys are in a tight spot. You know, you mentioned effort after the game. How do you, you know, fight? You said lack of maybe didn’t see the fight. How do you get that fight back? And I I think uh it’s a new week, new challenge. Um you know, I’m really look as a tight spot now. I just think uh got to play better ball. Um you know, I know um these last two games haven’t been what we want, but um I think, you know, you got to be playing your best ball late in the season. Um and I like to think we’re just we’re climbing to that. Um, and you know, I think uh we just have to be ready to keep trying to get better. Cam, as you look at the tape, what did it confirm or tell you when you watch the tape from? Um, I thought we did a much better job of trying to stop the run. Um, you know, a lot more hats to the ball, better tackling. Um, you know, would I have liked to keep the numbers down even more? Yes. Um, but, you know, you got to understand alternative running. Um, and that when I talk about that, I mean, you know, you get those outside, you know, bubble passes and everything and, you know, that’s a way they can, you know, try to mitigate the rush. Um, but then we got to have good tackling out there. Uh, and I think we need to be better on that. Um, you know, would I have liked to have more sacks? Yeah, we didn’t have any. Um, but I think that type of game is getting the ball out quick. Uh, we got to get our hands up. Um, you know, we just got to get off the field a lot earlier. Um, a couple of those drives we had, uh, you know, chances to get off. We didn’t get off. Uh, and we made our ourselves more susceptible to, you know, touchdowns. A lot of veterans on this team. Um, Rex Ryan said, “This defense looks old now.” I think you said looks like it fell off a cliff. What What’s your response to that? I don’t really worry about it. U, I’m worried about the guys in the room. Um, worried about attacking it. Um, trying to get better. Uh, man, uh, if if I paid attention to all of that, I I think I think I I would have too much on my plate. So, um, the the goal is to win. Um, I don’t care how it’s done. I take a lot of pride in what I do, and I hopefully everybody else does, too. Why aren’t you guys finishing the fourth? That’s been the issue. You know, I think it’s it it’s it’s game to game. There’s been different things. Um, you know, I think um it’s not just finishing the fourth. I think it’s, you know, starting the half really well. Um, each game we’ve been up 10 points, but I I think from a defense, you can’t just rest and say our offense is going to put up points coming out of the break. Um, we got to make sure we have our stands and not really surrender any points. Um, but I, you know, when you look at the fourth quarter, um, it’s just finish. It’s just execution. Um, you know, it’s it’s not like a guy doesn’t want it out there, but you have to be able to play your best ball late in the fourth quarter. When you talk about not handling adversity and the fight not being there, are you concerned all maybe ruffling feathers inside this locker? No. No. Um, anything I say to y’all, I would say to them first. Um, and I I just think we uh we we all just got to get better. Um, you know, uh, I I I challenge everybody. I challenge myself. Um, first and foremost, um, you know, that’s always the way I’ve been raised. Uh, you can’t look at anybody else. You got to look at yourself. And, uh, you know, the the way to get this this bad taste out of our mouth is just play better football. After the game, you talked about, you know, penalties and the bigger plays kind of snowballing attitude-wise. In your experience, how do you kind of not ride the roller coaster in a game like that? I I think you got to learn from your mistakes. Um, you know, in that game especially, uh, there was, you know, things that didn’t go our way and we kind of just let that compound and compact on what we were trying to do. Um, you know, the good teams let that go. You’re not going to get every call. Um, and you know, not everything’s going to be in your favor. So, you you bounce back, you keep playing good football, uh, you lock in more. Is there any concern that as a defense you guys are too predict predictable or maybe not making enough in game adjustments? No. Um, you know, good teams can be simple, get it done. Um, you know, rally to the ball. Um, you know, you can show show different coverages, you can move around, you can stem. Um, but, you know, I don’t think it comes down to the X’s and those. I think it just comes down to execution, uh, and finishing plays. Cam, you got a lot of veteran guys in that room, guys. High pedigree. When you’re not meeting that standard, and it’s unusual for this group to maybe have that, how do you avoid guys sort of pointing fingers at each other? I I think um you know it starts with the older guys in the room uh setting the tempo u addressing that but um you know it gets back to practice. It gets back to your fundamentals. Um you know I think sometimes you can try to play hero ball and try to get outside yourself but no I like I think you have to rely on your technique. Get back to it. Uh and then when you get to that game you know show show what you’re about. Was was it a coincidence a lot of guys on Wednesdays veteran day off nobody on defense had one yesterday. Was that a message sent that you guys got I don’t know if it’s a message just trying to get better. What stands out to you about Washington? Um man they have a lot of things going right for him. Uh offensive line is very stout. Uh starts with Clinton Nelson. Um Jonathan Taylor is I think should be you know the run should be leading the race for offensive player of the year MVP. Um you know they don’t turn the ball over a lot. Um you know their quarterback is having a lot of success getting it out to a lot of different guys. Um you know they have good tight ends, good wide receivers. Um I I I love this game because you’re going to be challenged week in and week out. Um and you know the challenge starts with us in a perverse way. you know, is it almost better that you’re playing the the best team in the best team with the best offense in football halfway through the season to kind of make sure that to make sure that attention gets refocused immediately? Yeah, I’m you know, I I I love challenges and uh you know, I think our group does too. So, uh to go out and play against, you know, arguably the best team in football right now. Um looking forward to that. What’s going to be the big key for you guys against an offense like that? Uh man, uh I I think Jonathan Taylor is just he requires everybody’s focus. Uh he is lighting people up. He is bouncing off blocks. Uh his contact balance doesn’t get talked about enough. Uh and so we got to have multiple guys with the ball. We got to make sure we really rally. Uh and then, you know, we we got to get him to turn over the ball. Um I know we haven’t had turnovers in the last couple weeks. Um and I think that’s a glaring mistake on our part. Uh but you know, we’re gonna try and change our fortune this week. Yeah. When you say something after a game like not enough fight, how do you walk the line of knowing that’s going to be a little bit of a can of worms that guys have to answer for the next week versus you’re a leader on this team and you got to just call it how you see it. Let’s fight. Like let’s play football. Uh you know, I’m not going to shy away from it. I think we just got to play better ball. Uh you know, if we have a problem with it, let’s hand it on the field. U you know, everybody’s been open with me. I’m not running from it. So, uh, you know, just know it’s coming from a good place and, you know, I want our defense to be successful. How, how quickly do you think you get on the moving train? You think you’ll be ready to play a little bit on Sunday? Yeah, if I’m asked to play, I’m I might be ready. You take a lot of pride in stopping the run, tackling is a big part of your game? Yes. Yeah, it is. You you you played a lot of snaps in the box, but also at free in New England, kind of bouncing back and forth. How did you develop that part of your game being as versatile as you can be? Just practice practice. um trying to do what the coaches tell me to do, coach me up to do um to the best of my ability. Um so yeah, just practice, keep working. I know this off seasonason was tough with the ankle surgery and how how do you feel recovered from that and how much did that affect your ability to be pick up a scheme and get going? I feel healthy. Yeah, I feel healthy. I feel healthy now. Yeah. Things just is just a new coach in New England is obviously two safeties they they let go since the since they camp. Was it just the new philosophy or what kind of happened things they uh I couldn’t really tell you. I couldn’t get into specifics of what they were thinking. Um it was a lot of new things. Um but I’m happy to be here. What part what other obviously you’re familiar with Jill, but are there other parts of the Steelers that you were familiar with? Anyone that you were able to talk to that said, “Hey, I’m going to help you integrate in here so we can get things rolling faster.” Uh I knew a couple of guys over here. Um some of them were on other side of the ball. John knew um was on the other side of the ball. Uh Denny who just just hurt his leg. Um, but yeah, Pep was really the the main guy, especially with him being a DB. Um, but there’s definitely a couple other people with the culture and things like that. Do you have a history with Mike Bowman going back to the draft process or anything like that when you came in the league or I always wanted to play for him. I always wanted to play for him. Um, just seeing how he does how he does his business from from the outside looking in. I always wanted to play with him. So, so it’s a big deal. You just went up against this team a few weeks ago. What did you learn about just like how they played football and just like the things the notes that you take from this organization? Um yeah, it’s a lot of that just them being an opponent. Um it’s different being here, but I mean you definitely learn, you learn the opponent when you play against them. So yeah, definitely go back to that and um try to fit in. Kyle, what’s the uh whirlwind process like when you join a new team? like are you trying to cram watching some stuff that they’ve been doing recently, seeing what’s given them problems and you know what kind of structures they play and that kind of thing? Uh not so much the problems. Uh more so just learning the scheme um teammates and things like that and you learn everywhere you can um as things roll on, but you don’t really look at uh the mistakes. You just try to learn the basics first, fundamentals of the defense, and then you go from there. You know, I I ain’t I didn’t have nothing to do with it, but Did you have an inkling? Did you know before we all knew? No, I didn’t know. I found out. I found out pretty much and everybody found out. But, uh, I’m definitely happy. Is there anything you can teach him or tell him about this defense that Mike did? Um, yeah, just trying to relate some things in, you know, the previous language he learned. Um, just to try to transition, you know, the learning process a little. He’s he’s a smart guy. Sharp. He’ll pick it up just as fast as I did. So, you can kind of be his translator a little bit. You know, his old language. For sure. For sure. Yep. Just to help him with him out a little bit faster. How much does it help the the chemistry in the secondary that you guys have that previous relationship even if it is a different scheme and a different language? It’s always it’s always good when you play with a guy, but you know, it’s a lot of guys who play together in our defensive back field. So, adding one more should definitely help. Were you surprised that he had uh kind of seen his playing time reduced over there after everything he’d done previously? Uh I was a little surprised, but that’s the nature of the league, you know, but the good thing about it is each year you get a chance to come prove yourself. Um I know the I know the player he is and I know he’s going to come over here and do it. So I’m excited for him, have a fresh start, you know, get back healthy, got that chip on his shoulder. Um you know, I can’t wait to see him out there. As a defense, what do you guys have to change the way that you defended Tucker Craft to now tackle Tyler Warren? Um, just got to be more detail oriented, have our eyes in the right place, play the proper leverages, um, and just most importantly, just compete. You know, those guys get paid to, but they compete at a high level. Um, be be aggressive at the catch point. Um, you know, good things happen for you. You’ve been in the league for a little bit. How much have you seen the change of how tight ends are used in different offenses? How’s that kind of evolve? It definitely changed a lot. You know, you got the, you know, faster, shiftier guys now. They still have the guys who block, you know, usually call those the wide tight ends, but the you tight ends are kind of taking a league by storm. Now, they can get in bigger personnel, spread you out. You got some mismatches with the backers or if they like the match up on the safety, you know, a tall athletic tight end provides that. So, it definitely shifted, but defense have shifted, too. You know, it’s kind of positionless. You got to be asked to and be capable of doing a lot of different things in just one job.

Cam Heyward, Kyle Dugger, and Jabrill Peppers talked to the media on Thursday, Oct. 30 ahead of the Steelers Week 9

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