Defensive line coach/run game coordinator DeMarcus Covington
He’s been a pleasure to work with, all the way around, from just him in the classroom, him as a person, him as an individual, him bonding and getting to know his teammates. He’s been great. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. He has great knowledge of the game. To me it’s been impressive, the type of man he is. I always look at it as not just who he is as a player, but who he is as a man and the character he has as an individual, and how he interacts and how he is with his teammates. Really an unselfish guy.
Improved run defense vs. Philly:
To me, it always boils down to fundamentals and technique, no matter how you slice it. That’s what it starts with and that’s what it ends with. It goes back to one of the greatest coaches who coached here, Lombardi. It’s about pad level, it’s about hand placement, it’s about eyes, it’s about reading your keys. That hasn’t changed. It’s not about stats, it’s not about scheme, it’s not about this. It’s about fundamentals and technique when you boil it down, period.
Linebackers coach Sean Duggan
On the LBs defending the run:
A lot goes into how they study and prepare throughout the week. A lot of run defense is anticipating plays, putting yourself in the right alignment, playing fast and then trusting what you see. If the front does their job, too, it makes our life easier, right? I mean, Colby, D-Wyatt, Micah, RG, JJ, the way those guys are playing, I look at run defense as we’re all in this thing together, from the D-line to the nose to the corners to the free safety and the linebackers. You can play fast at linebacker in the run defense because you trust the guys in front of you.
It was awesome. It was like teach tape forever, right? His elbow followed his wrist, his eyes were on the ball, punched it when the guy was going down. It’s awesome to see all the work they put in start to pay off, because we tell them keep trusting the process, keep attacking the football. It’ll come. The fumbles will come, the interceptions will come, if we keep doing it the way we’re doing and preparing for those moments. For that to happen on a pretty critical play … it was cool to see in the moment all those reps nobody’s seen in practice and in individual (drills) pay off.
On Ty’Ron Hopper breaking up the two-point play in Pittsburgh on his only defensive snap:
So happy for the guy. Proud of him. To be called on in that moment and make that play, just again it’s a credit to the way he works and prepares. Right now, who knows when he’s going to go in. It’s when your number’s called, you’ve got to be ready. When you get that moment, you fall back on the way you prepare and the way you’ve trained. If that part of it’s been right, your process has been right, then go out there and be confident and play. That’s what you saw. He made a big play. He did the same thing in the Arizona game. He went in, made a TFL. In the Cleveland game, he had a PBU on the goal line as well. It’s a credit to the way he’s gone about his business and prepared, so when he gets those moments it’s not too big. He’s ready to make that play. I was super fired up for him, not only for him, but for our team. That was a huge play in the game.
Defensive pass game coordinator Derrick Ansley
On opposing QBs throwing quickly so often:
I think it’s great. We always talk about rush and coverage working together and piggybacking off each other that way. As a defense, our job is to eliminate explosive plays as much as possible. I think that’s the quickest way to die in the league, to throw a pass over your head, or catch and run. Anytime the quarterback’s throwing it fast, usually they don’t want to throw it fast, so if we can speed him up and we can get the coverage tight on the back end, then that’s a great marriage between rush and coverage.
On CB Carrington Valentine vs. RB Saquon Barkley in the open field:
I don’t want to speak for CV, but from a technical approach – yeah, that’s Saquon and he’s a Hall of Famer, first ballot probably – anytime you get a back like that in space you want to take half of his side away, and maybe use the sideline to get him out. I thought CV did a helluva job coming off his man, he’s in man to man, and then he spins his head around and he’s got that fastball on him, and he did a nice job of long stride and short stride to continue to gain ground, and then he just squared him up and Saquon had a little bit of a move and made him miss. But if we could do it all over again, maybe attack inside-out and maybe try to push him out of bounds.
Defensive backs coach Ryan Downard
On being down on the field during games now instead of up in the box:
You can see the field a little bit differently, so there’s pros and cons to being in both spots. As far as my role, it hasn’t changed. It’s still to see the passing game and obviously speak to those safeties. It’s been a really good thing. Usually I have to get them over on the phone and the headset, but it’s nice just being able to talk to them face-to-face, see the look in their eye, make sure they truly understand, so the communication is even cleaner that way.
I love being down on the sideline. I love the pros that come from being up top too, being able to see the whole picture at once, so it comes a little bit quicker that way. Bu tin the NFL, having the stills is such an advantage, just being on the iPad and scroll through and you can piece it together from there. I like them both.
On S Evan Williams against the run vs. Philly:
He did a great job. One or two of those specifically, he flashed, right? He’s always done a good job of fitting the run. He’s really instinctual when he’s in the box, and when you get a guy that can do that, that helps your disguise game and you can hold certain looks and then you can insert him late, or you might be playing split safety and he does it on his own. It’s just a matter of reading your keys, and we give him a target area to be in post-snap, like a landmark, and if he does that and he processes his keys cleanly, and he also has an expectation of what he’s going to get, if he gets this read from the lineman, or if he gets this read from the back, etc., then he can trigger faster. In that moment, it’s getting cleaner and cleaner. The accumulation of reps, they stack up, so he saw it, and he trusted himself. That’s what we want from him, from all our safeties.