All Episodes

October 2, 2025 • 12 mins
DC Joe Whitt Jr. speaks to the media before today's practice.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's get going. So let's no more talk
a little bit about the last game, a little bit
about the first quarter of the season, and then get
into the next game and then answer any questions that
you have. You know, the first quarter it hasn't been consistent.
You know, we go out and play well against the Giants,
then we don't play well against the Packers. I'm talking

(00:20):
about defensively, come out and run and hit and do
what we need to do against the Raiders, and and
then we go down to Atlanta and once again, so
we can't have this ebbs and flow. We have to
get into a rhythm of playing as one. And that's
what I told the team. Okay, And when I say
playing is one, what do I mean by that? It's
just three different things, especially coming from the Atlanta game.

(00:42):
The number one thing is the communication. Okay, pre and
post snap. We don't need anybody to put capes on.
That's what happened a little bit in Atlanta game. And
I will explain that. And then the game tackling, tackling
as a unit. The turnbacks that we talked about that
we had a number of them against the Raiders. We
didn't have them in this game, and we misstackled. And
so when I talk about the communication and playing, there's
one and no capes. Let's talk about like the first

(01:05):
third down of the game. You know, it's a look
that we knew that was coming. It's actually the play
that we worked. They ran the play that we worked.
We call him looks to own and so they ran
the fast motion over option away from three with US seven,
and we had one guy that got a little greedy,
and but it wasn't his play to make. He should
have been on the vertical and the vertical was open,

(01:26):
and so we don't need anybody to put capes on right.
That play was for us to make and OOS was
working to it, but it was wide open. So you
know the communication and understanding, we don't have to put
a cape on on that. You just do your job.
The game tackling right the one of the touchdowns by
Jon Okay. If you look at that play right there,

(01:46):
we had one guy come in and he shot at
the ball trying to knock the ball out. But our
rule is you shoot at the ball when it's in
the leverage arm that you're at okay, And so then
the second guy came in and he shot at the ball.
You only if you're the second guy in, you shoot
at the ball when the tackle is secure. So the
technique of both of those weren't there, and so it

(02:07):
allowed Mabe John to keep running. It caused two mistackles
in a third while as he went into the end zone.
And so communication pre and post snap and then you know,
we don't have to put capes one, just do our job.
And so the negative plays and the open plays are
putting a stain on the positive things that they have
we have done on defense. But the main thing is

(02:27):
to win, and we're not winning and we're not well,
we didn't win the last game, and we're not playing
the brand of football that we want to play defensively,
and so we have to get that taken care of
and we will right go ahead.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Was that one player the one to Drake London? I'm
sorry to pets for the twenty six yards? Yeah, when
you're talking about because it looked like two guys.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Go to yes, okay yah, just they were both trying
to get where the ball was supposed to go and
he just looked up and saw they got up running
open and hit him.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
So then as you talk about like some of the
mistakes As a coach, what do you do like and
why is that mess? Maybe sometimes not getting through consistently
to them.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, you know the no capes is. You know, everybody's
talking about turnovers, you know, trying to force it. So
even though Marsham's with the double move, all right, just
leverage and don't get your eyes back to the quarterback.
Leverage the route right and play it through right. Turnovers,
you know, I've had a history of getting a bunch
of them in my past, and they don't They don't
come on good thrown balls. They come on poorly thrown balls.

(03:23):
They come on running tips and overthrows and things such
as that. You can't go out there and just necessarily
force them to happen. You don't have to put a
cape on, you know, but when you do have the opportunity.
You know, we had one taken away from a penalty
in the first game where Kwan got one and got hit.
Then we dropped one in the Raiders game with two three.
So they're gonna come. But if we try to force them,

(03:45):
and we try to go get them and we're not
doing it the right way, we're gonna give up. Explosives
and we can't do it that way with Frankie. He
looked pretty impactful on the run game. So Frankie played
really well. He's the one guy that played well in
this game.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Right as a pass rusher. Is there more you can do?

Speaker 3 (03:59):
It?

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Has?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
His rush has not been as many? So why and
what can you do more? Just has not been as many?
The numbers according to numbers, I don't know you would
know better.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, hit, the numbers are there. He's Yeah, he's rushed
more than any off the ball linebacker in the league.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
So is there anything you can do? What more can
you do to maybe help in that area? Or are
they doing different things against him?

Speaker 1 (04:18):
And that what they're doing. They're doing different things against him,
and that's why you know, Bobby's getting to success that
he's getting and da is getting something, you know, So they're,
like I said, they're focusing more on him and and
and that's good, you know what I'm saying. His his
time is going to come. His sacks are going to
come with when they start putting attention on other players. So,

(04:39):
but he he was the one guy in that game
that ran and hit and played the way that all
eleven should have played.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Through four weeks, it seems like the d line has
done a pretty good job of pressuring the quarterback, but
not necessarily getting there every time. Are you is there
any concern for you about or is there a need
for to get more big plays and sacks and in
the passing game.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
But we always want sex. I think what we have
ten right now. I don't know where that puts us,
you know, and so, but we are pressuring them and
we're putting a wave, you know. I thought, not necessarily
this game, but the game before we had opportunities where
we had a hand on the quarterback three different times
and he got away. I think we'll have to just
finish those those type plays. But to answer your question,

(05:23):
I mean, it's just we we have the guys to
do it. We just have to complete the play and
make sure that it's rushing coverage at the back end
is covering so those guys can get to their second rush. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
Hey, coach Coach Quinn talked about fast starts, you know
on the road and everything, just talking about defense. What
are some key things that you can emphasize in getting
off to a faster start on defense?

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, you know, getting off on third down. You know
that first third down would have been a huge play
for us because you know we we we got them
to the situation. We got them to the uh. You
know that third and five we talked about that and
that's the play we talked about that we were going
to get. And so now when you make that play
and you get off the field and you get the
ball to the offense is the first plays are three

(06:08):
and now that's the energy that creates throughout the staateum.
But when you give up an explosive, now you're giving
them energy to go. And so we can't allow them.
We can't be good on first down, second down and
get the third down in that situation and know what's
coming and allow explosive And that's where we drain ourselves
and give the other team energy.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
And talking to some of the players, they said that
they have to stay on their keys. What are some
of the little things that are so important in moving
this defense forward?

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Well, and that goes back to, like I said, the
pre and post now communication and the no capes. Okay,
So I went back and I showed them the first
four plays of the Giants game. Okay, and you know
you had Ken loss tackle, you had pain coming out
on the screen. Then the fourth play was they ran
fast motion and you saw Mikey communicating before the snap.

(06:57):
You saw Will on the backside communicating and coming out.
So pre snap communication provides great post snap play, and
we didn't have enough of that here. It seemed like
we were playing more as individuals then as a collective
unit in the last game, and so we got to
get back to playing like we did, communicating like we did,
and when we do that, it provides better play for

(07:20):
the whole defense.

Speaker 5 (07:22):
Over here, I wanted to ask about the play where
Bobby was, you know, trailing and coverage on Bijon kind
of got caught up in a bunch or whatever, pick
whatever you want to call it. What what happened, What
did you see on that play, and what do you
wish would have gone differently?

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, you know, as much as possible, you know, we
try to keep our backers off of speed as much
in Bijon as considered speed on that right there, and
so that's why we we bless them and we do
the things that we do. On that play, you know,
they it was a mess concept and we were trying
to take the air out of it, and he got
hung up on the two receivers that came inside, which

(07:59):
created space and air, and once Vijon got it, he
got it with enough speed to the sideline that we
couldn't run it down. So but you know, with him,
we were trying to take air out of the coverage
as much as possible to get to his bodies. So
you don't have that much space that you have to
get away from. But the two routes that got inside
picked them.

Speaker 6 (08:17):
From that standpoint, yeah, as a coordinator, when you pick
up on something that you see that you don't like,
whether it's a communication issue or you see guys trying
to put capes on, Like you said, what goes into
trying to make that adjustment within the game and not
have it be something that you have to wait until
maybe the film data next time.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Well, you know, within the game we talked about it
because first at halftime, you know, it was addressed at
halftime of you know, we just need to make sure
that we're getting the looks that we won't but don't overtry,
you know, play hard, but don't overtry. Don't do anything
outside of your assignment. From that standpoint, there and then
you know, when we get into the meeting room when
we talk about it, we have what we call tell

(08:54):
the Truth Monday, and so it go works on the
different levels. I'll talk about some of the calls and
why call him at or in areas, and then what
why did we make the mistakes? And I allow them
to communicate to me and I allow them to hear,
you know, as coaches, all right, what we were exactly
expecting and and you know, and what we're exactly expecting
moving forward. And so that's how we, you know, rectify

(09:15):
some of those issues. Hey, you doing coaching? Doing great?
How about you? I'm doing good.

Speaker 7 (09:23):
You talked before about uh, like just in the in
the life of football, some people, when when things aren't
going well, can tend to kind of start to overwork
and maybe put too much focus into trying to sort
this in that out and make it almost too complicated.
How do you make sure that you and your staff
aren't doing that? And then also how do you communicate
to the players the need to not do that as well?

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, you know, you first thing, this is a it's
a fun game because it's hard, you know what I'm saying,
and so and we're in it because we like the
challenge and and so that's the that's the one thing
that we really talk. You don't have to overtry, you
don't necessarily panic in any situation when you get in situations.
Then when you're playing it exactly like you want to
play it, now, what do you do? You go and

(10:05):
you look at it. Has the approach been the right approach?
How what can you do differently? How can you change
the learning when you're not getting the results that you want.
We're not going to just necessarily keep on doing the
same thing, but we're gonna look at every possible way
of teaching the men, training the men, and then getting
on the field and getting it getting it done. From

(10:26):
that standpoint, but in this society and how things are now,
and the guys, especially these guys that grew up in
different than when we grew up where they they're in
the social media and they read everything that everybody writes.
It weighs on them. You know, when you're you know,
my age forty seven or when you didn't grow up
in that environment. I don't look so whatever people are
saying about me, that's cool. I don't care because I

(10:48):
don't see it, you know, but they really look at
it and it weighs on them, and so then they
start to try to overtry. So that's one thing you
and I have talked about. How do we not just
the defense, but these young men in general. How do
you keep them, you know, grounded from the standpoint of
blocking out the noise, because good or bad, it's not real,

(11:09):
you know, and so and it's it's people that that
don't know the individuals or what's going on in some
sports in spots, and so that's what we got to
do is block out the noise and go play well.
I've told players before, if you want people to say
positive things, play positive. If I want to have people
say positive things about me, I need to put a

(11:30):
positive product out on the on the field. So hopefully
that answers your question from that standpoint.

Speaker 8 (11:35):
My question is actually pretty similar. You talk about players
being too aggressive or I guess pressing in certain situations.
Did you have a sense of why that was. Was
it because they're behind, was it outside perception? Is it different?

Speaker 1 (11:48):
I'm not going to speak for the players, I think
you know, guys want to make plays, you know, and
guys are just aren't you know, trying to get trying
to get the turnovers and trying to do this and
that where the turn was it gonna come? Okay, the
way that we've played the run, because we played it
as a unit, I'm happy with that. Okay. What I'm
not happy with are they explosive passes. Right. If we

(12:09):
can clean up those explosive passes without let's say, without
getting turnovers, we is we clean up the explosive passes,
we're playing a solid brand of football. Okay, now if
we clean up, when we clean up the supposed to
classes and get the turnovers, now we're playing a dominant style.
But right now we're playing a sloppy style because it's
you know, stopping on first. Now stop it and here

(12:30):
goes in explosive right, which which just is not good.
And we have to clean it up. And we will
clean it up. I have full confidence in the staff
and the players that they would get handled and it'll
get started this week. All right, guys, y'all have a
great one.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.