October 16, 2025 • 15 mins
DC Joe Whitt Jr. speaks to the media.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, So we'll get started with the last game
first and then we'll move to Dallas. You know, a
couple of things. You know, we didn't get any turnovers
and they got three. We had three opportunities, I mean
real opportunities on defense and one on special teams, so
that makes four. We dropped two and then the ball
went up and we didn't get it. So what do
we have to do as coaches? And we got to
(00:20):
put them in and expose them. Get we're doing different
drills this week, exposing them to different ball drills to
make sure that we come down with those balls.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Sun Changed. You know, we talked about it.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
The last two wins that we had when we got
in Sun Changed, offense turned the ball over. We didn't
allow points. Okay, this game we allowed thirteen points, all right,
so that's not good enough. We went into this game
number one versus the screen and they hit some screens
on us for a number of yards, which was you know,
new to us this year. And then the running back
(00:51):
run game, they they ran the ball for the first time.
You know, with the running back they got significant yards.
You know in our mistackles. I think we're at twelve
percent that puts us at seventeenth in the league. If
you're at eleven percent, that puts you in top ten.
So one percent better in our miss tackles will get
us where we want to be. If you look at
it from a ratio, if you just look at the
row number, which is I don't think a fairweal of
(01:13):
looking at it because of you take the tackles versus
the miss tackles, and that's how you get the ratio.
From that standpoint. There were some positives from the game.
I thought Payne played well, JK played well, Trey and Frankie.
But at the end of the day, we're here to win,
and so we're not necessarily looking for positives.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
We're here to win.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So moving forward to Dallas had a lot of history
with those guys being there for three years. Dak is
playing the best ball that he's playing, and he is
playing at a high, high level getting the ball out
of his hands. He has really good eligibles outside. CD
will be back, Turf would be back. So the running
back is running hard, the offensive line is blocking really good.
(01:51):
Tyllas Smith, you know, one of the best guards, the
young rookie Booker, he's playing well still's playing well.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
They're blocking in as a unit.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
The tight end Ferguson, you know, he's highly targeted that
has a comfort level with him. They're putting up a
lot of points. They're a good running pass, they're very
good offense. And so we have our work cutout for us.
We just have to you know, nail it back down.
And and like I said, we're trying to get off
this roller coaster and that like last week I talked
about not being known, and we're staying on it. So
(02:19):
hopefully we can get off and start playing consistent play.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Any questions, ye, Like you said, the screen game you
had done well, But why why did they have some
of the success? Was it recognition awareness?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What was it? Oh, there was a couple of things.
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
One one screen that they hit on us that I
guess got the biggest yards, you know that we went
the wrong way with one guy and that that allowed
the blockers to get up. And then there was two
that I think got around eleven or twelve yards, and
you know sometimes that's gonna happen in the screen. They
had good plays on that, but there was one that
really got two million yards that normally didn't happen. Then
(02:54):
we hit one in the backfield on the tight end screen.
You know, we've we've done really nice against the screen,
but that this game, you know, with our pressure, they
got behind us a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
And then, like you said, with Dak playing well, what
is the difference you've seen in him? And then how
much more dangerous that offense with CD and then Pickings
on the outside.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You know, Dak has always played well. I just see
him really getting the ball out of his hand really quick.
He plays with great anticipation, his back foot hitting the
ground and the balls coming out. He can elude people
in the pocket. He can make every throw. He's he's
faster and stronger than people really give him credit for.
And so and then when you have CD and Pickings
(03:34):
on the outside, and not only them, yet you have
the running back that that doesn't allow you to play
you know, a lot of cover two against him because
the running back can run through tackles, so that the
combination of all three makes it very very difficult to
put hats over the top of those guys outside. And
(03:55):
then once they get the ball. You know, CD is
like a running back. Once he gets the ball in
his hand, I'm.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Going to miss tackles. Is that is that difficult to
work on in season just because you're not doing a
ton of you know, live hitting in practices. You want
to maintain you know, the guy's health in season, Like,
is that a difficult thing to improve in season?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I don't think you know, for the simple fact that
you know, this is the NFL, and this is how
you have to practice in event there's nobody doing it
any differently. Okay, you have to make sure that you're
getting your body you're been in at the end of
tackles in practice, we're not putting our you know some
like yesterday was a walk through, so been at the end,
get your body position, throw hands and get multiple people there.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Vice tackle.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Don't leave a guy on a singular tackle where multiple
people can be there. So you have to make sure
the details of that because you know we're not going
to the ground, but nobody's going to the ground at
this time of the year. So, like I said, right now,
we're at twelve percent and miss tackles, we get to
one percent better, that's going to put us top ten.
We get to ten percent, that puts you top five.
So the margins are small in NFL. You know what
I'm saying. So we're at seventeenth right now. That's not
(04:58):
where we want to be. We want to be top ten,
moving to the top five in that area. So we
will continue to work at it and get it done.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
And then looking at the Cowboys, what is George Pickens
brought to this offensive? What what challenge does he posts?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
He's one of the best deep ball catcher's body control
to the catch in the league. I mean he can
he can run the slant and and run away from you.
But at the same time, his ability to track the
ball and get body control to it is unique and rare.
It's a lot like ad Aj Green was in his
early years. I thought he was a really good deep
(05:32):
ball catcher. This guy is along that line of what
Aj used to do, where Aj was catching over his eyes.
He has ability to contort his body to go get it.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Similar to Nikki's question about tackling with turnovers, uh, is
it a year to year thing where you're working with
the guys on different techniques different games. Obviously it's a
little bit of ball lock in terms of picking them up,
in terms of kind of kind of creating those turnovers.
Something that you guys have preached since you've been here,
how do you kind of empty up as the season
goes on?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know, we got to do a better job as
coaches and exposing them in the drills. You know, you
know we had two in our hands that we dropped. Okay,
so why are we dropping them?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
All?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Right? Are we are we.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Giving them those type of tips and overthrows type balls
in practice?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Enough?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Are we giving the linebackers the drive throws when they
have to fall back when they're in different spaces. We
have to make sure as coaches that we exposed to guys,
because I do. I'm a firm believer of when we
expose them, when they when they when they understand it,
they gonna make the place, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So we'll do a better job of that.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (06:38):
You talked a little bit about the running game last
week to this week. What did you see because you
all were basically stopping the run? What did you see
some key things that you were doing last week that
you have to clean up this week with stopping the
run a little more?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, you know, still in between the tackles. The two
big guys did a nice job with with with ken
Law and pain. We miss Eddie, you know, it'd have
been nice to have him. But the ball on the
C and D gaps we're getting outside, and so we
have to do a better job of setting edges and
making sure that we're flowing. People still aren't running in
between the tackles. They didn't necessarily run in between the tackles.
(07:14):
It was more perimeter runs. So we have to share
the C and D gaps and the crack toss in
those plays that got outside of us. We have to
do a better job of setting edges and those things.
Speaker 7 (07:25):
And you talked about Deck the year that he's having.
What are some keys that you know that you all
have to do to kind of like slow him up
if possible.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You know, he's having a great year. Everybody sees it.
I think, you know, we've pressured the quarterback really well.
We have to hit them all right, But he's the
type of quarterback. I always judge the quarterback. Once you
hit him, do they look at the rush? He doesn't
look at the rush. He keeps his eyes down filled.
He's a real quarterback. Most quarterbacks or younger quarterbacks, or
when you hit him, they start looking at the rush.
(07:55):
He doesn't do that, you can hit him. He's a
very tough man, so I understand that. But we have
to hit him, and we have to make sure that
he's uncomfortable in the pocket because if he's sitting back there,
hitting his back foot getting the ball out to his eligibles,
he's really really good. So we have to find a
way to get to him and hit him.
Speaker 8 (08:12):
Hey, coach, you've mentioned we have asked previously about October
football and what you wanted to see. You talked about
the consistency. So what are some of the things that
you have seen consistently with your defense.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well, you know, our third downs has been good. Okay,
we've our situation is you know, third down, fourth down,
we're getting off the fields in those situations. The ability
to you know, the completion percentage is down. The runs
up until this last week was good. You know, if
we can take the explosive play, so like the play
(08:46):
on the sideline where we had the mistackle that went
you know, that's the tackle that we have to make,
you know what I'm saying, And we have to do
a better job of drilling that, you know, as coaches,
you know, and and then coming through with that because
we get that that ball down, all right, it's a
first down in that situation, and now they have to
go alonger ways.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
But you know, just work.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
At it, you know, like like I like I just
told the guys today, you know, like d Q said
in his opening press conference when he first got here,
you know, doing hardship with good people, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Nobody said this was gonna be easy. But we'll get
it done.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
You know that if we're going to walk around here
and with a negative cloud on us, which we're not,
which I'm not, you know, because that's not productive. All right,
We're going to work at it. We're going to try
to find ways we're gonna be creative. And but at
the end of the day, we got to win. You know,
all this lip service and talking that I'm doing, if
we don't win, it don't really matter, all right, So
we gotta win.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
The fun and football is winning.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And I understand the fans, you know, they're passionate, and
that's how they should be, all right, they should be
passionate about these these these commanders, and we got to
do a better.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Job, period.
Speaker 8 (09:50):
And what have you seen with from Trey Amas so
far this season?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Trades played really well.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I mean he's especially when it's outside the numbers, the
kid has I mean every week he's played well. I
mean he's been a consistent, consistent, consistent player, and I've
been pleased with them.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
Joe through six weeks, six games. What's the strength of
your defense DC pressuring the quarterback right now?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
The D line? I would say with definitely the strength, yes.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
And there's always a balance between you want to react
to what the offense is showing versus doing what you
do well. Like in this last game, what was the
challenge there? They went with eleven personnel, way more than
they had been and you guys have been using a
little more twelve What with McGee? What's that balance? Like, Oh,
well they're doing this now we have to change or
what a week? You know, stay with our strengths.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Ask the question again because I'm not quite understanding.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
Basically, how do you determine like when do you stay
with your strengths versus reacting to what they're doing and
dictating sort of the terms as opposed.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
To the other way around.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, so you know they had been more twelve personnel,
right and so but when they went eleven, you know
that's that's not a weakness of ours. You know, we
can pressure the quarterback and play really well out of
eleven personnel, especially two by two. We've been playing looking
just looking at some of the analytics, been playing really
well in two by two situations and eleven personnel.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I was anticipating more.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Twelve and more McGee being able to get out there,
but they didn't.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
They didn't put twelve out there.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So you know, the offense dictates what personnel they put
out there, and then we you know, we try to
match it as much as possible, and hopefully you understand
the fact that if we put our our four to
three look out there versus twelve, now it limits some
of our pressures because now you have linebackers match on receivers,
all right, and that's not what you want, and so
(11:35):
or you'd get real predictable because now you have to
blitz the linebacker that's over the receiver, which they know
we're probably coming because they're knowing that you're not gonna
have McGee covering the slot receiver. So that's why we
go with our nickel package versus eleven.
Speaker 9 (11:49):
A lot of the times, Joe, when it comes to
a team or when there's a team that has a
speed advantage, what are some ways you can work around
at as a defense.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
A team that has a speed of Evan, I didn't
feel like I don't feel like we really face the
team that necessarily had a speed advantage. We have, you know,
fast guys on the outside. We're fast up front, so
you know. But if you do have a team that
necessarily has you know, a top off guy, you can
(12:19):
play cover two to it. You can roll to them,
you can stay over the top of them. You know,
there's ways that you can capsulate those guys. But I
don't think that wasn't the case this last game.
Speaker 9 (12:29):
You mentioned some of those runs to perimeter be an issue,
or maybe passes to the perimeter. I guess what do
you think the problem was on?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Well, we got to set the edge that That wasn't
a speed deal. It's the ability to set the edge
and make sure that that balls turns back. It wasn't
that it was getting out there before because of speed.
It was it was the edge standing on it.
Speaker 10 (12:49):
Yeah, you talked about the explosive plays earlier, and I
know that each one is kind of its own individual thing,
but thematically, when you look at them all together. Is
it more scheme or execution? And what is it like
for you? Is the decordinator watching the film of those places.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You know, it's it's it's the execution and and and
and the communication. If we have great pre snap communication,
it provides better post snap play.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And so a lot of the lot of the.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Plays are are plays that we've gone over. We just
have to make sure we're executing them on game day.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
You know. That's that's that's just what it is, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And some of them, like I said, the big play
that hit us in this this last game, it was
a play that should have gone for eight. It went
for fifty five because of a mistackle that that falls
into that same bucket of explosives. You know, I'm doing good?
How you doing doing good?
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Third downs?
Speaker 5 (13:43):
You guys are top half of the league third down defense.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The Cowboys are top half of the league third down offense.
What are some of the keys?
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Obviously without getting the scheme, uh, to make sure your
strength out does their strength.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
You know, when we get in an opportunity to to
rush them to to win, making sure that when he
hits his back foot that there's not people open that
he can get the ball out of his hand to
change the picture, you know, as much as possible. That's
what typically we try to do on third down deck.
He understands coverages. He understands the role of coverages. So
(14:13):
if you keep it, if his pre snap look is
your what you do posting out, he's gonna carve you up.
So we have to make sure that we do a
good job of being on the bodies of these guys.
Speaker 11 (14:24):
Joe with the mistackling. You know, tackling is such a
fundamental principle of football. You learn it, you've started in
Pop Warner. When the mistackles start piling up and you're
up there in the box, you think you're thinking, what, like,
what are your emotions when you just see it's almost
like a helpless feeling, because I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
It's not a helpless feeling. Don't speak for me. We
have to do a better job of it. Okay, we
have to take one more step to the tackle. We
have to make sure we're wrapping. We make sure we're
coming up with a body part as we're as we're
going there running and hidden you know has been there,
was there the week before. You know, we did not
have the turn and back to the number.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Turn.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
We only had twelve this week, you know what I'm saying,
So that number was not where it needed to be.
But you know, we we're going to continue to drill it.
And like I said, one percent better gets us in
the top ten, all right, So hopefully I can come
here and say three weeks from now that all right, now,
when you look at the ratio, we're we're in the
top ten, and then we can move forward. We have
(15:22):
a lot of games left, okay, And I understand that
we let an important game get it get away from us,
all right, and it shouldn't have all right. We should
have won this game, especially on defense at the end
right there, but we didn't. And so we have to
make sure that we get off this roller coaster and
we just play consistent ball. All right, y'all have a
great one, okay,
All right, So we'll get started with the last game
first and then we'll move to Dallas. You know, a
couple of things. You know, we didn't get any turnovers
and they got three. We had three opportunities, I mean
real opportunities on defense and one on special teams, so
that makes four. We dropped two and then the ball
went up and we didn't get it. So what do
we have to do as coaches? And we got to
(00:20):
put them in and expose them. Get we're doing different
drills this week, exposing them to different ball drills to
make sure that we come down with those balls.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Sun Changed. You know, we talked about it.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
The last two wins that we had when we got
in Sun Changed, offense turned the ball over. We didn't
allow points. Okay, this game we allowed thirteen points, all right,
so that's not good enough. We went into this game
number one versus the screen and they hit some screens
on us for a number of yards, which was you know,
new to us this year. And then the running back
(00:51):
run game, they they ran the ball for the first time.
You know, with the running back they got significant yards.
You know in our mistackles. I think we're at twelve
percent that puts us at seventeenth in the league. If
you're at eleven percent, that puts you in top ten.
So one percent better in our miss tackles will get
us where we want to be. If you look at
it from a ratio, if you just look at the
row number, which is I don't think a fairweal of
(01:13):
looking at it because of you take the tackles versus
the miss tackles, and that's how you get the ratio.
From that standpoint. There were some positives from the game.
I thought Payne played well, JK played well, Trey and Frankie.
But at the end of the day, we're here to win,
and so we're not necessarily looking for positives.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
We're here to win.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So moving forward to Dallas had a lot of history
with those guys being there for three years. Dak is
playing the best ball that he's playing, and he is
playing at a high, high level getting the ball out
of his hands. He has really good eligibles outside. CD
will be back, Turf would be back. So the running
back is running hard, the offensive line is blocking really good.
(01:51):
Tyllas Smith, you know, one of the best guards, the
young rookie Booker, he's playing well still's playing well.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
They're blocking in as a unit.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
The tight end Ferguson, you know, he's highly targeted that
has a comfort level with him. They're putting up a
lot of points. They're a good running pass, they're very
good offense. And so we have our work cutout for us.
We just have to you know, nail it back down.
And and like I said, we're trying to get off
this roller coaster and that like last week I talked
about not being known, and we're staying on it. So
(02:19):
hopefully we can get off and start playing consistent play.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Any questions, ye, Like you said, the screen game you
had done well, But why why did they have some
of the success? Was it recognition awareness?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What was it? Oh, there was a couple of things.
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
One one screen that they hit on us that I
guess got the biggest yards, you know that we went
the wrong way with one guy and that that allowed
the blockers to get up. And then there was two
that I think got around eleven or twelve yards, and
you know sometimes that's gonna happen in the screen. They
had good plays on that, but there was one that
really got two million yards that normally didn't happen. Then
(02:54):
we hit one in the backfield on the tight end screen.
You know, we've we've done really nice against the screen,
but that this game, you know, with our pressure, they
got behind us a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
And then, like you said, with Dak playing well, what
is the difference you've seen in him? And then how
much more dangerous that offense with CD and then Pickings
on the outside.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You know, Dak has always played well. I just see
him really getting the ball out of his hand really quick.
He plays with great anticipation, his back foot hitting the
ground and the balls coming out. He can elude people
in the pocket. He can make every throw. He's he's
faster and stronger than people really give him credit for.
And so and then when you have CD and Pickings
(03:34):
on the outside, and not only them, yet you have
the running back that that doesn't allow you to play
you know, a lot of cover two against him because
the running back can run through tackles, so that the
combination of all three makes it very very difficult to
put hats over the top of those guys outside. And
(03:55):
then once they get the ball. You know, CD is
like a running back. Once he gets the ball in
his hand, I'm.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Going to miss tackles. Is that is that difficult to
work on in season just because you're not doing a
ton of you know, live hitting in practices. You want
to maintain you know, the guy's health in season, Like,
is that a difficult thing to improve in season?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I don't think you know, for the simple fact that
you know, this is the NFL, and this is how
you have to practice in event there's nobody doing it
any differently. Okay, you have to make sure that you're
getting your body you're been in at the end of
tackles in practice, we're not putting our you know some
like yesterday was a walk through, so been at the end,
get your body position, throw hands and get multiple people there.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Vice tackle.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Don't leave a guy on a singular tackle where multiple
people can be there. So you have to make sure
the details of that because you know we're not going
to the ground, but nobody's going to the ground at
this time of the year. So, like I said, right now,
we're at twelve percent and miss tackles, we get to
one percent better, that's going to put us top ten.
We get to ten percent, that puts you top five.
So the margins are small in NFL. You know what
I'm saying. So we're at seventeenth right now. That's not
(04:58):
where we want to be. We want to be top ten,
moving to the top five in that area. So we
will continue to work at it and get it done.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
And then looking at the Cowboys, what is George Pickens
brought to this offensive? What what challenge does he posts?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
He's one of the best deep ball catcher's body control
to the catch in the league. I mean he can
he can run the slant and and run away from you.
But at the same time, his ability to track the
ball and get body control to it is unique and rare.
It's a lot like ad Aj Green was in his
early years. I thought he was a really good deep
(05:32):
ball catcher. This guy is along that line of what
Aj used to do, where Aj was catching over his eyes.
He has ability to contort his body to go get it.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Similar to Nikki's question about tackling with turnovers, uh, is
it a year to year thing where you're working with
the guys on different techniques different games. Obviously it's a
little bit of ball lock in terms of picking them up,
in terms of kind of kind of creating those turnovers.
Something that you guys have preached since you've been here,
how do you kind of empty up as the season
goes on?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know, we got to do a better job as
coaches and exposing them in the drills. You know, you
know we had two in our hands that we dropped. Okay,
so why are we dropping them?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
All?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Right? Are we are we.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Giving them those type of tips and overthrows type balls
in practice?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Enough?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Are we giving the linebackers the drive throws when they
have to fall back when they're in different spaces. We
have to make sure as coaches that we exposed to guys,
because I do. I'm a firm believer of when we
expose them, when they when they when they understand it,
they gonna make the place, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So we'll do a better job of that.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (06:38):
You talked a little bit about the running game last
week to this week. What did you see because you
all were basically stopping the run? What did you see
some key things that you were doing last week that
you have to clean up this week with stopping the
run a little more?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, you know, still in between the tackles. The two
big guys did a nice job with with with ken
Law and pain. We miss Eddie, you know, it'd have
been nice to have him. But the ball on the
C and D gaps we're getting outside, and so we
have to do a better job of setting edges and
making sure that we're flowing. People still aren't running in
between the tackles. They didn't necessarily run in between the tackles.
(07:14):
It was more perimeter runs. So we have to share
the C and D gaps and the crack toss in
those plays that got outside of us. We have to
do a better job of setting edges and those things.
Speaker 7 (07:25):
And you talked about Deck the year that he's having.
What are some keys that you know that you all
have to do to kind of like slow him up
if possible.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You know, he's having a great year. Everybody sees it.
I think, you know, we've pressured the quarterback really well.
We have to hit them all right, But he's the
type of quarterback. I always judge the quarterback. Once you
hit him, do they look at the rush? He doesn't
look at the rush. He keeps his eyes down filled.
He's a real quarterback. Most quarterbacks or younger quarterbacks, or
when you hit him, they start looking at the rush.
(07:55):
He doesn't do that, you can hit him. He's a
very tough man, so I understand that. But we have
to hit him, and we have to make sure that
he's uncomfortable in the pocket because if he's sitting back there,
hitting his back foot getting the ball out to his eligibles,
he's really really good. So we have to find a
way to get to him and hit him.
Speaker 8 (08:12):
Hey, coach, you've mentioned we have asked previously about October
football and what you wanted to see. You talked about
the consistency. So what are some of the things that
you have seen consistently with your defense.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well, you know, our third downs has been good. Okay,
we've our situation is you know, third down, fourth down,
we're getting off the fields in those situations. The ability
to you know, the completion percentage is down. The runs
up until this last week was good. You know, if
we can take the explosive play, so like the play
(08:46):
on the sideline where we had the mistackle that went
you know, that's the tackle that we have to make,
you know what I'm saying, And we have to do
a better job of drilling that, you know, as coaches,
you know, and and then coming through with that because
we get that that ball down, all right, it's a
first down in that situation, and now they have to
go alonger ways.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
But you know, just work.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
At it, you know, like like I like I just
told the guys today, you know, like d Q said
in his opening press conference when he first got here,
you know, doing hardship with good people, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Nobody said this was gonna be easy. But we'll get
it done.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
You know that if we're going to walk around here
and with a negative cloud on us, which we're not,
which I'm not, you know, because that's not productive. All right,
We're going to work at it. We're going to try
to find ways we're gonna be creative. And but at
the end of the day, we got to win. You know,
all this lip service and talking that I'm doing, if
we don't win, it don't really matter, all right, So
we gotta win.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
The fun and football is winning.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And I understand the fans, you know, they're passionate, and
that's how they should be, all right, they should be
passionate about these these these commanders, and we got to
do a better.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Job, period.
Speaker 8 (09:50):
And what have you seen with from Trey Amas so
far this season?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Trades played really well.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I mean he's especially when it's outside the numbers, the
kid has I mean every week he's played well. I
mean he's been a consistent, consistent, consistent player, and I've
been pleased with them.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
Joe through six weeks, six games. What's the strength of
your defense DC pressuring the quarterback right now?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
The D line? I would say with definitely the strength, yes.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
And there's always a balance between you want to react
to what the offense is showing versus doing what you
do well. Like in this last game, what was the
challenge there? They went with eleven personnel, way more than
they had been and you guys have been using a
little more twelve What with McGee? What's that balance? Like, Oh,
well they're doing this now we have to change or
what a week? You know, stay with our strengths.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Ask the question again because I'm not quite understanding.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
Basically, how do you determine like when do you stay
with your strengths versus reacting to what they're doing and
dictating sort of the terms as opposed.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
To the other way around.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, so you know they had been more twelve personnel,
right and so but when they went eleven, you know
that's that's not a weakness of ours. You know, we
can pressure the quarterback and play really well out of
eleven personnel, especially two by two. We've been playing looking
just looking at some of the analytics, been playing really
well in two by two situations and eleven personnel.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I was anticipating more.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Twelve and more McGee being able to get out there,
but they didn't.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
They didn't put twelve out there.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So you know, the offense dictates what personnel they put
out there, and then we you know, we try to
match it as much as possible, and hopefully you understand
the fact that if we put our our four to
three look out there versus twelve, now it limits some
of our pressures because now you have linebackers match on receivers,
all right, and that's not what you want, and so
(11:35):
or you'd get real predictable because now you have to
blitz the linebacker that's over the receiver, which they know
we're probably coming because they're knowing that you're not gonna
have McGee covering the slot receiver. So that's why we
go with our nickel package versus eleven.
Speaker 9 (11:49):
A lot of the times, Joe, when it comes to
a team or when there's a team that has a
speed advantage, what are some ways you can work around
at as a defense.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
A team that has a speed of Evan, I didn't
feel like I don't feel like we really face the
team that necessarily had a speed advantage. We have, you know,
fast guys on the outside. We're fast up front, so
you know. But if you do have a team that
necessarily has you know, a top off guy, you can
(12:19):
play cover two to it. You can roll to them,
you can stay over the top of them. You know,
there's ways that you can capsulate those guys. But I
don't think that wasn't the case this last game.
Speaker 9 (12:29):
You mentioned some of those runs to perimeter be an issue,
or maybe passes to the perimeter. I guess what do
you think the problem was on?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Well, we got to set the edge that That wasn't
a speed deal. It's the ability to set the edge
and make sure that that balls turns back. It wasn't
that it was getting out there before because of speed.
It was it was the edge standing on it.
Speaker 10 (12:49):
Yeah, you talked about the explosive plays earlier, and I
know that each one is kind of its own individual thing,
but thematically, when you look at them all together. Is
it more scheme or execution? And what is it like
for you? Is the decordinator watching the film of those places.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You know, it's it's it's the execution and and and
and the communication. If we have great pre snap communication,
it provides better post snap play.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And so a lot of the lot of the.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Plays are are plays that we've gone over. We just
have to make sure we're executing them on game day.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
You know. That's that's that's just what it is, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And some of them, like I said, the big play
that hit us in this this last game, it was
a play that should have gone for eight. It went
for fifty five because of a mistackle that that falls
into that same bucket of explosives. You know, I'm doing good?
How you doing doing good?
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Third downs?
Speaker 5 (13:43):
You guys are top half of the league third down defense.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The Cowboys are top half of the league third down offense.
What are some of the keys?
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Obviously without getting the scheme, uh, to make sure your
strength out does their strength.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
You know, when we get in an opportunity to to
rush them to to win, making sure that when he
hits his back foot that there's not people open that
he can get the ball out of his hand to
change the picture, you know, as much as possible. That's
what typically we try to do on third down deck.
He understands coverages. He understands the role of coverages. So
(14:13):
if you keep it, if his pre snap look is
your what you do posting out, he's gonna carve you up.
So we have to make sure that we do a
good job of being on the bodies of these guys.
Speaker 11 (14:24):
Joe with the mistackling. You know, tackling is such a
fundamental principle of football. You learn it, you've started in
Pop Warner. When the mistackles start piling up and you're
up there in the box, you think you're thinking, what, like,
what are your emotions when you just see it's almost
like a helpless feeling, because I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
It's not a helpless feeling. Don't speak for me. We
have to do a better job of it. Okay, we
have to take one more step to the tackle. We
have to make sure we're wrapping. We make sure we're
coming up with a body part as we're as we're
going there running and hidden you know has been there,
was there the week before. You know, we did not
have the turn and back to the number.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Turn.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
We only had twelve this week, you know what I'm saying,
So that number was not where it needed to be.
But you know, we we're going to continue to drill it.
And like I said, one percent better gets us in
the top ten, all right, So hopefully I can come
here and say three weeks from now that all right, now,
when you look at the ratio, we're we're in the
top ten, and then we can move forward. We have
(15:22):
a lot of games left, okay, And I understand that
we let an important game get it get away from us,
all right, and it shouldn't have all right. We should
have won this game, especially on defense at the end
right there, but we didn't. And so we have to
make sure that we get off this roller coaster and
we just play consistent ball. All right, y'all have a
great one, okay,
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