Speaker 1: It seems like it seems like a month since we
Speaker 1: played you guys, Um, Malcolm talked about the communication before
Speaker 1: that last drive and you guys kind of drawing up
Speaker 1: something that you hadn't done. He's just talking about Malcolm
Speaker 1: and how rare it is for you to kind of
Speaker 1: have a guy like that who can who can contribute
Speaker 1: in that way, and just how that went well. He
Speaker 1: can play a lot of different positions to play safeties good.
Speaker 1: He's good safeties like nickel. I mean, if we needed
Speaker 1: to him, he could go play corner in a in
Speaker 1: a pinch. Also, he has that in his background. Good tackler,
Speaker 1: all those things. But you know, being in Detroit for
Speaker 1: five years, um, I saw firsthand a lot of the
Speaker 1: tricked up defenses to people use for Calvin Johnson. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we saw like look like punt vice on him.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we saw double we saw you know, all kinds
Speaker 1: of different things. I don't think I saw boxing one,
Speaker 1: which is what I called it. One guy playing man,
Speaker 1: everybody else playing zone. But they were just targeting him
Speaker 1: so many times, and he's such a good run after
Speaker 1: the catch guy. We just wanted to make sure that
Speaker 1: one person slipping or one person missing a tackle didn't
Speaker 1: result in a touchdown, you know. I mean we could
Speaker 1: give up some yards, we couldn't give up a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Um So in trying to get that in, we'd never
Speaker 1: practice that before. We practiced a coverage part of it before.
Speaker 1: I mean it's just a standard too deep coverage. But
Speaker 1: to layer all the different things, and there was a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways we were going to do it,
Speaker 1: you know, because Jalen Watkins was out, how do we
Speaker 1: fit everything together? And you know that's that's that's where
Speaker 1: we ended up. But you know, getting those guys where
Speaker 1: they were comfortable because on the sideline was important. I
Speaker 1: wanted everybody to feel comfortable with it because it was
Speaker 1: something we hadn't practiced before. So his feedback was very
Speaker 1: important that way. Jim, in terms of their talent the
Speaker 1: level of which they're executing, would you say that this
Speaker 1: Cowboy's offense is one of the better offenses you've seen
Speaker 1: on the wall time? Um? Well, they're certainly one of
Speaker 1: the better offenses this year. Um. You know, they could
Speaker 1: they put a lot of pressure on you with the
Speaker 1: run game because they can run it and they can
Speaker 1: put pressure on you to make big plays in the
Speaker 1: passing game because they have guys that can make big
Speaker 1: plays in the passing game. They have guys that can
Speaker 1: move to chains on third down, um, you know, Beasley
Speaker 1: and Witton or to the best in the business doing that.
Speaker 1: And then the quarterback not only can execute the quarterback position,
Speaker 1: but he can also scramble for first downs. So that's
Speaker 1: a lot to defend, you know, defending they're on defending
Speaker 1: deepass defending in you know, the quarterback, but then also
Speaker 1: handling a scrambling quarterback. And you know, there's there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of really good scrambling quarterbacks that are also
Speaker 1: really good in the pocket, and he looks like he
Speaker 1: has a chance to be one of those guys. If
Speaker 1: this is better. Last time speaking with you this season,
Speaker 1: what's your assessment of the way the defense is this
Speaker 1: places you? Yeah, let's maybe there will be a time
Speaker 1: we can get together. I don't want to. I don't
Speaker 1: want assess anything during season. I mean, we only get
Speaker 1: sixteen opportunities, and I think anything that you get ahead
Speaker 1: of yourself, um before when you still have games to play,
Speaker 1: doesn't do enough respect to this game and respect for
Speaker 1: the game scene. I sort of envy the the NBA
Speaker 1: the way they can sit guys for a game, and
Speaker 1: you know, even major League Baseball, you know, you you
Speaker 1: look up and your name's not in the lineup that
Speaker 1: day because it's a day game after a night game
Speaker 1: or something. Football is not that way. And we got
Speaker 1: to we get to give it all the you know,
Speaker 1: we got to give each game the respect that it deserves.
Speaker 1: And that's the only thing our attention is on. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure it'll be something we can we can do
Speaker 1: at the end. Prepared for the unknown this week in
Speaker 1: terms of all you prepared for dallasis dollars or with
Speaker 1: the backups, Well, we got to prepare for We got
Speaker 1: to prepare for both. And we probably have to prepare
Speaker 1: for three different quarterbacks, you know, not just Prescott who
Speaker 1: we've already played once and you know we have a
Speaker 1: lot of film one, but Romo who has a track record.
Speaker 1: You know, if they if they play him and then Sanchez,
Speaker 1: So it does spread you a little bit, then a
Speaker 1: lot of it goes to the quarterback position. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: their run game's not going to change regardless of who's
Speaker 1: getting the ball, but wide receivers and you know how
Speaker 1: they how they work through those wide receivers. It certainly
Speaker 1: goes into game plan and um, you know you'd attack
Speaker 1: each those quarterbacks probably a little bit different, so you know,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit like facing their offense. It's going
Speaker 1: to spread it then our preparational spread. Then we're gonna
Speaker 1: need a lot of focus this week and uh and
Speaker 1: be productive in the practice field because there is more
Speaker 1: than just one scenario that you have to prepare for. Operation,
Speaker 1: more in the film room, more on the field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well it's it's probably more. It's probably more film room
Speaker 1: because um, you know, you don't have that many reps
Speaker 1: to be able to prepare for all that stuff. But
Speaker 1: over the course, when you know, if this was the
Speaker 1: first game of the season, maybe it would be a
Speaker 1: little bit different. Um, you know, I think we can
Speaker 1: change game plans within a game plan depending on depending
Speaker 1: on who's out there, because the quarterbacks have different you attack.
Speaker 1: You know last week we attack different than the week before.
Speaker 1: In the week before, you build up enough that I
Speaker 1: think you can you can change. You can change pictures
Speaker 1: within a game almost exclusively on a four man rush
Speaker 1: against the Giants, I've got good pressure on them. Is
Speaker 1: that the kind of game that kind of shows that
Speaker 1: that sacks don't really tell an accurate story of the
Speaker 1: pressure you put on a quarterback. Well, we played nineties
Speaker 1: eighty nine snaps a lot. I think it was sixty
Speaker 1: three dropbacks or something like that. It was a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of passes to defend um. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we blitzed one time in the game. We only
Speaker 1: played eight man front handful of times, maybe three times
Speaker 1: in the game, so we relied. We relied on the
Speaker 1: front seven to try to stop the run. I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't a shot out against the run,
Speaker 1: but we controlled the running game enough that we could
Speaker 1: devote enough extra to coverage. You know, blitz versus four
Speaker 1: man pass rush. There's always that give and take between
Speaker 1: sending extra guys at the quarterback and having extra guys
Speaker 1: in coverage, and in this game, we took the approach
Speaker 1: that we needed to have the extra guys in coverage
Speaker 1: not just to cover guys, but also for run after
Speaker 1: the catch, because he does some good run after the
Speaker 1: catch guys. I was probably the most probably don't three
Speaker 1: man pass rush very often, but in that last series
Speaker 1: we had those last couple of snaps at the game
Speaker 1: with three man pass rush. You can't play that tricked
Speaker 1: up coverage we play. I mean you run. I mean
Speaker 1: unless you got twelve on the field, you can't rush
Speaker 1: for when you do that. And we got some good
Speaker 1: pressure at the end. You know that Brooks's interception at
Speaker 1: the end was due to Vinny Curry. If he had
Speaker 1: to add more time, I'd hate to see what happens
Speaker 1: if he has more time to throw that ball, because
Speaker 1: it can put some pressure on you, you know, when
Speaker 1: they go to somebody other than Odell Beckham in that situation.
Speaker 1: So you know, sometimes it gets overlooked. You know, you
Speaker 1: get a third down stop or you force an errant
Speaker 1: pass or something like that, it doesn't really go down
Speaker 1: in the stat in the staff look. But you know,
Speaker 1: stopping drives that's what it's all about. And I thought
Speaker 1: our de line did a good job of doing that
Speaker 1: and also playing the run game. Like I said, we
Speaker 1: didn't have extra guy in the run game pretty much
Speaker 1: the whole game either interesting dynamic and middle linebacker in
Speaker 1: that you had basically the guy that was with you
Speaker 1: for so many years in Tennessee into Troy being here,
Speaker 1: but you also had him. He also had Jordan kind
Speaker 1: of here along kind of assuming that role. What was
Speaker 1: it about that dynamic of having news two together. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know the importance of the middle linebacker position in
Speaker 1: terms of how it relates to the coach Steven allow
Speaker 1: to do with Jordan's progress. Yeah, I think you'd probably
Speaker 1: have to ask Jordan that more. Stephen is a very
Speaker 1: respected guy in our locker room, in our meeting rooms.
Speaker 1: He prepares every week as though he's going to go
Speaker 1: play every single play. He works really hard on the
Speaker 1: practice field. That's one thing you guys don't get to see.
Speaker 1: But he takes all the scout team reps and he
Speaker 1: takes a lot of pride, and he's ready to he's
Speaker 1: ready to play. Doesn't just pass it off to the
Speaker 1: young guys somebody. Young guys get a little bit frustrated
Speaker 1: because you know, guys like commu Um and Cherry sometimes
Speaker 1: they're standing over a sideline and you know, Cherry's a
Speaker 1: practice squad player, but sometimes he can't practice because Stephen.
Speaker 1: Stephen will take all of those Um. He's found a
Speaker 1: way to contribute to this team even though he hasn't
Speaker 1: been on the field a ton. Yeah, but if he
Speaker 1: needed to be, we'd have full confidence that he could
Speaker 1: go out and play every snap in a game and
Speaker 1: be productive. Goes um, you know what, what kind of
Speaker 1: the mension to see add especially when you go into
Speaker 1: like a Cover two, it seems like he gets down
Speaker 1: the field pretty well and team passion. He's a good
Speaker 1: pass defender. He has good eyes for the football. That's
Speaker 1: important when you're when you're playing that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: His interceptions have come from Key and the quarterback and
Speaker 1: making plays. They haven't been in Cover two, but they've
Speaker 1: been underneath. Um. You know, he also has a good
Speaker 1: understanding not just his place in the defense, but the
Speaker 1: entire scheme and he literally is the quarterback of our
Speaker 1: defense and makes a lot of checks and you know
Speaker 1: things that go on otistum. And he's had a really
Speaker 1: good year. But um, you know, some of his contributions
Speaker 1: maybe go a little bit below the raider. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's a whole lot different than other middle linebackers. But um,
Speaker 1: he very rarely does the wrong thing. Let's put it
Speaker 1: that way. Chairs for you guys, since the Cincinnati game,
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys still given up like a decent
Speaker 1: amount of points. But the same way, you know, the
Speaker 1: guys pretty much rallied together and everything. Did you get
Speaker 1: that since at all? You know, I've been proud of
Speaker 1: the effort down the stretch. I think our guys do
Speaker 1: have a lot of pride and they want to go
Speaker 1: out and find a way to win games. We haven't
Speaker 1: won enough games this year, so there's no grading on
Speaker 1: the curve as far as you know, Well, we've lost,
Speaker 1: but we our efforts good. I mean, I'd do anything
Speaker 1: to get a win, and I think our guys are
Speaker 1: the same way. But um, you know, they have each
Speaker 1: other's backs and they work. They work hard to show that.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think Thursday night was a good
Speaker 1: example of that. Um you know, get that touchdown playing.
Speaker 1: They played with a lot of emotion, played with las spirit.
Speaker 1: That'd say it's hard to play eighty nine snaps. We've
Speaker 1: had some games where we barely broke a sweat, you know,
Speaker 1: some of those at forty forty eight snaps or forty
Speaker 1: five snaps and stuff like that. You know, are you
Speaker 1: know I come in here and you guys are saying,
Speaker 1: how come this guy only played you know, twelve snaps
Speaker 1: or how come Misconny played twenty snaps? Whatever will they?
Speaker 1: Eighty nine was enough for everybody, and you know, but
Speaker 1: but they were up to all those challenges. I'm proud
Speaker 1: of him for that any moment ago. Obviously the numbers
Speaker 1: aren't there. Are there enough examples like you mentioned where
Speaker 1: he's affecting the play and they're not getting his stats. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know, you look with him. He hasn't
Speaker 1: finished a quarterback as well as we would like him too,
Speaker 1: as well as he would like to and and to
Speaker 1: be able to finish with getting those sacks. But he's
Speaker 1: been consistently around the quarterback and he's affected the quarterback
Speaker 1: when he's in there. Vinney gives great effort. He's really
Speaker 1: a tough player, you know, and sometimes he and be
Speaker 1: you know, boling to China closet in a good way, um,
Speaker 1: you know. And he came through force when we needed
Speaker 1: him in that game. That was that was big. It's
Speaker 1: hard to get pressure with three guys. He was able
Speaker 1: to get pressure. Floated that ball up and you know,
Speaker 1: I had you talked about slow motion. That ball was
Speaker 1: in the air for about a half hour. I thought
Speaker 1: I thought Terrence was gonna have to fair catch it. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, you see so much when you're when
Speaker 1: you're looking at those plays and you know you're feeling
Speaker 1: the quarterback and you see the ball go up and
Speaker 1: you see the flash at that player sort of look
Speaker 1: like he's open, and then to get that play at
Speaker 1: the end, and he had a lot to do with that.
Speaker 1: You've mostly at these types of questions, but there was
Speaker 1: a coach fire today. Um, you've obviously been in that
Speaker 1: chair before. Uh As it relates even too, you know
Speaker 1: dug in here. I mean, don't coaches need more than
Speaker 1: one two years to to to be judged properly in
Speaker 1: terms of how they're going to change things? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that's that's probably a question for people other
Speaker 1: than um, other than me. Um, But the NFL has
Speaker 1: changed that way. I mean I've been I think this
Speaker 1: is my twenty fourth year. Um, you know, things things
Speaker 1: that there is there is certainly a more UM, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I can't really think it the best word
Speaker 1: to use there, but there's more immediacy to is that
Speaker 1: a word? Immediacy? Is it? If there is? If it is,
Speaker 1: we just invented it. Or if there isn't we just
Speaker 1: invented it. Um? You know, and I think that um,
Speaker 1: you know that does that does play into it. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's important to be able to stay on track.
Speaker 1: But you know, and but I think it all goes
Speaker 1: hand in hand. I mean, I was, I was thinking
Speaker 1: about this the other day. He used to be when
Speaker 1: you drafted a quarterback, um, and I go back to
Speaker 1: my childhood, and the adage was it takes five years
Speaker 1: to learn how to play quarterback. In the NFL, you know,
Speaker 1: the guy carried a clipboard for a couple of years
Speaker 1: he was to back up, and you know, the coaches
Speaker 1: didn't even let the guy play. I mean, coaches hated rookies.
Speaker 1: You know, there was an adage that you know, every
Speaker 1: rookie you had, you were going to lose a game.
Speaker 1: And you know rookies, rookies were like scorn. They wanted
Speaker 1: veteran players. They wanted ten year vets. And that was
Speaker 1: the way the NFL was. Well, now you draft quarterback,
Speaker 1: they gotta played pretty quick. If they don't play the
Speaker 1: first year, they got to play the second year. You
Speaker 1: can't draft a guy and put them on the bench
Speaker 1: for five years. And the way the salary cap works
Speaker 1: and everything else, you're gonna have to u You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to get guys on the field quickly. Schemes have
Speaker 1: changed a lot, particularly defensive schemes in the NFL. Because
Speaker 1: of that, you've got to compartmentalize stuff to get guys
Speaker 1: up to speed quick you know, it's funny. I think
Speaker 1: offense has probably got a little bit more complex with
Speaker 1: different personnel groups and things like that, but defense has
Speaker 1: maybe been a little bit more streamlined. But I would
Speaker 1: say coaching probably falls into that same you know, that
Speaker 1: same scenario. Everything happens a lot faster now. You know,
Speaker 1: there's no you know, five year, five year building plan.
Speaker 1: You know that doesn't exist, you know. I mean I
Speaker 1: think and I think that's just you know, that's just signed.
Speaker 1: I mean, it all goes hand in hand and it's
Speaker 1: just where we are as a league. And um, I
Speaker 1: think free agency and your ability to to change a team.
Speaker 1: I mean probably back in the seventies you couldn't change
Speaker 1: the team that quickly. You didn't have free agency, you
Speaker 1: had draft picks, so it took a longer time to
Speaker 1: build a team. So, um, you know, it does provide
Speaker 1: some challenges, but that's just a you know, that's just
Speaker 1: a scenario we live in and we work in your
Speaker 1: corners were very physical Thursday night. I know they gave
Speaker 1: up a lot of yards, but were you pretty happy
Speaker 1: with the way they played. Yeah, there were a couple
Speaker 1: of big plays. You know. No one made not only
Speaker 1: a big breakup on the fourth down play, but made
Speaker 1: a big tackle on the third down. And during ten
Speaker 1: there was a there was a big play that was
Speaker 1: what it was one it was a little bit longer
Speaker 1: and I think it was it was after the fourth
Speaker 1: down that. Um. Anyway, we held him to a field
Speaker 1: goal there and we needed to. Like I said, it
Speaker 1: wasn't just say they were throwing a lot of quick passes,
Speaker 1: a lot of short underneath passes, and you better be
Speaker 1: a good tackling team. Um, you know when that happens,
Speaker 1: because the other side of that, if you want to
Speaker 1: challenge every little thing, you're going to be susceptible to
Speaker 1: a lot of big plays. And um, you know, we
Speaker 1: needed to make tackles. I thought our safeties also did
Speaker 1: a good job of getting that. We got a little
Speaker 1: loose at times. You know, some of those guys are
Speaker 1: tough matchups, and you know, I wouldn't want to go
Speaker 1: out there and try to tackle uh Odell. He's he's
Speaker 1: he's hard to handle that way sometimes, but um, it's
Speaker 1: all about the point you give up. I'd like to
Speaker 1: avoid that one touchdown, but um, you know, our red
Speaker 1: zone defense sort of came through and it we gave
Speaker 1: up a lot of yards, but that was you know,
Speaker 1: I know that people don't like to hear, but that
Speaker 1: was that was a very stereotypical Ben. But don't break
Speaker 1: performance and game. When a guy is has the effort
Speaker 1: and isn't getting there, what do you tell him as
Speaker 1: far as I mean, because you guys can get frustrated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but that but that goes for not just
Speaker 1: rushing the passer. That can go from you know, being
Speaker 1: a linebacker and trying to make tackles or being a
Speaker 1: dB and trying to make interceptions. The second that you
Speaker 1: start playing out of the scheme, the second that you start, um,
Speaker 1: you know, cheating to try to make a play, you're
Speaker 1: going to hurt the whole defense. And then he hasn't
Speaker 1: done that this year. He's key. He's kept on coming
Speaker 1: and um, you know I said we'd like his production
Speaker 1: to be better. He'd probably like his production, and I
Speaker 1: don't know he's like his production. He's a very very
Speaker 1: prideful guy. And um, but like I said, he's he's
Speaker 1: found a way to contribute, and I think this was
Speaker 1: a good example of it. He didn't get outside of himself,
Speaker 1: he didn't get outside of the scheme. He just kept
Speaker 1: plugging away. And what he did he found a way
Speaker 1: to help us make the play to won the game.
Speaker 1: All right, guy,