00:00Zach, thanks for coming on, man.
00:01We really appreciate it.
00:03Yeah, I appreciate you guys.
00:04So, Zach, I guess just looking at the tape from this past weekend,
00:08obviously not the defensive performance that I'm sure you had envisioned,
00:12what did you see and what was the first thing that stood out
00:17that you said, you know, we've got to fix that next week?
00:21Yeah, I think we've just got to be a little more connected on the field there,
00:24some better communication.
00:25I think we can coach things a little bit better.
00:27I think it starts with there.
00:30And, you know, get our players a little more connected,
00:34knowing where guys are going to be at, you know, better communication.
00:39You know, we've got to clean some things up.
00:40We've got to go back to work.
00:41I thought today was a great day of practice.
00:44Really harped on that stuff.
00:45Those guys were loud.
00:46They were into it.
00:47There was a lot of energy, a lot of juice.
00:49And excited to work throughout this week in Germany.
00:53Hey, Zach, speaking of that connection and communication,
00:55I'm sure it's easier said than done, right?
00:57You watch these games just as an outsider.
00:59And there's so much stuff going on pre-snap movement and, like, late calls.
01:03And I'm sure there's a certain point where you can't talk to your guys with the green dot anymore.
01:08Like, let us in there.
01:09How tough is it for communication to be excellent on each side of the ball?
01:14Yeah, it's always a challenge, especially, you know, at home when it's loud and whatnot.
01:19But even outside, you know, crowd noise and everything like that.
01:22Yeah, the communication from me to the green dot, the green dot to everybody else.
01:27Okay, shoot, they're breaking the huddle.
01:28Hey, we've got to talk through this, talk through that.
01:30And at some point, you know, we've just got to stick with what we're out,
01:33with what we call out there and just, you know, go play ball.
01:36If we're trying to make too many adjustments late in the down, you know, it can get tough.
01:41You know, every play has its challenge.
01:45You know, not every call is perfect for every play.
01:48And we just got to fight through those tough ones.
01:50So, Zach, Christian Gonzalez, obviously one of the best in the game in his position.
01:54He had statistically one of the worst games that you could have as a corner.
01:59It's, you know, I think it shocked a lot of us.
02:01Why do you think that was?
02:02Why do you think Christian Gonzalez had such an off game on Sunday?
02:07Well, yeah, I'm sure he probably doesn't think that's his best.
02:10Obviously, you know, I think everybody needed to play better that game.
02:15I also want to dogpile Christian here.
02:18You know, there's some things, too, on that film.
02:20I know, you know, fans and people don't get to see or know what the insides of each call is,
02:28right,
02:28to where it's not always 100% on him.
02:30I know sometimes he's around the ball, and it's easy to say, oh, that must have been on Gonzo
02:35because he was near it.
02:37Were there some plays he wanted to have back?
02:38Absolutely.
02:41And, you know, again, it's hard to put this game, each play, on one person.
02:48Like, you know, he loses a man coverage rep.
02:50Yeah, I get it, man.
02:51You know, we got to try to make as many of those plays as we can as possible.
02:55But when you combine all 11, whether it be the communication or the execution from up front to the back
03:00end,
03:00back end to up front, we got to do a better job of just complementing each other.
03:04And we say all the time, hey, the front's got to make the DBs look good,
03:07and the DB's got to make the front look good.
03:09And we got to be connected in doing that.
03:11We got to have some chemistry.
03:12And we got to go out there, you know, and execute for each other.
03:16On the turnover front, the takeaway front, Zach,
03:18how close do you guys feel you are as a unit of getting a couple of those?
03:21I know Christian had one that was called back on the penalty, but how close are you?
03:26Yeah, I would say, you know, we fire our ass off every day at practice for them.
03:31You know, we practice every day.
03:34And, you know, we just got to be in great spots.
03:37You know, there were some opportunities out there that I think if we had executed just a little bit better,
03:42we would have made those.
03:44Again, it's just about understanding what the concept is and where we need to be.
03:49And, again, you know, communicating to each other to help us put in some better positions to make that.
03:56But, yeah, I would say, you know, we like to think we're always close,
03:58and we had a bunch of attempts as far as hammering the ball.
04:01You know, we got one out on the sideline, but one out of bounds with Jacobs.
04:05But, you know, we just got to keep hunting, keep hunting takeaways, and hopefully they come our way.
04:09So, Zach, I want to ask you about something that has gotten a lot of talk over the past couple
04:14of weeks
04:14about the Patriots defense.
04:15It's kind of a Jekyll and Hyde type thing, and that is that if you take a look at the
04:21success this team has had
04:22using man coverage versus zone, man, you're one of the best in the entire league defensively.
04:27But zone, the team is one of the worst in the entire league when you look at what the rank
04:32is.
04:33Why does this team have that huge difference between the two,
04:38and why does the team continue to run a decent amount of zone when man seems to be most effective?
04:49Okay, for the first part there, I mean, yeah, I think we have really good man cover corners,
04:54and, you know, I haven't updated looking at the updated stats the past week,
05:01but I know before that we were the number two most man coverage team in the league.
05:06Yep, you were.
05:07So it's not like, you know, we're not calling it.
05:10But, I mean, this past weekend, you know, just, you know,
05:15it just wasn't our best at any coverage we were really in.
05:17But, you know, we have really good man cover corners.
05:20But, again, now, like our teams are seeing, man, these guys are a man all the time,
05:23and they have a lot of man beaters.
05:25But just the second part of that question, like, you know,
05:27you look at the number one man team in the league at least two weeks ago,
05:31I believe it was Cleveland, and, you know, that percentage of pass plays and coverage was 48%.
05:40So, you know, you can't play the whole game and, man, 100, you know,
05:43the number one team in the league is playing, man, at under half of the snaps.
05:48You know, you got to play zone.
05:50You do.
05:50You have to.
05:51One, just for giving the guys a blow here and there,
05:54just going to be running, chasing the go routes every play, or just, you know,
05:58they know what they're getting.
05:58They're going to pick us.
06:01And we just have to execute the zones better.
06:03I mean, we have to be more connected in the front end, the back end.
06:07You know, when we get opportunities to go rush, we got to go rush.
06:09We got to win.
06:10All right.
06:11And then we got, you know, if I'm not winning, I got to match the hand of the quarterback,
06:14potentially tip a ball up in the air.
06:16You know, that helps the coverage.
06:17It helps potentially takeaways.
06:19You know, we got to do a better job of getting our hands on guys and zone coverages
06:24and just continuing to work it.
06:26I mean, you know, there's two things you can do.
06:29You can continue to work it, or you can, you know, start brand new
06:33and try to find something else new.
06:34And now you have to continue to work through that as you go through that.
06:37So we just got to get back to the basics when it comes to the zone coverage stuff
06:40and, you know, keep being who we are in man coverage.
06:43When you look at Detroit, Zach, obviously a tough challenge.
06:45What stands out about their offense that you're going up against here?
06:50Yeah.
06:50I mean, they're a complete offense.
06:52They have a great offensive line.
06:54They have a number one overall draft pick quarterback that sees the field extremely well.
06:59He's extremely efficient.
07:00He plays well within that system, understands the run game checks and the play action checks
07:05and what he's getting, has seen a lot of disguises and knows what to get into.
07:10You know, the running back is what he leads the league in touches
07:14and all-purpose yards and explosive runs and forced missed tackles.
07:19You know, Gibbs is probably one of the better players in the NFL.
07:23Goes through him.
07:24And then, okay, you say, all right, let's stop Gibbs.
07:27And, okay, here comes J-Mo running over the top.
07:29And then you got St. Brown, who literally can do everything and route you up
07:33and get dirty in the run game.
07:35And Laporta, same thing, gets dirty in the run game.
07:38He can attack you in the passing game.
07:41They play hard.
07:41They play physical.
07:43You know, it's going to be like a similar identity game.
07:46Like, you know, these guys, they're going to play their asses off.
07:50And they're very talented and they're well-balanced, both in run, pass,
07:55and their talent from skill groups to big skill to the bigs.
08:00Well, Zach, good luck this weekend.
08:02Hopefully you guys can right the ship.
08:04And, I mean, one thing we know about this team,
08:06they bounce back after a bad loss.
08:08So, I mean, let's hope that the track record remains consistent this weekend
08:12when you guys play out there in Germany.
08:15Yeah, excited for the challenge.
08:17I appreciate you guys having me on.
