On what the defense needs to improve on:
"I think the thing that you have to do to be an outstanding defense is
you cannot give up big plays. When you do, you're going to give up a lot of
yards. When you give up a lot of big plays, you're going to give up a lot of
big points. This offense (the spread offense), it takes patience because if
you don’t have patience, you end up with people over committed and then
you give up big plays. We, in terms of becoming the kind of defense that we
want to be, begin with eliminating big plays. That’s first and foremost.
How do you do that? You keep the ball inside and in front of the defense. Inside
and in front! People have assignments and responsibilities. If they don’t
execute those, you're going to give up big plays. You give up big plays, you're
going to give up a lot of points. You're going to end up in shootouts IF you
can score a lot of points. When you get into shootouts, the statistics tell
you that you're going to win about half the time. So I would prefer not to be
in shoot outs."
On Pierre Woods:
“Pierre has been held…he’s had nagging injuries primarily
to developing his strength because he’s not been able to lift and do some
of the things. He’s had some injuries that have impacted his playing time
and his performance. Now he’s had a very good winter and we’ll just
have to see.”
On whether their defensive struggles are scheme or individual:
"Well it’s all of those. You have to tackle better, and that’s
a challenge because some of these guys are such great athletes that when you
get people spread out, now you're isolated as a defender. Which means you're
going to be asked to make tackles in the open field… and it’s not
like 25 years ago where there were two or three backs in the backfield where
everyone is bunched together. It’s a much different game. Today, somebody
asked a question about athleticism and speed. That’s why everyone is looking
for the same thing. They look for guys that can run and guys that can tackle.
But there are still human beings out there playing. I’ve never met a football
player on defense that didn’t miss a tackle. What we have to learn to
do in terms of preventing big plays is if were going to miss a tackle, you've
got to know WHERE to miss it to. If you're on the perimeter you got to miss
the tackle inside… outside if you're close to the sidelines so he gets
out of bounds. If you let the ball outside the defense, you're going to give
up big plays. When you give up big plays…you know the rest."