Here is everything Houston Texansdefensive coordinator Matt Burke said ahead of Houston’s Week 9 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, including emphasizing tackling drills in practice, facing a desperate team this weekend and how the defense stays calm after their start to the season.
Question: On the tackling drills being an emphasis in practice
Matt Burke: “As we had time to reflect on some things, I think just really putting a re-emphasis on things. Obviously, we haven't been good enough in terms of tackling. We got a lot of smirks from the guys. I hope [DE] Will [Anderson Jr.] was sincere, but we sort of broke it down to the basics. We literally like wrap squeezing and like emphasizing some of those things and had another circuit today.
It’s sort of on us to try to change some things that we're doing to see if we get some different results. Hopefully we see the fruits of our labors on Sunday.”
Q: On the difference in styles between his and Head Coach DeMeco Ryans playcalling
Burke: “I know what you're saying, but I don't know if that would manifest itself in the way you would call a play. I guess sometimes you would say some coaches are more aggressive in terms of how they call things or not. I think because we work through the plan of attack and as there's constant conversation, I think you see coaching styles more in how you're interacting with players and how you're communicating and those sort of things. I don't know, I think it would be interesting if you ask him, if he saw something differently. I don't know that the act of calling out the play is different from a from a stylistic standpoint. Again, like we've talked about, I think it's just maybe you have certain tendencies in terms of, again, it'd be more of like where you feel comfortable from a pressure standpoint, aggression or playing more coverage versus not and those sort of things. I'm not sure if we've kind of like sorted out the body work enough to really go through that. If we did, I wouldn’t give you any indicators."
Q: On whether he see’s a trend in the explosive plays the defense has given up
Burke: “I would say not necessarily in terms of like, it'd be a lot easier if it's like this is the one thing that's kind of getting us. It's always like, ‘We have to fix this right here.’ Obviously, the last game there was some tackling stuff that some of the run game that that got out. Our run game has been pretty good and pretty solid then all of a sudden we give up untimely explosives in the run game that were mainly missed tackles. I think part of the Bye Week stuff's been also going back just like, ‘What do we do well?’ Right or wrong, players speak to you in terms of how execution is happening, how things are showing up, like what's consistent. Part of us examining in getting ready for this game is saying, ‘Okay, what have we shown that we're good at and the guys are good at?’ Let's try to like emphasize those things and let's kind of put us back in some of those spots. It would be a lot easier if it's like ‘There's one thing that's kind of getting us and we can just eliminate that.’ We’re just trying to get back to the techniques and finding out which techniques really work for the groups that we've got out there and let's try to go execute those.”
Q: On what changed from last season in terms of missed tackles
Burke: “They didn’t forget how to tackle, I would bark back on that. I don't know. It's probably a similar answer in terms of like, ‘It'd be easier just to say like this is what's happening.’ It's a lot of the same guys and stuff like that. It's not like there has been a ton of changeover. I would say the biggest thing for me would be like closing space. It's hard, there are good players in this league and there's good offensive players in this league. When you give guys a lot of space, whether that's in the run game, the pass game and you're having to go close that space to go make the tackle, that's hard. It's putting yourselves in harder positions. The more that we can close that space before you're having to make that tackle, I think those are sort of things that we can really get back to. There just seems to be a little bit more space in the ground than we want to have.”
Q: On how the defense gets back to swarming
Burke: “I know ‘ DeMeco Ryans] talked about it for sure. Everybody talks about identity and what we are and what we want to be recognized. Bye Week, trying to get back to some of our core fundamentals are like our play style is a way for a reason. Let's make sure that we're representing that properly.”
Q: On the alignment of the cornerbacks during pre-snap
Burke: “I think we'll put those guys in the best spots to make the plays that we want to make in those moments. I think in general, I wouldn't even say necessarily the press versus off as much as like, we want to be more disruptive on the perimeter. Whether that is pressing and getting up and putting hands on or if you're off, how you're catching or just again, it goes back to just all the techniques that we deploy. You can still be disruptive from an off position. You can still be disruptive from showing up and bailing, press bailing. You can press and stay up and try to get hands on it. That's not an easy position to play when you're just doing one thing all the time. We try to keep things fluid. I would say there's an emphasis on us being more disruptive everywhere in the back level.”
Q: On facing a team that is “desperate” for a win
Burke: “I'd say we're pretty desperate too. I think the defensive mindset, I never believe in chasing someone else's desperation. We have to play with our own desperation. We're not about trying to match somebody else's intensity. We hope they have to try to match ours. We're desperate to get our thing going and get back on track. But at the end of the day, especially this team, this offense that presents a lot of visual challenges in terms of their motions, how they're lining up with the talent they have at quarterback and everything else. Again, I know I sound like a broken record here, but like getting back to our fundamentals, ‘How do you beat that?’ You play proper technique. You get in the right positions. You close space so you can go make tackles when you need to make tackles. You can close space in the run game, all those things. I would say the Bye Week for us and leading into this week has just been like, let's really try to hone back in on our fundamentals and being right and being where we're supposed to be and doing the things we're supposed to do. It’s probably a good week forward in the sense of, I don't say it's a different offense every week, but they're going to present different formations, different challenges every week, motions every week. The plays that we've seen on tape, they are similar structures, but it's going to look different. To try to chase plays is not the week to do that. It's kind of ties into us really being about our business and being in the right spot and going to play some ball, our brand of ball.”
Q: On how the team stays calm
Burke: “It's not like, ‘Oh, we're up against it.’ I think the focus has been there. I think coming back that Monday, that little Monday practice we had coming off the Bye Week. It was nice to get away. Everyone got some candy and stuff, whatever they did this weekend. I do think there has just been a really renewed focus. Some of the things we're doing in practice in terms of tackling and just kind of getting back to some of the ways we practice, just trying to like more focused desperation. The urgency to be right and to be on top of everything and understand where our margins are and all those things. I've seen a really sharpened focus in terms of the last couple of days of practice, for sure. I think that's what we're hoping to manifest a little bit more on Sunday.”
Q: On having S Jalen Pitre in the lineup
Burke: “Just in general, we’re obviously excited to have him back out there. A weapon for us for all those reasons. He can match up. In terms of groups, base, nickel, other positions, it just kind of slots guys into it to what we want to do. We can do a lot more with him because of his ability to play in the run game and the pass game and all those things. And he’s a good tackler, is a good physical presence for us, a good blitzer. There's a whole list of things that ‘JP’ brings to the table for us. So excited to get him back out there. Honestly, just back to the swarming, his energy and his speed and all those things, the way he runs around out there is contagious as well, it's nice to have another element like that back out there for us.”
Q: On how the defense has taken their performance personally in the first half of the season
Burke: “We've had these conversations. There’s a fine line to me of like, ‘Oh, it's personal’, and ‘Woe is me’ and all this stuff. It's a prideful group. I think they know what they're capable of from a talent standpoint. It's probably just sort of regenerating itself into the focus. You can talk about that all you want, ‘Oh, this isn't us and we're this we're this defense and we're that.’ At the end of the day, you have to go out and play and you have to focus and play in and play out and do it. I think that's just been our task this week of like not worrying about all that stuff and not chasing what happened before the Bye and not chasing our record and not chasing wins. Go out, snap in, snap out, play your technique, put your eyes where it's supposed to be. Go run and hit like we know we can do. I think like the results will speak for themselves.”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans DC Matt Burke said ahead of Week 9 game vs Chargers
