Here's everything Houston Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke said Thursday ahead of Week 2's matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, including his thoughts on the Bengals' wide receiver room, Joe Burrow's athleticism, life without Henry To'oTo'o and more.
Question: On cleaning up mistakes in coverage
Matt Burke: “It was a technique thing more than anything. I wouldn't say we had just a lot of straight busts in terms of like guys not in sort of spots where they need to be. It was leverage stuff. It was some technique issues. It's been a huge focus this week and getting back to trying to play the type of football that we're used to playing. It's a new week. We're moving forward. We had to really spend some time making sure we're addressing
what we saw to make sure that we don't put that performance out there again.”
Q: On how the defense has responded to the Week 1 performance
Burke: “I feel like the guys responded well. There's obviously a lot of pride in that room and with that group. To a man, everyone almost was trying to shoulder the blame saying, ‘I was the reason this happened. I didn't do this.’ I was like, ‘Hey, man, we're all in this together.’ I think the mindset approach of that, guys really are taking it upon themselves to where can I improve and make sure that I'm not the one that's letting the defense down or letting the team down. I feel like there's been a really good focus on preparation this week. They've been really locked in. I think they're itching to get back out there and show what they're really made of.”
Q: On whether the Buffalo Bills surprised the defense with new plays
Burke: “I wouldn't say that. I don't think there was a ton of un-scouted stuff that hit us. When we were getting some of the things that we were expecting to see, most of the plays we had seen or scouted, but it was sort of in the timings and the volumes of things that we were getting. I thought the guys did a good job at halftime of settling down a little bit. We came back out in the second half and put ourselves in a position to have the last drive to win the game, which we expect to close that game out when we got a lead with a couple minutes left. I thought they did do a good job of once we settled down, that we kind of turned it around a little bit in the second half and I'd like to close that game out there and correct the same mistakes from a win. But I think we'll hopefully put a better show out there this week.”
Q: On CB Kamari Lassiter in practice this week
Burke: “Yeah, he’s great. He's back to being Kamari. Like I said, I feel like that was to a man, there were probably seven, eight guys coming up to me. I felt like it was me. I didn't prepare you guys well or I didn't do this. Everyone was like, ‘I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry.’ There were like a lot of guys trying to take ownership of what happened. And again, it's not that. It's never that. It's a collective. For Kamari he's been bouncing around. There's not a lot to message. He's a great player. I expect him to make great plays and to do great things this year. He's going to perform the way he needs to perform.”
Q: On S Reed Blankenship playing in a new system
Burke: “It's everybody. It's communication and him playing techniques that, again, it's not just singling him out. Everyone has to play the techniques that we're asking them to play and play with the leverage or play be in the spots where you're supposed to be. You can probably ask me about every single player on the defense, it's probably the same answer. We've all got to tighten up our focus, our techniques and what we're doing and what we're asking them to do and go see what that looks like.”
Q: On how the Buffalo Bills slowed down the pass rush
Burke: "They committed a lot of resources to it, which they should. I don't think there was a ton of true drop back pass in that game. There were a lot of chips, they didn't leave edges open. They were committing six, seven, eight guys to the protectionary play. That was their plan of attack. We need to have answers to help get our guys loose in some of those situations. I think we tweaked a couple things in the second half that kind of started getting some loose. We had a little bit more pressure, a little bit more of interior stuff working when we got going into the game. They committed a lot of resources to make sure that those guys didn't wreck the game like they did last year.”
Q: On what he has seen from the Cincinnati Bengals offense
Burke: “They're good players. Quarterback's really good. Operating at a high level. He can throw it open. He can make every throw in the book. He's really impressive, obviously, with a lot of weapons. Everyone knows about the receivers and what they're about. [TE Mike] Gesicki has a different element. A really tall, long receiving guy on the inside part of the field. I feel like maybe people have talked about it, but I have a lot of respect for the backs, man. Number 30 [RB Chase Brown], I didn't have a lot of history with him in terms of knowing what he's about. But watching the tape, he really jumps out. He runs hard. He's north-south. Everyone's so concerned about dropping and getting underneath all the deep passing game that when he gets going in space, we have to be sure that we're not letting him get loose either. A lot of really good players on that team.”
On whether he expects teams to copy the Buffalo Bills offensive attack
Burke: "I'm sure there are elements of everything. We saw stuff from Buffalo that Denver tried to do to us last year. There's always going to be a copycat league and there's always going to be things that are taken. Every team's personnel is different, so not everyone can operate the same way that a Buffalo does or that a Cincinnati does. They're going to have their own twists on how they want to do things. We know every week going into whatever game we're playing that people are going to be worried about our rush and they're going to have whatever their version of a plan is to try to manipulate the rush and slow it down. Whether it's getting the ball out quick or whether it's chipping or whether it's max protect, whatever their version of that is, like, we know we have to have a plan for that. From a philosophical standpoint, I would say that's something that we prepare for every week, but it looks different because not everyone has the same people or bodies or personnel to do some of the things that other teams do.”
Q: On LB Jake Hansen
Burke: “He's been here for that long, you talk about trying to have someone that, not to stereotype Jake, but I think everyone's going to say he's, ‘This or that athletically or whatever.’ But he’s a guy that's always in the right spot that knows the system. We just talked about being where you're supposed to be and doing the right things and being the right leverage. He's a guy that has grown in that role and embraced that. The guys played multiple positions for us in his time here. I would say he's been a pretty reliable player for us.”
Q: On whether he feels Week 1 was humbling
Burke: “Of course. Anytime you get beat and give up a lot of points. I would say that's been one of our worst performances in the last few years. I would hope there's a humbling factor to that. But every week's different. We're trying to really control what we can control, which is focusing on getting better this week and game planning what we want to do. We have another really good offense. If we're going to be sitting here crying over spilled milk, that game's done, we can't do anything about it. If we're distracted by that, then we're probably not going to look as good this week either because we have a really good offense coming to town. The task for us as coaches and the players was to correct what we need to correct from that game. Is there stuff that may be show up again that we have answers for as it happens throughout the season? We have to a really good offense that have to prepare to shut down this week and it's going to take all our focus to do that. I think that's kind of been what we've tried to lean on.”
Q: On Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow’s skillset
Burke: “There are some quarterbacks to where if you think your coverage takes something away that they won't throw it, he'll still throw it. He trusts his arm. He trusts the receivers for sure. You may think, ‘I'm clouding here. I'm rolling covers a certain way. Just by my presence, I'm taking this away, but that's not true here. You can't think that the coverage is necessarily even dictating where throws are going to go. Sometimes you can do that where we're putting seven guys over here and you're not throwing that side, you have to throw over here. Well, he doesn't care. He'll still think he can fit throws in. He probably makes more hole shots than any quarterback in the league, he can because he has the arm to do it and he trusts those guys to be in the right spot. I think you can't relax in that stuff where you sometimes think you might you have a down off, but like, I'm getting the coverage leaning to me or I'm getting favored by this call here. Well, that doesn't matter for him because he can make the throws and he believes he can make it and he trusts those guys to go make plays for him. We really have to be on our techniques and in our leverage and where we need to be because he'll certainly make you pay, if not. Even if you are sometimes. Not to go back to last week, but we had an opportunity to make some plays. We'll have some opportunities probably to make some plays. There’s going to be some balls thrown up that it's going to be them versus us and we have to go make those plays.”
Q: On not tackling in Training Camp and how that affects the regular season
Burke: “We try to train tackling without taking guys to the ground. How do you do that? You don't want to be sitting there banging, taking your players to the ground every play in practice in an OTA. A lot of it's about tracking and just trying to get to the angles of those things. I would probably say that's probably a fairly universal thing throughout the years in the league in terms of early in the season, you just haven't been able to have the opportunity to do those things. We try to stress getting to the right points, being in the right spot, tracking and being on the hip and then just the finishing part. I don't think that's our problem in terms of being physical when we get to the point of attack. As long as we're getting there and getting the right angles and taking the right leverage to get to those spots I feel like we'll be all right.”
Q: On DE Jadeveon Clowney
Burke: “Probably one of the encouraging things from last week. I thought ‘JD’ played really well. Obviously had the sack, had some production, had a couple pressures. He's a savvy football player. He's done it for a long time. He has a really just good feel for the game. When it shows up on game days, he's just got a knack for kind of being in the right spot and making some plays. Sometimes it's unorthodox, but he's always making those plays. It doesn't always look the same as maybe Will [Anderson Jr.] or [DE] Danielle [Hunter] or something, but he just kind of finds a way to be in the right spot and affect the play. He's such a unique athlete. He affected the game in a positive way, I would say.”
Q: On how schemes that work against the defense can benefit down the line
Burke: “You always have to have those conversations. Honestly, I would say third down wasn't our problem. It's probably the one area statistically that we were decent. We just couldn't get them to third down. Some of that stuff was showing up on earlier downs. Some of the volume, where some of the plays were showing up were not in some of the situations maybe that we were anticipating. You always have to have contingencies for what's going on. As you move through the season, that bank of information grows. As you build out, ‘This is how we're attacking this week. This is how this team saw us this week.’ As you sort of build that bank of as we go through the season, if this comes up in Week 8, we have some answers for it and how do we plan to mitigate those situations.”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans DC Matt Burke said ahead of Week 2's matchup vs. Bengals
