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New Orleans Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Has there been an emphasis on tackling this week after Monday’s game?

“We’ve talked a little bit about it. Some of the comments that I’ve heard or seen are that they’re repeating some of the things they’ve heard in the room, which is good because they’re listening to you. Another thing is when you get into a game like that, when you play a Monday night game, which was our first national, big-time game, all day long they’re pretty fired up and you have to go through the emotions of playing too hard, playing too fast and you have to do a better job of just squeezing. We have to do a better job of squeezing. Outside of the very last one where everybody kind of thought he was down where he squirted, a large part of that was guys that were super excited and trying to make a blow-up hit as opposed to making a solid tackle and letting the rest of us swarm and take the ball away. Our guys are doing a good job, though, and you guys have watched early on from May throughout training camp and we’re going to work hard at stripping the football. I think our last three fumbles that we’ve caused have been directly related to touchdowns where we’ve either scored a touchdown or our offense has a short field. A lot has been made of the interceptions. I said this early on that this was a good football team, they just maybe had to have a stick put in certain parts of their body to play a little harder in certain places to where we’re able to take interceptions and score touchdowns. But usually in the turnover battle, when you’re getting an interception on defense or you’re getting a fumble, usually a fumble helps your field position better than an interception does, but it’s fun to watch this football team because they think that every single time they touch it that they can score because that’s how we practice.”

Does your lack of healthy depth at defensive tackle right now force you to go to more 3-4 than 4-3?

“No, it really doesn’t. I was thinking about this and talked about it in our meetings with our coaches today that we’ll never complain about depth around here. The age of a player, the youth of a player, the status of a player – that’s who we have. We have to have a plan set up; we have to have a method of playing defense set up regardless of who’s healthy or who’s not. That won’t change it at all. We’ll do that based upon what we think is the best plan for a team. For instance, when we went into the Buffalo game we thought about playing three down the whole day and we went in that way. Now I have been in games where once we’re in the game and you have secondary guys hurt you have to change your plans or you have linebackers hurt and you have to change your plan, you have defensive linemen hurt and you can’t pull them off the non-dressed list and put them out there – they won’t let you do that at halftime. But it won’t change on how we approach this game.”

If DeMario Pressley becomes a backup plan, have you seen growth from him?

“I saw a lot of growth from him. We haven’t made that decision yet because we have so many other people and other packages that we’re looking at. But a really good game to take a look at him – and I really needed to see this out of him – was that last preseason game when he played against the Dolphins, he played lights out. He really played lights out. To tell you the truth, I was holding my breath that he would make it through and we could get him back on the practice squad. I thought we had really messed up because we put him out there and he played really well enough to where if somebody really would’ve been looking, he’s a lot better than what a lot of guys are playing with in this league. He’s a lot better than a lot of guys that are playing in this league.

“He’s a good player here. He has worked very hard. Every day is an interview. One of the things here is that this is a really good locker room. I think Sean (Payton) and Mickey (Loomis) have really done a good job of – as Sean puts it – waters the garden in the locker room. When a guy is injured and a guy is put on IR, in other places that I’ve been, you never see him again. Sometimes you never see him on your team again if you don’t have him back the next year. Every guy we have that’s a Saint is in every meeting, working their tail off and trying to find ways to win. If they’re young and in that meeting, I assign projects to these guys and they do a lot of self-scouting projects for us. They do a lot of things of where they’re trying to help – I’m trying to teach them how to be a ballplayer – they’re losing all the reps on the field but yet they’re also studying the vet who’s playing and although they’re on IR, they’re helping us win. I think that’s real good and the practice squad guys have done that too. Danny Gorrer came back in here last night and we had a chance to see him because St. Louis is on the bye week. It was nice to hear him say, ‘Coach, I shocked them up there because of how we practice. They thought I practiced too fast.’ I said, ‘Impossible. It’s impossible to practice too fast. Don’t listen to them, they’re trying to get you cut’.”

How are you using your linebacker rotation right now? I’ve noticed Marvin Mitchell has been working his way in there.

“You’ll see “Mitch” in there. He’s a load. He’s kind of a hybrid middle linebacker-will linebacker that also can be a rush linebacker and we’ve used him. His opportunity has because Scott (Fujita) has been down. In the same game that I talked about in the preseason with DeMario against Miami, Jo-Lonn (Dunbar) would’ve won the Heisman Trophy in that game. He played very well in the preseason. And Troy (Evans) has played fantastic. And you guys don’t get a chance to see it, but (Jonathan) Casillas has come a long ways too. Every single day, our coaching staff coaches the bottom guy on the roster like he’s an All-Pro going to the Pro Bowl because you never know with the depth issues. When we’re getting some mid-season reps and quality play out of guys and winning games…this is a game of attrition. This is a long march to postseason play, if you get a chance to play in the postseason, and these reps from back in April and May and June and now in live completion are vital reps. If we ever have to play the guys later on, I have no qualms about these guys knowing what to do.”

Are you familiar with the troubles that the Saints have had with Steve Smith?

“Yeah I am, and I’ve had the same issues too. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve gone against those guys. He’s an unbelievable football player. I wanted to draft him when I was the head coach of the Bills but obviously he came off the board before I had a chance to do that. In fact, his receiver coach in college was my receiver coach at the Buffalo Bills. I knew him inside and out but we couldn’t convince our personnel people to move him up the list to take him sooner. Our receiver coach up there and I wanted him a lot sooner than he was taken by anybody in the league, but he had a couple of health issues coming out. But he’s an unbelievable football player. He does things that obviously you can’t coach. He’s in a system where they’re going to do two or three things that we haven’t even seen on film where they’re going to try to scheme a big play to him. They try to walk down the path with them. Last week they did it; last week they threw one of those plays where they acted like they were going to run it and then they threw it to him on a short hitch, he nods and he goes right on by them. They do a lot of things like that. He’s so explosive. The thing that I think he does is the best is that for a little guy, when the ball goes up in the air, he plays like a 6-10 center; he goes and gets it. What you have to do is to turn his little body over so that when he does get it, he lands on his head and he doesn’t come back in for a while.”

Do you like both of your corners’ ability to match up against him?

“Yes. Both of those guys have played well. Our corner play has been outstanding. We’re not afraid of putting our corners out there. There will be some plays that he makes and there will be some plays that we make. We just have to hope that it’s not a point-producing play that he makes. The fun part of coaching here is that you’re not afraid of this offense not scoring some points if you do make a mistake. So as I talk about all the time, if you want to live on the edge, play on the edge. That’s our way of playing. I learned that a long time ago from Buddy Ryan – live on the edge, play on the edge. Sometimes in my coaching career I couldn’t do that. I’ve been in places where you had win 12-10 to feel good about it. You had to win 3-2 and feel good about it. Here, you don’t have to worry about that kind of stuff. So our corners are going to make their plays and also they’ll be in a position to where there’s a talent like him and he may make his plays.”

What has Will Smith meant to the emergence of your defense this year?

“A healthy Will Smith has done it. Last year – I wasn’t here, but it was my understanding that he sucked it up and played most of the season with a groin injury that slowed him down. He’s a lot better football player than I gave him credit for when I came in here. When I was looking at the film from the end of the year, I thought that he was a good football player but I didn’t know that he was hurt. I watched the film and thought he was a good player, but I’ve had good players and now all of a sudden he’s healthy and he’s a really good football player. Again, I’m a better coach with those kinds of players. I get way too much credit for it. Those guys are good players. And he has been a really good mentor to (Anthony) Hargrove; he’s been an excellent mentor. As good a player as he is, behind the scenes he’s just as strong of a leader. And he’s also probably has the moniker in the locker room of being the most stubborn and hard-headed player on the defense. Usually really good football players have that about them; they have that stubbornness about them. You have to learn how to manage that and cope with that kind of thing too as a coach. I like the fact that he’s that way and I like the fact that I have to challenge myself to be on perfect form for him to listen. There are lots of ways to get him to listen; there are lots of ways to irritate him, cajole him, pat him, most of the time irritate him to get him to get him to listen to you.”

Are you working Malcolm Jenkins back into the mix on defense?

“As he gets healthy. He’s had a good week. Last week he started to look like the old Malcolm and this week he has had a really good week. So yes, we will start to do that more. And it has nothing to do with his draft status. It’s because of his ability. When he earns the right to get on the field, it’s because of how he’s practicing and how he’s performing on a consistent basis. No matter how good your ability is, your teammates have to get used to how they play beside you. They don’t know how to help him, they don’t know how he’ll sit on a route. They don’t know how to play their responsibilities because they can’t trust him. That’s the practice that he has to be out there healthy and going through every day so they can get a feel for him. He has done very well here last week and this week.”

What are your thoughts on preparing for a quarterback like Jake Delhomme who has had great games and terrible games this year?

“Again, it doesn’t make a difference if it was young (Matthew) Stafford or young (Mark) Sanchez or an experienced Delhomme or whoever it is, what we focus on more is what we’re supposed to do. I learned that from Buddy Ryan. If we understand what we’re supposed to do it shouldn’t matter and then we play their offense and we play their concepts. We play their protections and then if we can get a tip off of a mannerism or a bad habit or a good habit that a guy does, then we’ll try to steal something. So really, if a quarterback is playing up or down, I don’t know that we change our style of play. It really can’t affect us, because that’s when you really open the door to playing bad on defense. I see a lot of bad defenses being played in the National Football League now at times and I’m wondering if they’re coaching that or if they’re allowing that to happen. Here, we don’t coach it nor do we allow it to happen. If they don’t do it the way we tell them to do it, they can come over and get into coaching early. Like I say, they can stand beside me because we’ll find somebody else that can do it right.”

New Orleans Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams press conference transcript