Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. addressed the media before practice on Dec. 19. Here is a full transcript of the press conference.
Opening Statement:
"Alright, first off, we'll start with the New Orleans game. You never apologize for a win. It wasn't the way that we wanted it to be, but like DQ [Head Coach Dan Quinn] talked about, you need to be put in some hard moments. The last play was a good play, a good winning play. It shouldn't have got to it though. We had some opportunities within the game. I think we dropped two interceptions. We had a couple penalties that kept the drives going and points were at a premium in that situation. But it was learning moments. It's easier to come off of a victory and be more demanding after you get a victory. We're 9-5, that's a good place for us to be and we're trending in the right direction. As you looked in the New Orleans game, I thought [CB] Marshon [Lattimore] played really, really well. I mean, he wasn't targeted, that shows the respect that they have for him because they see him every day and they knew what he was. I think the quarterback actually looked his way twice and the ball never left his hand. So, I don't foresee that being the case moving forward because people are at some point are going to have to throw the ball at him. But a product of having him on one side, that means [CB] Mikey [Sainristil] on the other side [is] going to get a lot more throws at him. And he had an interception, he had opportunity at another interception. He's a ball guy. So, he should relish that opportunity from that standpoint. Also in the game, I thought DA [DE Dorance Armstrong] played really, really well. Thought [S Jeremy] Chinn played really well. [DT] Johnny [Newton], I thought [CB] Noah [Igbinoghene], I thought all those guys played well in the roles that we asked them to do. Everybody knows we've opened up the window for JA [DT Jonathan Allen] and he's moving and looking really well, man. I've been pleased with what he did yesterday and he's worked really hard to get back to where he is. And so hopefully the training staff will get him where he can help us in the near future. Transitioning to Philly, hottest team in the league, simply. That's what they are, they're a good football team. It starts with the runner, [Philadelphia Eagles RB] Saquon [Barkley], he can do everything. He can catch it out the back field, he can run, he can jump cut. He can run with power, he can run with speed. He's a very talented man. The quarterback, [Philadelphia Eagles QB] Jalen [Hurts], he's a winner. He's been a winner from day one. And so, and everybody makes a big deal about the lack of throws. When he does throw it, he throws for a lot of yards like he did last week. They're deciding to run the ball because they have the best runner in the league, alright? And the best offensive line. So, you talk about the offensive line, the tackles [Philadelphia Eagles T] Jordan [Mailata] and [Philadelphia Eagles T] Lane [Johnson], they're phenomenal. I mean, there's a play, actually, I think [Pittsburgh Steelers DE] T.J. [Watt] might have sacked them, but Jordan spun around, got on his guy, stayed on his feet, it was just a really impressive play to see a big man that's six-eight move that way. And then you had the receivers on the outside, [Philadelphia Eagles WR] A.J. [Brown] and [Philadelphia Eagles WR] Devonta [Smith]. So, we have our work cut out for us. We played them well for a while in the first game, we talked about the last six minutes and we gotta make sure that it's 60 minutes of football. So, with that if there's any questions, hopefully I knocked everything out the way. That's was my plan there. So, let's see what we have."
On what jumped out about CB Marshon Lattimore's performance:
"There was a couple things. He played with a lot of confidence. He communicated well. There was two reductions where he was the one, and he wasn't supposed to be the one that led the communication on those reductions, but he did. And that was really positive to see and just the command that he had of the defense. And like I said, I give a lot of that credit to [Assistant Defensive Back Coach] William Gay because he was with him from day one teaching him and being that mentor that we asked William to do with a lot of these guys. So, but I was just really pleased with the command that the young man had of his game."
On what it would mean to get DT Jonathan Allen back for the end of the season:
"Well, I don't even want to get into that yet, I just want to see how he moves. And I don't want to get too excited about getting them back in until I see. But it was a positive, positive start, what we saw, what I saw yesterday but it was the first day of the 21 days. So, let's let it go a little bit further."
*On why S Darrick Forrest got more playing time against New Orleans and on his performance: *"Well, actually the last couple weeks we've been trying to get Forrest in there and situations have limited it. Sometimes we were rotating him and [S] Percy [Butler] and so the game would change and this game just happened to roll his way more than it did Percy's way, and he was out there. We think both of them are really quality players and he's been deserving to get these snaps. And so, I just wanted to make a point of giving him the opportunities to go out there and make them. He played solid. There are some plays that he probably wants back. But I thought it was for him, I think he played somewhere around 30 snaps or so. I thought it was a solid performance for his first time getting that number of plays."
On if the yards allowed per game stat are a reflection of what the team has been able to do:
"I think this, okay. I think we're just a group that's going out working. Stats, you can make stats look any kind of way or another, but we're playing solid ball. And you can believe it or not, the thing that we're not doing, we're not turning the ball over. You look at the last four weeks, everybody talks about the run game. Last four weeks, I think we're one or two in the league in run defense and that was a focus for us to get better at. If we start turning the ball over like we're supposed to, it's going to be hard to score on us. So, I've been pleased with where the group is going. We have to get the turnovers and then the fourth quarter points must get corrected and that starts with me. Trust me, we're diligently looking at what are we doing? What am I doing wrong? Do I need to hold some calls back? Do I need to change some looks up? If we clear that up, we're going to have opportunity to do some things here that we expected. The outside world might not expect it, but we expected. So, I'm proud of where the guys are."
On what Lattimore brings to the matchup against Philadelphia:
"No stupid questions first, I always believe that. I think when you have Marshon and Mikey on the outside, two guys that are ball guys, that are ball centric, the quarterback becomes hesitant to put the ball in harm's way. When you don't produce interceptions, they'll throw the ball up there because they're thinking, what? Alright, we're going to catch it, it's going to be an incompletion or they're going to get a penalty. But when you have guys that have history of turning the ball over, and hopefully Mikey will start to become that guy, the ball doesn't go vertically and up towards those guys because, why? There's a chance that it can go the other way."
*On if he's seen the game slow down for CB Mike Sainristil: *"Oh yes. Yeah, for Mikey, he's like I said, he's a very smart young man and [Defensive Pass Game Coordinator] Jason [Simmons] does a great job of giving him the looks to own. He's one of the guys that when we talk about looks to own, he owns them. I asked him why did he do something? He was being a little smart, I can't say what I want to say, but asked him why he did something and he quoted, 'Hey, well you said if this guy's here and he does this.' I said, 'Okay, all right yeah, I did say that. Yeah, you were right.' Okay, so, but whatever you say, he listens and he's good at it."
On why giving up fourth quarter points has been a problem and on what they can do to fix it:
"Oh man, if I had to answer there wouldn't be a problem right now. This game, I could tell you exactly. Okay, we dropped the interception. We had two penalties, kept drives going. If you look in some other situations, you look at the last Philly game. Right after the fourth down we went for, they hit a big play on us. We knocked the ball out, we didn't get it. We should have got that recovery right there. Those type plays changed games, and when we're getting winning moments, we have to have the confidence to get to the ball and turn the ball over. We can't have penalties. We talked about that they had a shorter quarterback. We had to lower our target when we go hit him, alright? And talking about it is not good enough. I have to coach it and make sure that they lower the target, they hit it, that's my job. My job is not just to go tell them what to do, it's to make sure that they get it done. And so, but those are some of the reasons, the penalties and the lack of ball production."
On the drills he changed from last week:
"I feel good about the drills. I just don't feel good about the result of it. And we're going to continue to look at some other things. But we had two other opportunities. If we get the one right before the half with Mikey, alright, that's probably points on the board for us. And then the one with uce [LB Frankie Luvu] and not only uce Noah [Igbinoghene], if he read the quarterback properly he should have got the tip that uce dropped. So, we should have had two opportunities at that one, which we didn't get. And that's just, like I said, that's just the part of how do we train it better? How do we train it, train it, train it better? And we are looking at every opportunity to give these guys the opportunity in practice to make sure it shows up in the game."
On how they held Philadelphia Eagles RB Saquon Barkley in check for the majority of the first matchup:
"Well, first off, I thought the guys up front played well. They stayed square, we put a new front in that game that they hadn't seen, so they had to adjust to it. But then, like you said, Saquon, first half he runs for a certain number and then second half, he's like 7.0 per carry. That's what he does, he just keeps coming, keeps coming and keeps coming. So, we have to stay disciplined. When it gets into the fourth quarter, we have to stay in our gaps. We have to keep going. We have to keep pursuing confident angles, not touchdown angles, to his body because he can cut back. He can make people miss. And then, like I said, it's not just him. Their offensive line is really, really good. They block hard. They work as a unit and so you have to give them a lot of credit for the being able to move people and get up on to the second level and capture people. So, I don't know if I answered your question, but that's what it was."
On defending a flat seven route combination:
"Just the communication. The communication of okay, are you passing that or not? If you're not going to pass it, you gotta slide through. If you're going to pass it, communicating and getting the pass done. It's just that simple."
On the defensive front and on who has stood out:
"The last couple games it's been a focus of stopping the run and there were two good run teams that we played and I've been pleased with the way the fronts play. They're being more square. They're throwing hands, not playing behind blocks. If there's one person up there that's just been really, really consistent, I would say it's DA [Armstrong]. He does pretty much everything that I asked him to do. He had the one sack, I think I was asked last week about his low sack production. Well, I went back and looked at it and just like he had one sack this game here, one sack was taken away because we had a penalty. Well, he has a couple more sacks that were taken away because of penalties. So, his sack numbers are actually, and the way he affects the quarterback, is actually better than what the numbers actually say. Like I said, stats can be misleading sometimes, but I think DA's been really, really good. [DT Daron] Payne, I've been pleased with the way that he's played here, playing the run, being square, taking doubles. Those two guys, I would really highlight from the front."
On the key learning moments the team can take into this weekend:
"Well just, we don't want them to score late in the game, but at the same fact that with the two point conversion, I know everybody said the guy just dropped the ball, but Noah was right there on him, pushing him, making their heart situation right there. We knew they were going flat left, and he should have slid outside a little bit more and made it more difficult on it. But just to be able to stand up in that moment and we need more moments like that. And to be able to understand the plays that we didn't make that those are critical plays that will turn the game into our favor so we won't be back in that situation again."
On replacing S Jeremy Chinn this weekend if he can't play:
"We'll move some pieces around if Chinn is not able to go. Like we talked about, we have Percy, we have DFo [Forrest] that give us the opportunity to put those guys in positions. And then Noah's a very physical player. I know he is not as big as Chinn or anything like that, but the guy plays with a lot of physicality. So, we'll utilize those three men to fill the void of what Chinn does and if he's not able to go."
