Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. addressed the media before practice on Oct. 3. Here is a full transcript of the press conference.
Opening Statement:
"Alright. Just to talk about the last game real quick and then we'll get straight to questions. Played better, played closer to what we wanna be, what we aim to be. The physicality was definitely there. The ability to pressure the quarterback, hit the quarterback and sack him was there. We went in and said we're gonna build high walls and give games inside in our four man rush. And then we bring our fifth element, also have high walls and the quarterback would run to us, and that's what happened. We definitely have to shore up the run game. Some of those ills came from making sure we had a lid on 18 [Arizona Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr.] and we wanted to make sure we did that. Two of the calls that the run got out on us, they were just bad calls. That was on me. That wasn't on the defense. I was chasing, making sure I had a lid on the guys, but I thought the guys played well, played hard. Now we just have to start producing the ball and keep building and we keep building. We'll have a product that everybody would be happy with. So with that, any questions?"
On the communication on Sunday:
"The communication was outstanding. I mean, we cut the miss assignments down a ton. One thing we did coaching wise is we streamlined the call. So, we narrowed the call sheet down some, maybe I was trying to do too much. And so, I was like, 'Okay, let's just make sure these guys can set their feet and go play fast', and let's not be cute with anything. Let's just play fast. And that's what we did. And the communication was outstanding with the guys. And then they went and played, they hit, they ran. It's the way it's supposed to look."
On how the difference between Sunday and the opener against Tampa Bay in handling a mobile quarterback:
"We rushed as a complete unit. And so, like I said, we wanted to build high walls because we should have had two more where we didn't build a high wall. We came underneath and we flushed them and he escaped. They played more discipline. And if you just execute it the right way and play as a unit and not make any, say, 'Well, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna be the lone ranger and I'm gonna do it myself,' the stats will come."
On the secondary's performance and what worked for the cornerbacks:
"I thought they were sticky this game because it's rushing coverage. We had the four sacks, but he had to hold the ball and that tied in together. I thought [CB Benjamin St-] Juste did a good job of covering even when we were in some of our man looks and spinning out the cover two. The communication, they sold the looks and made the quarterback hold the ball in those standpoints. So, [CB] Noah [Igbinoghene] had that first third down PBU, which was tight coverage, and [LB] Bobby [Wagner] did a really nice job of help coverage when the low crosser came, and [CB] Mikey [Sainristil] couldn't get to him, and Bobby knocked him off, and that made the quarterback go to a second read. And Noah was sticky in the lexo route that he got. So, they were stickier. And we just have to continue that. Our completion percentage against us is higher than I'm I'm used to, so we have to get that down."
On CB Emmanuel Forbes Jr.'s performance and what's the next step for him:
"I thought he was in that same group with Mike and Noah. And like I said, Forbes, they all played about the same. They had about the same number of snaps or he might have had more, I don't know, I think he had 33 snaps in the game. So each week, we're gonna put the guys out there that gives us the best chance. So, we're looking at that, working through that right now, and then on Sunday, we'll deploy the men that gives us the best chance to win."
On excitement to build on the defense in preparation on Sunday in light of the Cleveland Browns' injuries upfront:
No, because I know just like the ills that we've had defensively, we work to correct them. They're doing the same thing. They're working to correct them. So I don't anticipate that they're gonna come in here with making any mistakes or they're gonna have guys in position that they feel that gives them the best chance to win. So, this is the NFL, that's where stars are born. When somebody else gets hurt, you come in and you play well. I've had multiple guys that have done that. So we better be focused on playing our best ball, trending. We played good last week, can we play better? And then can we keep building, building until we get to some excellent play because we're not there yet. I mean, you give up 182 yards of rushing, you can't, you can say you play good. The best thing is we held them. 14 points really should have been seven. So I'm not looking at their line and saying, 'Okay, we're about to go have 10 sacks'. We better just go focus and understand what we have to do and execute at a high level, then good things will come."
On if the Cleveland Browns' offense playing close to the line of scrimmage affects how the defense prepares:
"Yeah, I mean, it's a holistic deal. When you're stopping the run, you also have to look at who they have at their skilled positions and who do you want to take away and when do you want to take them away. And so, they can push the ball vertically. They have really good receivers with [Cleveland Browns WR Jerry] Jeudy and [Cleveland Browns WR Amari] "Coop" [Cooper] out there, had history with them. [Cleveland Browns WR] David [Bell]'s gonna be back, he's a weapon that they haven't had. So let's remember Cincinnati. When we went into that one, they hadn't had all their guys. And then, [Cincinnati Bengals WR Tee] Higgins came back and they did whatever did they did to us. And then the next game they did the same thing. So when you get those weapons, it changes the play caller's mindset. So they have David coming back and he's gonna add a third element with those guys."
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On the importance of the fan base being loud and present:*
"Oh, yeah. [Head Coach] "Q" [Dan Quinn] always talks about energy generating ball and the fans that were in Arizona, I don't know if you were there or not, but some of it felt like a home game at some point. I mean, they were loud and we knew if we had the opportunity of winning these two road games, when we come back home, the fans are going to be excited to watch us play. And defensively we need that energy, the crowd to get it going because defensive players, they build off of it. And so, I'm excited to get in the stadium. I'm excited to play well and get the turnovers, get the negative plays, keep the score down and then get the ball to 5 [QB Jayden Daniels] and let 5 do what he does well."
On improving the run defense upfront while keeping a lid on the opposing pass offense:
"Well, the stickier we get in coverage, now we can put more people into the box to help with that. We can game it up some, which we will get it taken care of, alright, trust me. We're putting a focus on it, and it's not just the front that's the issue. It's not just linebackers. It's making sure that, just like in the pass game, you have to tie all levels in it. We have to make sure that we're hitting the gaps, that we're holding doubles, that we get pull schemes, we're getting over, we're popping inside. So there's three type runs that are really hitting us and we have to make sure we sure those up. No different than the screen was hitting us in Tampa game, and screen hadn't hit us since then. We sure that up. So we may have to make sure we take care of the three runs that have been hitting us."
On what he needs to see from DE Jamin Davis to get more reps:
"Yeah, so we can talk about the reps of all the guys. Guys, I promise you we're gonna do what we feel is the best to give us a chance to win. We have quality players, and Forbes and Jamin and Forbes. Each week is gonna be different. And I can't get up here each week and say why a guy isn't or isn't playing. The answer is, we're gonna play the guys that give us the best chance to win that particular game, win or lose. If we lose it, and then I'll take the questions if we lose it or not, but that's what we're doing. And, we're gonna do that each week and there's nothing at a slight at any of the players because we like all of our players, but we're going to put the guys in a position that we think will give us the best chance to win that individual game."
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On if any cornerback has stepped up to be 'that guy':*
"No, not yet."
On what he needs to see from them:
"I just need to see. I think we've played solid at points. I need a consistent flow throughout the game. Get up there and challenge and send the ball where we wanna send it consistently. We've had opportunities at some interceptions that where we just knocked it down and we didn't go aggressively to go get it. So they're a group of talented young men at the corner position, okay, but talent doesn't mean that we're playing at the level that we want to play at. So when we do, I'll tell you, but we're not right now. And it's not because of a lack of ability or anything like that. They have the ability. I just have to do a better job of getting them to do it, and we will."
*On the balance between simplifying without making it too simplistic for offense: *"Well, that's what I had to figure out this last week because apparently I was doing too much. And when I say too much, it might not have been the calls necessarily going in the game in those previous games. It's the load that we had to practice. And so let's not even practice that much stuff because let's look at what's working in the games, what can we execute, how can we play fast? And then, we can add some complex looks for the quarterback and still get after him. So that was the challenge and not trying to do too much, and I was probably trying to do too much too early."
On Sainristil's progress and development so far:
"That's a similar question to [laugh] the question I just had. I mean, Mikey is just like the rest of the corner. So I need more. Just, I need more from the whole defense. They need more from me. We have to produce and play better. I'm not really big on singling the development of these guys out until we start playing the way that we wanna play. I could talk about [LB] Frankie Luvu and [DE Dorance] "DA" Armstrong because they're playing the way that it needs to be played, Bobby Wagner. We have some other guys that we have a ways to go to get the play to consistent, winning strong defensive football. And that's my responsibility, so I gotta help Mikey and all those guys out."
On why it is difficult to bring down a guy like RB Brian Robinson Jr. from a defensive perspective:
"He's bigger than you think. So the second level guys are gonna be really choosy with the angles that they take. He's quick in and outta breaks. He can make his feet disappear when he needs to and he runs behind his pass. So, he's a hard guy to tackle."
