Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. addressed the media before practice on Oct. 17. Here is a full transcript of the press conference.
Opening Statement:
"I'll hit the Ravens game, then I'll get to your questions. It's a shame that we didn't play better defensively. We were right there to have opportunity to win the game and the thing that happened, and we allowed four plays that, and I hate to keep coming up here and talking about communication because we've been good the last couple weeks, but four plays cost us the game. And I'm not even worried about the third down penalties that extended drives. They didn't need any help, but that's football, okay? Sometimes you're going to get football plays and you're going to get a penalty here and there. They're going to get their plays in the run game, but we can't give them anything. And if we don't give up those four individual plays, we win that game. And I'll take responsibility for that because they shouldn't make those mistakes. Defenses that we know and we didn't get it executed. So, like I said, we're working to make sure we minimize those mistakes moving forward but we can't keep up coming up here, I can't keep coming up here saying the same thing. Gotta get it corrected. We have a good football team and we have to do what we need to do. From an injury standpoint, we lost a lot of guys. But I like to say, injury is just like blocking, tackling, running, alright. It's part of the NFL football, so we gotta give these other guys opportunities. Opportunities, sometimes you get your opportunity, you become a star. So, I'm excited to see the guys that are going to come in and play. And we always talked about rolling with a deep crew, so they gotta come in and be ready to rock and roll. So, with that, I'll take any of your questions."
On the reason for the communication breakdowns:
"It's a little bit of both. Communication is sent, received and acknowledged. So, there was two cases the communication was correct that was sent, alright. It wasn't received by the person that needed to get it and bad things happen. One time, the communication that was sent was wrong. And the guy, he received it and he played what was told to him and then we let a free runner go. So, either case, I gotta do a better job of making sure that it's sent properly, it's received and it's acknowledged and we play it the right way. It's unacceptable."
On DT Jer'Zhan Newton's development:
*"He's trending in the right direction. He's a young man that has explosion, that can shoot gaps, that can play with big people because he has power. He's a very strong man and I'm just excited to see what he's going to be able to do with more reps. We're going to probably move him more down the line like we've done with [DT Daron] Payne a little bit in some of those spaces. So, he's going to get the opportunity to play more and we need him. We need him to play well. I'm sure he will."
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On LB Frankie Luvu's versatility and on why he wanted Luvu playing on his defense:
"First, Frankie plays the play style that we aim to want to play. So, I don't want to get into comparing players, but the way that we utilized [Dallas Cowboys DE] Micah [Parsons] in Dallas is the way that we utilize Frankie here. We play him off the ball, you've seen him at the end. You've seen him at a three technique. You've seen him zeroed up over the center. So, very similar to those things that we did with Micah. And we blitz him when he is off the ball. He's a dynamic player. We try to get him on the back as much as possible. We try to get him on the lineman that we think he can beat as much as possible. So, he's a stud that we tried to feed and we have to keep doing that."
On Payne not recording a stat against Baltimore and on what it means:
"Sometimes that's going to happen. I'm not going to just dive into stats totally. He's given us what we want. For the run game, alright, they ran for yards. It wasn't because of him, alright. It was some other issues that they ran for. So, he's one of our leaders and he's doing the things that he needs to do."
On what changed after the solid start defensively against Baltimore:
"Well, first off they're a good team. Okay, so let's make sure, they were going to get some yards and some of the contested catches and some of the scheme runs where [Baltimore Ravens QB] Lamar, [Jackson] we might've been in a single high defense, and he ran the ball, alright. He got eight, 12 yards. Some of that's going to happen against them. They're good. The issue is when we make a communication, and we give up a free runner because they don't need help. And if we do what we're supposed to do, they might score 20 right there. And with our offense, 20 wins the game, but when you give up those explosives, you get 30 put on you and you lose a game. Again, a game that you should have won that we should have won, but we didn't. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Yeah. I'm very frustrated about it, because I'd rather a team come out and just beat us, alright. And then I can, I don't know if I can live with it, but it is what it is. But it's hard to deal with when you help a team beat you. And so that's the answer there."
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On the challenges associated with switching from zone to man-to-man coverage:
*"I mean, it's now you have your guy, your discipline is on, 'Alright, what's that man skillset compared to your skillset? What routes does he run?' If you're pressed up inside outside release, what are you getting? When you're playing more zone-listic coverage now you can see the formation, you can play looks to own, which you really don't play as much when you're playing man. You're locked into your individual guy. And we do a combination of both."
On if the defense's second and third level defenders are attacking outside runs the way he would like:
"That's a good question. I think at times we have, and at times we haven't. From a crack replace standpoint, sometimes I believe that we've been a little bit late at times, but sometimes also we've gotten up feel too much. And so, it's been I want to say popcorn where, alright, the end might get up field too much and now it's a crease or we've shut it down with the end really well and we've gotten cracked with the backer and now we gotta have support from the outside. So, we have to take that popcorn away and just play solid."
On if he's fine giving up chunk run plays in order to prevent explosive plays down field:
"It depends on the opponent. If we feel like they have a guy that's on the outside that can really get vertical, alright, we're going to have to cover them up sometimes and if they hit us for four or five yards there and there, but we can't let the explosive out. That's what can't happen, if you're in a shell defense, if they get four or five, okay, you can live with that. They can't get 12. And we're letting them get 12. And so that's what we gotta do a better job of. So, that's where it is.
On if the communication errors opened the door for Baltimore Ravens WR Zay Flowers to have a big game:
"No, Zay just had a good day. He hit the screen early, we misfit it from a standpoint of should have had one outside and inside, and then the big guys coming. But I can't think of any of the plays that were the four that we really had communication issues. There were none with Zay. Zay had a good day."
On the challenges Carolina's offense presents:
"The first thing, what's his name? Jackson, the young man, number five. [Carolina Panthers WR Diontae] Johnson, excuse me, Johnson. So, I hadn't seen him. And so, everybody had been talking about how good he is, and I hadn't seen him. And then I put the film on, and I was like, 'Oh my goodness, this kid can separate, this kid can play.' He's been in Pittsburgh, I hadn't been around him. So, he's dynamic. He's a dynamic young player that I enjoy just watching. So, the running back [Carolina Panthers RB Chubba Hubbard] runs hard. He's a really good. He reminds me of the guy from Arizona [Arizona Cardinals RB James Conner], runs downhill. He is a puncture runner, sets the edge, and then he tries to get back down. They have two really good guards that can block and move people. A quarterback [Carolina Panthers QB Andy Dalton] that plays on schedule as much as possible that's been in this league a long time, been against him a couple times, and he knows where to go with the ball. He knows how to get the run checks, along with the pass checks. He's very smart. So, they're an offense that has weapons and we have to make sure that we control them."
On if they spent extra time working on takeaways before the game against Baltimore:
"No, we got one interception in what? Six games? I mean, that's just not what I'm used to. And so, it was a tip. [CB] Mikey [Sainristil] made a really nice play. We gotta get more, man. We went into this game saying we need two plus turnovers, which we had. When we talked about their issues with putting the ball on the ground at times, the ball was on the ground. That would've been three points if we would've picked it up and went through three of our hands. And so that changes the game as well, but we didn't get it. And so, once again, we gotta make those plays when you have the opportunity."
On Carolina Panthers QB Andy Dalton and on if it's harder to take advantage of a veteran quarterback:
"Well, he's seen a lot, but we're going to try to force the issue some. And so, we'll see. He's a veteran guy, he's seen a lot. So, we'll see, I can't really answer that one because until the game happens. I have a lot of respect for him though, I'll tell you that."
On preparing for Carolina Panthers RB Jonathan Brooks to play:
"We're really, from a standpoint of how we're going to defend him, I'm really looking at how the coordinator's calling it and how he's been doing it since they switched the quarterbacks. And so, I'm not really tweaking from any other concept from that standpoint, if that makes sense."
On if he saw the flea-flicker screen against Baltimore and on his thoughts on the play:
"I'm going to tell you, I saw two plays really from the offense. The great throw that he threw to I think [WR] Terry [McLaurin]. And then he threw another one to Terry on third down. Did you see the game? My head was down trying to figure out what was going on, so I heard about the play. No, I didn't see it."
On if he's seen another team run the play:
"Not necessarily, but [Offensive Coordinator] Kliff [Kingsbury] is doing an outstanding job of scheming things up, so I'm glad he's with us."
