Q. Taylor got his most action in a game so far this year. Wanted to know how he handled it and if threes a chance toe might see him more down the stretch here?
JIM SCHWARTZ: Well, one of the reasons was they were playing so many big personnel groups, 13 where threes three tight ends and only one wide receiver, 22 where there's two tight ends and two backs only one wide receiver. So we were in heavy positions where we had an extra safety in the game, Davion got a couple of those or extra linebacker on the field and it was all in an effort to shut down their run game that came out of it. You know. Just like anybody else, I mean, you guys know I don't like to grade players but suffice to say like a lot of the defense had some good plays and had some bad plays, some things we need to work on and get a little bit better at.
Q. With the results the last few weeks and how the defense has performed versus the offense, is how do you keep it being a defense versus offense thing that can fester in the locker room?
JIM SCHWARTZ: That's not even in our mentality. I think any team would tell you the same thing. Our goal is one thing and that is to win the game, could be 7-3 or 38-37. We know that's the only important thing is getting the win. That's the only thing we concentrate on. Part of being a resilient team, of being a tough team is being able to persevere through tough times. It's not all easy. It's not all doing the electric slide. There's going to come some times where you have to battle through some injury situations or some situations where one side of the ball is struggling or not. The offense has picked us up plenty of times. We picked the offense up. We look at it as it's our job and we can do more.
Q. I know you just said you don't like to grade players, but Alex Singleton seems to have shown up with this opportunity. Has he done enough to be in the mix for you pretty consistently?
JIM SCHWARTZ: He's always been a good football player. He's still learning. I'm going to quote Bill Parcells. Let's not put him in the Hall of Fame just yet, and I say that with a lot of respect for Alex and he plays tough and you know, really brings some things to our defense. But he's not 100 percent clean in his game. He'd probably be the first person to tell you that and there's still things that he's developing through and he's still working at. But just knowing him and his character, he's going to work at it to get it right. There were a couple plays left on the field and this goes to all great players, and probably any player in the NFL, you know, they don't really think about their success. They think about the plays that they gave up on the field, the plays that they had a chance to make, but maybe took a wrong step or looked at the wrong thing and that's the only way you get better. That's the only way you keep improving. You have to be critical of yourself and you have to look at the things that you need to clean up and not just sort of get drunk on your success so to speak. I really like Alex's mentality that way. Makes mistakes like a lot of young players do or players that are playing for the first time. Gets them corrected and moves on. I think that he's definitely earning his wings, so to speak, but you know, he's still a work in progress and he's still a guy that needs to grind through and iron some things out. But I like where he's trending and I think it's a nice plus for our defense right now.
Q. Are there examples from your coaching career of players whose instincts have taken a big jump over the course of their career, especially at linebacker or safety where it seems to be so important?
JIM SCHWARTZ: I think a lot of things you guys might think are instincts are really just quick decision making and quick decision-making a lot of times comes from experience and what happens is you just -- you've gone through it a million times or you know exactly what to look at. Your preparation, all those kind of things. We have all seen players that might not time well but they play fast. I think a lot of that is just that preparation and that slowing of the game down, I think is probably a little bit overtold, the slowing of the game. But those guys that can do that, that can play, they play fast and it's more -- I mean, there is some instinct involved. I don't want to say there aren't, but I think that the experience and the preparation and those things, every young player that I've been around, those have been the things that have -- that have sort of turned them into very successful players. Instincts can only take you so far in this league. Athletic ability can only take you so far in this league. Everybody is a supreme athlete. Everybody is a good football player. Everybody, you know, everybody has those things. It's the little things that separate the guys that end up becoming great players and the ones that sort of mire in mediocrity.
Q. DK Metcalf had a couple really big games against you guys last season. What is he doing that's taken his game to another level this year and how do you think having Slay can kind of offset some of the success he's had against you guys?
JIM SCHWARTZ: Well, he's so big. You know, his arms are so long and things like that. And you know, guys -- Slay has generally been good handling guys like that, whether it's -- I mean, you name it, AJ Green or any of these other guys that he's been matched up on. He has though long arms and he can put balls away and things like that. It's not a great challenge for us. It's not just great coverage, it's tackling. You have to defend every inch of the field to him. They can throw a zero hitch to him, a zero yard route and he gets the ball and he's hard to handle. He's strong and fast and like a linebacker, so you have to get him tackled on that stuff. He also has the speed to be able to go deep.
It's a great challenge for us. Just watching him and having played him a couple times in the last year and watch him develop and just getting just one day of game planning in so far, I would say this: I think he's a much improved player in working with the quarterback and understanding Russell Wilson's scrambles and how to get open versus scrambles because it's not just about running your route. When it did break down, you have a quarterback that can scramble, it's about being on the same page with him and knowing what spots you want to get to. He seems to be a much improved player doing that. He's made a lot of big plays this year doing that.
It's a lot of things, getting him tackled in short routes, getting him covered in deep balls, and staying with him on plays that are extended. You know, we're going to have to do all three of those things to limit him.
Q. What's your process in the midst of a season that's not going well? Do you have an approach that works best in order to get your players to respond at their best?
JIM SCHWARTZ: I have to say, I disagree with the pre sis of your question. I don't think anybody looks at the season, this isn't going well -- you're in the moment, every single week and every single week is a new challenge and you have to keep your eyes on that, and you have to be able to persevere through great times, big wins, bounce back from a big win, bounce back from a big loss.
You look across the NFL, it's not always just sort of, you know, all happy times for great teams. It's been awhile since there, but there's been a bunch of Super Bowl champions who lost four games in a row at different times and you have to be able to battle through those things and just know they are part of the game; and the ability to stay resilient, the ability to battle through those things. I think people talk a lot about like playing without watching the scoreboard. I think that's a cliché you hear, you have to go out and play, don't pay any attention to the scoreboard, you have treat every game like it's 0-0 whether you are up 30 or down 30. I think that applies through the season. You have to be resilient enough to know it's not always going to go your way and it's not always going to be perfect. Maybe sometimes you have times where it does but that's probably the exception as opposed to the rule in this league. This league rewards people that are perseverant, teams that can persevere. It rewards people that are tough-minded and I think we keep our eye on things like that.
Q. On the long run by Chubb in that game, got him down the second try does that effort resonate with you as something you point out as an example of his good play?
JIM SCHWARTZ: Yeah, well, Joe is one of most relentless players I've ever been around. The thing is for him, people generally only see it on the practice field. But everybody misses tackles. We actually missed four tackles on that play, but Joe had a missed tackle downfield and had a tackle down the field for a defensive lineman is a huge, huge thing.
No. 1 there's a lot of situations where you can force fumbles because you have big men hitting smaller men deep down the field and a lot of times they are not looking. I think that that was one of those plays you've got to dust yourself off and you've got to hold them again and unfortunately we weren't able to do that on that series, gave up a longer completion on the first play, gave up a long run on the second, and then had a chance to get a fumble. They ruled it as progress, was stopped right there, which philosophically, I don't agree with either. I get it when a quarterback is in the pocket and his momentum is stopped and you want that quick whistle and things like that but when you've got these quarterbacks that are runners and putting their head down trying to shove it up into the goal line and stuff like that, they are runners. They are running backs and just my personal opinion, I don't think they deserve quick whistles like that. But when it was all said and done at the end of the day, gave up a touchdown there and that was a real back breaker for us and we've got to do better.
I would say this, not just Joe, but particularly in this game, Josh Sweat made a lot of big plays down the field and played with a lot of energy and made some big hits on someplace. We've seen it all year with guys like Derek Barnett. We've seen it from Brandon Graham. That's sort of part and parcel of what we do and a hallmark of those guys. Nothing special Joe did; it's his job in that game. He felt incredibly terrible about it and responsible for the player and you have to point out to players, look, you weren't the only guy to miss on that play. That guy has made a lot of guys miss the whole year and has run a lot of stuff. You can't lose your confidence over one play. Dust yourself up, buckle up and let's go get the next snap, or get off the ground and go tackle him down the field. Not just Joe on that play but Josh Sweat in particular made a lot of plays down the field and we need to keep grinding on those things.
Q. Coming off that, several times during the game, even though your unit only gave up 13 points, the Eagles offense seemed to do something good and then the next series for the Browns, something -- they had a big play, they scored points. Is that the way you saw it and what did you think was happening?
JIM SCHWARTZ: I can assure you every play we go out there we're trying to stop them. It's just the way football is. There were three times in this game that we had to take the field right around midfield whether it was after the safety or a backed up punt or a turnover, whatever it is. I think right around that midfield stripe, and all three of those I think combined, we gave up three points. I look at things like that and say, we need to go out and hold them to a field goal here or we need to go out and get a quick three-and-out and stop them and we did those. We did those jobs. I really look at that drive we just talked about as -- was the one that we would obviously like to have back and it was different things. Our coverage fit wasn't great and we gave up a longer completion on first play and we missed a bunch of tackles on the second play. Looked like we had a chance to all of a sudden rally, a little bit like the first drive, or second drive when we stopped them on the goal line. Didn't get that one and kid makes a great play and jumps over us for a touchdown. Can't lose confidence over stuff like that. You know, I think that we're out there every single series with a mindset of, you know, hey, we have to get this drive stopped. I think you do need to resist the urge and I didn't see it on any of those plays, but you have to resist the urge of trying to do too much where it like, oh, offense just scored, we need to get a turnover here and all of a sudden you've got a guy cheating on a play and gives up a play. That wasn't the case in that play. I mean, that was more so one of them was a little bit self-inflicted and the others, I sort of tip my guy to a running back that made an outstanding play. A lot of other plays in the game that we can be resilient, that we can bounce back, but I would guard against the mentality of trying to do anything other than just do your job within a series, whether the offense just scored or the offense has turned the ball over. I think a little bit like I talked about before, keeping that mentality, keeping that grind, is important to us.
Q. You guys it a really good job of containing Mayfield's mobility in the pocket. You face a similar test with Russell Wilson this week. How can Jalen Hurts, based on what you've even on the scout team the first ten weeks, help you prepare for a challenge like that?
JIM SCHWARTZ: We've always had different guys. Go back, Greg Ward a couple years ago, played quarterback with Russell Wilson. A lot of those escapes, he would give ground and things like that. I thought in our playoff game last year, we had one play we were in zone coverage and our linebackers are trying to get depth under these deep playaction routes and Russell Wilson scrambled, I don't remember how many yards, seemed like 50 but probably like 25 or 30. You have to keep track of him at all times. It's not just your pass rush. It's every layer of your defense and vision; not only can he scramble three yards but he can keep things alive and make plays to Metcalf or any of those other guys. He's great at finding open guys when he's scrambling around. Adds another layer. I'm sure Jalen will give us a good look at that. That's in his skill set. A lot of guys have gone and given us that. It's different in practice because you're not hitting anybody, and there's not the immediacy of getting hit if you're out there in practice so it does go a little bit more. With Baker Mayfield, they weren't going to give us very many chances to hit him. Our opportunities were mainly coming on third downs. On first down it was boot, it was Ron, and it was empty three-step pass and the ball was coming out of his hand fast. We just needed to stay focused and keep battling knowing that our opportunities were going to come in different ways. And I thought that the guys did a pretty good job of that. You know, you sort of had a little bit of a broken play on one of those third downs and Mayfield was able to scramble for a first down. Don't know exactly what they were trying to do but it just didn't look like everything went the same way but he was able to tuck it and run it, so he didn't make plays in that game with his legs, and that's going to be an important part of this week's with Russell Wilson.
Q. In the past you've had Maddox at the corner at slot or safety. What evidence do you have that the best way to use him on the outside?
JIM SCHWARTZ: We have confidence in him no matter where he is on the field and he's a good, tough football player. He's had some rough patches this year but he's also bounced back and had some really good patches. He's probably a lot like our defense and really he had about one bad play in that game, the pass interference and his eyes got bad and had to go chase a play and put himself in a tough position on that play.
But we have a lot of confidence in Avonte. We obviously lost Cre'Von late in that game but you know, on the other side of that equation, I thought Nickell Robey had one of his games of the year for us. We were playing a lot of man-to-man, particularly on third downs, and a lot of bunch situations, a lot of pick situations and we really saw Robey, his veteran experience out there sorting a lot of that stuff out. I thought he covered really well in this game and I thought we saw good signs from those guys.
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