Q. You guys talked about needing to take advantage of their opportunities in those pass rush situations, but how does that happen this week?
CLINT HURTT: I mean, a lot of it is you could do a combination of things. Obviously guys getting used to rushing together, with that and the communication and guys kind of getting a feel for how they rush together, but whether it be rushing or coverage, that's what 3rd down is, that's what two-minute is is the ability to win one-on-one situations.
Q. How much of what you saw on Sunday was to be expected? I don't mean final numbers, but guys getting used to rushing together or the defense playing together?
CLINT HURTT: The thing I was excited about, encouraged about was obviously the run game. That's been a big focus obviously coming off last season and the guys accomplished that, and now you've got to continue to do that week after week. You saw what the emphasis was. Obviously 3rd down, pass rush coverage is always a big emphasis, too, but for me you just saw some things. You saw some guys obviously getting some work in the secondary that are still getting used to each other, playing together, guys that have missed some time, and you've got the same thing with rushers and new additions and all that we're excited to have and just working through some tough moments.
Obviously that's what practice is for, but obviously game experience, you've got to get that stuff down, and we'll make those improvements. No excuses, though.
Q. Sounds like Witherspoon is on track to come back? What's he going to bring?
CLINT HURTT: Excitement, juice, energy, playmaking ability, so excited about that.
Q. Speaking of juice and energy, I know you're easing Jamal back in (indiscernible)?
CLINT HURTT: A lot. It juices up everybody. Everyone is excited to see that and the work that he has put in. It's tough. Obviously the outside thought is when guys come off injuries, yeah, that's part of it, it stinks, but when you see a guy that has been that committed and going through it and even if you do go in the tank and you battle it to be able to come out of it like he has and come out with the vigor, the passion, the speed, he looks awesome out there. Excited for him, excited for us.
Q. With Witherspoon, what about him makes him be able to miss five weeks and --
CLINT HURTT: Certain guys are different in how quickly they see the game, their instincts and feel for the game. I'm not trying to put anything extra on the kid, just let him be himself and what he's shown in practice. That's the biggest thing. Practice is everything here because we make it so hard here, obviously you should be ready to go game time and respond in the right direction. If he plays the way he practices, then for us we wouldn't have any surprises.
Q. Do you feel like he's ready to do both in the same game right now, or would you prefer to keep him in one spot?
CLINT HURTT: No, with the layers and all we ask him to do, we'll figure that out along the way, but where he's at right now, he's doing really well. We'll keep him going from there.
Q. With the pass rush, how much of it is snapping the ball out versus you guys (indiscernible)?
CLINT HURTT: It was a combination of both. Obviously the guys, they already know, we've got to be better in the one-on-one rush. There was times obviously we needed to be significantly better than what we were, and there's others where he can see things, he can figure out the coverage.
You're dealing with a veteran quarterback, multitime Pro Bowl guy that can see some stuff and the ball gets out pretty quickly. So there's times where you always hear me say it's always rush and coverage works together because it's very true. There's times can come ball spitting out fast where the rush doesn't have a chance, but we want to be tight and have a feel and understanding of routes and what's coming, so the same anticipation that the quarterback plays with we can play with, and at the times that the coverage does a great job of disguising and holding and make him go to the second progression, definitely on the third progression, then obviously as rushers we've got to be there. We've got to at least be able to get him off the spot, and that's the area of big improvement for us that we've got to be better.
Q. In terms of getting the ball out fast, are Matthew and Jared similar at all in that regard?
CLINT HURTT: In some aspects. Some aspects they are. You've got very good quarterbacks, damned good quarterbacks that have accomplished a lot in this league, especially Stafford, but Goff has been a good player for a long time.
Q. You mentioned there's a lot of depth or new parts in the secondary. How quickly if everybody comes together can it impact --
CLINT HURTT: With the amount of work the guys are putting in obviously on the practice field, they're meeting and all those things, they're meeting additionally in their own time, you can get things fixed. We don't have time to wait. It's time to go, and they understand that, and the guys will. They'll respond.
Q. Looks like Detroit is going to run a lot of motions. You saw a lot of motions last week. I know it's not the exact same offense but similar --
CLINT HURTT: Yeah, there's a lot of similarities in every offense you see week after week, a lot of the same stuff. There's some carryover but there's some things obviously they do differently, as well.
Run game they're definitely different obviously with the power run game and then the offensive line and how they try to attack you, so we've got to be ready for that challenge.
Q. The middle of the field (indiscernible) --
CLINT HURTT: Obviously depending on what the coverage is is depending who I've got to speak to and address in those situations.
Sometimes if guys have a hard down, you change the coverage and take some of the stress off of them because it depends how they're attacking the middle; is it play action passes or is it drop back. So it's different on who they try to affect, and if I can change up who's that affecting, then I've got to change the call up to help them out.
Q. When you're in zone, how much passing (indiscernible)?
CLINT HURTT: There's a lot to it. Obviously guys got to talk and communicate. For an underneath zone defender, that could be a linebacker, it's easier to do that when you have a guy that's playing adjacent to you like if it's a Mike talking to the dime or a Mike talking to the nickel, but if it's a guy that's coming from depth, it's a little bit different of doing that, and you have to be really boisterous on the communication because we play in a loud stadium, which we love. There's no complaints about that. We want to keep the 12s going nuts. So yeah, there's definitely layers to that you've got to continue to work through.
Q. Obviously that's (indiscernible).
CLINT HURTT: Yes. That's why I'm talking about that, because you've got to be really loud with your communication and how you talk, especially for guys who are new to this environment. It's a great learning lesson.
Q. A bit of a random one for you. Did you see the type of motion that Miami used with Tyreek Hill?
CLINT HURTT: Yeah. Today's game is so much different than what it was five or six years ago. Before it was a very stagnant game. Guys weren't doing all that. There would be a small short motion that you'd just move the tight end across the formation, but now then they went to fly motions and then there's different tempos of the fly and where they snap the ball at and how you want to pick up the routes and things like that, so the game has become obviously harder and more challenging, but that's a great thing. You've just got to help the guys go through those layers.
Q. Do you expect teams will do that even more, seeing the way that Miami -- not everybody is Tyreek, but to see the way they used him to get guys moving at the snap and get moving?
CLINT HURTT: Yeah, NFL is a copycat league, and I think even with good coaches, you look for the things and the issues of things that you see on film from other people, and you try to see if it can implement and work in what you already do, so absolutely if Miami is having a ton of success with it, then you would anticipate that they would do the same, other teams would do the same.
Q. How did you feel Bobby and Jordan played in there?
CLINT HURTT: They played really well. Played really well together, playing off of one another. Obviously there's always little things that we want to continue to work and improve. Obviously in really talking about that, that's pass rush and 3rd down coverage we'll need to get better, but there's a lot of things they did really well in that game that we'll continue to build off of.
Q. Was there anything you specifically saw from Jordan (indiscernible)?
CLINT HURTT: You see the same burst and twitch and you don't see -- usually when guys are coming off ACL, you see them drag the leg a little bit and still have a hitch in their run and all that, but he didn't look like anything ever happened to him. That was, again, a testament to his work ethic and the people that helped him through his rehab process.
Q. You said overall it wasn't what you wanted the past week. (Indiscernible.)
CLINT HURTT: Absolutely. We don't do the moral victory thing, but you've got to find your positives and say, okay, let's hang on to this, and we've got the other areas that we've got to continue to make our strides in and get better. So that's how you've got to approach it. We're never going to come in here and make it seem like the world is coming down. There's a lot of football left to be played.
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