Q. What stood out to you about the defense?
CLINT HURTT: I would say still maintaining consistency that we're looking for in the run defense, so that part was really, really encouraging. Pass rush-wise, that was more along the lines of what we're expecting. It was a really productive day and really obviously everybody had a part in that, so that part was really good.
We'll continue to -- obviously rush and coverage all works together, so there's some things to clean up, but overall I thought it was a lot of good stuff, we just want to limit some of the explosives so we can keep some of the points down obviously because you want to keep people under 20 obviously.
Q. What have you thought of Witherspoon's first two games?
CLINT HURTT: Done really well. Done really well. Some things he's learned along the way. But his energy, juice, his awareness, ability to feel routes, anticipation of plays even for a rookie has been really good, and he has showed that in practice.
Q. He's been called for a couple penalties. Is there even a teaching point there?
CLINT HURTT: I mean, there's things that you teach off of, but there's a fine line. When there's things that are really egregious, obvious pulls and tugs and things of that nature, obviously you've got to correct those hard.
But things that are kind of 50/50, you make him aware, this is what they said the penalty was for, and just get around the same -- that's how it works in this league. There's going to be times like that. You just kind of help him through that, but you don't want to be so critical of things that are ticky-tacky that you make him play hesitant.
Q. I think he had 13 targets in that game. Do you think they were testing him at all?
CLINT HURTT: He's a rookie. He's a rookie, and they say with the read ups on it he missed a lot of time in training camp and even the off-season, so that's normally how you see that. Offenses will attack you that way.
Q. Are there certain plays where that awareness stuff showed up?
CLINT HURTT: I'd have to go back to the tape. There's some things like on option routes and feeling like the high-low routes and putting things behind him and whatnot when in zone coverage he can play top down on certain things, so there's definitely things in the game that you go back and pull up the tape, he definitely has done that in the last two weeks.
Q. Jamal said he's real smart. Is that the same as being aware, or is that different?
CLINT HURTT: That's different. There's guys who are really smart in the meeting room and in the books and things like that. You ask somebody about the playbook when they get on the field they have a hard time of understanding concepts, what teams try to do to you. Vertical concepts, high-low concepts, things like that, cheese routes where they try to put something low in front of you for you to bite, and you've got to learn how to play with depth and top down. There's a difference in that between smart and then football instincts.
He has both. That's something that spoon has showed that he has a great football awareness. Forget what the playbook is. If I'm a zone defender here, I know how to play certain routes and concepts. He has the best of both worlds.
Q. With a guy so physical, I guess you can't say don't be physical. How do you let him express himself and yet not hold him back?
CLINT HURTT: Stay out of the way. Just real simple. Just you want him to go keep attacking and being aggressive the way he is, like I said. He's got two penalties. You play in the secondary in this league, you're going to get those over the course of your career, especially with how they call certain things.
He's going to be fine, and I love the aggressiveness that he has, that he's shown in his tackling and getting off of blocks and setting the edges on our defense, so that's been good.
Q. How does it feel to have all that?
CLINT HURTT: Exciting. I'm really excited. I'm more excited for him. It's not even about our team or our defense in that situation. I told him I'm excited for him and the work that he's put in to get himself healthy and get back. I'm really excited for him.
Q. Boye seemed really active on Sunday. I know you guys talked a lot about maybe seeing a second-year leap in the off-season, but do you feel like you're starting to see that translate into games?
CLINT HURTT: Yeah, absolutely. We saw it in the off-season practices and what he's putting forth in games, just continued to become an all around player and keep putting everything together, so he's doing a really nice job, really well.
Q. The run defense has obviously been really good through three games, this will be the first kind of mobile quarterback. How does that change things?
CLINT HURTT: Different style of run game. The first three guys that we played you didn't have to worry about them pulling the ball, not really a zone read type team. You have to make sure all of your run fits when the quarterback is a runner you're disciplined that you've got to have the rush lanes is all a big part of it because they may not hurt you with handing the ball off to a back but the quarterback can break contain a couple times, next thing you know it can be a rough day. He can extend plays and keep the chains moving. It adds another level of discipline and awareness that we have to play with.
Q. You mentioned kind of the explosives. Is there a key, something you've got to do to --
CLINT HURTT: Just all those things tie in together in terms of like coverage, rush. Run game wise we're doing a good job of that, but it's really been happening more so in the passing game. Just continuing to keep working on communication and the rush keep going for us, it'll build off what we did in the last game.
Q. Will you have to spell Jamal given this is his first game in over a year?
CLINT HURTT: We'll see how that goes during the course of the game, all the ebbs and flows. If he need it, we'll give it to him. If he doesn't need it, we'll just keep on rolling the way we did.
We had the same awareness with Jordan coming back from his injury, as well. We'll see. A lot of it is depending on how we see the player, how he's performing and how he's feeling during the course of the game so we don't make a decision going in.
Q. When you're upstairs do you get to talk to guys on the field about how they're feeling after a drive?
CLINT HURTT: There's times I talk to Bobby or Chenna or Jarran just to see how guys are doing. If there's anything going on during the flow of the game, one of the coaches will put them on the headset, and I'll get a chance to converse with them during that time.
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