Q. When you went back and looked at what happened on Thursday night, there were some good drives and then there were some lapses. What do you attribute some of those lapses to?
CLINT HURTT: Just doing the small things, the small things, got to take care of the details in your work, whether setting edges in the run game, staying down the backside of those runs, things of that nature. Handling the over routes and the crossing routes, things that are everyday normal stuff that we've got to continue to play those things correctly and consistently and coach them that way, too.
Q. The last two teams you faced there's a lot of eye candy that comes along with those offenses. Dallas is a tough offense, but is it a little more straightforward in how they play?
CLINT HURTT: Yeah, they're definitely very dangerous. They present a lot of issues because of their talent and they execute at a high level, but definitely. San Francisco presents challenges with their motions and things of that nature, so they're different in how they go about doing it. They're both obviously operating at a very high level.
Q. What is the biggest challenge with that offense, the Dallas offense?
CLINT HURTT: Obviously the quarterback is playing at a high level, so you have to find ways to be able to disrupt him. Explosive players all over the place. Obviously with CeeDee and Gallup, and Cooks has obviously always been a guy that can take the top off a defense; he's a special back. Even the tight end, Ferguson, is a good player. They definitely present their challenges. We've got to continue to practice and prepare and get ready for this match-up.
Q. When it comes to run fits, what's the difficulty? Is it the condition? Is it the discipline, staying there?
CLINT HURTT: It's the discipline. Like the things that got us in that game was just the defensive end staying down, not jumping up the field worried about playing for play action passes and boots. Those are the things, there's discipline to how you teach the techniques so you can respond to those plays. But the number one thing is you have the discipline to honor the run game. Take care of that, and the other things we'll take care of later on.
Once you give up one explosive early in the game, then they feel like they've got something and they stay with it. So it's the discipline of doing right. It wasn't a fit where a guy didn't know his fit or missed a fit, just the discipline of staying down and doing right so when the ball cuts back you're there to make the play.
Q. Do you see Brian Schottenheimer's influence on what they're doing there?
CLINT HURTT: A little bit. Some of the stuff like the RPOs, things like that they add into it, I know Schottie really liked that stuff here. But there's a lot of Coach McCarthy, looking at old Green Bay film from when he was there, there's a lot of carryover to that.
Q. What's the teaching point for Witherspoon on the touchdown?
CLINT HURTT: You know, that one right there, rush can help out with a lot of those particular issues, and obviously we just need -- both safeties should be over there to be able to help him out. The nickel in that situation is not on his own anytime you're in a zone coverage. You have guys that are around you to be able to help out. A lot of facets.
Obviously pass rush, the safeties, all those things are a factor.
Q. The pass breakup --
CLINT HURTT: That was an outstanding football play. Absolutely that was a heck of a play. Just like I said, anytime when a bad play happens, it's never one guy that's a culprit. It's a lot of different things. We always say whether it's coaches, players, we're all in it together. We've got to coach something better. Obviously we've got to play better, but we're all in it together to get that done.
Q. The play out of Jordyn Brooks, overall where have you seen him grow the most this year?
CLINT HURTT: Obviously just his awareness and feel for the game and when certain things are coming. A play may get you here or there, but the growth that you look for in an experienced player who's played a lot of football as he has is are you cutting down on those plays because of the awareness of seeing them. You're going to get guys sometimes; it's going to happen. But just consistently seeing stuff and pointing it out pre-snap is the part of his game he's expanded and gotten a lot better at.
Q. The way he got after the defense on the sideline I think in the first quarter, have you seen him do that before?
CLINT HURTT: Yeah, you can tell when he's pissed, and he does it in practice, but that's a good thing. When things aren't going right, it should be -- everybody has a hand in part of it, so there's nothing wrong with that.
Q. What are you seeing from team second half, particularly in the fourth quarter where you're not getting off the field?
CLINT HURTT: Yeah, just I would say that these last few games, like the Washington game, the Rams game, we played our butt off for the first three quarters and then the fourth quarter we gave up some plays and had some lapses where we want to have some consistency to doing it right, and it kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth for how you finish the game because I believe the Rams game the first three quarters they had like 123 yards of offense, but then it's the finish. I think Washington had like 230 going into the fourth quarter and they got about 100 off of two goofy plays, so there's a lot of good things going into the fourth quarter finishes. The biggest thing is just do right longer, as we always preach, don't try to make stuff up, don't go out there and do something crazy, but play good consistent ball, stay the course, and we finish the game the right way, you feel a lot different about the final result or outcome of the game.
So I think that's just part of the growth, maturation process in certain aspects.
Q. How aware are you of missing Uchenna on defense?
CLINT HURTT: Anytime -- the guy is a really, really good football player, so anytime you lose a guy like that, you definitely feel it. But there's a lot of good players that we still have playing for us, too. The whole defense is not based around one individual. Yes, it absolutely hurts to lose a guy of that caliber, but other guys got to be ready to step up and play, too.
Q. How do you feel about the pass rush the past few games?
CLINT HURTT: It's been a struggle. Things start changing, you start off hot in pass rush, teams acclimate and they adjust to what you're doing. Okay, the pass rush is rolling, we were top three or four team in the league in sacks and pressures and getting after people. Well, what starts happening is teams will -- all the options, you change the snap counts, you move the pocket, you work off play actions, you get chips with the tight ends and the backs and the wide receivers, and all those things come in, but guys have to understand and they're beginning to understand, it's a sign of respect when that stuff happens because they respect what you're able to do.
Now you have to respond and we've got to coach and put those guys in position to have answers for those things that are happening, but it's an adjustment because it could be really, really frustrating for a young player.
Frank has been a great guy to help those guys through that because when Frank got chips early in his career it frustrated the heck out of him. A lot of times you've got to give a guy a plan, but it can neutralize a really good pass rusher when that stuff happens.
But he moved through it and he got a lot better and he learned how to work with the guys around him, D-tackles around him to have answers for that. That's why he and Jim paired together really, really well. That's something that the guys as a whole have to continue to improve at and we've got to help them.
Q. When you blitz, especially defensive backs, how much variance do they get in lanes and slots?
CLINT HURTT: There's times that the patterns can come from the inside, sometimes it's outside. A lot of that stuff will vary based on the game plan, protection-wise, things they like to do that can cause us some issues. The patterns change weekly.
Q. Within the play do they have a variance?
CLINT HURTT: They can always adjust. Just being a football player, if they happen to end up sliding the protection into a blitzer, we never want a guy -- the term I use is don't run into a parked car. You can adjust and alter your pass so that way you can find the lane, that crease to go and find the quarterback. That's what Spoon did I think it was the second play -- first or second play of the game against the Rams, slid the protection into it, he found his lane to go and turned himself and wanted to go make a play.
Q. Was there some running into parked cars against the 49ers?
CLINT HURTT: Now you're going to use my line?
Q. I love that.
CLINT HURTT: In some of the blitz patterns, things like that, yes. We tried to set the fronts and show things to get protections directed the way you want to. It doesn't always happen that way, so you've got to give guys the freedom to be able to adjust accordingly so they can find ways to get home. Just got to continue to work on those aspects of their game.
Q. What has Leonard given you so far?
CLINT HURTT: The biggest thing he provides is a guy that can collapse the pocket, get the quarterback off the spot and get him on the move, so obviously just working that part of it, keep working on the transitions and get him on the same page with working D-line games with the defensive ends is a big piece of that to get better at.
Q. Why didn't Reke play in the second half against the Niners?
CLINT HURTT: You've got to talk to the coach and the trainers about that.
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