Q. How much do you think they could change their game plan or try to do things differently after what happened in the game two weeks ago?
ADEN DURDE: Yeah, I think you've got to credit them. They're great coaches, and they're going to have a plan that is going to attack us. We just have to be prepared, ready to adjust.
Q. Do you prefer to just clear the slate and start fresh from square one, or because it was just a couple of weeks ago, do you just add on to the game plan that you have?
ADEN DURDE: That's a great question. I think you always have to go through your process, and you have to give that the respect that it needs, and then you go through that and then you come up -- sometimes some of them will be the same answers and some of them won't.
Q. Because they only had 42 snaps on offense, how much of the game plan did you not use last time?
ADEN DURDE: Yeah, we watch every snap, and we just --
Q. How much of the game plan did you not use because they had so few snaps last game?
ADEN DURDE: Not a lot of it. We used most of it, yeah.
Q. What was the experience like going through your first head coaching interviews?
ADEN DURDE: Yeah, it was good. It was kind of like what -- to be honest with you, the best part of it is we had a week off. I don't know if I could have done it if I didn't because it's so hard to focus on different things. But we had some time off, prepared for it, and then just enjoyed it.
Q. How much goes into that, prepping for that?
ADEN DURDE: That's a really good question because I thought before I done it, I thought a lot -- not a lot more, but I think once you realize, once you're in it, it just tests your principles and what you believe in, and you have to answer questions honestly.
Q. Obviously you interviewed a lot to get the jobs you've had. Are the questions a lot different for a head coach than they are for a coordinator, things like that?
ADEN DURDE: Sometimes, obviously because you're asked to lead a whole team, and sometimes you're more schematic because you're talking to a head coach than you're talking about scheme a lot of the time.
Q. How much are they asking you about their roster?
ADEN DURDE: I didn't -- I just came off a game, and it was just like on to this and then we're back into this game. It wasn't huge.
Q. You guys had the crowd noise up pretty loud in practice today. Is that a focus getting ready for Saturday?
ADEN DURDE: No doubt. This thing is going to be rocking. I think we got a taste of that in the Rams game, I thought. We spoke about it like two days ago. As a defense we've got to keep feeding the crowd. We've got to keep giving them momentum so they can rock with us and keep it like that.
Q. Is that a regular thing that you guys do during the regular season or just every now and again?
ADEN DURDE: Yeah, it's a regular thing. It's week by week, every time.
Q. For a lot of young guys, this is the first time in the playoffs. In an experience like this, how valuable is a guy like a D-Law or a J-Reed, some of the veterans who have been through it a lot?
ADEN DURDE: Yeah, I think week by week, their value is there. I think what Mike has done a great job of here is attacking each week, and I feel like the young guys are in such a mode of that that -- I was just walking off the field with D horn, and we were just like, it just feels like a normal game. We're getting ready and we have to go play.
Q. How much do you count on the scout team guys and the looks that they give you? We always spend so much time talking about the starters. How much do you count on those guys?
ADEN DURDE: Yeah, they're hugely valuable, and they get regarded every week for the best scout team player. I think sometimes they do get lost because you're so focused on going ahead, winning that week, and Mike and Jon talk about the whole seven-man roster. That's so important here, how they prepare, how they practice, how they study.
I think some of the rushers it helps them improve and develop because they have to study off of players, like who are you going to be this week. You study their moves, you study how they play. You get to look at that and kind of grow your game.
Q. How detail oriented do they have to be to make it the most effective for your defensive guys?
ADEN DURDE: I think they have to be very detail oriented, but there's also a part of the game that is like a human part of the game and people react and feel the game. When the ball plays and it kind of breaks down, they do the things they do, and you allow them to be themselves, as well, within the system.
Q. How does discipline play into your rushing coverage, the importance of discipline in your rushing coverage?
ADEN DURDE: Yeah, understanding how people get off the rock, how they attack their rushing lanes and play off each other. I wouldn't say it's discipline of staying in your lane, but there's a discipline of playing off each other, knowing when to play off each other, and then the coverage playing, and how do those things offset each other is important because on one hand, the rush might win now, which gives the coverage a chance, and on the other end the coverage might hold up and then suddenly you give the rush a chance to come to life.
That's the balance of rush and cover.
Q. What do you notice with Coby Bryant coming back?
ADEN DURDE: The same Cobe every day, just locked in, ready to go. Just got that kind of angry look on his face all the time he gives me, and he goes to work.
Q. What have you seen out of Riq this season from maybe some early season struggles to the way he's played the back half of the year?
ADEN DURDE: Yeah, I was thinking of a lot of players, but Riq especially, it's just his growth and his focus. Really I would say mental toughness to lock in and just get on and prepare and grow in his role. I think you just see him, he's locked in every day at practice. He's ready to go, whatever he needs to do, he does it, and he's out there and he owns his role. He dominates his role a lot of the time.
Q. The way Mike handles situations like that as a head coach, what have you seen from him, as far as helping a guy out or --
ADEN DURDE: I think every time, every single person I've seen with Mike and most of the coaches on our roster is that every piece of information you give them, whatever it be, good, bad, indifferent, you always do it with care and love, and I think you always have a solution for people, and you get on with it and you move forwards. Whatever it is, if it's for the defense or in Mike's case the team to improve, I think that's how you do it.
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