Jim Schwartz Press Conference November 2, 2023
Browns Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz fields questions from reporters ahead of the teams match-up with the Cardinals.
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00:00 Oh, yeah, Houston, yeah.
00:02 I mean, Texas, yeah.
00:05 I was thinking of something.
00:06 [INAUDIBLE]
00:08 I did not after Orioles got bounced.
00:12 I abstained.
00:16 Other stuff.
00:17 OK.
00:21 Thank you very much.
00:26 If you don't mind, Greg, how well
00:28 has he been playing in slot for you this season so far?
00:32 And do you feel good about Cam or whoever else?
00:36 Yeah, Cam's had to come in and play for us in the past.
00:39 He's been reliable to do his job.
00:42 Come in in some situations where he hasn't got a lot of practice
00:46 reps and gone in.
00:47 And if he has to play this week, he'll
00:50 have gotten a lot of practice reps.
00:52 And I think I'll stay in my theme of evaluating
00:55 all our players as four and three.
00:57 You mentioned the penalties last week and the week before
01:00 and how you weren't pleased with the red zone defense.
01:03 And then obviously gave us more touchups against Seattle.
01:06 What do you see that's not getting done down there
01:08 that you think needs to happen?
01:09 Well, I think the biggest thing is
01:12 we have to stop people from running
01:13 the ball across our goal line.
01:15 If we're going to take pride in being a physical defense,
01:19 that starts with run defense.
01:21 And it gets accentuated in the red zone.
01:24 The field shrinks a little bit.
01:26 And we have to do a better job of stopping the run.
01:28 I think that's probably the biggest thing.
01:31 Does it matter to you who plays quarterback for them?
01:34 Two guys who haven't played all year?
01:36 Well, yeah.
01:37 I mean, it matters who's playing left guard.
01:41 It matters who's playing wide receiver.
01:43 We're going to take it all into consideration.
01:46 I think that we have eight games of their offense on film.
01:52 And with Dobbsy running it, they ran a lot of quarterback runs.
01:55 So I wouldn't be surprised if there's
01:57 anything different with Kyler Murray if he plays.
02:02 And I would expect if the rookie plays for them
02:05 to stay with what they've done.
02:11 I don't imagine that they would change the entire game
02:14 plan just for one guy.
02:16 I think there was a reason that they wanted
02:19 to fit Dobbs into that role.
02:20 So we're going to look at this game.
02:23 We're going to take into account players' individual strengths
02:27 and weaknesses as we put our scheme together.
02:30 But we'll be ready whatever they decide to do.
02:34 The big guy, does he run the same stuff?
02:37 Well, he didn't in the preseason.
02:38 They ran the offense, but he didn't run
02:40 a lot of the quarterback runs.
02:41 But a lot of teams don't run those quarterback
02:44 runs in the preseason.
02:45 Right?
02:46 You know?
02:48 Well, they have a lot of stuff on tape
02:52 from the first eight games.
02:54 And so we're going to prepare for that scheme.
02:58 And then we're going to prepare for the individual talents
03:00 of players.
03:02 So Toon played a lot in the preseason,
03:05 threw a lot of passes.
03:07 So we have pretty good evaluation of that stuff.
03:11 And like I said, we have eight games
03:13 of what they do on offense.
03:15 And we just got to melt those together if that's the guy.
03:18 If it's another guy, then we have
03:20 to melt it together with the individual strengths
03:22 and weaknesses of that player.
03:25 You know, so.
03:28 How good was the Murray's first interception on tape?
03:30 Just how good has he been for you guys this year?
03:32 Yeah, Mo's been, I don't want to say a pleasant surprise,
03:35 because he's been a good player.
03:36 You know, he had a setback with injuries the last few years.
03:39 And, you know, and had a hard time
03:42 getting started in training camp because of some injuries.
03:46 But now that he's healthy, he's really made good strides.
03:49 He's attacked before.
03:50 He was with Sam Fran.
03:52 So he's played in the scheme before.
03:53 So his development probably a little bit ahead
03:56 of some other guys that have never done it before.
03:59 Gives us some pass rush.
04:00 And that was just a really outstanding play.
04:03 You know, we sort of sandwiched really good play
04:07 with really poor play.
04:09 You know, we started off the first three series.
04:11 And, you know, we had a lot of fires to put out.
04:14 We made a few adjustments.
04:16 And we sort of found our stride.
04:17 And we went seven series of playing
04:19 about as good a defense as you can play.
04:21 Like punt, punt, interception, punt, punt, interception, punt.
04:23 And then it was just so disappointing
04:25 to leave it there at the end of the game.
04:27 Our offense needed us the most right there
04:29 after an interception.
04:30 They needed us the most.
04:32 And we didn't get the job done.
04:34 So we feel a tremendous responsibility for that.
04:37 But the more plays we can make like Mo made.
04:41 And an interesting thing with that,
04:44 he had never practiced that position.
04:46 You know, we had some injuries with Zadaris
04:49 and Zadarius and, you know, some other guys.
04:52 And we had sort of mixed and matched
04:55 our defensive line guys.
04:57 And he went in and, you know, I mean,
04:59 at most he had gotten mental reps on that blitz.
05:02 But went in and executed it really well.
05:04 And then athletically made a really good catch.
05:07 But, you know, we need more of that.
05:10 We need more of that middle of the game.
05:12 We can't be a feast or famine defense.
05:15 That's not a way to play.
05:17 That's not a way to play defense.
05:19 And, you know, our run game was feast and famine too.
05:21 You know, we played, you know, most of our snaps
05:25 really good in the run game.
05:26 But then we give up three big plays in the run game.
05:28 And that's not going to get it done.
05:30 That's not where we want to be.
05:31 That's not where we need to go to take this team
05:35 where we want to go.
05:36 Reporter 3: You weren't getting any turnovers.
05:38 You were worried that you start going for them.
05:41 That's what you don't want to see.
05:43 Now you're getting the turnovers and tackling as well.
05:45 Did you call victims?
05:47 No, not in those cases, Tone.
05:50 I mean, like Mo was doing his job in the scheme.
05:54 You know, MJ was doing his job in the schemes,
05:57 playing really good technique.
05:59 But I think you did see some examples
06:02 that some of the gaps in our run game
06:04 were us chasing boots.
06:06 And our eyes got distracted.
06:09 Instead of doing our job in the run game,
06:10 we were trying to make a sack
06:12 and hard to get a sack on a run play.
06:14 So, you know, so I think that, you know,
06:18 we have had to guard against that.
06:20 And, you know, I think that there is a, you know,
06:25 there's a fine line between, you know,
06:28 doing your job and trying to do too much.
06:33 And we've talked about that ad nauseum in here
06:36 and, you know, everywhere else.
06:38 You know, if we just do our job,
06:39 if we just be us the best that we can be,
06:42 the plays will come to us.
06:43 We don't need to hunt plays.
06:45 And, you know, we can make those.
06:48 I was disappointed in the game that, you know,
06:50 we missed two or three sacks.
06:53 I think that really could have changed
06:55 the complexion of that game.
06:57 And we can't now change personality
07:01 because we've missed those sacks.
07:02 We just got to, you know,
07:03 we just got to finish those plays
07:04 when they come up next time,
07:05 as opposed to trying to do something different.
07:08 And, you know, I think that, you know,
07:09 it's probably a tale as to oldest time from,
07:13 you know, Pee Wee to high school to college to NFL,
07:17 you know, where, you know, playing your job
07:22 and letting the plays come to you,
07:23 as opposed to, you know, trying to,
07:25 and it's not like our guys trying to play
07:28 outside the scheme or anything else.
07:31 It's, all right, I see this split.
07:33 This is what route's coming.
07:34 And instead of anticipating and playing your technique,
07:38 all of a sudden you can jump things a little too much.
07:40 And then you end up with feast or famine football.
07:42 But for the most part,
07:44 I don't think that was the thing in this game.
07:46 We just had a hard time getting started.
07:49 Took us a few series to really find some, some footing.
07:52 We changed, we changed an awful lot
07:54 in those first three series.
07:55 And I was really proud of the guys
07:57 because they really found their footing.
07:59 But then the way we ended that game
08:01 was extremely disappointing for all of us.
08:04 - About that, the starts,
08:08 Highsmith and Elfman,
08:09 I see you guys got that one touchdown,
08:10 but still you guys are getting more points
08:13 in the first quarter than any other quarter.
08:15 So do you have an explanation for that
08:18 or what you've done to get better starts?
08:20 - Yeah, I mean, you can look at a lot of ways.
08:21 Maybe we make really good adjustments.
08:23 Yeah, you know, we talk about starting fast,
08:30 but, you know, you're going to have things
08:33 when a game's new that an offense is doing something
08:38 maybe a little bit different.
08:40 And we have to make adjustment to what that is.
08:43 I think in those first series,
08:45 we just have to play our technique and our responsibility.
08:48 And if we do that, that like our message is that's enough.
08:51 If we do those things.
08:53 So, you know, there's always,
08:56 I mean, the game is 60 minutes long,
08:59 seasons now are 17 plus weeks.
09:03 There's going to be a lot of adjustments
09:05 and ebbs and flows of the season, right?
09:07 You know, there's going to be things that an offense does
09:10 that try to take advantage of what you do.
09:11 And then, you know, and then the defense
09:14 takes counter measures and then the offense,
09:16 I mean, that's a constant thing throughout a season,
09:19 but also throughout a game.
09:20 But yeah, we need to start better.
09:23 We need to start faster and we need to stop the run.
09:28 In the games that we've stopped the run,
09:30 we played really well.
09:31 In games that we've been leaky in the run game,
09:34 whether it was this last one, giving up a few big plays
09:37 or a game like the Colts where we just gave up
09:40 a lot of smaller games,
09:43 but we didn't control the run game.
09:44 Baltimore, we didn't control the run game.
09:47 When we control the run game,
09:48 good things happen for us on defense and that's our focus.
09:51 - Head saying, knowing your personnel so well
09:54 and then Jonathan and having taken over for you
09:57 and developing and probably knowing
09:59 a lot of the nuances of your scheme.
10:02 Do you just do what you do or do you have to change up
10:05 some of your votes in front to kind of cross them off a bit?
10:08 - Well, we have, he was here too.
10:11 So we have a lot of experience in our building with him too.
10:14 So that probably works both ways.
10:17 I'm sure all my playbooks were on the server
10:21 when I left Philadelphia, but people change terminology.
10:25 They adapt to their players.
10:27 What we're doing now is probably about maybe 40 or 50%
10:32 different than what we did in Philadelphia,
10:35 not just because we have different players,
10:36 but because the league goes through ebbs and flows
10:38 and different things like that.
10:40 So, and we also have a significant number
10:45 of different faces on defense.
10:48 So when it's all said and done,
10:49 it might help with a little bit of preparation,
10:52 might make our preparation a little bit easier at times,
10:55 but when it comes down to it, it's Sunday,
10:57 it's going out and performing and executing
11:00 and playing physical and playing with effort
11:03 and playing with some passion for the game.
11:05 - Last one.
11:06 - You were not being able to get that last stop
11:08 after the interception.
11:09 What did you identify as what was the biggest issue?
11:12 - Yeah, well, it was the one play, missing tackle.
11:15 You know, they throw a short pass.
11:16 We end up in zone on that play.
11:19 And, you know, we had, you know,
11:23 played a good technique in the zone
11:25 to force them to throw a three or four yard
11:27 and then missed tackle.
11:28 And that put them in field goal range.
11:30 And then all of a sudden they're in field goal range
11:33 and, you know, the game completely changes.
11:35 So that's probably, you know,
11:37 the exact same thing happened to us in San Fran.
11:39 San Fran was man, right?
11:41 But, you know, it got a completion
11:44 and when we're going to do some more stuff
11:46 in some two minute situations in practice, you know,
11:50 and just add to our periods a little bit more
11:53 because when the game's on the line like that,
11:55 we have to perform better.
11:56 - All right, guys.
11:59 - Thanks guys.
12:00 - Bye.
12:02 (kissing)
12:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]