Sam Hubbard on Bengals Defense Following DJ Reader's Injury, Steelers Offense and More
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00:00 Obviously losing DJ is awful for a lot of reasons. What's going through your
00:05 mind as a defense right now with that? Yeah you know first of all we're just
00:09 thinking about him it's uh you know it's heartbreaking. No way around it but he's
00:15 in good spirits. Having surgery he knows how to attack it having been
00:20 through this and I know that he'll turn into a positive like the other
00:23 adversities he's faced because that's just who DJ is.
00:28 How do you feel about moving forward without a guy like DJ?
00:33 Yeah it's a deep room we got a lot of guys that are gonna step up get some
00:37 opportunity you know they've put in the work I know guys like Dominique Davis
00:43 has been on the look team for many weeks just working their craft waiting for an
00:49 opportunity I'm excited to see those guys play. Young guys like Zach getting
00:53 more snaps, Jay Tuffelli, Josh is solid as they come so it's gonna be a it's gonna
00:59 be a crew replacing because that's big shoes to fill.
01:03 Something else you have Sam is a coordinator who likes to mix things up
01:08 and is fully capable of doing that. How much do you rely on Lou to be able to
01:12 kind of scheme around that and compensate? Yeah we have the utmost faith in Lou
01:16 because you know we've lost players injuries before and he's adapted and you
01:22 know we leave that to him because all we do is play the call and we know if we
01:26 execute what he's gonna call we'll be in good position so it's on us to to execute
01:30 what you know the game plan because he's gonna put us in good positions to make
01:33 plays. Obviously you know the Steelers team well you've played against them a
01:37 bunch we just talked to Mike Hilton he said he knows Mike Tomlin's planning to
01:40 run the ball a ton do you assume that's gonna be the case this week? Yeah no
01:44 question it's late December night game in Pittsburgh that's gonna be you know
01:50 they're gonna try and out physical they're gonna run the ball and we're
01:53 gonna try and stop them and that's just the life of the AFC North. This group has been so
01:58 good in the second half on defense it's not like it's been a couple weeks this
02:03 is going back a couple seasons now why is that Sam? Now it's because we got a
02:10 lot of young guys a lot of guys that are rotating in and taking some snaps and
02:15 you know really helping us out making plays you know just rolling fresh guys
02:19 and helps a lot throughout the game in a long season and we're gonna continue to
02:24 do that more but you know I think we just got a lot of winners in this in
02:28 this locker room that when gets tough you know everything's everybody's
02:32 feeling each other out in the first half and then you know you know what you're
02:36 gonna do in the second half and it's just about executing out physical and
02:39 who wants it more and you know we want it pretty bad I think you know we got a
02:45 great group. For the last couple of years this team's been remarkably good in the
02:48 month of December what is it about this team that allows you to do that? I think
02:54 it's a bit the structure of how we do things you know Zach talked about this
02:58 to the team everything we do structured around playing our best football in
03:01 December, January and so on down the stretch being healthy and you know
03:07 whether that's our OTAs or throughout the week practice structure what they do
03:11 with Joey Boze in the weight room it's really tailored around trying to be as
03:16 healthy and fresh as we can you know you're never gonna be healthy and fresh
03:19 in the end of the year but as much as we can that's what we try and focus on.
03:23 Do you think there could be correlation between like offseason stuff and that fact that you're so good in December?
03:30 There could be a correlation to offseason stuff? Yeah I mean ultimately
03:33 goal everyone wants to play the best in December, January when it matters the
03:36 most and we've definitely tried to you know lighten the workload early in the
03:40 year to stay healthy you don't need to be you know winning a Super Bowl in May
03:46 and June in OTA practices so it's more about technique and just things like that.
03:50 This team has played in a lot of big games this core group does this one
03:55 feel like a big game to you? Yes no question this is a huge game for us we
03:59 have not played well in the division like we'd like to this is a division
04:04 game with a lot of implications and there's no way around it's a big huge
04:08 game for us. Have you ever seen a playoff race like this like it is in the AFC
04:12 where there's like I think five teams that are eating six? Yeah no I've never
04:15 seen it like this with so many different faces at quarterback so many variables
04:22 so many weird wins and losses I think the just the parody in the league it's
04:27 just it's really hard to win a game and anybody can beat anybody and there's a
04:33 lot of you know ways to win a game you know it's not just I mean I think the
04:39 Browns have won some insane games like the week one last week it's just you're
04:44 watching it's just like hard to believe. Sam what do you guys draw upon the
04:50 stops in overtime the third and short fourth and short with the game on the
04:54 line if they get that first down probably game-winning field goal drive
04:58 what do you draw upon that going forward? I think we got a lot to draw on I think
05:05 that's just you know we make the plays when it matters to get in a position
05:09 where we can continue to make each game bigger than the one before so you know
05:14 if we don't make those plays then this game isn't as big and I think it was
05:19 Zach and BJ got the penetration on that play and you know Zach stepped up when
05:24 DJ went down I guess you can draw on that and he has the confidence from that
05:27 play yeah. Sam fun one for you favorite Christmas gift you've ever received?
05:35 Favorite Christmas gift I ever received probably that's tough last year I got a
05:45 cooking lesson date night with my girlfriend and that was really fun this
05:50 offseason I really enjoyed that one. What did you cook? It was like tacos and Mexican
06:00 themed so it's cool. You're gonna get brownie points for giving that answer. Yeah I had to give a shout out.
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