• last year
Transcript
00:00And joining us right now is Patriots defensive back Jonathan Jones, who's brought to you by Drains by James,
00:05Eastern Mass' leader in residential and commercial drain cleaning and pipelining at Drains by James.
00:09They give a poop about your pipes. Mr. Jones, how are we doing today?
00:13How's it going? How's it going?
00:15Going pretty good. Let's go ahead and jump right in. That was a tough loss yesterday, obviously.
00:20It was a bit of an up-and-down game for you as there was the Cooper Cup play on that zero blitz.
00:26Let's start there. Unfortunately, we'll get the bad stuff out of the way first.
00:29On that play, you knew everybody was blitzing. Were you expecting them maybe to get to Stafford
00:34a little bit quicker and that you wouldn't have to cover for that long?
00:38No. It wasn't a true all-out max blitz. It's kind of one of our simulated blitzes.
00:45It's kind of more for when they're in their tight splits and
00:49hopefully you can get some simulated pressure that way. At the end of the day,
00:53our job is to cover. They made a heck of a pass, heck of a throw down the seam,
00:58and I didn't make the play.
01:00You went to Twitter to say, I owe NEP better than today. Keep grinding.
01:05Why did you feel the need to do that? I'm sure you've had good games, bad games before.
01:09What made you go to Twitter yesterday?
01:12Just accountability, just in the sense of you're always bad games and good games.
01:19I just pride myself on trying to take accountability. If I'm going to be the guy
01:24to speak in front of the team, I'm going to be the first to tell you when I mess up and when I do
01:27my wrongs. I felt like that was something that needed to be done. What adjustments did you guys
01:32make after a tough second quarter there going into the half? I know obviously that big play
01:37happened in the start of the third quarter, but what was sort of emphasized at halftime
01:40to take away some of those weapons that the Rams have?
01:45It really wasn't a lot of what they were doing or any adjustments. It just came down to us being
01:54able to stop the run early to get them in the automatic drop-back situations. In that offense,
01:58when they can kind of stay on schedule and do what they want, it makes it hard to defend.
02:04I felt like as a team, we fought through the adversity through the second and third quarter.
02:09It was an opportunity to win the game in the fourth quarter.
02:15We always talk about adjustments and we put it on coordinators, but as a player who's actually
02:20out there and seeing it, feeling it, living it, how much of a voice do you have to go to the
02:25sideline, ask for adjustments, and how open are Gerard and Demarcus Covington to whatever you
02:31might share with them in that area? Definitely. I think me being here and
02:36playing in this defense for a while, they definitely take my opinion and anything that
02:41I'm seeing in the inside that I can give them or any player that has the trust of the coaches
02:46around. They're always willing. If we see something out there that they can't see or
02:50they don't see on the iPad pictures, they trust us. They trust us to come to the sidelines,
02:55give them an honest representation of what we're seeing out there to do anything to help us win.
03:01I told you I'd get to the good stuff now. That play at the end on Nakua,
03:05he gets the ball, you're running towards him, you do a great punch out there. What did you see on
03:08that play and did anything that Nakua was doing earlier in the game give you an indication that,
03:13hey, I can knock this ball out? No. It's kind of like I said. They don't
03:19line up very often in wide splits and just let you play man to man against their guys.
03:24It's not their forte. They're not going to win. They won't win a lot of one-on-one matchups that
03:29way. They kind of did the same split out earlier and ran a slant with them. They tried to set it
03:34up later in the game on a double move, same formation, kind of split him out and try to
03:39fake a double move, but that's not their area forte. That's why they don't do that 90% of the
03:45time. It's just lining their guys up and trying to make one-on-one plays.
03:48Why do you think we've seen tackling be so inconsistent this year? There's been great
03:52games. The opener was an example. You guys were phenomenal tackling. Then there's been some other
03:56games like yesterday where it's been a bit of an issue. Why do you think it's been so inconsistent
04:00all year? I think it comes down to first being in the right fit, being in the right place at the
04:07right time, knowing where your help is within the defense, and getting all 11 guys to be in the right
04:13place at the right time. It makes tackling a little bit easier. I'm trying to make wide-open
04:18tackles in open field and open space. It's difficult for anybody in the NFL. It just comes
04:24with guys being in the right place at the right time. Game tackling, having two or three guys
04:29around the ball will make tackling a lot better when you're able to do that. With some of the
04:34game planning we saw early on, Gonzalez coming in for blitzes. I think he got to Stafford
04:39once or twice. Is that something that you guys have been working on a lot this week? Is it
04:43something you plan on mixing in more as the season goes on? I think it's always been in the game
04:49plan. We've actually kind of called it a few times. Sometimes an offense will give a set
04:54to where we have to check out of certain calls. It was just able to keep it on and run the
05:00blitz and have them try to get in there and make a disruptive play. It's something we've had in the
05:05defense. We'll continue to throw that in there. Eventually, it'll hit. One thing we grew accustomed
05:12to over the years for you guys as a defense was sort of taking away an opponent's strength,
05:16making them beat you in different ways. This was a game where a layman would look at it and say,
05:21well, they pretty much only throw to Nakua and Kup, and they were able to throw to Nakua and
05:25Kup. Does that add to the frustration or disappointment that you kind of knew how
05:29they were going to try to beat you, and they still were able to beat you that way?
05:33Yeah, like I said, they have a good scheme with those guys and finding ways to send them in
05:39motions and getting them in bunch formations and just unique ways of getting them open.
05:48We definitely thought of ourselves as playing good ball versus an elite receiver, but I wouldn't
05:53say they had a quote-unquote number one receiver. They have two really, really good receivers that
05:59can move around inside, outside, and line up pretty much anywhere. When you have guys like
06:03that, it makes it a little harder to take away as opposed to in previous years with DeAndre Hopkins,
06:09who's outside at number one 90% of the game. It makes it a little easier to take away.
06:14We're talking with Jonathan Jones, defensive back for the Patriots. Jonathan, Christian
06:18Barmore, I know he didn't play a lot, but what did he sort of bring to the defense having him
06:22back out there? What did you sort of notice about his plays in the sets that he was in
06:27during the game? Yeah, I mean, just getting him back helps. Just having more bodies up front to
06:34help us run and run stopping, converting the pass. It's kind of his forte is just being an inside guy
06:41that can stop the run and play action plays, being able to convert and getting pressure on
06:45the quarterback. And so as he continues to build up a snap count, he's just going to do nothing
06:51but help us more and more. You have a number of young receivers on this team that are, I think,
06:55scuffling, still finding their way, learning, whatever you want to call it. And I'm wondering,
06:59as a defensive player who goes against those guys a lot in practice and a team leader,
07:04do you sort of cross that aisle, so to speak? Do you give a lot of advice to maybe rookie
07:08receivers, young players on the offensive side of the ball when you see the need?
07:14I try to as much as I can. Receivers, it's a unique position in the NFL. There are not too
07:20many receiver rooms who are set in stone of guys who are going to come out, be number one guys.
07:26And so we have a lot of guys who are trying to find their way, find their way in this league and
07:30make plays and show that they're dependable, not only to their teammates on offense, to the
07:35quarterback, to their coaches, and to themselves. And so those guys are continuing to work. They're
07:40going to continue to work and continue to get better. Got the Miami Dolphins coming up. You
07:44already played them once this year. Snoop Huntley was a quarterback, so that's a little bit different
07:47than Tua, who is now back there calling signals for them. What did you sort of learn from that
07:52first matchup? It's a team you're familiar enough with, I would say, but what did you learn from that
07:56first matchup with them this year that you can take into this game on Sunday?
08:00Yeah, like you said, the big thing is going to be different is just them having Tua back. And so
08:05there's a lot more in their offense that they have a timing built in and have the ability to do with
08:10him being back at quarterback. They're going to implement, you know, in their offense and they're
08:14just getting guys going. John knew he was getting going for them. They're using him a lot more.
08:19So a big test, the same kind of offenses last week where guys are in motion a lot,
08:24going to be a lot of movement, something they've always done. And so we just got to go out and make
08:29plays. You mentioned the Rams not having a true number one, and it seems like the trend in the
08:33NFL, a lot of these teams, the Bengals, the Eagles, the Dolphins you'll face this week,
08:38do have kind of that tandem where it's like Waddles or Hill, they both could be number ones.
08:42How much more does that challenge a defense compared to what you were just talking about?
08:46Sort of the old school, Randy Moss is the number one, you stop him kind of thing. How much of a
08:51bigger challenge is it with these two receiver tandems?
08:55Oh, I would say a lot, you know, especially when they move guys around. You can't just
08:59go into a game plan in the week and say, well, hey, this guy's going to be right here.
09:03Because who knows where they're going to put him? You know, Tyreke Waddle, you know, one week,
09:08he might be in the formation on this scheme that you watch on film, and then the next week in a
09:13totally different place. And so when you have those guys who are interchangeable, you know,
09:17on the offense, it definitely makes it harder for defenses.
09:20What is, when you think Mike McDaniel in this Dolphins offense,
09:23what do you think the sort of core characteristics are of it?
09:28Just a lot of eye candy. You know, they do a good job of moving guys around pre-snap,
09:33post-snap to try to change gaps. So you're not just lining up on defense and, you know,
09:37playing a call, you know, you're making adjustments within, you know, within the play,
09:42you know, as it's going on pre-snap, you know, a guy will go in motion and doing the ball snap.
09:47They do a lot of good things with the timing, the timing of their motions, getting guys vertical out
09:52of the motions. You know, as most teams, a guy who goes in motion, he's either going horizontal
09:56across the ball or something short. And so they do a good job of timing that up and having the
10:01guy who's going in motion also be a vertical threat.
10:03That is the voice of Jonathan Jones, defensive back for the Patriots. Jonathan,
10:06thanks so much for the time and good luck this weekend against Miami.
10:10Thank you, guys. You have a good one.
10:11All right, this is Jon Jones joining us here on WEI Afternoons.

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