Here’s everything Houston Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke said ahead of Sunday’s matchup against the Tennessee Titans, including his thoughts on the change of defensive play-calling, the play of Cam Ward and the overall role of defensive back Kamari Lassiter.
Question: On Head Coach DeMeco Ryans taking over play calling
Matt Burke: “Obviously a little disappointed, not even about me, just obviously I think we’re all disappointed in where we’re at and how we performed and being 0-4 at this point. DeMeco and I have a very honest relationship. He just said, ‘I think we need to spark a change.’ I said, ‘Okay, what do you need from me?’ He said, ‘I just need to keep game planning and working on the plan with me through the week, as we’ve always done.’ So that’s what we’re going to do.”
Q: On the biggest potential difference in changing defensive play callers
Burke: “Yeah, we’ll see. Again, I think just obviously, things haven’t gone well. I think we’ll all be honest to admit that. Not the way we wanted to. Sometimes you have to just sort of try to spark a change and just see something different and see if something else clicks. To adjust to those roles a little bit. Hopefully it shows on Sunday.”
On whether the decision to switch play callers was in line with the communication errors on defense
Burke: “You have to ask ‘Mec’ that probably more. I think that’s part of it. I just think we haven’t performed the way we all want to perform. When you get to this point, you just got to keep doing the same thing and probably expecting different results. We have to just try to change things up a little bit. We’ll go see how it looks. Hopefully we come out victorious and that we’re having a different conversation next week.”
Q: On LB Azeez Al-Shaair and S M.J. Stewart potentially playing
Burke: “Yeah, great. Talking about communication and getting our lead communicator back is a huge part of it. Both good players. Obviously, it’s cool seeing M.J. has gone through a long journey through the offseason and getting back to where he is. He’s another veteran guy, just a great presence, great energy out there. It’s nice to keep building some of that depth in some of those spots out there too. A lot of those guys that are continuing to work back, maybe ‘K-Mac’ [DT Kayden McDonald] kind of trying to work his way back into things as well. Anytime you can keep adding players to the mix, it helps.”
Q: On whether Head Coach DeMeco Ryans and him always collaborate on gameplans
Burke: “Yeah, I think our process in terms of planning has been very similar.”
Q: On whether the voice of Head Coach DeMeco Ryans calling plays changes the execution
Burke: “We’ll see. I hope so.”
Q: On whether he considered playing different coverages on Dallas Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb in Week 4
Burke: “Within calls, we do press and we don’t. We’ve had these conversations in the past, about matching players and sometimes it’s more work. Especially a guy like CeeDee, they are moving around a ton and putting it inside and motioning and getting them into stacks and bunches. There are a lot of ways you can get people off press and off certain matchups anyway. They did a really good job of trying to do that. I would say, most teams that play them have a plan to try to take CeeDee out of things. Now we don’t have coverages that we’re supposed to be just dropping guys and I would say that we don’t have a coverage that we’re not accounting for him. But the press thing, it’s call-specific, it’s player-specific. You guys have to show me a team that just plays press every snap and just lines up and does that. Those are options and those are built into the game plan and the structure of how we do things. There are certain calls that kind of encourage that or that we want to do it all the time and there’s certain calls that you can’t do that. If you’re trying to read a number to a receiver and see a release there, you can’t press because you have to be off to see those things. I mean, there’s a lot of variation in that stuff. Obviously, we don’t want a receiver catching 17 passes on us, so we have to do a better job executing all of our coverages.”
Q: On whether there were specific coverage plans for Dallas Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb
Burke: “Our plan wasn’t to give up 17 catches for whatever that was. All of our coverages are designed to cover everybody in the field at some capacity. We didn’t execute the plan well enough to do that and to win the game.”
Q: On what his gameday role will become
Burke: “Really just the same, in terms of information. Like I said, there’s a lot of back and forth between [Head Coach] DeMeco and I on the headsets as the game’s going on. As we go through the game plan week, he asks me to plan just the same as I always do, to sort of have my look at things and my take on things. I think it’s just information sharing as we go through. Obviously sometimes when he has head coaching duties to perform, we’re on the sideline to try to help facilitate the communication when he’s having to focus on the offense and stuff too. I think it would be pretty similar in terms of trying to communicate those adjustments on the sideline and communicate information back and forth and any sort of game plan thoughts as we’re moving through the day.”
Q: On whether he has had a discussion with Head Coach DeMeco Ryans about a timeline for play calling
Burke: “We haven’t had a discussion. That’s this week. You can ask me again next week.”
Q: On whether he will remain on the sideline
Burke: “Yeah.”
Q: On whether he anticipated Head Coach DeMeco Ryans taking over as the play caller
Burke: “No, there wasn’t like, ‘Hey, this is coming or you better do this. We have to clean this up or this is going to happen.’ That’s not how it works. I feel like I have a very good relationship with ‘Mec’. Even this conversation, there are difficult conversations, but he called me in. We sat down. We went through a couple things and how we want to look at moving forward and how we want to just try to clean things up. We both have the same goals, to try to win ball games. We still feel we have a really good defense and a really good team. What’s the best way to deploy our resources, himself and me and try to go win a ballgame.”
Q: On whether he has seen progress from S Reed Blankenship
Burke: “I think Reed’s played really well the last few weeks. He’s been tackling really well. He’s been in it. Again, I have seen the growth in comfort from him. I think sometimes it’s a different scheme. [Eagles Defensive Coordinator] Coach [Vic] Fangio, I know how they operate in Philly and we ask him to do a few different things. As you, bank some of those game reps and full-speed work and kind of put yourself in some of those situations, he’s just growing in the comfort of how we play and our style and what we have to do. I think he’s been a plus-level player for us for the last couple weeks. I think if his growth curve continues along that way, that we’re going to be very happy with Reed as we go through the season.”
Q: On Tennessee Titans QB Cam Ward
Burke: “I would say the first thing I’ve seen is he’s doing a really good job of not making negative plays. I know that sounds maybe double negative. I don’t know. He’s not taking a lot of sacks. He’s getting rid of the ball. He’s not throwing a lot of picks. You can tell they’re coaching him well to take care of things and not last year he took a lot of sacks and there were some turnovers and those sort of things. The first thing that jumped out just from watching last year of this was that they’ve cut a lot of that out of his game. He’s not taking the big negative plays. He’s not afraid to get rid of the ball when he has to or whatnot. He’s moving around a lot, in the pocket, not necessarily just to run per se, but just he’s getting away from things and getting himself out and buying some time in the pocket and making some off-schedule plays. They’re doing a really good job of marrying up some of the run game stuff. I’ve seen growth from him from what we saw last year to this year. It’ll be fun to challenge.”
Q: On trying to create more interception opportunities as a defense
Burke: “You can’t chase. I think that’s when you get into trouble. I think I said this a few weeks ago, if we catch some of the ones that we’ve had in our hands or thrown to us or when we’ve been in the right spots, those interception numbers maybe look different. I know we only have the one. We had six batted balls last week that got tipped up in the air and they caught three of them. What if we get one of those bunches back to us? Interceptions come when you’re in the right spot and you’re playing the right coverage and you’re running the ball. When those balls get tipped up and everyone’s turning a run and maybe you’re closer than somebody else, so you start jumping routes or cutting things off, then you’re putting yourself at risk for more damage. We’re going to try to execute the coverage as we’re calling and get our game plan right and catch the ones they throw to us.”
Q: On the criticism of CB Kamrai Lassiter’s play this season
Burke: “I thought Kamari played really tough last week. He is what he is in terms of scrapping and fighting and playing. He’s very competitive. I wouldn’t say that.”
Q: On the difference for him when he is calling plays and when he is not
Burke: “I know we joke about that stuff, but when you’re the play caller or when you’re making that final decision and someone’s talking, saying, ‘Hey, I like this or we like this’, or, ‘Hey, this is the situation’, or, ‘Hey, don’t forget this.’ All that, at the end of the day, it’s your decision to say this is the call that’s going out there. You go from taking everyone’s information., someone’s saying this is the formation or this is this or this is what we’re getting or, ‘Hey, this is the scenario’ and you’re trying to process that to get the right call or what you think is the best call for that situation to sort of switching where I’m going to try to give some information and say, ‘Hey, don’t forget this call or don’t forget we’re here.’ At the end of the day, he has to make the decision now to say this is what I want to put out there or this is what I think. I’ve taken all this information. I’m hearing what you’re saying or you game plan this or we both saw this this way, let’s do it this way whatever that may be. There’s just a little bit of like at the end of the day when you’re calling it, you’re the filter to say, ‘All right, all that’s come in and we’ve spent all this time looking at it this way and I hear what everyone’s saying, but I’ve got to say this coverage and now it’s going to go.’ I’m going to have to give some more of that information to him and help him say, hey, don’t forget this or this scenario was more screen tendencies or this is where they like to take their shots or whatever that is. Sometimes I would say, ‘Hey, I don’t know, what do you like here?’ Or vice versa, sometimes he’ll say, ‘Hey, what do you like here?’ You’ve got to be ready to give that information. There’s still a lot of give and take and a lot of information receiving, but at the end of the day, that person that’s making that call has to make the decision to take all that, to filter that information down into what they decide is the best spot to put the players in to try to go execute and win a play.”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans DC Matt Burke said before Titans game