Patriots LB Jahlani Tavai joins! How are Tavai and this defense preparing to stop Tua and the Dolphins offense?

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Patriots LB Jahlani Tavai joins! How are Tavai and this defense preparing to stop Tua and the Dolphins offense? #NFL

Transcript

00:00Good morning, Jelani

00:02Good morning, how y'all doing? We're doing great. How are you today?

00:06I'm good. It's nice and sunny today. Finally this

00:11this team has

00:13struggled

00:15Traditionally when playing in Miami. I don't know if it's the oppressive heat or the

00:21bikini clad fans or the wings at Hooters

00:25Or what it is, but have you got have you guys talked about that at all in advance of Sunday?

00:31No, not really

00:35Jelani what went so when you look at this Miami team clearly you face them early in the season season without two

00:41Oh, well, what are the the problems that Tua brings now that he's back with this team?

00:46Oh

00:48My toes just has a way better understanding of the offense, you know the timing that

00:55The quarterback needs to get the ball out

00:57And he doesn't really go. He does a really good job

01:01Executing so us on the defense side. I make sure we get him off track

01:06force him to get to a second and third reads and

01:09And get enough time for our D line to get after him

01:13Jelani since it is such a big difference with Tua under center for you guys this week looking at film

01:18Did you guys focus a lot on the last time you faced Miami? What can you as a defense take from that first matchup?

01:25Yeah, we definitely looked at last film of course, we're

01:29Of course watching that that game was upsetting because it was it was a it was a close game

01:35But you know, it's a whole different ball game with Tua back there, you know

01:39But like I said, our biggest thing right now is just make sure that we get him to his second and third reads

01:44stop the run, of course and and

01:47and get off the field get the get our offense on the field and give them as many possessions as we can and

01:53You know that upset us up with a lot of opportunity to put some points up on the board

01:59Were you surprised that Alex van Pelt hadn't thought about playing Marcus Jones on offense until he suggested it? Well, there goes my lead

02:07Thanks Curtis

02:10I don't know. I didn't I didn't even know I didn't even know Marcus was taking reps on offense

02:16So I didn't it was a surprise to me when I see them out there

02:19Well, what you ought to do is just send them a text apparently telling me used to play on the other side of the football

02:25back in

02:26In junior high and maybe he'll throw you a throw you out there for a player to yeah

02:32Yeah, you never know it was good it was good to see Marcus playing with all three ways so

02:38You know, there's not many of not many NFL guys are doing that right now

02:42Jelani one of the areas where you guys have struggled all year long in in in and it's one of the most important things in

02:48Football is the ability to obviously get sacks create pressures, but you know more so sacks you guys kind of

02:56towards the bottom of the league

02:59with this

03:00What do you think has been the issue with you guys as far as

03:04the inconsistency on inconsistency on being able to you know

03:09Have those sack games where you give multiple sack games week in and week out

03:16Just getting to third down

03:18We got to find a way to get it to third down because when we do get to third down

03:22In the past like in the past several weeks. We've been very consistent on getting off the field on third down. So

03:30Yeah, just getting to third down

03:33Jelani, there are a lot of guys that you could worry about when it comes to this, Miami

03:37Dolphins offense, but Gerard Mayo pointed out John who Smith and that that's who he's worried about you played with him

03:43You were on the same team as him in 2021 22

03:46How do you feel like you'll match up with him? I

03:50Mean John is a great player, you know, he's a really good player

03:54you know, he's very dynamic at at the tight end position because you can he can live in the

04:00In the slide you can line up at one and he can you know, he can block so I

04:05Mean we had a we had a good game plan against him last last time we faced but you know

04:10It's a whole new game. Like we said with two of back there. So I

04:14Think we're gonna do we're gonna do really well against him and

04:19Yeah, looking forward to it

04:21Well, one of the other areas where this team has struggled a little bit this year is is tackling

04:28Wiggy talks about it. Ty law talks about it. I feel like if I'm gonna say it about you

04:35I ought to say it to you. So you even

04:40Struggled a little bit when it came to wrapping up on on Sunday. What is that in your mind when it comes to this defense?

04:49What is what

04:52Tackling is it a lack of effort? Is it a lack of what technique?

04:56Discipline, you know

04:59Great, I guess maybe I'm not getting the guy down

05:03That's it. Well, I mean there's not

05:06If you think there's a lack of effort, then I guess you're done. I guess you haven't been talking to the guys enough like

05:14We don't like we don't like looking bad on TV

05:16We don't like looking bad in front of our coaches because you know that puts us on the chopping board

05:20So there's no lack of anything. It's just a lack of you know

05:24Not being able to get them down it's part of the game we're not we're not the only professionals out there

05:31You know

05:33And as crappy as that sounds, you know, you know, you're gonna you're gonna miss a few tackles here and there

05:38It's just part of the game

05:40everybody's gonna get

05:41How many times I like, you know, there's gonna be a lot of TFLs in the game. So like

05:47If we're on the offensive side, it's the same thing, you know, so there's no lack of anything. It's just

05:53We're not getting them down that's all so tackling isn't a problem

06:01Of course tackling is a problem if you're not getting them down, that's that's the issue

06:05But I'm saying there's no lack of effort when I take that I take that personal and when I hear that

06:12Yeah, so when you say that there's a lack of effort then I know the effort that the guys are given

06:18I know the effort and sacrifice that they're putting on the field

06:23So there's no

06:25So then there's no I don't think I don't necessarily think that anybody said lack effort

06:30I think that we were just questioning it is

06:33Seemed like at times there's been an issue when it comes to tackling and so we were just asking

06:37Wiggy and Ty have brought up the fat and Tom Brady the other day started talking about how

06:43guys are not allowed to do what they used to be able to do when it comes to camp and when it comes to

06:48Practice, so I I just wanted to ask the question. It wasn't a personal attack at you

06:54Uh, I mean

06:57It is whether it's whether it's us not practicing it in training camp or during during the year

07:04I mean, it just comes down to just getting it the guy down

07:09So the way that we do that and the way that we preach it is making sure that all 11 guys gets the ball

07:15So that's something that you guys have been really focused on this week

07:19That's what we've been always focused on, you know, we know that we especially what week two three

07:24We we had a we had a few we had a bunch of miss tackles

07:28So we were always preaching swarming to the ball

07:32Helping our brother out on the field making sure that you know

07:34It's not just a open field one-on-one tackles that the ball carrier knows that

07:39All right, well, listen, we know you have work to do and we always appreciate you taking the time

07:43So we'll let you get off to that and we will talk to you again soon. Jelani to buy

07:50Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. I mean, I don't know

07:54Well, that's when you ask the question. No, no, but when you think of when you think about tackled, I don't want to offend

07:59No, no, no, but when you think about tackled

08:01I don't want to offend. No, no, but when you think about tackled, I don't want to offend. No, no, but when you think about

08:06Tackled I don't want to offend. No, no, no, but when you think about tackling it comes down to a couple of things

08:12The efforts not there

08:14a lack of technique

08:16Right because it's about getting the guy down in the ground, right?

08:18So if your technique's not great, then obviously it's going to be much harder for you

08:22There are some guys we've seen effort wise missing tackles. So I that's why I think that it's a good question

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