 Hey, they were shutting you out. They were shutting you out. I'm sorry. Carolina, just kind of knowing what they've been going through over the past week and, you know, letting go of coordinator and what do you kind of like go into this looking at? I mean, I know you're in week 14, so it's not like they're going to change everything, but what's kind of your perspective? Yeah, you look at everything that they've done to this point. You kind of look at maybe his background too, the new guy's background, and kind of look at what maybe he did at Baylor and some thoughts that way. I mean, you just kind of look at everything. But, you know, it's not, be hard in this late in the season to just totally shed everything that you've done to this point and go with something else. I mean, when they had Darnold, he's a quarterback that can run too. He heard us running in the first game. And so we know Cam can run, we know Walker can run. All those guys can run a quarterback. Like I say, I don't think. If you're trying to teach a quarterback like Cam too coming in, it's not like you're going to redevelop a whole system. You're going to develop a system that's going to be beneficial to him, obviously, but it's probably going to be what plays are beneficial to him within the system that we already have. Kind of like we do on, we've talked about on defense before. You don't just all of a sudden change your whole defense because somebody's out. You just look at the guy that's coming in and playing in that position. Okay, what can we do that will benefit him or use his abilities to the best of his ability? So it's a little bit of everything and a lot of it, it's us. You know, what do we, what can we do well? You know, what can we do well against their offense and the run game and the pass game also? What can we do well? And obviously you look at the physical attributes of the quarterback or whoever it is that's playing, whether it's a running back, whether it's a tight end, whatever. In this case, it's quarterback. You know, what do these guys do well? What are their, what are the things you really worry about the most about them and how are we going to defend that? I've been asking every coordinator this and I would like your opinion too. Thinking about this idea of playing a complete game and I was just curious, kind of what does a complete game look like for your unit specifically? No touch down. What else would there be on defense? I mean, that would be it. No touch down. Not going to say yardage doesn't really matter. It's keeping the guys from scoring and playing well on third down, getting off the field and playing well in the red zone, not letting them score. That's defense. Sorry about that. You talked about going back to that week eight game and against the Panthers and now looking here, we're at what, week 14? What are maybe one or two areas that you see where the defense hasn't proved from then to now that you think can put the Falcons in position to get a different result? Well, I hope that we are better in the run game sometimes on first and second down. We were in way too many third down in shorts in that game or even second in shorts in that case. Hopefully we can play better against the run. The other thing is hopefully we can do a better job of containing the quarterback. He got out a couple times on us, gained a bunch of yardage. He just watched a play where he gained third down. We had him long and we let him out and he gains about 12 yards for first down. There was another on a boot pass where he got out and went for almost 20-some yards. Those are loose plays that you just can't give up. Hopefully we have gotten better and will be better. One more question for you just on Marlon Davidson. You talked about finally having a full off season and just being able to take advantage of preparing at the beginning of the week, the COVID situation, the injuries kind of going down. And of course last week he gets a fixix. So what are you seeing with Marlon just in terms of his progression? Well, I think he's just, it's like most guys in their second year. I think they've become better. But the other thing is too, you got to kind of keep in mind like all those guys that are second year guys in a way went back, not a step in their progression as a pro, but all of a sudden in their second year they got a new system. It wasn't like it's their second year in the system. So yeah, you're a rookie, but then you bring in a whole new system which is entirely different than the system they had. So they're really a rookie again. The only difference I think with those guys is that they probably learned in that one year a year ago now how to be a pro, how to prepare, how to do the things that it takes that rookies don't normally know how to do, he has really improved in that area. I think he's playing better all the time, but I think in all those scenarios you always got to look at those second year guys and go, well, he's a second year guy, he should be a lot better. Well, EA probably is in some aspects, but then in other aspects it's really a new position again for him or playing a new position, new terminology, all that kind of stuff. I think he's progressing fine. I think a lot of our second year guys are really starting to kind of see stuff from them kind of like a rookie does. You kind of see rookies at this time of the year kind of starting to catch on and kind of get the idea. And the second year guys are kind of the same way. You know, quarterbacks are leaking out. It seemed like that was a problem off and on the first half of the year. I think both means and harmonics said they felt like that's gotten corrected. What did you do over the last month to kind of, I guess, make that nod as big of an issue? Emphasized it. Just do your job. You know, the problem of it is, is that what guys do and that's usually that's what happens in most cases is the guys want to do too much. They want to do somebody else's job. And all of a sudden, you know, I'm ducking my head inside when I'm supposed to keep my head outside. And then all of a sudden the guy goes outside. It's just it all works together. You know, and it doesn't work if one guy out of the 11 doesn't quite do. You may not always see it as a fan because it may go the other direction and you don't see this guy over here totally screwed up. But you do see it when it happens. You can know somebody did. It's not designed for anybody to get out and run on the edge out of a dropback pass. That's not ever supposed to be the case. So obviously somebody didn't do their job and, you know, it's the way it's always been. If everybody does their job and I think the more you do this stuff, I told you like, you know, a long time ago that when you can't practice, you only have so many plays in practice. And we can't practice every offense you play that they have against every defense that we have. So there's just got to be rules and assignments. And if you do your rules and your assignments, usually it'll take care of that stuff. But the first time somebody sees that, they kind of maybe kind of go do this and that's not what they need to do. There's so many times that when you pressure, especially up the middle, if the guys on the end just stay on the end, we will force the quarterback out to you. We may not sack him up the middle. We may not have a free runner, but where's the guy going to go? If there's no place to go up the middle and he needs to scramble, he's going to scramble on the edge. Well, but if you're not on the edge, then there he goes. And so in what happens is guys come off the edge and they want to be speed pass rushers and all of a sudden they run like heck and get up the field. And then all of a sudden they're behind the quarterback and there's this big running lane right in here where the quarterback takes off. Or they start up the field, they decide, oh, I can beat this tackle inside because he's over set me. So they go inside. There he goes around the edge. Well, there's a time to beat the guy inside and then there's a time not to beat the guy inside and you just got to know when that is. And that's just learning the defense. And specifically this week, do you prefer going against a coordinator in a midseason switch that is their first week or would you rather there be a couple of weeks? Or does it not, at this point, it does not matter for you? It doesn't. It just, it's to whatever it is. I mean, you can look both ways. You can say it's an advantage one way and it's a disadvantage another. You don't know exactly what he's going to do, but then he's got the same problem and he doesn't know he hasn't done it before. So who knows? It's a player's game. The bottom line is the team that plays best and the players that play best are going to win the game. Where do you see his role right now within this defense? Is he more primarily just a pass rusher for you guys? He does both. He's an outside backer, which means he has to set the edge in the run game. He has to drop occasionally and he has to rush the passer. He's, our role for him in any different was day one. I mean, we, you know, we feel like his best attribute is rushing the passer, but he has to do all three. Tell us, Darren, how he jumps out the, he's always the first one to congratulate people. It's like he's having fun when he's out there. He's getting a little bit more time. How has he been developing for you? I think Darren's coming along. He's like everybody else, like all those guys, Avery, all those young guys that were in a secondary. They learned sometimes the hard way. We threw Avery in there against Dallas and that was a fun experience. So it, but you know, that's the only way they're going to find out. You're going to find out about, I'm not the only way they're going to learn is to do it. You know, everything is like arts at something this morning. And it was really, it's absolutely true that just as a coach, but as a player too. But going back as a coach, most of the stuff that I have learned as a coach over the years are things that you screwed up at some point at a time early in your career and any different. Okay. Well, you know what? That's not a good idea doing that. So you learn not to do that or you tweak it and some, well, there's no different with players. You know, they learn and you learn sometimes the hard way, but usually hopefully what happens with a coach and hopefully what happens with a player is once you've learned that wasn't a good idea, you don't go back to it. You know, you go away from it and you learn from your mistakes. You know, that's true with all those young guys. You know, they're going to be growing pains with those guys sometimes. They're not going to go out there and play it perfect. They're not. So it's easier sometimes when you're a young defensive lineman or you're a young, especially a young linebacker even, or maybe even a young pass rusher where all you got to do is pass rush all the time as a rookie. That's all you got to do. But when you're in a secondary, every mistake you make, everybody in the ballpark and on TV knows you made the mistake. You know, some defensive lineman goes the wrong way up front and it goes through the gap. The only way it comes out is if the secondary guy misses the tackle, then he shows up as the bad guy. Nobody knows that somebody had to mess up up front before it even gets secondary. Nobody ever talks about it. So that's always, you know, it's a tough, tougher place to play, especially as a young guy, especially with all the stuff that we do. No, I think most teams that if you're playing them more than once, but it's really kind of true. Everybody copycats a little bit in this league. If you're having trouble with something, they are going to find out if you fixed it. They're not going to be sometimes, you know, what happens is if good teams go at you and say, you haven't been having a problem with this, then we're going to have to go and see if you're still having a problem with it. And especially if it's a divisional opponent that knows you pretty well, they're going to find out if you fixed it. The ones that think they're so clever that, oh, I'm sure he fixed it. We'll go to something else. That's probably not a good approach. I'd find out you're going to fix it the same way on defense. If you did something good against an offense, I'm going to find out if they have corrected it before I leave it and think that I'm so smart, I'm going to outfox them. That usually doesn't work. So, you know, sometimes, you know, coaches can be too smart for their own good. Sometimes just find out if they fixed it. And if they have, then move on. You expect Carolina to come in and try to run the ball? Well, absolutely. Why wouldn't you? Now, I mean, they, you know, everybody's going on that 200 yards that they rushed against us the last time on, by the way, on like what, 40-some carries or something like that. So, yeah, I can remember playing Buffalo one year or two and everybody when we were at Baltimore, and they rushed for like 210 yards on 51 carries. And we gave up 17 points. So, you know, stats, that's what I'm telling you, stats can be very, very misleading. Yeah, I don't want to give up 200-some yards, but I was in college coach one time too and played a wishbone team. They got 200-some yards and everybody went crazy. They never threw it. I mean, it's like the last game you just watched New England against Buffalo. So, should everybody be mad that Buffalo, I mean, they did it. Buffalo one time in the first half, three times for the game. Oh, I'm sorry. So, they had a great day against the pass. Really? I mean, come on. It's just stats can be so, so misleading. So, but yeah, absolutely. They'd be crazy not to come in and see if they couldn't run against us. Do you expect a similar thing with quarterback? What's that? We've been trying to at least get the quarterback out of the pocket a little bit. I can't. I said, do you expect them to do kind of similarly with the quarterback getting outside of the pocket? Well, I hope not. Well, those aren't designed. I mean, that's not like he ran back and goes, okay, I'm going to scramble on this one. We gave him the lane to run in. So, I would not, no, they're going to drop back. And if the guy has an opportunity to scramble, he's going to scramble. Hopefully, we take that away from him. But that's not something that, okay, they're designed. They may design a quarterback draw or something like that, which I'm sure they have and I know they have. But, you know, the ones that bothered me from the last game when the quarterback's getting out after he dropped back to pass, we had guys covered and then he got out and scrambled for a first down. Those are plays that just kill you. This might be a weird question, but is it tougher to get a gauge on this quarterback when a guy has had such varying performances like Hamas had in a few starts in Carolina? Does that make it a little bit trickier? No. I told you a couple of weeks ago, I think somebody asked me a question. I told you, I don't ever look at the bad plays the quarterback does. All I look at is that the good ones. I'm expecting every play to be the worst for us and the best for them. There's no sense that you can't, how are you going to ever go back and a guy throws a strike and a wide receiver drops a ball? Are you going to count on that guy dropping the ball the next time he throws a swing? No. Am I going to count on the quarterback having a bad day because he had a bad day last week? No. I'm going to look at the best performances that guy does. What does he do best? And that's what we're going to go against defense. I'm expecting that guy to go in there and play a perfect game at the quarterback. But I'm going to ask you this before the, about creating what book value does creating bring to the defense? Everything. It's on and off the field. He's not, he's, everybody knows he's a good player. He's an active player. But all really good players in the leagues are not necessarily like good practice players. You go out there and practice every day hard and go at it. He does. Not everyone studies the heck out of the film and stuff. They sometimes just count on their natural raw talent. He studies. He's a great person off the field. He is a mature man. So I can't say enough great things about the guy in every aspect of his life. From my standpoint, as a football player, being around him, as a person, everything about him. There's nothing I can find negative about the guy. I mean, he's just to me, he's what all young players at the defensive line, all young players period on defense. That's what I should aspire to be like that guy. That's a professional football player that takes his job serious and on every aspect. Does he remind you of anyone you coached before? Bunch of guys. Ray Lewis is that way. Teddy Bruceke was that way. Mike Verable was that way. That's why he's a football coach. That's why he's a day-gone-good football coach. I've had a lot of guys. C.J. Mosley was that way. Those are what make those guys special. That's why they're in the Pro Bowl. That's why they're all pros. That's why Ray Lewis in the Hall of Fans, why Ed Reid's in the Hall of Fans, why Terrell Suggs will be in the Hall of Fan. Those guys practice every day. You guys will be Sprite. Randy Moss was that way. I didn't coach him, but when he came to New England, I'm going, I don't know. Here was what was in the media about this guy. Unbelievable practice player. Unbelievable. A hundred mile an hour, I kept thinking, this guy doesn't really need to prove anything to anybody. He did every day. Tom Brady. All those guys are like that. That's why they're a notch above everybody else. There's a lot of guys that I've been around that are like that. Greedy's just right there with him. That's why I like when you guys ask a question in here, do you think the other team is enlisting to this press conference? Well, I don't know. They are. Every team is. If they aren't, they got a guy that is listening to it that will tell them what was said. I will be, they will know exactly what I said in this press conference today in Carolina within the hour. So you're always cognizant not to say? Well, that's why sometimes you want to know why guys don't want to answer you. You can't answer. You can't answer the question. You can't answer anything that's going to give anybody any info. It's not only just like, you know, board information where somebody says something, they're going to use it as board. It's not that. This league is so far from that. That was high school and college. You know how this guy said that? That's nothing. That's just trash talking. And no coaches are really going to say that. But everybody is always listening to, well, does that mean he's going to run more? Does that mean he's going to blitz more? You know, guys, you guys ask me about pressure. I'm never going to tell you. Nobody's ever going to tell you what are we going to do on defense? Well, okay. So I'm going to do this. It's like, it's like an act of war. Okay, we're going to attack tomorrow. I'll just let you guys know we're going to, we're going to come bomb you tomorrow. So yeah, okay. That would really, I mean, sometimes I just look at the question go, really? You expect anybody to really answer? Nobody's going to ever give you any kind of info. Everybody in this league listens to everybody else's press conference and reads everything about them. And most of the time it's nothing. And sometimes you've got to be careful what you read. It may be misleading. Have you ever tried to plant a false idea in somebody's head? No. Really? No. Because generally speaking, I think we're all smart enough as coaches that if I come in and say, well, I'll tell you what guys, we're going to blitz the heck out of this week. They would probably think we're going to play zone all fricking day and never blitz. No. I mean, you're going to do what you do. You're going to do what your personality tells you. Coaches, no. It's just, it's usually you just take it with a grain of salt. Appreciate it.