Joseph Ossai + Nick Scott on Current State of Bengals' Defense
Joseph Ossai + Nick Scott on Current State of Bengals' Defense
Transcript
00:00 Okay, Joseph, outside of focusing on what you're gonna wear on Saturday to Arizona,
00:06 what have you specifically been focused on this week?
00:12 The details.
00:14 The details.
00:15 Focusing on being technicians.
00:19 Focusing on being technicians, right hand placement, being precise in everything we
00:25 do.
00:26 Hand fighting, hand striking.
00:29 Just the little things, whatever we can focus on, whatever we can do to get us over the
00:32 edge.
00:33 That's what we're doing.
00:34 I noticed you had five snaps last week.
00:37 Is that because you're coming off of the injury?
00:39 Yeah, the coaches are trying to ease me in, try to protect me, help me, because I want
00:48 to go 110% every time, so they're trying to help me get back in there.
00:53 They're doing a great job of that.
00:55 For sure.
00:56 When you are looking at a quarterback like Josh Dobbs, he's a mobile quarterback, he
01:00 likes to run it.
01:01 I think he rushed 12 times last week for over 45 yards.
01:05 What did you learn?
01:06 You didn't get to play against the Ravens, I don't think, right?
01:10 But you saw film, obviously, you were there.
01:12 What did you guys as a defensive line learn from facing a guy like Lamar Jackson that
01:17 can help you with Josh Dobbs?
01:19 Obviously we have Lamar in our league, so we see stuff like that almost twice a year,
01:25 even with the Browns, now they have DeSean, he's also a mobile quarterback.
01:33 We see a lot of that in our division, so it's nothing crazy, nothing different, but he's
01:39 doing a lot of great things.
01:41 He hasn't turned over the ball, so he's playing at a high level.
01:44 We just got to go in and be focused and be detailed, play how we know how to play ball,
01:49 and come out with the dub.
01:51 Has Coach Hobby been harping on the details this week a lot?
01:54 For sure.
01:55 He has, and that's what we have to do to take us to that next level.
01:59 The line, so to speak, we've been playing really good.
02:02 BJ with two and a half, Trey with four, I think, Sam with two, DJ ball, and now I had
02:08 some callbacks, but that's okay.
02:11 So everybody's playing at a high level, but at times like this, you got to find a thing
02:16 that can take you even higher, make you more elite, and always working to get better.
02:21 Never be complacent.
02:22 That's what we're doing, details, details, details.
02:26 What would it mean to you and this team to get a win in Arizona, come back with that
02:29 win?
02:30 It would mean everything, because we're not folding.
02:36 We're not folding, we're still fighting, so to get a little bit of a reward for our fight,
02:41 that would be great, and then we can build from that.
02:43 That's what we're looking forward to.
02:45 I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to work your ass off in practice, go through
02:50 walkthroughs and be prepared for the game, and then not come out with a win.
02:54 What is that?
02:55 Is that frustrating for all of you?
02:56 Yeah, it's frustrating for anybody.
02:57 I think if you had any competitive spirit and you were just playing ping pong and you
03:02 lost, you would hate that.
03:03 It doesn't matter if you prepped for it or not.
03:06 If you were competitive, you would hate losing.
03:09 So it definitely hurts, but like I said, we take the good with the bad, and we're not
03:16 front runners.
03:17 We're not going to be happy and be connected when things are going good and then fall apart
03:21 when things are going bad.
03:22 No, we're still connecting, we're still fighting.
03:24 Backs against the wall, yes, but we're going to fight out of it.
03:27 We've done it before, and we're going to keep going.
03:29 Joseph, thank you.
03:30 You did great.
03:31 Thank you.
03:32 What color are you going with this week?
03:33 I only want to rule the natures.
03:34 What'd he say?
03:35 Can you sing as well as Alan George?
03:37 I can't sing as well as Alan George, not at all.
03:40 Not at all.
03:41 I'm not confident enough.
03:42 What?
03:43 You not confident?
03:44 Get out of here.
03:45 Not in front of the team.
03:46 Not in front of the team, no, no, no.
03:47 And not this song, not this artist.
03:49 It's got to be like a perfect storm.
03:51 Who would you sing in front of?
03:53 This is not what I was trying to ask you about.
03:55 I would serenade my wife for sure.
03:57 I would sing in front of her if she asked me to.
03:59 That's a good person to serenade.
04:00 Yeah, for sure.
04:01 I'm so sorry, that kind of went off the rails.
04:06 It's all good, got a roll with it.
04:08 But anyways, Nick, you're facing Arizona this week.
04:12 You know they like to run the ball.
04:14 How do you guys combat a guy like James Connor who is third in the NFL in rushing yards and
04:19 loves to run the rock?
04:21 Yeah, we just got to tackle, you know.
04:25 Tackling is an effort thing and we got to put a little bit more emphasis on it.
04:28 You know, it sounds silly from a defensive standpoint saying you got to put emphasis
04:32 on tackling, but that's what we need to do.
04:34 That's where we're at.
04:35 We faced a couple of good backs here and haven't done as well as we'd like with the tackling,
04:41 so we're going to try to ramp that up a little bit.
04:44 What do you work on, like small things do you work on to get better the next week at
04:48 tackling?
04:49 It's all about putting yourself in position.
04:51 You know, when you run to the ball and get there fast and take up air and space, it makes
04:58 it hard for running backs to find angles and things like that on you.
05:01 So we got to do a little bit better at closing the space between us and the ball carrier
05:05 and then after that it should just come naturally.
05:07 I remember in training camp I was talking to Mike Thomas and I asked him how long it
05:11 took him to feel comfortable, fully comfortable in Lou Ann Arumo's defense.
05:15 How is it coming along for you?
05:17 It's coming along.
05:18 It's something I'm working at every day.
05:20 You know, he's got such a schemed up ordeal.
05:24 It changes week to week depending on who you're playing.
05:27 That's what makes it great.
05:29 So like I said, I'm just trying to continue to challenge myself to stay on top of it and
05:34 be a help to whoever has questions or anything like that.
05:38 On defense as a whole, who is the vocal leader that kind of rallies all of you guys?
05:43 I would say Mike Hilton is definitely one of those vocal leaders.
05:46 He gets us going not just on the back end but during the game, with the defense on the
05:51 field and everything like that.
05:53 Sam Hubbard is another guy who gets us going from a vocal standpoint.
05:56 Logan, all those guys.
05:58 So it's really a team effort.
06:00 You know, everybody out there has the voice to give words of encouragement if they need
06:05 to and so we just lean on each other.
06:08 This team relies so heavily on Joe Burrow specifically on offense.
06:12 Do you guys feel added pressure when he's not 100% or do you even think about that going
06:17 into a game?
06:18 Not really.
06:19 We don't really think about it.
06:20 The way we feel as a defense is that the pressure is on us and that's how you got to operate
06:24 as a defense because at the end of the day, if you can keep points off the board, you're
06:28 going to give yourself a pretty good shot.
06:30 So we challenge ourselves and we take the type of onus that we're just going to put
06:35 it on us, whether the offense is putting up 47 points or whether the offense is putting
06:39 up zero.
06:40 It's on us as a defense to keep the other team out of the end zone.
06:45 Do you feel pressure to win this week from the first four weeks or do you put all of
06:49 that aside and you look at going 1-0 this week?
06:52 Yeah, I would say just looking at going 1-0 this week.
06:56 You know, that's our job, you know, to go 1-0 this week and that doesn't change because
07:00 of our current circumstance.
07:01 It's the NFL.
07:02 You lose games, you win games.
07:04 The challenge is you got to respond to get better.
07:06 At the end of the season, the team that improves the most over the course of the year is going
07:11 to have the most success, not the team that starts out hot and then fades away or stays
07:16 the same.
07:17 It's all about improvement.
07:19 From covering this team for so long, it's been almost a decade for me.
07:23 It seems like the guys that are in this locker room right now, when you guys are challenged
07:26 and you guys have your backs against the wall, it seems like the majority of these guys in
07:29 this locker room really do respond in a positive way.
07:32 Do you feel the same?
07:33 No, I feel the exact same.
07:35 We got a great group of guys.
07:36 Everybody's really mature and we know what it takes to win in this league.
07:40 That's why nobody's flinching.
07:42 We know first and foremost that we got to be better as a defense.
07:45 I got to be better as a safety.
07:47 That goes for everybody.
07:48 We just need to pick it up in every area and if we continue to do that, we'll like where
07:52 we're at.
07:53 Last question for you.
07:54 What would it mean to you to go 1-0 this week against the Arizona Cardinals, come back home
07:58 with a win?
07:59 Yeah, it would mean everything.
08:00 It means the world.
08:01 I mean, that's why we do it.
08:03 Nobody likes losing.
08:04 I hate losing.
08:05 So always trying to come back with a win, whether we're on the road or at home.
08:11 Regardless of the record, the ultimate goal is to come out 1-0, however you get it done.
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