Drake Thomas: "We Have A Process-Based Mindset"

SPEAKER_1 (0:04)

Mike, talk a little bit about red zone defense. And obviously, over the course season, you've done a lot of good things, but that one area has been a little bit of trouble. What do you see in there, and how do you guys get better there?

Drake Thomas (0:17)

Yeah, I think we've got to realize that there's less room for error. Honestly, the plays get extended. You've got to cover for longer. You've got to be aggressive downhill in the run game.

Like I said, there's not really much room for error. So in the field, if you make a little mistake, you can clean it up with a play after it, or within the play, somebody else can cover it up for you, but there's just less time and space down there. Everything happens a lot faster, and we've got to be on the same page and be ready to cover through the down or get the runner on the ground before you get crossed into the end zone.

SPEAKER_3 (0:56)

You study, obviously, a ton of film, and when you look at offenses that do well in their first 15 scripted plays, what do you notice about teams that are effective in those plays versus ones that maybe aren't?

Drake Thomas (1:13)

They have looks that you've seen before, and you know are stressors to your defense. They have plays off of their plays, so they're lining up in similar formations and structures, and they're running one play the first time, and they're coming off of that, and then showing a different thing that might contradict what you need to do as a defense. So just having plays off of plays, plays that flow together, plays that stress you and that you've seen before that might have gotten you in the past.

SPEAKER_3 (1:45)

So you see them going back to things that other teams might have done to you, to try to see if they're going to work for them?

Drake Thomas (1:51)

Yeah, I mean, this is like a copycat league, is what a lot of people say. They see the film, they see something that has hurt us in the past, and other teams are going to do it. So that's why it's so important to leave in a game, get those things corrected, and move forward knowing how we're going to play them in the future.

SPEAKER_4 (2:10)

But Mike was saying, it's important when you look at a game like that on film, there's a lot of good things to not just get caught up but totally in the score or whatever. As players, how easy is that or whatever to kind of take that approach to it when you did lose the game?

Drake Thomas (2:21)

Yeah, that's always the case, no matter what. When you win, there's still so much that you can learn from it. Because there's always something you can improve on, always things that you did well. So win or lose, that it should be a process-based mindset to attack the process and what it looks like to get better, versus just being emotionally attached to the results. So I think that's the approach that all the players try to have.

It can be difficult, but reminders to each other and holding each other accountable to that is important.

SPEAKER_5 (2:56)

When it comes to the Cardinals this week, and you've seen them before, but how much different do you think they could look, or do you know they look with a different quarterback and different running back situation? Yeah.

Drake Thomas (3:07)

I know Algier is a really hard runner. I haven't watched much with Min Choo in the game, so I don't know how much they've changed with that, but I'll probably keep on looking. I'm sure they're going to run their scheme and do what they do well no matter what. So I'm sure it will be a lot of similar stuff with some wrinkles and twists in there to keep us honest.

SPEAKER_3 (3:28)

How much does it affect you guys or you when an offense keeps somebody in the block versus just uses them as a chip? Where does that change things for you guys?

Drake Thomas (3:40)

Sometimes it frees you up to help other players who are in stress when they stay in.

So you can kind of get your depth in coverage and fill in a fill space in windows that the quarterback can't go certain spots. When they chip and release, obviously, you got to relate to your work. So just another person that you got to account for being in the route. So you got to relate to them or match them as the down progress, especially.