Commnaders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. liked the progress he saw Sunday in the 42-14 win over the Cardinals. But he is certainly not happy with his defense thus far.
Whitt didn’t praise his guys for long, choosing to criticize them as well.
“I thought Benjamin St-Juste did a good job of covering even when we were in some of our man looks and spinning out the cover two…So, they were stickier. And we just have to continue that. Our completion percentage against us is higher than I’m used to, so we have to get that down.”
Asked specifically about CB Emmanuel Forbes’ performance against the Cardinals, Whitt didn’t criticize Forbes. But he didn’t exactly praise him either.
“I thought he was in that same group with Mike and Noah. And like I said, Forbes, they all played about the same. They had about the same number of snaps or he might have had more, I don’t know, I think he had 33 snaps in the game.”
At this moment, Whitt suddenly began to defend his decisions regarding playing time, though he was not challenged. “So each week, we’re gonna put the guys out there that give us the best chance. So, we’re looking at that, working through that right now, and then on Sunday, we’ll deploy the men that gives us the best chance to win.”
Last week, after the win over the Bengals, Whitt volunteered that he was waiting for a couple of corners to step up and be the guy that players and coaches could depend upon weekly.
Thursday, Whitt was asked if this week a corner had stepped up to be that guy. “No, not yet,” replied Whitt.
“I think we’ve played solid at points. I need a consistent flow throughout the game. Get up there and challenge and send the ball where we wanna send it consistently. We’ve had opportunities at some interceptions that where we just knocked it down and we didn’t go aggressively to go get it. So they’re a group of talented young men at the corner position, okay, but talent doesn’t mean that we’re playing at the level that we want to play at.”
“So when we do, I’ll tell you, but we’re not right now. And it’s not because of a lack of ability or anything like that. They have the ability. I just have to do a better job of getting them to do it, and we will.”