Rams DL Michael Brockers – Postgame Press Conference – November 1st, 2020

(Can you kind of give us your assessment of seeing QB Tua Tagovailoa for the first time and how he did today?) – “It was kind of hard. Early, it was a lot of three-and-outs. I think that the defense played really well today. He was getting the ball out fast and I just think that he just controlled the game. He did what he had to do and that was pretty much it. Not saying it wasn’t impressive, it was just he really didn’t have any. I think they had 60 yards passing, 50 yard rushing or something like that. Their offense really didn’t get off today, so that’s hard to judge.”

(You were able to keep Miami from scoring in the second half. What was working for you guys there?) – “Truly what we kept doing in the first half, just getting off the field, being great on first and second down, putting them in passing situations, and getting off the field. I think that was the biggest thing we did today is get off the field and try to get the ball back for our offense.”

(Obviously you’re not DL Aaron Donald, but it was mentioned several times on the broadcast that Aaron, by Jonathan Vilma, that Aaron Donald called the defense soft, and I’m just wondering is that something you ever heard Aaron say the last couple weeks around the facility?) – “No, not at all, not at all. I think after the 49ers game we had to come to a conclusion, like, what was the thing that stopped us in that game? Was it our energy or what was it? I think it was just a challenge. I think that us being a little bit more physical was said, being more physical getting hats to the ball, and stuff like that. I never heard him say soft, but definitely him getting us ready and pumping us up so we can be more physical in the run game, I think that was the biggest thing.”

(Just having a game like this, obviously, the defense played really well. But overall when the team loses like this going into a bye week, is that something, do you welcome the bye week? Do you wish you were going into another game to get the taste out of your mouth for this one? How does that work out?) – “Man, we just got to go back to the drawing board. Defensively, just keep it going. I think that (Robert) Woods said it the best, don’t take this week off, find something you can get better at, watch film, just improve your game. Don’t take this week as a week off to do whatever you want to do. Actually be, stay in tune, stay with it, and come back and come back ready to go.”

(Every game different units are going to have good days, bad days, and you all want to do well collectively, but when there are so many turnovers going on out there, for you guys as defensive players, how do you kind of stay ready to get back out there when every time your turning around, or nearly, they’re returning a ball for, a fumble for a touchdown or intercepting a pass.) – “It was definitely crazy. That was new. That’s something that we really don’t do. We rarely do that. For us defensively, we have to do our jobs. We understand at that moment it’s a moment of sudden change and we just have to, what we say, bow up is kind of get together and get a stop and I think that’s the biggest thing. We’re on defense, we’re paid to stop them from scoring and that’s what we plan to do.”

(When you get that early, that first, you guys, DL Aaron Donald caused QB Tua Tagovailoa to fumble on his first pass attempt you guys turn around and score quickly. What was kind of the defense’s attitude at that point in terms of going forward? Was it going to be, did you guys feel like it was going to be that kind of stuff all game or?) – “Definitely. Definitely. And I think that’s … When it starts like that we just want to keep it going and keep it rolling. With the game going as it did, a lot of turnovers and stuff like that, they just played it safe towards the end, kept running the ball, chew the clock down and stuff like that. But when you start the game off like that, you have momentum, the defense is feeling it, and I mean that’s what we were. We were on a high right there at that point of the game and we didn’t know what else was going to happen, but at that point in time we definitely felt like we can come out and dominate.”

(I know that you have a lot going on when you’re on the sideline when the offense is on the field, but I’m wondering if, from the perspective of a defensive lineman, you’re able to just diagnose for us if you saw, any of it, what the pressure on the Rams offense was able to attain and achieve and what they were kind of doing with their front that gave QB Jared Goff and the offensive line such a hassle?) – “They just brought as many as they could. They brought more than we can block. That’s kind of how I felt. I felt like it was 11 guys on the line of scrimmage and they had all our wide receivers one-on-one and once he snapped the ball everybody was coming. To be honest with you, I’ve never seen that before, that many times. That was zero pressure, man-on-man, he has to get the ball out fast because there’s an unblocked player and it was a lot and it was a little crazy to look at because I was like, ‘Man, this is just crazy. They’re going to keep zeroing us like that?’ But I have a lot of confidence in Jared and Coach to get those things fixed and if they see it again I best believe they will go ahead and chop it up.”

(What kills that? What finally is the breaking point for a team to stop doing that so much against you?) – “I truly don’t know. Maybe you run some draw plays to catch them off guard, maybe you run some screens, some running back screens, something. But to be honest with you, I’ve never seen that before where a team just zero pressures you every play and it was tough, it was tough.”

(To go from the low of the 49ers game to the high of the Bears game and then back down to this, based on the many highs and lows you’ve seen in a long career, can you be a good team and be this inconsistent over a period.) – “You definitely have to find yourself. This is why it’s good to have a bye week. The coaches can assess, the team can assess who are we going to be moving forward and I think that’s the biggest thing. Understanding that who we are right now. And we got to get better. We know that and there’s a lot of things that we can get better at. But moving forward it’s just about preparing and like I said before, just getting better each and every day. There’s going to be games like this, they get paid, we get paid, so we just have to understand we can’t let this loss just linger on, we have to move on to the next and it’s good that we got a bye week so we can assess, like I said earlier, on our next opponent and just get better, just come into work and get better. We can’t do anything about this loss, it’s over, we just have to look forward.”