New Orleans Saints Defensive End Cameron Jordan
Video Call with New Orleans Media
Monday, September 28, 2020

What's your kind of general assessment of the pass rush these first three games seems like you guys got off to a pretty good start, but just haven't really gotten home a lot lately?
"Yeah, this last game, we knew we were catching Aaron Rodgers, (who) was letting the ball go (out) fast, about play actions, a lot of boots. There's a lot of hard counts. It is all these types of players trying to slow us down at the end of the day. It's on us to try and speed up and get back to what we know and how we how we play."

Short weeks are always hard to bounce back from even with a win. So, when you're going over all of the things that you need to work on, how do you balance recovering from that West Coast, versus working on the things that you need to improve on for the next week?
"As professional athletes that's kind of what our job requires every day. You come in with bumps and bruises and you still have to get the game plan down, you still have to get everything taken care of. That's just so like, when the day is over, I mean, you're not just running out the door, you might be going to get some treatment, you might be going to the meeting room, might be doing whatever to get those last little things locked down, get your body right, get everything right for that week's game. I mean, you kind of just throw that away and do it all again the next week."

How would you assess your play personally so far?
"So far, I feel like stopping the run is sort of what we done (best. And at the same time, you got to be able to do more, we've got to put ourselves in favorable positions in terms of third down battles, where we can get them to actually try and be pocket quarterbacks instead of these quick routes. I don't think I helped in terms of the two offside penalties I've had in the past two games. And that's something that you have to look at it and get better for."

Sean Payton was saying you've been getting a lot of double teams and a lot of chips. It's kind of probably par for the course for you. But has that been kind of increased this season in your opinion?
"It seems like it seems that way. At the end of the day, there's no such thing as excuses. We all know, I'm going to be double teamed, we all know that. There's going to be nudges chips, God help whatever it is. (I) Got to have a way to overcome and at the same time, if I'm, if I'm getting doubleteamed, that means somebody's getting a single we have to overcome as a defense. Those offsides, you mentioned, when you go back and look on film, what happened on those jumping offsides, just the over eagerness of, of trying to make a play. The name of the game is do your job, you try and do more, you put yourself in a position to be an irritant to your defense so that I take (the challenge) personally in terms of Aaron Rodgers in his 17 hard counts before snapping the ball. That's something that they knew that they could go in and get an advantage on (with very limited fans in the stands). Knowing that it was a home game, but with these COVID times, it's just treated just like an away game. And they're building the ability to adjust, readjust and make the right plays. Again, that's something that I take personally. So I'm have to eliminate those mistakes ASAP."

When Marcus Davenport is in there, do you see double teams a little less?
"That means somebody should be able to get free and catch a single, we have to win our singles. Then the look, and especially the (way the) ball has come out the last two or three games (is tougher). This is something that we as a defense have to attack as we all know you have to stop the run and put ourselves to favorable positions for third down battles."

How close do you think this team is though?
"I feel like we're progressing. And at the same time, we're not growing fast enough. When you have to two losses, that's something that is a direct reflection of how we're growing as a team. And that's something that we hate to have as a stain in our, in our record. We sit at 1-2 when I think we have the potential to be great. We've got to be able to capture each and every opportunity we can."

And kind of related to that is it beneficial when you're going through something like this with two straight losses to have all those veteran leaders on the team and guys who kind of been through this before and know how to bounce back from it?
"Absolutely. I've been a part of season where we've gone 0-2 and then still came back with 11 or 12 win seasons. At this point we don't want to lose one more game. We want to win them all. And it has to start, back to what this week it has to be whoever our opponent is this week. We have to take in that same mentality trying to win each and every moment within the 60 minutes that is a game."

I don't know for lack of a better term disorganization the penalties and stuff like that? Is it is there like a common theme or is it is it a communication issue? How do you guys clean that up and get it right?
"That there's been a ton of penalties on us the last three games this season alone just tells you that we have to focus in on. On what is our discipline? What are our fundamental values? And once we eliminate some of these penalties, there's going to be so much ability to actually get after the passer should we actually create our favorite positions for our team? Right now it sort of seems like that's killing us, the self-inflicting things that are extending drives."