Vilma Settling In with Saints

Q: With your tackle totals, is it easy to say that you’re getting the feel for this defense?

Jonathan Vilma: "Yes, I’m getting a feel for it and Coach (Gary) Gibbs has a really good scheme. He’s really put in a lot of time and effort to get the right guys, because it’s really the guys up front and the secondary that’s been doing a great job. I just make the tackles, but the supporting cast has been really, really good."

Q: Your knee must be holding up if you’re making all these tackles?

Jonathan Vilma: "Yes, fortunately my knee’s been holding up really well. It hasn’t been an issue up to this point. I’m excited about that. I’m always cognizant about my knee. Asides from that, it’s about the guys around me that are doing a really good job even though we didn’t play up to our standards against Washington, we look to bounce back."

Q: When you go back to the film as a unit, how do you look at your tackling in the Washington game?

Jonathan Vilma: "I would have to say our tackling was average at best starting with myself and going on down. It wasn’t necessarily guys getting run over or a physical thing. I think it was that we’re taking bad angles to the ball sometimes; the players are able to cut back on us, things like that. We just have to take better angles to the ball and that starts at practice."

Q: How do you do that?

Jonathan Vilma: "It just comes in practice where you’re simulating a game. If a wide receiver catches a ball, you’re running to the ball full speed in practice, actually thinking about tackling him even if you’re not doing it in practice, in the game, it should show up."

Q: Are you coming out at all on defense?

Jonathan Vilma: "No. I like it that way. I don’t want to come out."

Q: Was it like that way in New York for you?

Jonathan Vilma: Yes.

Q: Can you talk about going against Jay Cutler this week?

Jonathan Vilma: "He had very good game asides from that one play. He had a really good game. The past two games he’s been playing really well. From what I see he can make all the throws. He’s very comfortable in the pocket. He can roll out. You’re looking at a young, talented guy who is very confident and is coming into his own right now. I think he doesn’t feel the pressure much like Aaron Rodgers with Brett Farve and him with John Elway, he’s just going out there and being himself."

Q: How important will this game be to set the tone for the entire season defensively?

Jonathan Vilma: "It’s important to respond, because this is what we do and is our profession. We play the game to win, not to put up a good fight or anything like that and when you go out there and you don’t perform up to your standards, or up to our standards, I should say, you put the most pressure on yourself. We want to go out there, play up to our capabilities. We know what kind of talent we have."

Q: Going back to John Elway, Denver’s been able to run the ball well because of their zone blocking scheme. Why is it so effective?

Jonathan Vilma: "It’s effective, because it forces defenses to be very disciplined and not just the defense as a whole, but the individual. You can have ten guys playing right and one guy misses his gap and it breaks for ten yards or 20 yards. On and on you see the film, you can have seven or eight guys do the right thing, but if one guy messes up they find the crease. It forces the entire defense to be disciplined. Of course you have to make the tackles."

Q: Around the league, does this offensive line have a reputation?

Jonathan Vilma: "They have a reputation. I don’t see it as a bad reputation, I see it as a good one. They’re known as athletic, smaller type of offensive line. They like to cut block, everybody knows that. You watch it one film, they’re 100 miles an hour, play in and play out and they do what they have to do to get the running back an open hole."

(neworleanssaints.com)