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CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: ALABAMA VS OKLAHOMADecember 26, 2018Deionte ThompsonMiami Gardens, Florida DEIONTE THOMPSON: First and foremost, you have to be the deepest of the deepest. You want to protect the pass first, and then you have to commit to the RPO. You have to make sure nobody gets behind you, and once you see that it's either run or pass, then that's how you play it. It's very complicated and you've got a runner coming at you and you have a receiver kind of running downfield, your job first and foremost as a defensive back is to play the pass. As long as a receiver is running downfield you cover him and then play off of that. Q. What are your keys? Are you looking to see if that receiver is trying to block you? What are you reading because there's so much to look at? DEIONTE THOMPSON: As a safety you can read the offensive line, see what kind of run-pass conflict they give you, and then you just look at the receivers. But the offensive line is pretty telling. Some RPOs look like they're blocking or running downfield and then you have a receiver, so it's kind of complex. You just have to do your job. Q. How much did you learn from Tua, and how much damage can Tua and Jerry do out of the slot? DEIONTE THOMPSON: I mean, there's a lot that they can do. Just with Tua, he's good at carrying out his fakes and then coming out and throwing an RPO. You have to be responsible just doing your job. Everybody is given a specific job to do in the run-pass game, and you have to do your job and do it very sound. Q. Going up against it so often now, do you feel like that's helped your defense when they go up against these other offenses? DEIONTE THOMPSON: It helps us a lot because we see it every day in practice, so Coach Locksley does a great job of the RPO game, and he just gets us ready. Q. What has stood out about what you've seen about the Oklahoma receivers? DEIONTE THOMPSON: They're very explosive, they're good in open space, and they can beat you very quick. Kyler Murray, he's done a great job this year, Hollywood Brown, he's done a good job and CeeDee Lamb, then they have some other guys that they can go to. They're very explosive, can get downfield quick, are good in open space and do a good job of blocking for each other on the perimeter. Q. When you talk about the RPO, when you add Kyler Murray's type of speed, does that change it any more? Do you have to be worried about where he is at all times? DEIONTE THOMPSON: I mean, you just have to play out your reads and just take a no fits athletic ability because he can hurt you with his feet and he can hurt you deep, so it kind of makes you want to balance it out, know your keys and be responsible. Q. What are some of the teams that have tried to spread you out this year that Oklahoma might try and do? DEIONTE THOMPSON: There's a few teams. I feel like Ole Miss tried to spread us out this year, Auburn spread us out at times. Michigan State spread us out at times. There's a few teams that spread us out that they'll be able to coordinate from, and we just have to be ready for those. Q. Is it kind of a test for a guy like Jared or some of the guys that you have in nickel and dime packages? DEIONTE THOMPSON: I feel like it's going to be a test for all of us, just given that this is the best team that we've played so far. We're in the playoffs, so they're going to go give us their best game that they've played this season, and we have to return the favor. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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