Special Teams Coordinator Tom Quinn
October 1, 2015
Q: What happened on the kickoff return touchdown last week?
A: The touchdown, we had breakdowns. We had some guys that didn’t give the effort that we wanted, we had some guys that had some fundamental breakdowns, and so that’s what happens when you have a couple guys not doing their job.
Q: Is it frustrating? It seems that you were doing really well in that regard.
A: Yeah, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen that. It is frustrating. You want to play well, you want to finish the game well, and I didn’t think we did that good enough. A couple of hands teams opportunities that we could’ve made cleaner; obviously, that kickoff return is something we would like to have back, but you learn from it and move on.
Q: Are you going to make any changes on the hands team? Rueben [Randle] obviously had the two…
A: No, you got what you’ve got, and so you don’t see who else could do that role. He’s done it before for us, so we trust him.
Q: Buffalo can be a really loud place to play; does that affect special teams at all? I mean like guys yelling, “Get away from the ball.”
A: Sometimes it does but we really don’t go on a snap count, so it takes us off that a little bit. You’ve got to go on the ball whether you’re covering, protecting the punt, but it does affect it. You’re used to hearing a voice, you’re used to hearing a rhythm to it, and so there is a little bit of an effect for it.
Q: How has your punter been? Statistically he seems to be doing okay.
A: He seems like he’s doing alright. We haven’t had to punt a whole lot and then a lot of the times when we’re punting, it’s the plus-area, something he does well, so I’ve been pleased. He’s working hard, good listener, so it’s been good so far.
Q: You’ve had a couple punts downed inside the 5, is that a combination of him and the gunners?
A: I think it’s a combination of both. He does hit that Aussie punt pretty naturally since he’s grown up with it, so it’s pretty easy coming off his foot, and he can move it around, which a lot of Americans don’t have that ability.
Q: As a whole, are you pleased with what you guys are doing on special teams? I mean, aside from that return.
A: Yeah, I mean you don’t want to give up anything. You want to get on a roll, I think there are good players in here, we trust them, and we have to play well. We have to finish games and it’s something we didn’t do, so that is frustrating.
Q: What’s the biggest difference for you on this punt team? I know that’s something you guys talked about a lot, improving the punt team, particularly the coverage team.
A: We got some different players in here that have been at a high level in this league, so that always helps. It’s a players’ league and just make sure you point them in the right direction, so that always helps.
Q: How much is that different for you? You’re using a lot of veterans in those spots now.
A: A little different. We were talking earlier today, we were a little disappointed we haven’t been able to work the rookies as much because they missed so much time in training camp. Landon [Collins], that’s somebody we’d like to use, Owa [Odighizuwa] and some of those younger guys that we thought would have really good roles. It’s been a slower process for them, but luckily we’ve had some older guys to slide into those roles.
Q: So you’ve almost been forced to use some of those older guys?
A: Yeah, I mean you use what’s on the roster, so we have no problem doing that. We want to bring some of the younger guys around because we’re going to need them.
Q: Does Rashad [Jennings] come to you and say, “I see something I think I can take advantage of.”
A: Not so much. He’s been on that team; we have a lot of good guys on that team. DRC [Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie] is on it, Prince [Amukamara] is on it, you use the roster, and try and play to their strengths. That is a strength of his, so, yeah, I mean he’s got a lot of confidence in doing it. He’s got to make sure he’s just as good of a blocker as he is trying to rush the punt, which he does. He has good effort.
