OL Justin Pugh
Postgame vs. Detroit, September 18, 2017
Q: How do you prepare for playing at right tackle?
A: Just get in my playbook, make sure I know my plays. Because obviously there’s a lot of nuances and little things. Obviously I know our basic plays and where I’ve got to go. There’s a lot of nuances you can pick up on and just seeing defensive ends and knowing that they’re moving. I was able to get better, I think, throughout the game and do a little bit better, but obviously there were drives where we dried out in the second quarter, didn’t help us.
Q: How shocked are you by the offense scoring 13 points in two weeks?
A: I’m shocked. Obviously, we’ve got to put up more points than that.
Q: Do you have a sense of overall what is going wrong with the offensive line?
A: Well, right now, not much is going right. So, there’s not much – we’re not running the ball well, we’re not protecting the quarterback very well. Coach probably touched on it, we’re not playing complementary football. So, we’re not good overall.
Q: What can be done at this point to improve on offense?
A: A lot. A lot can be done. Obviously, we’ve got to get there and we’ve got to be our toughest critic. I think we’ve got to come together and start playing for each other and start playing as a team because right now, we’re just not playing up to our ability. To think maybe – I don’t know what we’re thinking. Last year we went 11-5 and went to the playoffs, we can’t sleep on that. This is a new year, this is a new team. I’ve said from the beginning of the season, this is the most talented team we’ve had on paper, but you can’t go out there and just win on paper. We’re not comparing teams in fantasy football. So, we’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to do it.
Q: Why don’t you think the sum is not equaling the parts of this team?
A: Obviously, if I knew that answer, we would be able to make some changes. We’ve got to look in the mirror. We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to go out and play better than this. Our defense is doing some really good things, we’ve got to put them in a better position. We’ve got to at least get field position and win the field position battle because if we give the opposing offense a long field, then it’s hard to drive on our defense. And as long as we don’t let them score easy points and get turnovers which lead to points, we’ll win some games.
Q: Being on the road the next couple of games, how much does that put you guys even further in the hole?
A: It makes it tougher. But there was a team that was honored at halftime today that started 0-2 and gave up like 80 points, I think it was, in their first two games. Now it’s the offense that’s got to pick up our end of the bargain up and I’m looking forward to doing that.
Q: What do you say about two penalties inside the 5-yard line?
A: That was tough. I think if we score there, it kind of changes the dynamic of the game. When you get into the green zone, or the red zone, whatever you want to call it, you have to be at your highest level and you really have to lock in. You can’t make mistakes that are going to really put us in a tough situation. So, to overcome 15 yards, that’s tough. We’ve got to get a touchdown there because if we get seven points there, it changes the whole game.
Q: As an offensive lineman, how do you pick up a holding inside the 5?
A: I didn’t see it. They can call holding on any play, really, to be honest. Inside at guard, it’s tough to see it. There must have been some restriction for John Jerry to do it that he saw, but I have no idea.
Q: Is there anything differently that you try to do inside the five?
A: Finish the guy. I mean, Brett Jones, who they called it on, he’s one of the most technically sound guys. He gets his hands inside every time. So, I don’t know what happened.
Q: Was it surprising to see the delay of game penalty on Eli Manning?
A: Yeah, 10 normally has the right play in the right time. Obviously, he saw something and was trying to get a change. And [center] Weston [Richburg] told me when he snapped it, he thought there was still a second on the clock. And he’s looking right at it because he’s getting ready to snap it. So, I don’t know. We’ve got to look at the film.
