Defensive Back Julian Love
Q: (Head) Coach (Joe Judge) made a comment about how some of the timeouts that he had to use on defense were because, I guess, they couldn't get the calls in, the communication was wrong. Did you sense that on the field? Did you guys realize what was going on there?
A: Yeah, it was definitely unfortunate. One of them there was some technical difficulties on the sideline, so you hate to see Coach have to burn some timeouts. That's not what you want as a team. You want to obviously have those towards the end of the half, so yeah, that's something we've got to be better on as a whole.
Q: Could you just talk about the interception there? I think that was you on the tipped pass, can you walk us through what happened there?
A: Yeah, obviously, it was about a 12-, 13-play drive. I don't know what happened. (Chiefs Quarterback Patrick) Mahomes started to scramble and kind of threw a rocket. It deflected off one of their players helmets, and it was in the air – it seemed like for a while. I just tried to sprint over and get under it, which thankfully I did. It was a good break for us, especially stopping the drive and being resilient as a defense. That's something that we harp on, so that was definitely an important takeaway.
Q: What's the disappointment level? You've been here three years, but the Giants have started 2-6 or 1-7 in each of the last five years, so your career, plus two years. A season's pretty much lost at that point, so what's the frustration level in just being here again when you know that was a focal point – a better start coming into the season?
A: I think it's frustrating in a sense of we all want to be better. Obviously, we want to be in a much different place than we are now. It's really now going forward a question of kind of who's going to stay committed to the team and what our mission is. Obviously, our record doesn't define us as individuals, it doesn't define us as people, so that's kind of how I take it. What's my path going to be? Am I one to kind of just shy away from the challenge and shy away from people talking down on us, or am I somebody who is going to continue going forward and step up? I think that's how we all have to approach it as men, so that's kind of my mindset. Obviously, it's not where I want to be. It's not where we want to be as a team, but we're going to take the step forward together, and that's what's important.
Q: People say in sports – and I know you're a sports fan – the sign of a bad team is when the offense plays well, the defense doesn't. When the defense plays well, the offense doesn't. When they both play well, special teams doesn't. Does it seem like that's what's happening to you guys? If I point to that you held the Chiefs to 20 points, you should win that game. Held the Falcons to 17 points, but then you guys score 29 against Washington and lose. Does it just seem like you can't put everything together?
A: It's definitely tough. We talk about playing complementary football and kind of having a complete game as a team. You look across each of those games that you mentioned, especially last night, there's instances on offense, defense, and special teams where we just didn't execute when we needed to most and that's what it's about. I really believe that good teams find a way to win. Unfortunately, yesterday we were in good spots a lot of the game on offense, defense, special teams, everyone. There are obviously crucial penalties and crucial mistakes that were made that hurt us in the end. Against a team that's been successful in recent years like the Chiefs, I would say it bit us a bit. It's eliminating that going forward. I mean, even if we win that game, I know Coach Judge is going to be on those little details of kind of finding a way and not shooting ourselves in the foot. That's kind of my take on it.
Q: I know at 2-6 it seems the playoffs are far away, but one of the things I looked at today and kind of shook my head was seven teams make the playoffs and the seventh team now is the Panthers and they're 4-4. Do you sit there and say, 'hey, we only have two wins but if we can put something together, we've still got a chance'?
A: I'm a person who's always trying to look at the glass half full, trying to think positive on the situation and I think we know what we have in front of us. I think obviously yesterday was an important game for us we felt, but the rest of the season I think there are a lot of games that are attainable for us. As a team kind of collectively like I said earlier, it's like, all right, are we going to get in our feelings now? Obviously, we're not where we want to be, or are we going to keep pushing forward and try to make a push for this thing? Everything we want is in front of us and it really just is the mindset of each of us as players (and) as coaches to really just kind of come together and get this thing right. That's how we all feel, and I know it's going to be harped on this week. We're a resilient group, so I know for sure we're going to keep battling to try to get what we want.
Q: Speaking of frustrating, did you get a sense that you guys were frustrating Mahomes last night? What was the key to limiting his explosive plays that they're so used to getting?
A: Obviously, you play a guy like him, a former MVP, we tried to do a lot with him in terms of disguise, different looks, playing really top down. We wanted to keep him guessing, keep him scrambling. Our defensive front did a great job all game I thought of kind of getting after him, getting him off his spot and intimidating him to at a point where he was scrambling when there really wasn't like a true man in his face pressure. So, that was something I was very proud of our front for doing. In terms of the secondary, just kind of being aggressive, kind of just being resilient, trying to get your hands on their guys and trying to play top down. Obviously, we definitely need to be better in terms of all the checkdowns that he ended up going to and the run game. But in terms of kind of limiting what he does best, we thought we did a solid job. Just continue to do that and just eliminate the game wreckers going forward or minimize the game wreckers, that's kind of our course of action.
