Safety Julian Love
Q: This team is what it is right now, could you imagine this team without Wink?
A: No, not at all. Wink is important for a lot of reasons but the one primarily is – he takes onus on special teams as well, not only defense. If you think about it, the defensive guys typically make up like two-thirds of how the game flows. With teams and the defense itself. With that, I think that's just him taking ownership of more than what he's expected to take ownership of. So yeah, his impact on the team is serious.
Q: I expect Wink, when he talks to us tomorrow, he is going to say it's just another game. Can you imagine it being just another game?
A: Yeah, I think it's tough. We talk all the time about outside focus and inside focus. Him and all the other people who came from Baltimore – that's an outside focus type of thing. Yeah, it's there, it's present and people will talk about it but at the end of the day, we've got to match up against who they have. It's not really about Wink, it's about us executing against their players.
Q: You guys have blitzed a lot, (Baltimore Quarterback) Lamar Jackson has played well against the blitz. Obviously, you can't give away your gameplan but what's that challenge like of having to adjust a little bit for a quarterback like Lamar who's good against what you guys do well?
A: It's going to be a tremendous challenge for the defense. We're going to try to attack them the best we can, but in my eyes, he's the best quarterback in the league. It's going to take all of us to account for him and they have some serious weapons around him. It's going to be a big matchup; it's going to be a big game for us to be intentional about how we approach it.
Q: Can Wink tell you something about Lamar Jackson because he was there for all those years – can he tell you anything that you don't know?
A: He has a lot of insight into him. He knows him, he's been there. We've had some guys who were there. We're going to try to use that to our advantage but at the end of the day, he's a player who's growing and getting better each year. You can't fully be like, 'This is how he was last year,' because his game keeps taking big steps.
Q: Anybody tell you that Lamar is fast?
A: (Laughs) Yeah, that's one of those things. He's a real dude in every phase of the game – throwing the ball, running the ball. It's going to be on all of us.
Q: Does Wink have his list of tells that Lamar has? When he pump fakes, he's not going for it…
A: He's one of those quarterbacks who, similar to (Green Bay Quarterback) Aaron Rodgers last week, he throws a lot at you. He has a lot of different looks, a lot of different tendencies. You've got to play him true, so we've got to do that with Lamar as well. He has a huge arm, so we've got to play him true and play him straight up which is tough, but it's what you have to do versus good quarterbacks.
Q: One of his big weapons is (Tight End Mark) Andrews, too.
A: Like I said, Lamar is probably the best in the league, and I think Andrews is one of the best tight ends in the league. He's less flash and really all substance. He's a guy we have to have eyes on at all times. He's the real deal and we've got to treat him as such.
Q: I know you don't blitz that much and get to the quarterback. Do you have to worry about when you do now to put him down nice and gentle?
A: Yeah, that's a tough thing that's going on in this league right now. That's always in the back of your mind but you've got to play football. If it's an egregious call or something of that sort, oh well, but you've got to play aggressive. That guy back there is also dangerous running the ball. The approach is very tough to accommodate what they're calling nowadays.
