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Monday Transcript: Safety Julian Love

Eric from BBI : Admin : 12/5/2022 6:01 pm
Safety Julian Love

Q: Obviously, you look at the box stats, you played 104 snaps yesterday. What does that feel like the next day?

A: Somebody told me my snaps must have been high. I was in to lift this morning – and I feel sore. But I don't know, I feel like I always feel sore. I try to go hard when I'm in there, and we'll see how I feel the next day. It's kind of crazy. It's the second time in my career I've been over 100 (snaps).

Q: What was the other time?

A: I think it was my rookie year, or maybe second year. Maybe my rookie year because it was against the Eagles or at the Eagles, and I was starting. But then I was also on all four phases of special teams. So, it added up real quick.

Q: It seems like you haven't missed very many tackles. It seems like you always (have) good form tackling. It's a lot more of an observation than a question, but where does that come from? Why are you such a good tackler?

A: I appreciate that. I take pride in it. If you kind of analyze everything I've ever said to you guys for the past four years, I always say I take pride in my tackling and I think it's serious. I attribute it to being just a kid playing pickup ball all the time. It's like, you've got to be a good tackler. If you weren't, you were seen as the soft kid in the neighborhood. So, I took it seriously. I work at it. I really grind away at it. In college as a corner, I was probably the most efficient on my team. It goes back to high school. I think it's just not being afraid to be physical. Also, I don't look it, but I pack some strength. I really kind of go at it in the weight room, so I'm able to deceive people with what I bring to the table on tackles. It's a whole mixture of things, but I really grind at it.

Q: What do you make of a tie? What do you make of what's going on in the playoff race? I know you guys are focused on Eagles, but you're a sharp guy. You know what's going on in the conference, in the division, everything else. And the fact that after the Eagles that you have the Commanders again with maybe a sense of unfinished business. What's going through your head right now about what comes next?

A: It was weird, it was my first tie. I don't know, it just felt like the game just ended. It was very weird. I don't know if I've ever been in a situation like that before. I think we put ourselves in a good position for this game – for the game against Washington that we tied. We just didn't make the plays that needed to be made. There were a few out there for us, so if you make one of those, the game goes a different way. We do get another shot. Obviously, we're still in this thing. The hard work that we've put in all season has put us in the position that we still have opportunities in front of us. We're taking it as that. We recover, we try to get guys back, stay healthy. But we take it as we still have opportunities in front of us.

Q: You know when you win a game, you help yourself. You know when you lose a game, you hurt yourself. What did you guys do to yourselves moving forward after that game?

A: I think in the building, it kind of felt like a loss. It's better than a loss. It's worse than a win. It felt like a loss to a lot of us because we're competitors. We feel like we should have won that game with the opportunities that we were given. But for every game you feel that way. I think we just chip away at it and grind away at it. We'll get another chance against them. We have an opportunity in front of us with the Eagles. The energy is the same. Dabs (head coach Brian Daboll) is pretty consistent in how he is after a win, losses – or now ties – in addressing what we did well and helping us address and correct what we didn't do well.

Q: From what you know about the playoff scenario, how do you think the tie affects you?

A: I'm not sure. Usually, I'm pretty analytical and kind of understand all that stuff. But I'm not fully sure the full breakdown of these last five games. I just know there are some wins out there that we need.

Q: Before I get to my question, what's up with the sweatshirt? Is there a reason for that?

A: Oh, Alcorn State versus Jackson State? The creator of this hoodie is a Black artist, so I got this just to kind of support them and support Black-owned businesses. It's a nice little vintage crewneck. I'm a fan of crewnecks, if anybody's looking for a Christmas gift for me for the holiday season (laughs). So, that's what this is.

Q: What did you think of the job (cornerback) Nick McCloud did? We made a big deal about you playing every snap, but Nick McCloud was a guy playing no snaps not long ago. (What did you think about) the job he did there, settling into number two corner?

A: Nick's a good player. I think when we brought him in and gave him a few opportunities early on, everybody quickly realized how good of a player he is. He's a guy that's definitely on the rise; he's physical when he needs to be. He's good in coverage. He's fast. He has a lot of ability to him. I think going into the game, we felt, I felt extremely confident in him because I know the type of competitor he is. He has that way about him that gives people confidence. We're looking to build off of his abilities because right now, we need it.

Q: And then the flip side of that, obviously when a guy plays that much, somebody else doesn't play. (Cornerback) Rodarius (Williams) didn't play, and certainly seemed upset about it on Twitter. As a captain, as a guy in the secondary, did you pull him aside? Did you say anything to him about keeping his head up, about venting frustrations on social media? Were there any kind of conversations between you and him that you can share?

A: We didn't have a one-on-one. We kind of talked as a (group). We're pretty open in this building, in our position groups. The reality is it fluctuates now with a lot of guys up and down. Matchups are just different each week, and so some guys had to step up. He wasn't really training in some positions, and like I said, Nick McCloud has been showing a lot. That doesn't mean that we feel any less about Rodarius. He came in today, was locked in on the film. He had good energy for us on the sidelines yesterday. It's a tough situation. I've been there before. But you stay resilient because you know your time is coming, and he's a really talented player. We're going to need him down the stretch for sure.

Q: You've been a part of teams before. You go back to college, you guys knew what it was like to be in a championship hunt. You go for a playoff spot, you know the meaning of each game. You don't really put the stakes aside. You kind of focus on the stakes of those games. Now it seems like the stakes are here for the first time for you guys, and you want the week-to-week focus. Is that a strange feeling to not throw the standings up on the board and kind of zero in on, 'Okay, this is what we need to do this week versus this is what we need to do next week,'? Your mindset, does that appeal to you? Or are you one of those guys that loves to kind of attack, 'Okay, if we do this and they do that, here's where we stand,'? Because you said you were an analytics guy, so I've got to imagine if someone threw the playoff possibilities on your stool in front of the locker, you'd be the kind of guy who would look at them and not really be distracted by anything else.

A: Yeah, I think as a leader of this team, I've got to have some sort of a big picture mindset on things. But for the day-to-day – for guys who haven't been in this position, for guys who are looking to me for a way to feel about this hunt and these last five games – I try to keep it as minimal as possible and kind of focus on guys just getting better each week. Say we didn't tackle well this game, (then) let's work on tackling this game. Stuff like that. That keeps a sharp focus on what we have in front of us. There are opportunities right now that we have. I see it sometimes, and I kind of know what the situation could be. Taking away from this past game, our energy was really good. We put ourselves in a great position. We got that turnover after halftime, which I'm really excited about because the game prior, we didn't start fast in the second half against Dallas. Stuff like that is stuff we need to build on and kind of get back to. Our third down numbers on defense were really good this game. Just things like that, I think I was stressing what we needed to get to. We wanted to win, obviously, but the captain in me was kind of gauging and scoping out our energy and the things that I thought we needed to get back to. Going forward, we need to keep doing that and it'll fall our way.

Q: Is there almost a compartmentalization of it where there's a group of guys on this team that can look at big picture and see where you're, at but also when you step inside that locker room you kind of have to deal with it a different way?

A: 100 percent. If you're running any organization, it's important that you keep a majority of people on that short-term focus, short-term goals. Then it creates a long-term effect. Yeah, right now I'm a captain; I'm a part of that group that needs to look at things going forward. That's been going on the whole year, whether it's scheduling stuff, and that's just kind of generally how it is. Dabs has done a great job of keeping us focused on each week-to-week but also letting us know – I mentioned before how we quarter out a season. We're done with really the third quarter now; we didn't play as cleanly as we wanted to as we did in the first quarter and second quarter. So now the fourth quarter of the season, we've got to lock in and really get what's in front of us.
He played maybe the best game of his career yesterday.  
short lease : 12/5/2022 6:55 pm : link

All over the field making textbook solo tackles. Almost had the int ... great game.
...  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 12/5/2022 7:02 pm : link
Him being locked up long term has to be a priority for the FO.
Probably my favorite Giant right now  
thefan : 12/5/2022 7:05 pm : link
Tough every down player, might be a pro bowler and drafted in the midrounds so easy to root for.

If this site still did the Giant of Year he'd have my vote.
I would extend him over Barkley  
kelly : 12/5/2022 7:50 pm : link
Smart, tough, dependable
Lock  
Shady Lurker : 12/5/2022 7:55 pm : link
him up.
That dropped INT  
mittenedman : 12/6/2022 8:04 am : link
was huge.
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