Kevin Patullo

Q. Obviously, WR A.J. Brown’s expressed his frustration. How do you kind of navigate through that as play caller and as coach? (Reuben Frank)

Kevin Patullo: I think really when you look back at just, from my time being here with him all the way back to ’22, we’ve had a really strong relationship. Even throughout the year, him and I have great talks. Even today, yesterday, there’s nothing [that has] changed in our relationship. He’s in my office a ton hanging out, talking about football, talking about life, talking about things, what we can do differently, what we’re doing currently.

I think from that standpoint, nothing really changes. He knows kind of how I feel about him and where we want to go and what we’re trying to do. Obviously, he’s a main part of this offense and when we game plan, you always want to look to 11 [A.J. Brown], 26 [RB Saquon Barkley], 6 [WR DeVonta Smith] and 88 [TE Dallas Goedert]. That’s where the ball needs to go and it just kind of goes from there. I think when you look at our relationship all the way back to ’22, nothing’s really changed. Him and I talk continuously, pretty much about everything.

Q. WR A.J. Brown’s put up big numbers over the past few years. This year’s a bit of an anomaly. I was wondering, I know it’s a bit X’s and O’s, but is there something different that defenses are doing this year that you could explain as to why maybe this year it’s been a little tougher to get him to ball? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Kevin Patullo: I wouldn’t say it’s different. I think if you look at the style of defense we’ve played this year kind of on a consistent basis, we’ve played top-tier defenses in the pass rush and things like that. We’ve done a pretty good job against them. I think it’s just kind of been the situations we’ve been in and teams we’ve played week after week have just had different games. A couple weeks ago, we had the Minnesota game, we had two receivers for over a hundred yards, and then we had the two backs over a hundred against the Giants. Then, this one felt a little, obviously not like we would like at all, felt more like Kansas City. I think as coaches we look at that and we try to figure out is there something that’s constantly showing up?

I wouldn’t say it’s the same thing every week. I think we’re kind of in those spots where when you’re game planning, you’re still constantly adjusting. I know this year more than before, we’ve had a lot of different things once we get out there and we’re adjusting constantly. A lot of people say, ‘Wait ’til halftime.’ Well, for us, it’s literally been after the first series. It’s like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to start to adjust now,’ and find things and work on different plays and talk through plays that, ‘Hey, is this the coverage we thought we were going to get?’ No. Now we’ve got to look to this and look to that. I think there’s a little bit of a difference from that standpoint. I think there’s been more change within the game quickly, rather than game to game. It’s been a little bit different, if that makes sense.

Q. So, those unscouted looks, they’ve been significantly up compared to– (John McMullen)

Kevin Patullo: We’ve had probably more this year than we’ve had in the past. Now, as the game goes, you start to get a feel for things, kind of like the Vikings game, the Giants, when you start to feel the pattern. I think it’s been a little bit different this year, but really even when you go back all the way back to ’22, that’s kind of been a constant thing with us. Once we added A.J. in there and then we added Saquon last year, it really turned into more of a, ‘Okay, what are people going to try to do because of who we have?’ It’s like almost a wait-and-see game a little bit at times to see what people are going to do. Obviously, [QB] Jalen [Hurts]’ element with [how] he can run and throw it and get out of the pocket. So, then you have that in there, too. That’s why some weeks, certain things appear and some don’t, depending on the defensive game plan.

Q. There were some third-and-longs where you opted to run the ball. What were the factors that went into that? (Tim McManus)

Kevin Patullo: The one was early in the game, we were backed up a little bit, and I think it was just more of the way the game went. We had that one drive where we had the penalties and we kept kind of going backwards. That was just one where it went there. There was another one where it was kind of a double play. It was a run-kill-pass, if that makes sense. The way the coverage dictated it, it got handed off, which was the right call, he did the right thing, Jalen. We give him two plays. So, that happens sometimes in those third-and-longs.

I think it depends on each situation, the game, what the coverage is, what the situation is within the game, what’s the field position look like. I know that [is] a big part of it, and we’re in constant dialogue with [Head Coach] Nick [Sirianni] about this, too. Everybody knows we’re on the same page. Certain games, like Denver, we threw the ball down the field a little bit, third-and-long. I think it depends on game-to-game and really the situation, the field position and things like that.

Q. As a follow up to that, you lead the league in third-and-long runs, or I should take design runs, not just scrambles. So, if you look at it, is this a philosophical thing from the team as far as field position, or in the case the other day, we saw the third-and-12 to WR DeVonta Smith. Are there times when you can throw to the– (Zach Berman)

Kevin Patullo: Yeah, I think there are definitely times you want to be aggressive. We’ve been at times, and it’s little more situational-driven. You do not want to run the ball, obviously, every third-and-long. That’s not going to work out really well in your favor. But I think depending on whether you’re backed up or where the ball’s headed, sometimes you think like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a three-man rush. They’re going to drop into coverage.’

If you look back at the Jacksonville game last year, I think it was a third-and-20-something against the Jaguars, we handed it off and scored a touchdown. It’s been done before. It’s nothing new. It’s always kind of been there for us. It’s just that we’ve had more third-and-longs, which has kind of been something we’ve got to stay out of. If we can stay out of those, we hopefully don’t have this situation pop up.

Q. What did you see on the fourth down play? The final play of the game. Just in terms of QB Jalen Hurts’ decision making, potential, any route adjustments, just what did you see on that play? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Kevin Patullo: Yeah, so once that play went in, we were all on board. We knew what we were doing and we’ve done that before in other situations and games. What’s cool about our players is they have high football IQ and they understand there’s certain plays that they have the ability to do what they need to to win, and we trust them in those moments. That was one of those plays. Unfortunately, we just didn’t hit it, but in the past if you look back, we did the same thing against Washington, a very similar play with a similar kind of parameter for them. We hit it on a huge fourth down. We did the same thing against Cleveland to basically end the game. We have that in us and our players do a good job of understanding what to do, when to do it, and unfortunately, it just didn’t work

Q. With WR DeVonta Smith, what makes him such a good deep ball receiver? (Tim McManus)

Kevin Patullo: I think there’s a couple things. His ability to track the ball is tremendous, right? I think his speed and just the feel he has for getting behind the coverage and navigating the corner and setting him up and working his way down the field. The play that he scored on the other day was a great job by Jalen. If you watch the play itself, the one that he caught, Jalen did a great job of understanding. A.J. was the first read and they collapsed on it and we hit DeVonta over the top. It was really good by everybody. Everybody was where they needed to be and we executed at a high level there.

Q. How similar or different is preparing for Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson as the way you prepared for Packers LB Micah Parsons? (Jeff Neiburg)

Kevin Patullo: I would say it’s very similar. I mean, when you look at those kind of guys, they can take the game over. They can wreck the game at any point in time. I think when you’re dealing with guys like that, you’ve got to always make sure the protection plan’s in place, the run plans in place, you know where they’re at at all times. These guys do a really, really good job. [Lions Defensive Coordinator] Kelvin Sheppard does a really, really good job of putting those guys in the right spot, moving them around, like Green Bay did with Parsons. You’ve got to always be aware of those guys because they’re such elite players.

Q. Do you have any theories on why you’ve been able to run the ball early in games and then not in late in games? I’m not talking about trying to run out the clock when they stack box, but just in general, RB Saquon Barkley’s averaging almost seven yards carried in the first quarter. Obviously, a 65 is going to increase it, but every game has been 4, 5, 5, 5. And then as the game goes on, the production just hasn’t been the same. Any theories on that? (Reuben Frank)

Kevin Patullo: Right now, come to mind, I would say no, but it is definitely something like as games go on, we’re always looking to see what other compliments we can call in the run game to what’s going on in the first half, or that quarter or that drive. I think, for us, it’s really just a matter of continuously finding new ways and different things to get him on the perimeter and get explosive or up the middle if we can create a crease in there. I think it’s just as the game goes and flows, we’ve got to continue to work on creating new compliments and different ways to just get him those yards he needs. When you watch the Giants’ game, we were kind of able to do that in spots, and we’ve just got to continue to find ways to do that.

Q. We haven’t had a chance to talk to you since the bye week. I know you guys use that time to do a lot of self-reflection. What did you learn maybe about your own offense during the bye week? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Kevin Patullo: When we looked back at it as a staff, there were some similarities to years past with kind of where we’re at in certain things. But the biggest thing was that when we were on schedule, we did a really nice job. When we had negative plays or penalties, that’s where we got caught and that’s where these third-and-longs happened, second-and-long. We had some drive stops. I think that was the biggest thing is how do we get rid of those and how do we create explosive plays for our guys, and just use different things that we’ve done throughout the season.

Each game has looked so different. We’ve used tempo, we’ve used [T] Fred [Johnson] in there, we’ve used different personnels and continuously are changing things. I think the neat part about it is we’re still finding different ways to win, but we’re still trying to find things we can do within each game. I think when we went through the self-scout, the biggest thing that we found was that there’s not one set thing we have right now, but there’s all these other things we can build on and create an advantage for ourselves going forward.

Q. Along those same lines, the three-and-outs. I mean, it’s a high number. What did you sort of discover and what’s the key to moving past that? (Tim McManus)

Kevin Patullo: When you look at that and the self-scout stuff, and even last week, it’s the efficiency on first down or second down. I think we’re very high right now, I can’t remember the exact number, in third-in-longs, and that’s the issue. We’ve really just got to continue to find ways as coaches to just stay out of those. Sometimes penalties happen, I get it, but we’ve just got to stay out of those negative plays and stay out of things that keep us off track so we can stay in a manageable third down, because we’ve been really good in that third-and-short to medium and good on fourth down. As you know, we go for a lot of fourth downs, so that’s kind of the key. If we’re in range to go for it in fourth down, we’re in good shape.

Q. What do you like about RB Will Shipley on third down? (Reuben Frank)

Kevin Patullo: I think the way he plays, his style, his speed, he’s aggressive, extremely smart, does really good with protections. He’s good in routes. I think he’s got a really good game that kind of suits third down, and a lot of times, it’s just kind of rotational. Saquon’s in there on a lot of third downs, too. It’s just sometimes on second down or he had a run on first or a run on second or a play on second and he comes out. [Running Backs/Assistant Head Coach] Jemal [Singleton] does a great job of having all those guys prepared, even [RB] Tank [Bigsby], for any down. He does a really good job of making sure they’re rolling throughout the game so they’re all fresh at all times.

Q. The pass protection part of it with RB Will Shipley, it seemed more in Green Bay than typical for Will on third down. Is that a part of it or was it more game plan? (John McMullen)

Kevin Patullo: No, it just happened a little bit naturally. We’re a little more ‘run run’ in first and second down. Saquon was getting carries, he was in there a little bit more. I think Will was just kind of rotating in at that standpoint. Tank was rotating in a little bit on first and second down, so it was a little more that they were rolling, and that’s how it went that day.

Q. What’s the data point or metric that you most value? (Zach Berman)

Kevin Patullo: I would say when you look at it, it’s just our overall efficiency. We do stuff as an offense after a game to kind of measure third downs, red zone, all these efficiencies to show if we have the ability to win the game. There’s a chart that we have that shows negative plays and it contributes to how many negative plays you have, how many penalties you have versus how many plays you have. Does it give you an opportunity to win the game and were you efficient in all those game planned areas, like four-minute, red zone, two-minute. That’s the thing that we like to look at after games and I think it’s really important for us. It paints a picture for the offense the day after the game. Like, ‘Okay, were we at the number that we need to be to be efficient to have an opportunity to win the game?’

Or, ‘Were we below it, why were we below it?’ It paints the picture of what happened, whether it was negative plays, whether it was [that] we were not good on third down, whether we were not good in the red zone. I think that’s the trick for us as an offense to see when you come out of a game, it gives you the idea of, ‘This is what we’ve got to work on,’ or ‘This is what we are good at,’ and then kind of go from there. I think that’s the most important thing for us as an offense, to see what we want to do proceeding after a game.