Kevin Patullo

Q. The last six weeks you guys have only allowed four sacks. What have you seen as far as growth in that category? (Reuben Frank)

Kevin Patullo: Yeah, I think when you look at the whole season as far as our pass protection, the guys have done a phenomenal job. I mean, [G/T] Tyler Steen, [T] Fred [Johnson] stepping in, [C] Cam [Jurgens], [G] Landon [Dickerson], all those guys, [T] Jordan [Mailata], they’re doing a great job, and they work extremely hard at it. When you watch our practices, they’re super dedicated to everything they do in between periods, special teams, we’re working on stuff constantly. I think a lot of it has to do with the communication and just jelling through things. As far as in meetings, making calls and understanding what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it and it’s been impressive. They’ve gone up against some really, really good rushers. To see what they’re doing has been awesome and it’s really helped us. In the pass game, whether it’s play action or even a drop back, it’s been really good.

Q. Sunday’s efficiency, things that you guys have been working towards all year, what do you credit that to? (Brooks Kubena)

Kevin Patullo: I think when you look at it, it’s just working through things over time. I think sometimes as things go from week to week from practicing different plays and eventually you say, ‘Okay, this thing’s ready for game action’. I think just working through different phases of under center shotgun, how we’re marrying things, that’s part of it too. When you stay efficiently on first, second down and you can get to a third and manageable, obviously that helps. That’s kind of the key to it. Some of the issues we’ve had prior too is a first down penalty or second and long and all of a sudden a third and long and you’re off track. Staying on track is really, really critical and that obviously paid dividends on Sunday.

Q. You mentioned the under center and the shotgun and things about that. I know each game is isolated, but how do you extrapolate that to other things? Say, ‘okay, this is something we’re good at and something we want to try again.’ How do you-? (Brooks Kubena)

Kevin Patullo: When you look at it, when you formulate the plan each week, basically you look at ‘okay, what do they do? Is there something different they do whether under center or gun? Is there something that we did last week that we want to try to do again or build on?’ You kind of go from there. So, each game can look a little bit different as far as shotgun and under center. Really it starts with the run game. Once you go from the run game, you can build the pass game off it and then you streamline it throughout the week. Then during the game, if you stay on track, obviously, certain things can happen to where the under center can go even more or less depending on what they’re doing. So, it really completes the game plan when you have plays off of plays and the under center kind of marries up with each other and the shotgun.

Q. The under-center stuff. In that particular game because it was weather. We talked about the wind, also the circumstance of the game, getting the big lead. Does that increase that? (John McMullen)

Kevin Patullo: It does, yeah, for sure. Anytime you’re in a game, kind of like we were on Sunday, you might be under a little bit more, running the ball a little bit more. Or, depending on the personnel grouping that we really like going into the game, that can allow you to be under center more too. It’s kind of a both-and. I wouldn’t say the wind has anything to do with the under center piece of it necessarily. But in that kind of game, when they’re in the fourth quarter, or in the third quarter, and you feel like you’re doing things well and you’re staying on track and the runs are efficient, we’re doing a good job. You can just keep leaning on it.

Q. What about QB Jalen Hurts development and the under-center operation? I’m sure there’s a ton of details that goes into it. What are you picking up on where he’s getting better? (Tim McManus)

Kevin Patullo: He’s done a really good job. I mean really from when we kind of started doing this early in the season, working through the Vikings game, that was a big step for him. He works extremely hard at it. You can see him even in between periods, in between special teams stuff, whatever he needs to do. He’s working on his footwork, working on the timing. He’s extremely dedicated to make sure he’s always on time and in rhythm and he’s working the under-center stuff because it is a little new. We’ve dabbled in it obviously in the past, but he’s doing a great job with it and he works extremely hard at it, so it’s been great.

Q. How much better has QB Jalen Hurts become at protecting himself as a runner since the early days? (Bob Brookover)

Kevin Patullo: I think as you start to play and you start to get the understanding of the speed, angles and how you want to do things, protecting yourself is critical. I think some guys do a great job of it and he does a good job of it. Other guys don’t, when you look around the league. He does a really good job of it and understanding down in distance, do I need to go get this first down, where am I at? What’s the angle this guy has? I think there’s a lot going into it when you run him, and he does a really good job of protecting himself.

Q. How hard is that to learn because there’s a natural instinct from these guys; we see it in other guys. (Bob Brookover)

Kevin Patullo: Correct. I think it is something that, over time, you can kind of get a feel for; your ability to make somebody miss in space. Is this the time, is this not the time? Just understanding the angles of things, it’s a lot of what it is. I think it’s no different than a receiver. You’ve got a small receiver in space is this one I want to catch and go take somebody on and get down or get the yards I can. So, if you’ve got good vision, which he does, he understands where he can make a cut and make somebody miss, and is this the time to get down or not? It is really critical.

Q. In the low red zone, what makes TE Dallas Goedert such an appealing target? In particular, the way you’re using him in terms of at the line of scrimmage and behind as opposed to in the paint? (Zach Berman)

Kevin Patullo: I think for him, he’s such a physical guy. His determination to just get yards and have an impact on anything, whether it’s in the pass game, whether it’s gadgets, whatever it may be. He’s really dynamic with the ball in his hands. So anytime you can get the ball in his hands, obviously, that’s what we’re going to try to do. You can see his energy in general. I know we’ve talked about this before, when he makes a play, everybody gets excited. So, I think that as much as you can use a guy like that in critical moments, it’s going to pay off for you. He’s done a great job of finding the end zone on plays and certain things we’ve done. It’s been fun. It’s one of those things each week I think everybody gets excited to see what we have potentially. You just kind of build off of it. Sometimes, it goes to other guys, you just spread it out, and it’s plays off of plays, which makes it even more exciting.

Q. QB Jalen Hurts development in the under center, like you were talking about earlier, I imagine with all the change in play callers that he’s had over here, he’s kind of naturally learned what he’s good at and things that he’s comfortable with. So, whenever you do approach him with something new or try that, what’s that like? How do you do that? What kind of was the response and you saw from Jalen in that? (Brooks Kubena)

Kevin Patullo: I think the best part about him is his willingness to really try and do anything, and he’s a pretty quick learner. So, he’s good about when you say, ‘hey, let’s take a look at this, how does that feel? What does that look like to you? What do you think about this?’ He’s done a great job of just taking coaching and having input. I think the best thing you can do as a coach is always, obviously, listen to the players and have the communication lines open because ultimately, they have to do it. But you can help them and when they trust you and they know there’s a two-way street, I think it can go a long way. You can see his development in so many areas, and he continues to do a good job.

Q. What lines of communication work best for that? (Brooks Kubena)

Kevin Patullo: As far as?

Q. You just mentioned keeping lines of communication. I’m sure that extends to a lot of things. I’m just curious what that looks like. (Brooks Kubena)

Kevin Patullo: So really when you’re talking in meetings, we go through film. You’re talking through, when you’re watching film, when you’re doing drill work, you’re constantly talking through drills as you’re doing things, whether it’s ball handling, whether it’s drops. It’s just continually talking through everything, how you do it, whether it’s in the team meeting setting or in position meetings or in drill work. Even in practice, him and I and [Quarterbacks Coach] Scot [Loeffler], all of us, [Head Coach] Nick [Sirianni], whoever it may be, we’ll always talk to all the players and get a feel for things. We come off the field, the defense goes out and does their thing and we’re talking through what just happened, how’d that feel, what do you think, and things like that. I think just constantly talking. It’s really not just him, it’s really with everybody. The guys do a great job. I know we’ve talked about it before, it’s just adjusting, talking through things and getting things ready so that when Sunday appears and we have to do our thing, everybody’s dialed in.

Q. With TE Dallas Goedert, there’s been so much success in the red zone as you were talking about. Is that a concerted effort to get him involved or the shovel pass. Obviously, that’s trying to put somebody in conflict. Is it just working out that way? (John McMullen)

Kevin Patullo: To be honest, it is a little bit, right? You want to have plays that you have multiple options on and we’ve had a few of those throughout the seasons. It’s kind of gone his way this year, which has been great. I know other years it had gone other guys’ way, so it’s kind of fun to see and it’s been exciting. I mean I talked about the energy with him is awesome when he gets one. So, the more you can have plays where multiple guys were involved and puts the defense in conflict, the better we’ll be. At this point, right, we’ve been really successful with it. We’ve just got to keep building on it.

Q. In the low red zone, you’ve been more past heavy this year than in previous years. Is that based on your background? Is it based on stuff you guys looked at this off season? What’s the background of that? (Zach Berman)

Kevin Patullo: I wouldn’t say there’s anything specific. The red zone obviously is a unique area where you can be creative and do different things. I think that’s something where we all kind of have our own input on that. Throughout the years, we’ve done different things and just try to see whatever we need to do best. I wouldn’t say there’s anything specific, but it’s a challenge. The red zone obviously is one of the hardest areas of the game because you have such short field, the defense is compressed and you have to find creative ways to get the ball in the end zone. That’s kind of where we’re at when we get down there. Obviously, our mindset is to score touchdowns and that’s our goal. So we do anything we can when we get down there.

Q. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio credited the offense when asked about the shutout, what you guys did on your side of the ball. Do you feel like you kind of landed on a formula in that Raiders game of the best way to attack things? (Tim McManus)

Kevin Patullo: I think really when you go throughout the whole season, we’re always trying to put our best foot forward as we play throughout the season towards the end. That’s kind of where we’re at right now. We got to keep pushing through, building on what we’ve done throughout these previous weeks. Obviously, the Chargers game, now this game. Just keep building and building to where we keep growing. There’s still the availability to grow. So, if you can continue to grow throughout the end of the year, who knows what can happen. That’s where we’re at right now. We just have to keep doing things, just kind of pushing the envelope to see what we continue to improve on and see where this thing goes.

Q. Basically the Commanders aren’t great. What challenges do they present in your eyes, specifically, this weekend? (Marcus Hayes)

Kevin Patullo: When you really go back through just the history of [Commanders Head Coach] Coach [Dan] Quinn, he’s done a really good job of just preparing their defense at all times, whether it was Dallas or even being in Washington. They play extremely hard. They’ve got some good players over there and experienced players. When you have experienced players, they understand football, they understand what’s happening, they’re in the right place at the right time. So just watching them on tape, I think you can tell they’re going to be in the right spots. He’s going to have them prepared. We’ve played him a lot, so obviously, there’s a little bit of that going forward. Obviously with any opponent, you have your hands full and we will see what they have in store for us on Saturday.

Q. C Cam Jurgens, how has he played over the last few weeks? It seemed like he was kind of behind the eight ball at the beginning of the year, but it looks as though as he’s maybe gotten a little bit more into the season and maybe healthier, he’s been more effective. (Marcus Hayes)

Kevin Patullo: Yeah, Cam’s done a great job. I think just he feels better about where he’s at, obviously. Just taking the whole offensive line underneath him and understanding that it goes through him. He sets the table and they all feed off him. He’s done a really, really, really good job. He’s definitely a leader out there and all those guys are. I think when you look at the communication and the work ethic between him and [T] Jordan [Mailata] and all those guys, they’re all in it together. That’s what’s unique about them and I think they feed off each other. That’s kind of where you watch [T] Fred [Johnson] too. They all feed off each other out there and so they’re doing a really nice job right now.