Kevin Patullo

Q. What turned things around Sunday? (Reuben Frank)

Kevin Patullo: It was a tale of two halves for sure. I think when we looked back at the game, we were able to make the adjustments we needed to get it going in the second half. And when you get in those moments, you do what you got to do to get it done. I think that the guys were awesome at taking in everything we needed to do and sequencing plays together and making plays and executing and getting it done.

Q. Did you think the first half was a little too conservative for your liking? (Jeff Neiburg)

Kevin Patullo: No, I wouldn’t say conservative is the word. I think when those things happen, like we went three-and-out obviously a few times. You look at, ‘Okay, where was the drive starting? What was the breakdown on the play? What happened? How do we stop this? How do we get out of this?’ So I think when we look back on it, there’s obviously things we can always learn from that, but you don’t go into it saying like, ‘Hey, I got to be really conservative here.’ That’s definitely not something you want to do. I think it’s just a matter of just going forward, learning from those moments and how to get ourselves out of those situations.

Q. Is there an inherent shift in your approach whenever you’re down three scores? (Brooks Kubena)

Kevin Patullo: I think by nature, if you look around the league, when you start to have those kinds of games, you’ve got to do things a little bit differently to get yourself back into it and steal extra possessions, which is what we did by doing it the way we did it. So yes, I think there is a little bit.

Q. Is the success circumstantial to that or those things that can cross over to– (Brooks Kubena)

Kevin Patullo: I think if you look around what we’ve done even throughout the years and even this past first two games prior to that, when we kind of pushed the pace a little bit at times within drives, it’s been successful. Just the way we had to do it was a little bit different. The amount of volume for it.

Q. Since the second half of the first game, you guys have seen the blitz at an extremely high rate. Why do you think that has been the case? (Jeff McLane)

Kevin Patullo: I think the first half of the season always, people have all offseason to game plan you. So they’re looking for ways to stop you. We’ve played all these teams multiple times, they know us really, really well and so they’re just looking for stuff. They’re wanting to try new things and seeing what they can do against us. I think that’s a little piece of it, and I think just by nature, if you look around the league, I think pressure’s up a little bit in general. I watched a little of the game last night and listened to some on the radio as I drove home, so you can see and just hear what’s happening around the league. I think that’s a little bit of a trend and it’ll probably continue.

Q. Typically you think, ‘Blitz, okay, against the pass.’ Are they doing it also to flood the run lanes? (Jeff McLane)

Kevin Patullo: I mean really when you look at it as a whole, I think it’s pretty much every down now teams are doing something to create something that they want to get done, whether it’s one line of defense, whatever their identity is defensively. So yeah, I think it’s just happening more frequently in general. And like I said, if you look around the league, I think you see more of it.

Q. What’s your process for taking the information that your players bring back to you from the field and then implementing it into what you’re doing? (Dave Zangaro)

Kevin Patullo: That’s a big part of it. So really when you look at just the sideline discussions in general, we all try to, as coaches, look through the pictures first, kind of communicate, and then it goes position group by position group. I always talk to [QB] Jalen [Hurts] first. We go through what we’re seeing, what happened out there, kind of foreshadowing what we want to do. And then, I usually talk to the receivers and talk to [RB] Saquon [Barkley] and the backs and then work my way down and talk to the O-Line.

It’s really important because they’re the ones out there doing it, and so they give you really good information and feedback sometimes about what they’re feeling, what’s happening, how it’s happening and when it’s happening. Ultimately, you want to put them the best spot you can for them to do their job.

Q. There was a sequence on the sideline late in the third quarter where QB Jalen Hurts is passionately talking to you and Running Backs/Assistant Head Coach Jemal Singleton. What do you remember about that? The message he was trying to deliver. (Tim McManus)

Kevin Patullo: Yeah, it’s funny. It wasn’t really anything about anything that was a heated moment. I think it was just a play that had happened, and I don’t even remember to be honest what we were talking about. I know that has kind of been made a big deal, but it wasn’t anything that was a serious matter of any kind. In fact, Jalen and I have had really good discussions in general. If you watch on those touchdown drives and we’ve been driving the ball, him and I get very excited in general. [We’re] both excited people and very competitive. So I think it’s been really, really good.

Q. In the aftermath of the game, both QB Jalen Hurts and WR A.J. Brown talked about the want for the offense to be more aggressive. Jalen characterizes, ‘Playing not to lose.’ What have your conversations been like with them since the game about those desires to kind of make the offense a little bit more aggressive? (EJ Smith)

Kevin Patullo: Yeah, I think that’s always when we go into every week, that’s what we want to do. We want to be the aggressive person, right? The word this past week for the offense of when I spoke to the offense was ‘Attack.’ We want to be in attack mode and going into the game, that was what we wanted to do. The first drive was a good drive. We went for it on fourth down, we threw the ball down into the red zone at the goal lines. We were in an attack mode.

We got stuck in those weird situations where we just couldn’t get it out of there and get it going. And then the second half, obviously, we had to play a little bit differently, but we were able to get it going. So I think they know what we want to do and I think it was just exciting for it to happen and come back. When you get emotional after games, you get excited because we were able to do something that was very difficult to do and all the plays.

And the guys played tremendous. The players themselves were awesome in those moments and the conversations and getting that done was such a big moment. It was really cool for everybody.

Q. How important is it to be able to run the offense like you did in the second half without falling down 19 points and having to do it? (Reuben Frank)

Kevin Patullo: So really when you look at it, even through the first three games, we’ve played three different ways. We’ve won three different ways. We’ve had to make adjustments three different ways, and that’s a good thing for us as an offense because, to the earlier question, you don’t know what you’re getting nowadays. You show up, you think you’re going to get a certain thing in the first half and all of a sudden, you look and you’re like, ‘Whoa, that’s not what we saw on tape at all.’

We’ve got to adjust as coaches and players quickly. This game was more of a, ‘We were stuck in neutral’ and then we had to adjust in a different way because of the points, and we were able to do that. I think when you look at it, you’re just trying to find ways to go into a game with, ‘Here’s what we see, here’s what we’d like to try to do,’ and then we’ve got to adjust quickly if we need to if things happen that were unexpected.

Q. How helpful is it? I saw a couple of times you went three by one, got WR A.J. Brown involved. Can that translate from week to week or is that more situational in the moment? (John McMullen)

Kevin Patullo: We always have that in. It just depends on what the defense does schematically. So really you just try to look at it each week, what gives us the best chance to identify coverage and help the quarterback out?

Q. I ask this philosophically, what makes you want to be reactive as opposed to proactive in terms of seeing what a defense is presenting you as opposed to getting them to react to what you’re doing? (Zach Berman)

Kevin Patullo: I think to answer your question, you always want to be out in front of it, right? You want to be the aggressor. What we did in our first drive, we were doing stuff on purpose. We didn’t really care what they were doing. We were going– and like I said, situation a little bit with the way the kickoff played out for us. We had some different things happen, and we were really one play away from just getting out in front of it, making one first down, staying at a second-and-long and being perfectly on track. We’ve just got to continue to improve that as a staff and work through that with those moments when they come up in the game. But no, you always want to be the aggressor.

Q. T Fred Johnson had a lot of experience last year on both sides. I guess probably our perception was that he beat the swing tackle and would be the first guy in if either offensive tackle went down. Why wasn’t he? (Jimmy Kempski)

Kevin Patullo: Really, when we looked at it, just the way we had kind of practiced, [G/T] Matt [Pryor] had played more right at that moment, and then when we made the switch, we just made the switch.

Q. In terms of being proactive, how much did tempo allow you guys to keep them in base coverages so you knew what you were probably going to get? (Jeff McLane)

Kevin Patullo: Well, it can definitely help put stress on the defense and that’s what you want to do when you’re in those moments. It obviously can help the offense, but really when you look at it, it’s all about the communication of the offensive guys. I have to get the play in to Jalen, he’s got to get it to everybody, communicate it out. In those kinds of moments, you are going a tempo to put stress on the defense, but you’re also doing it to make sure the communication is good and everybody knows what they’re doing because you’re reacting to the coverage that’s going to happen in the moment.

Q. Are you saying the communication because you’re going quicker, the phrasing is shorter, it’s quicker. Is that what you’re saying? (Jeff McLane)

Kevin Patullo: It can be very different. Without giving stuff away, it has to be different, right? Because you’re going fast. There’s no huddle per se, so you’ve got to go.\

Q. Why has RB Saquon Barkley had so much trouble finding room to run in? Are there things that maybe you can do different with him? (Bob Brookover)

Kevin Patullo: Yeah, I think when you look at the run game the last three weeks, we’ve just got to continue to work through it as a staff to try to find ways to create more space for him in the run game and take advantage of what people are giving us.

Q. It seems T Lane Johnson’s value is as evident when he’s not out there. I’m sure the Tampa film last year showed that, too. What changes when Lane’s not on the field? (Zach Berman)

Kevin Patullo: I mean, Lane’s a Hall of Fame player. He’s an unbelievable player and he gives you the flexibility to do a lot of things that most offenses don’t have. So when he’s not out there, you definitely feel it.

Q. What does the film show is happening with the run game? (Reuben Frank)

Kevin Patullo: I think when you look at the run game as a whole, when we line up and kind of identify what we’re trying to do, we’re getting different things this year than what we’ve gotten in the past. Saquon was such a big part of our offense last year. Everybody knows, ‘Hey, he’s a huge part of the offense.’ So it’s a matter of just kind of going in there and watching and seeing.

I mean, we’ve had some good hits here and there, and we’ve been really, really close on a few to have an explosive run. I mean the touchdown that he had against Kansas City, if we were on the 50-yard line, it’s a 50-yard touchdown. I think it’s still there. It’s just been a little bit different the way it’s unfolded, and especially obviously the game the other day in the second half, we were in such a pass mode. It just didn’t happen.

Q. When seeing some of those runs on third-and-longs, what’s the thought process there as opposed to not airing it out? (Dave Zangaro)

Kevin Patullo: Well, it depends. Obviously, we talked about the backed-up piece of it, right? You’ve got to be a little situationally aware when you’re backed up versus max protecting defensively. Like a lot of teams like to drop eight, right? If you’re dropping eight, there’s only three guys in the front, that means there’s eight guys in coverage. Well, it’s a little bit different to try to fit passes in versus drop eight. So you’re sometimes playing those situationally because you know what the defense does.

Q. When I say a ‘Todd Bowles defense,’ what do you think of first? (John McMullen)

Kevin Patullo: Todd’s an awesome coach. I worked for him for two years in New York. Unbelievable coach, and he’s done it for a really, really long time.