00:00And we are joined now by Robert Splane, brought to you by Shaw's and Star Market,
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00:16Robert, good morning.
00:18Good morning. How's it going?
00:20It's going pretty good.
00:21Last time we spoke, I believe that there were some
00:27who thought the sky was falling and things were not so good,
00:32and quite a turnaround here the last couple games for you guys.
00:36Yeah, it's been a great few weeks, and we're looking forward to building on that this week.
00:42Robert, when you look at last week's game plan,
00:44you guys did a really good job against Raiders' offense that put up a lot of points.
00:49What were some of the things that you, as a defense, wanted,
00:52do you believe you guys did in that game that limited them to scoring points?
00:57Any time you can do great, stopping the run on first and second down,
01:01forcing these quarterbacks to have to operate in third and long situations,
01:05I feel like you're at an advantage defensively.
01:09Robert, Gabe Atkins is flashing as a rookie.
01:11You've got Elijah Ponder having a breakout year.
01:13As a veteran in that room, what's your role been like with these young guys,
01:17and how impressed have you been by them?
01:20I am very ultra impressed by those two individuals in particular.
01:26They just show up with a professional attitude each and every day,
01:29willingness to get better, willingness to do whatever it takes to help our defense be successful,
01:35whether it be defense, special teams, whatever they're asked.
01:40They are two ultra professionals who are going to continue to grow in this league
01:45and be cornerstone pieces, hopefully, for this organization for years to come.
01:50Robert, we've had a lot of conversation about this,
01:52and I believe you're a Green Dot guy, correct?
01:55Do you wear the Green Dot on your helmet?
01:57Yes.
01:58So we've been talking a lot about this Jaden Daniels situation,
02:01and I'm cut from this cloth of where I expect everybody,
02:05not just the quarterback or the Green Dot guy,
02:07to understand the situation on the field.
02:10Because that's how you were when you played.
02:13Well, that's how I was when I played,
02:14and that's how I would coach my players, my position now if I was a coach.
02:19How much awareness does every player on that defense have about situations,
02:27but especially critical situations when you come to the end of games
02:32where you don't have a potential situation that happened in Washington?
02:37Yeah, I'm really, really proud of the guys I get to work with on a day-to-day basis.
02:42These guys really take pride, especially our back-end players,
02:45in understanding situational awareness and situational football
02:49and what we're trying to get done on each and every play.
02:53Referring to the Washington tape, that seemed like an unfortunate situation
02:57where I would bet that the quarterback thought he had a final timeout to use,
03:02and they didn't, so something like that.
03:06Yeah, as a player, I guess the question,
03:08we've gone back and forth a million times.
03:10Just in general, when you look at that, does that end up being,
03:14if the player does, the quarterback doesn't know what he has left
03:18or not left for timeouts, does that end up being more on the quarterback
03:21or more on the coach from your perspective?
03:26On my perspective, that's malpractice from everybody involved,
03:29but at the end of the day, you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
03:33Jalen, or Jaden Daniels is an exciting young player
03:36who still has a long career ahead of him,
03:38and he's going to get over this.
03:39He's going to move far beyond this to a point where you don't think about it
03:44once you look at his career in totality.
03:46Robert, does it feel like from the inside that you guys turned a corner
03:49with these back-to-back wins?
03:51And if so, what changed?
03:55Yeah, I mean, I think we just stayed committed to the process,
03:58stayed committed to getting better each and every day,
04:00building on the things that we do well,
04:03trying to fix up the things that have hurt us in the past,
04:06and I think that is just the course of every NFL season,
04:10whether you're 5-0 at this point or 0-5.
04:12You really just got to continue to get better throughout October,
04:17throughout November, and then really stack those chips up
04:20and continue to rise through December.
04:22Robert, we always hear about the teams saying,
04:26hey, don't give other teams bulletin board material.
04:29You know, don't, you know, you hear some of the noise.
04:32I think we heard Vrabel talking about afterwards,
04:34which, you know, they heard some of the negativity about the team
04:37the first few weeks of the season.
04:39How important is it now when you're on the other side of that
04:42and you're playing well where you don't start to read your own press clippings?
04:48Yeah, I mean, every man is individual in that sense.
04:52Everyone reads into different things and is motivated by different factors,
04:57but at the end of the day, you got to be self-regulated
05:00and understand that it doesn't really affect who you are on a day-to-day basis
05:05from what they say.
05:06They're going to say you're terrible when you lose a game.
05:08They're going to say you're great when you win a game,
05:10and that's kind of a prerequisite that you understand coming into the NFL.
05:13So just stay level-headed, stay calm, and just continue to trust your guys
05:18and get better as the season goes.
05:21Robert, how difficult are these quick turnarounds,
05:23especially when you're going on the road?
05:25You're playing Sunday, then you're going to be Thursday night in Chicago
05:28just to get your body ready.
05:30Yeah, I mean, we're focused solely on the Jets.
05:33That is our only focus at this point.
05:36We'll focus on Chicago when that time comes,
05:39but at this point, it's all steam ahead for the Jets.
05:43Speaking of the Jets, A.J. Brown, how's he look?
05:46Do you expect him back Sunday on the field?
05:49Yeah, I don't do projections when it comes to guys playing and act as active.
05:55He's been a great attitude in the facility, all smiles,
05:59and I'm excited whenever his time is to be back for him to be back.
06:04Obviously, a division game, so very important,
06:07but is there still a rivalry, Pat's-Jets rivalry,
06:13or is it, you know, you've been here for a while now.
06:17Is there some, when you look at this team and its rival,
06:22who do you look at it as?
06:25I mean, it's every week in this NFL is so important,
06:31especially these division games.
06:33They mean double.
06:35So whether it's the Jets, the Bills, or Miami,
06:38we know we have to do a great job every time we play one of those teams
06:41because they're in our division.
06:43And, yeah, I don't know if rivals are really big.
06:50I don't know.
06:51It's kind of a hard question.
06:53I don't really play into the rival game too much every weekend
06:56as an individual matchup for me.
06:58I got to understand who I'm going up against on the offensive side of the ball,
07:02and I kind of take it from there.
07:03Josh Allen said this week that he throws up before every game.
07:07Is there anything you do before every game that we might find interesting, Robert?
07:14No, I had heard that Josh Allen threw up before games.
07:18I'm surprised that he would still be doing that this late into his career.
07:25To me, that's ultra surprising.
07:27I would have thought he would be cool as a cucumber on Sundays by now.
07:33But, yeah, I mean, as a young player in college, you know, you get nerves.
07:38But at this point, I feel like very confident in what I'm doing.
07:42I feel like going out there on Sundays brings me some peace and joy.
07:46So definitely not throwing up on Sundays.
07:48I don't know.
