Q. You talked about not shying away from the moments (indiscernible) 15 and on. So just putting that back into the opportunity that's there for the team?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, it's a fun opportunity. I don't know, it's exciting times in Seattle right now, your neighbors, people you see kind of on the street rocking their gear. It's pretty special. And we've earned this moment, the city has earned this moment. So we're excited to take advantage.
Q. What does that look like in terms of walkthrough, in terms of the draft, practice?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, it's interesting. It's not just like kind of coach-speak, but today felt like a normal Thursday walkthrough. Everybody is going through the process, doing their practice prep. It just feels like another week.
I think I would imagine that's the goal of Mike from the beginning, is to kind of establish a routine and a process that's similar week in, week out no matter what the game is.
We know what to expect. We know we're going to have a Thursday practice. We know how the flow goes Friday, Saturday. The process is the process. Sunday will be definitely exciting in this stadium.
Q. What's the biggest challenge of Puka Nacua in defending him?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, he has speed, and he's strong. He's a strong receiver. He's good after the catch. And he's efficient in his route running. You need to know where he's at all the time.
Q. You guys held Matt Stafford to 130 yards the first time you played this year, a lot more the second time. You faced Sean McVay a bunch of times at this point. How much do you look at previous games as predictors of future, and how do you get ready for the next match against those guys?
JULIAN LOVE: It's a dance between the guy calling their plays, McVay, as well as Mike kind of calling our stuff. It's a dance of what we're showing, what we're representing, how we're going to execute.
I think the story of the second game was really just not executing. Defensively, we had a good plan in, but we didn't execute it to our fullest. We know that. I think we got the win, but we go into that Monday after that game knowing that it's great we got the win, but on defense everyone was quiet for sure, knowing that we've got some work to do.
I think we showed improvement the weeks after that game because, all right, that was a loud playoff-like environment for that game, and now we know what to expect.
Q. What are the stress points that their three tight end packages put on a defense from your eyes?
JULIAN LOVE: Knowing who they are. 84, 87, 18, 89, all of them, operate differently. Especially in their offense, they are catered and used a certain way. Just knowing who they are and where they're lined up. And then when you're on them, making sure you keep eyes on them, don't allow any leak, cheap stuff.
And just play ball. I think it's just knowing -- it's not typical anymore in the league, that's the biggest thing. Everybody is going to the zebra, the game got fast, and they're kind of bringing it back and bringing out bigger bodies. So we've got to match it accordingly.
Q. I think you overlapped with Colby Parkinson here one year. Can you talk about just the player he's developed into.
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, he's become a go-to guy for them. He's very tall. He's strong. He's smart. He's good in the run game. He has all the tools to be a successful tight end.
I enjoyed playing with him here. It's real easy to see how he's having success over there. They're getting him more involved into some of the vertical pass game than his first year there. And so, yeah, he's become a serious tight end 1 for them.
Q. Stafford's no-look passes, how do you guard -- what's the point there, just eye discipline?
JULIAN LOVE: I mean, it's tough to say eye discipline because you're looking at him. So if you're going off the quarterback, he's going to lead you in a different direction. I think it's more so about spots, understanding spots on the field that they're trying to target and being disciplined enough to know, okay, he's trying to get me off my spot right now. Yeah, I think that's it.
Q. Mike talked yesterday about the loss down there in week 11 and the feeling of the team coming out of that game. I think the phrase he used was we could feel ourselves becoming the team we wanted to be, just by losing obviously. What do you remember about sort of the feelings of the team coming off of that?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, I think before that game, the standards of the defense were already high, and as the game was going on, I think they got some stuff rolling early.
Defense was -- it was definitely tense towards our part of the field. And we were playing well. In hindsight. If you take a step back, you realize we were playing well.
But it didn't feel like that in the moment. So guys kind of bowed up and kept battling. After the game you kind of realized what the numbers showed. And, yeah, I think it was defining just to be like, all right, if we execute this and this and this.
You know, that game, obviously, we lost the turnover battle, but came down to a kick at the end. So if we're efficient, if we can take care of the ball, if we can get the ball, then that will be the shape we're in. I think that's the biggest key to that one.
Q. And then coming out of the game, it became a well-publicized thing what Ernest said after the game supporting Sam. What does that do for a team when one side of the ball is having a bad day and immediately the other side of the ball steps up?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, I mean, from the jump, I don't know what it was, maybe something in camp, just being around Sam. It's like, dude, you're our quarterback. You're going to lead us. But like you said, we have your back no matter what. I know you have our back in our down moments. Second LA game, Sam was like, defense, you guys are good, and they made it happen late in that game.
And so it's -- we have a very complete team, which is probably the first time I've ever had such a complete team in my career. Offense, we trust them and believe in them fully. It's not just talk. It's a full belief. I know they believe in us fully.
Special teams, that's our X factor. That's our special weapon. Because people are going to in each day and challenging themselves to do the job and not just kind of talk about it, not flow through the process, but to really enjoy and get after the process.
Q. When you have a game like the last one, wasn't up to your standards on the defense's side, as a competitor and the defense you guys have, do you look forward to a chance to face that team again?
JULIAN LOVE: Hundred percent. I was telling some guys when we came in Monday, like, that was the best-case scenario. We did it. We played like shit that second game, but we won. Like, we got the win in the critical part of the season. And now there's improvements to be made.
It's the best when you win a game and still have stuff to improve on. I've been a part of some units that you feel like you've been perfect and still lose by a few touchdowns.
So that's the unit that we have. Especially on defense, everybody takes pride on their side of the ball, but we take pride on it. If we get our job right and do what we supposed to do and we have confidence in that, then things should be good.
Q. You said that was this Monday, or the Monday after that --
JULIAN LOVE: Oh, that was Monday after the Rams game, yeah, yeah, yeah. We've been playing lights out.
Q. You were on opposite sides of DeMarcus for a few years. I'm wondering as a teammate this year, what has stood out about him that you didn't know previously until you were in the same locker room?
JULIAN LOVE: I mean, he's, like -- he's just a good dude. He's a killer on the field. And you can see that in his eyes, that he has intent to get after the ball, to make plays.
But just off the field, like we were just messing around, you know, playing some cards, like, in our break. We just kind of hang out with him, and he's just kind of a fun-loving guy. Great father to his kids, family man.
And so it's cool to see the off-the-field stuff with him because on the field he's transformed his defense.
Q. I don't know if you saw, John Schneider won the Executive of the Year award today. As a player, people talk about the culture he sets and things like that from the top down, how do you see that as a player?
JULIAN LOVE: It's pretty cool. I mean, he's just -- you guys have all talked to him, I'm sure. He shoots you straight. He's not super serious. You know, he's just a guy you can enjoy talking to and you can be real with, which I think is appreciated in terms of like the people he's getting in here. He believes in talent development from the inside.
I mean, this past draft class, we take a bunch of guys who have a ton of upside. It might take some work to coach people up and do the right things, of course, but he sees the value in that. He doesn't let any of the stuff that distracts other people in terms of a personality type get in the way. And that's special. That's hard to do. You can't have any really bias about you.
And so, yeah, that's awesome. I didn't know. That was well deserved.
Q. You mentioned special teams was an X factor for you guys. You've been at points in your career kind of a special teams guy. Every coach says, hey, let's be good in all three phases, let's emphasize special teams, but not every team does it necessarily. What do you think has allowed you guys to have so much success there?
JULIAN LOVE: I think it's the people in the room. I think it starts with Brady Russell, our special teams captain. And then we have a great set of specialists with J-My, Dickson, and Stoll. It's the standard that it's very serious. What we do is not -- I've been in some rooms where it's like, oh, don't worry about it, we're going to kick it through the end zone. Like, no, we kick the ball in play, we cover kicks, and we expect to create explosives in the return game.
It started with Jay Harbaugh just setting the tone. Like, this is -- is it serious? Because nobody wants to do it anymore. Kickoff rules are changing, all these things are constantly changing about special teams. If we can get it right first, we can be really special. And he said that from day one, which, you know -- so credit to all of our teams leaders as well as Jay.
Q. The second Rams game, for all they did, the fourth quarter, the comeback was after you guys stopped them three three-and-outs in a row. What changed there?
JULIAN LOVE: What I don't know exactly what changed there. We figured some things out and started calling some things differently. Don't need to get into that. But I remember that week after that game, Mike, we were talking, we were in his office, and he said something along the lines of what's special about our team is that we're just going to get it right. We're going to figure it out. It might not be the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, whenever that happened in that game, but we have the guys that know we are going to get it right.
And that's powerful. That's special. Again, you're a part of a unit, organization, you guys in the workplace, maybe, you're like things aren't going your way, they might not go your way until it's over. But for us, we know, all right, the tides are going to turn no matter what.
And we trust in Mike. We trust in our coaches under Mike. We trust in our players to make things right. We're not going to let things continue to happen. Wish we could have figured it out earlier in that game, but I think we figured it out, and, yeah, we're confident for Sunday.
Q. You referred to Brady Russell as your special teams captain. Is that an unofficial thing that's understood since you guys are the game captains?
JULIAN LOVE: Yeah, I think it's unofficial that it's understood. He's a core guy. I mean, we have a lot of leaders in the room, but I think from the first point every time Brady speaks, people listen. He's one of those guys.
He has incredible intent with how he goes about his work. He gives a hundred percent in every single thing he does. His practice, his pregame, running around without his shirt on, all the stuff. It's all through work.
I think if he was in another building, people might not have valued that as much. But like Jay as well as Mike and everybody has allowed him to be himself, and he just leads the charge and he gets everybody right for sure.
Q. I don't know if you watched the video of Mike's first meeting with you guys last year --
JULIAN LOVE: I did.
Q. What do you remember about him talking to you guys like that back in April?
JULIAN LOVE: That was special. I think everyone who was in the room kind of pictured it. They had the slide, everything that he said in the video, it was very much real. That's his first meeting. It was maybe five minutes, ten minutes into him introducing himself to us.
And he just stated the power of being in Seattle in front of this fan base. I mean, you see the size of the team room. It's Lumen. It's our power.
And so we're catering to that. We love the opportunity. And it's going to be fun. It was fun this past weekend. It's going to be fun again because, I don't know, Seattle just -- it just means more to this community for sure.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports