Jacksonville Jaguars 26 - Carolina Panthers 10
Q. Can you describe what happened on the two turnovers for you, the interception you had, and then punching out the ball on Bryce Young?
FOYE OLUOKUN: The first one, interception, was the boot. I saw the safety overtook the over, so I was kind of being an opportunistic. Thought he was going to run it. He didn't. Threw a contentious throw.
Murray made a great play breaking it up and saw the ball in the air. The tips and overthrow, we said, got to get those, so I saw it in the air. Made sure I caught the ball, yeah, and came down with it.
It was just a good play all around for the whole defense.
Q. Then the punch-out?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, punch-out dropped in my zone, and then this time he did run it. He crossed the line of scrimmage. So I hate when quarterbacks kind of do that, but it's cool. He's trying to get his extra yard and stuff, so we decided to go head-first.
You don't want to dive on the guy and maybe get the penalty, so you know, we put the ball out. I see he was stumbling forward, so he's already going to the ground. Might as well take my shot at it. Got the ball there, and I felt the air come out the side there, so I knew the ball was on the ground. I saw a whole bunch of our guys hustling after the ball, so I assumed we got it and started running.
Q. Have you ever experienced anything quite like an hour-and-six-minute delay in a game before at any level of football? What do you do in that hour time?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, actually my first-ever game -- I guess it wasn't a delay. We hadn't started. Kind of Thursday night game. I guess kind of similar to how this year started off. Eagles game. It was raining and stuff.
So I understood, you got to wait for them to say you can go back out on the field and warm up and stuff. It was great how we handled it really. I like how the strength staff had everything kind of organized for us. We went over some adjustments. Kind of like a little mini-halftime.
Then we already were stretching inside, came back outside, had a good organized warmup period. Then we took the confidence that we had going into that break, came back out with some adjustments, and just kept it flowing.
I think we handled it very good. Nobody was really surprised by it at all.
Q. Foye, getting three turnovers or whatever it is today, that was something the defense wasn't able to really do a ton of last year. How good does it feel to get off to a start like that?
FOYE OLUOKUN: You know, I talked to the guys already that we put a lot of work in this whole offseason. New faces in here, we gained a lot of trust and a lot of good camaraderie it feels like on that side of the ball, really with the team.
Then coming out here and putting a good product on the field, on film feels good. You come out, putting in all that work. If it doesn't go well, now you're starting to second guess a little bit just naturally.
Just to come out here and feel like we played well. Obviously there's stuff that we should improve on, we need to improve on, but coming out here and everybody flying around, everybody keeping that camaraderie that we had from offseason to the first game, it just felt great. So getting the turnovers, like, we're doing stuff right. We're doing it. Let's keep improving on it.
Q. Murray and Louis both had big plays on defense. The two new guys coming in, how much of an impact do they make? When you see the veterans doing that, how does that help maybe some of the younger guys?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, I love it because when they play well, they're good examples in the locker room already, how they go about their business. Talking about meeting, whenever I want to call a meeting, they're ready to meet. Doing extra, having a routine and stuff.
If they see success at that level now in the DB room as well, you know, they're going to fall, I would say, in line. They're going to maybe implement what gets them success.
You know, having them carry from camp and practice to the game, you know, who wouldn't want to have that same success how they play? They play well, communicate well, play hard, tackle hard. I love playing with them right now. Everybody, you know, getting on that same page, you know, we can be a very dangerous defense.
Q. You've told us that you feel like in this defense it can let you be more of a playmaker. What was it like seeing that kind of be vindicated first game right out of the gate?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, I feel like I had good years being a playmaker, and I felt that kind of same energy just how they stressed about talking about the ball, the ball, the ball.
So getting back to that, I put it on myself really, because I put it out to you all I wanted to be a playmaker. You know, they gave me the opportunity to have my eyes back more on the ball, maybe breaking up, not having to run all over the place with wheel routes and stuff.
It's really trusting the rush, making the right break angles, and then when the ball does present itself, kind of how the coaching staff harps on getting the ball, let's all go attack the ball.
It's a good start for us. We have to keep it going through the year, but you know, they come in bunches. So they start now. Let's keep it going and see where this takes us.
Q. You guys have four new guys up front, a couple of new guys on the secondary. What does it say to see you guys gel together so quickly?
FOYE OLUOKUN: It's really the hours in the offseason, you know, spending time together, trusting one another, trusting that we're all going to be in the same spot. We're really seeing them make plays. Like, all right, that's what he is capable of. I trust him to do that now.
Then, you know, coming to this game, they see me make plays, see the defensive line make plays, you know, the run game, everybody attacking their gaps hard. Keep building off of that, but it's definitely solid to see.
Q. Jourdan already tweeted that you should have been an All-Pro the last three years.
FOYE OLUOKUN: Appreciate that.
Q. What does it mean to have hype men like those guys? I said this in the locker room. I don't want to call it subdued, but it felt like a business-like approach after this win. Maybe not as euphoric. It was, hey, good win, but we checked the box, and now we're moving on.
FOYE OLUOKUN: To be a dominant defense it takes the whole season. It can't go ups and downs. You have to really stack games. You have to stack streaks and stuff. So to come out it's definitely a good, tone-setting game.
Like I said earlier, we have a lot of stuff to clean up. Also I said earlier we got good vets that will come in, kind of go through these meetings, understand what we have to do better. I love working with them so far.
So they were all each other's hype men. I told everybody we have to celebrate our wins, the little ones, the big ones. I appreciate J-Lew shouting me out like that because he knows. We're close, so he knows kind of the little stuff that I think about as my career has gone on.
It is what it is, but I just want to keep producing how I know I'm capable of producing, and all that stuff comes as it comes, but I can't control that. I can play well for my boys, for sure.
Q. Then one other thing that you've talked to us about is because you can play a little more free, but also because, as opposed to being the eraser, you feel like everybody around you knows their assignment. Did that shine through today?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, we definitely played with a lot of trust today. I think we played with a lot of trust. There's stuff we should clean up to make sure we're executing our calls, but we played with a lot of trust. That's just a lot of banked reps through the preseason playing the same way each and every day.
Appreciate Coach Camp really putting those installs in and hammering details and communication, but it's just the first game. So we have to see how that keeps growing all the way through the season, but it was cool. It was fun.
Q. Foye, as John mentioned, there were a lot of guys on defense that were kind of new, but there was one guy who returned to this team in Dawuane Smoot. How big an impact has he had in his return to the Jags, and how much did you guys miss him last year?
FOYE OLUOKUN: It's cool to see how the guys really rally around him, kind of camaraderie as I keep mentioning. He came in, and he had to get acclimated and stuff. Once he did, the guys got a lot of trust in him.
He's kind of versatile up there on the defensive line, plays inside, can go outside, runs his stunts and all that. I saw them working and communicating. I don't know really what they be doing up there. They just -- I know what they're doing, but you know (smiling).
I saw how much they clicked very early, and him coming back, they know what he does well. They're really playing off of each other and stuff. Everybody is having a communicated rush plan. That's very important for D-linemen to make sure the rush lanes are going to be closed or when they can rush up the field versus come under and stuff.
You know, them embracing him again, it's cool to see. I already know, an established veteran that's seen a lot of football, I like how they communicate with him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports