Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator Mike Kafka

Q: After the game on Sunday, did you feel like this is kind of what you expect from this offense with (quarterback) Russell (Wilson) at the helm?

KAFKA: Listen, we just didn't get the end result we wanted. I thought there was a lot of good things we did. There's plenty of things we can continue to improve on. But at the end of the day, you know, we're looking for the W. We didn't get it. But I think there's a lot of things, again, some confidence that we can build off of and things we did on for the last Sunday.

Q: Why do you think you were so successful on the deep holes? What did you see that you thought made it work?

KAFKA: I think it started up front. O-Line did a heck of a job protecting. Russ, obviously, having confidence in the guys going down field and winning and making those plays. I mean, some of those contested catches, whether it was (wide receiver) Leek (Malik Nabers) with the guy kind of hanging on top of him. Just really aggressive to the football, just did a really nice job making those plays. And we're going to need those. Those are obviously big plays, scoring opportunities, so they capitalized on them.

Q: (Wide receiver) Wan'Dale (Robinson), he's getting a lot more downfield opportunities than he has in the past. Is that something that Russ and Wan'Dale approached you guys about, or was that conscious on your part?

KAFKA: Yeah, I think it's just using those skill guys the best way we can. Using their best assets. And Wan'Dale, even in college, was a downfield threat. He was working routes downfield. So I think as a young player growing in the system and then being able to use them in multiple different ways, that's just part of our job as coaches is putting him in those positions so he can do that.

Q: What did you see from (quarterback) Jaxson (Dart) in terms of his first game action?

KAFKA: Yeah, he did a nice job operating in his small sample size. It was good to get him in the mix. I thought he did a nice job in the huddle and made reads and did everything he needed to do in terms of operation and execution on the field.

Q: Does coming in for such limited action, I guess, help develop or how does it impact in that capacity?

KAFKA: I think if it's positive, I think it definitely helps and if it's negative, it's just how you approach it. And Jaxson has always done a really good job of whether it was positive or negative, whatever that result was, of learning from it and growing from it. So, I think he can take those few experiences and then just build off it. I think if they, whether they come this week, next week, 10 weeks from now, whenever those opportunities show up, just taking advantage of them, being prepared and being ready to go.

Q: I think (Kansas City Chiefs' defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) Spags is top three in zero blitzes through the first two games. Talk about the challenges of facing a Spags' defense, and how you have to prepare so much differently because of how aggressive he is.

KAFKA: First and foremost, I have very high regard for Spags. Being with him, I think he's one of the best defensive coordinators in the league. Their staff on defense is phenomenal. They do a hell of a job. They're well coached. Obviously, (Chiefs' head coach) Coach Reid has meant a lot to me as a mentor of mine. A guy that helped me as a young coach get into the NFL, teach me the ways, teach me how to be a coach, teach me how to teach. Really just a great example, and it's really, it's football, it's heavy calculus. It's not football 101. It's football 501 over there. You learn as a young coach, you get to learn a lot and see how he operates and see how he talks to the players and teaches the players. So, I had an awesome experience there. And obviously, I mean, they're the reason why I'm in this position here. So, I have a lot of respect and a lot of love for the guys over there and what they mean to me from a professional and from a personal level. I'd say with Spags, the challenges with Spags, and he's going to mix it up. He's always been aggressive, and they have the players to do it. They have smart players. They've returned like 10 out of the 11 starters from the past three years. They have played a lot of football together. They know the ins and outs of that defense. They know the adjustments to it. We're up for a great challenge. So, we're going to have to really be dialed into our protection responsibilities, the run game fits, and then play with great urgency and tempo in and out of the huddle.

Re: developing young quarterbacks, players given his time with Mahomes in Kansas City and now with Dart here

KAFKA: I think the biggest thing that I learned from that was just building a structure for really any young player, whether it's a quarterback or any position. It's just building a structure, how you prepare, and what does that timeline look like on a day-to-day basis? What does it look like on a weekly basis? And then, how can you take experiences from maybe some of the vets or some of the older guys on the team and say, 'Oh, I can maybe add that to my routine, my regimen, and build that.' And then it's about how am I going to prep for this game. It's a little bit different than college. There's more that goes into it at this level. You've got to continue to work through that process, and it's not all going to be perfect like week one. You're into week five, week six, okay, I can trim something off my menu there. I can build or add something to this, whether it's the preparation side mentally or it's the physical side of it, taking care of your body a little bit differently. So, you've got to go through those phases and just kind of figure out and learn what is best for you. I'd say that in my experience with a young quarterback, when Jaxson's going through that right now, I had it with Patrick and the young guys that we had there, you know, it's just that's the process, just talking through it with it, sharing my experiences as a young quarterback and what I did, experiences that I had around the league. So, I think that's really the main thing is just kind of figuring out what your routine is going to be.

Q: What was the young Mahomes like? What was he like back then?

KAFKA: He's very similar to who he is now. It's kind of his personality. You know, he loves ball. He's all about ball. He's a great teammate, great person to work with. So, I have a lot of respect for Patrick.

Q: You leaned on (running back) Cam (Skattebo) a lot to carry the ball Sunday. Was that the plan going in, or did that just kind of an evolve as he was getting hot?

KAFKA: Yeah, just the flow of the game. I think that's one thing our coaching staff does a good job with is understanding the flow of the game, getting the guys in there. I think, trying to generate some stuff out of the run game, and Skatt was doing a good job, being aggressive, downhill. He's running hard, so it will give him a few more opportunities.

Q: What does he bring, not just to the field, but he gets everybody excited, right?

KAFKA: Yeah, he has a great personality, a great way about him. He does the right things off the field. He's a great teammate. And then on the field, obviously, he's a young player. He's still perfecting his craft. But he brings it with such energy and enthusiasm that he continues to kind of ignite guys around him as well.

Q: How impressed were you with how (offensive lineman Marcus) Mbow came in, obviously, with what happened to (offensive lineman James) Hudson, just him coming in and just being smooth and not really kind of making too many mistakes in really his first extended action?

KAFKA: Yeah, tip of the cap to Mbow. He did a nice job jumping in there. That's not easy, just kind of out of nowhere. But that's again, hats off to (offensive line coach) Coach Carm (Bricillo) and (assistant offensive line coach) James (Ferentz) for getting those young guys ready to go play. And then for Mbow, him being prepared and ready to go in there and execute and compete for a young player, that's not easy. So, I was happy on how he operated and how he went in there.

Q: Is there something specific that you guys look to do to be better in the red zone?

KAFKA: There's a lot of things. There's a lot of things that we've got to do. We've been talking about it all this week, really. We've got to get that cleaned up. There's some execution things. There's some things on my end I can do to help out. So I'd say there's a number of things that we're working through. And, again, we'll practice those tomorrow and tonight and get a look at them. But I think we have some solutions, and so we'll go work on them and get the answers for our players so that they can go out there and have a good game.

Q: How much of a weapon is it for Jaxson to be there though? To build off that, we obviously saw him there.

KAFKA: I think there's a time and a place. Every week's going to be probably a little bit different in terms of how we want to use any player, whether it's Jaxson or another running back or another tight end. We just got to go through that as a staff and figure out what fits, what doesn't fit. Based on the schemes we're going to see from Spags, does this certain player scheme work here, does this personnel grouping work here? So, just vetting it and going through it, but I wouldn't put a number count or anything on it

Defensive Coordinator Shane Bowen

Q: What was the strategy at the end of regulation?

BOWEN: I mean, we knew kind of the distance, what it was going to be, give credit to him (Dallas Cowboys' kicker Brandon Aubrey) making a 64-yarder, but we knew that was his range. Just trying to defend the line as best we could. I wish we would have been tighter, a little bit tighter. Again, just like all these calls that don't work, second guess that you probably wish you went in a different direction. A tough, tough situation to come down to that one play. I have to be better. I wish we would have been better. Hopefully we can move on and progress from it and learn from it and be better. But feel for our guys. They battled for 92 plays and then came down to that one play. Feel for them, but again, it's Thursday now. We got to move on and get ready for the Chiefs.

Q: What do you learn from that?

BOWEN: I think, again, just the ability to possibly be tighter in those situations. Make sure we're a little bit more on body as we go. Understanding that with the line. Everybody knew what the line was going to be for him. But just opportunities to be a little bit tighter potentially on those guys. Any call you make, if it doesn't work, you second guess it. You second guess it and you have to look at them all and evaluate what's best for the situation, what's best for these players, and go from there.

Q: Speaking of Sunday, obviously you guys got a nice challenge with (Kansas City Chiefs' quarterback Patrick) Mahomes and those guys. Do you see a drop-off with this team? Even though the numbers maybe aren't what they are with this offense, but do you still see this team as still a formidable foe given what they've done the last seven years or so?

BOWEN: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you still see the playmaking ability of Mahomes. He's a future Hall of Famer, Super Bowl winner. Can make every throw. Can buy time. Really just in command of what they're trying to do. I think the ability of him and his receivers to be on the same page throughout a game shows up, like stopping in zones, not really finishing a route, whatever that might be. Obviously, (Chiefs' tight end Travis) Kelce's s been the best at it for a long time, just finding ways to uncover. So, we're going to have to be ready to go. We're going to have to find ways to hopefully affect them and hopefully be able to cover these receivers, match these receivers, and hold up through the first play and then the second play as he extends. But still a very formidable foe. We're going to have to be ready to go Sunday night.

Q: How are you finding the CB2 rotation working out between (cornerback Cor'Dale) Flott and (cornerback Deonte) Banks?

BOWEN: I think they've both done good things. I think last week Tae got in there a little bit more on first and second down. Went into the game thinking he'd earned the right to play a little bit more. First, second down, so we were rotating him in there some. Then obviously with where the snap count got to, the numbers got increased there too. So, I think they're both doing really good things, continue to improve, and week to week we'll kind of see where we're at with that.

Q: What was that like in the meeting room on Monday watching that pass to (Cowboys' tight end Jake) Ferguson for you and for your unit?

BOWEN: Good question. I mean, it's tough. It's tough. I think that's the thing. All of us are accountable for it, right, to everything. Obviously, I'm accountable to that and that call. I told them I wish I would have been a little bit tighter, made a little bit different call for you guys. Would have been a better situation. That's the one thing about a team. I think we build all these relationships. We're in it together. We spend so much time together. We've got to be able to have each other's backs, right, in the good times and the bad. It's not always going to be good. But we've got to make sure us as a coaching staff, as a defensive unit, as a team that we're in this thing together and we're going to keep working and have trust that we're all going to keep working to get better and find ways to improve so we can win.

Q: Did you second guess yourself for not being more aggressive in that situation?

BOWEN: I mean, just how the call worked out. How the call worked out, I would have liked to have a different call.

Q: It seemed at the beginning of that game that you guys as a defense were ahead of what they were doing offensively. But then it kind of turned on its head. What were they exploiting that they weren't getting to in the first half?

BOWEN: I think as you kind of go back and look at it and they got in some of the tempo rush mode where we were going there in the fourth quarter, just making sure the big thing for me was on third down, being able to get off the field. Like we had a third down, a couple critical third downs in the high red area. We had a fourth and four, I think, backed up with two minutes, just above two minutes, where we're in situations where if we're able to get off the field there, I think it's a totally different outcome, different feeling. The biggest thing for me, I think they were running some play action stuff down the field as the game went on. You saw that and they were hitting some of those underneath players, the checkouts where you're trying to stay on top of some of the deeper routes and then they're dumping it down. But ultimately for us right now, I think that game obviously came down to the one play late, but the penalties killed us. They scored 24 points when we had penalties on drives, 24 points. And again, between explosive plays and penalties, that's where offenses thrive in scoring points. So we've got to be much more disciplined with that, understanding the rules, being smart around the quarterback, and then obviously we've got to be better in the red zone. That's an area we've got to improve. We've got to find a way to get stops in the red zone.

Q: Was the fact that their running game was working, did that make the play action more difficult to defend for you guys?

BOWEN: I would say probably a little bit. You go back and look, though. They had the one in the third quarter on us that hit us. I think at halftime it was minimal. I think they had under 20 yards. They hit that one and then after that I think probably more so the play action. You just get so enamored with the down the field routes between (Cowboy's wide receiver) CeeDee (Lamb) and those guys where you're just getting the depth and then those underneath things get caught and it turns into 8-10.

Q: What's the coaching on those penalties, like the back shoulder DPIs? It seems like a tough play to defend. It is. What's the coaching point?

BOWEN: It is. I think the hand high, like our hand was up high, that's going to be visible when you're up on the shoulder pad. Continuing to look for the ball, I felt like both those guys tried to look for the ball and they were connected for the most part. But any time that back shoulder comes back late and you're on top, it's natural to try to grab. You've got to fight the grab and especially we can't get it up high. They're going to see that every time when we're up on the shoulder pad. But continue to stay tight. Do our best to stay on the low hip so we're not overrunning everything on these back shoulders. Again, you play tight coverage. Some of that stuff is going to happen at times, like it is, and we're going to have to reload and be able to play the next play and find stops, but two tough penalties.

Q: You faced Kansas City when you were in the DC at Tennessee and had a couple games where you kind of kept them down. I'm sure you've gone back and watched those games. What stood out that was effective that you hope to translate to this matchup?

BOWEN: Yeah, I think we were able to affect the quarterback. We were able to affect Mahomes. We got some turnovers. That was a big part of it. We were able to get some turnovers. I think the red zone in both those games we were pretty good. The second one up there was another lot of plays and then we just found stops in the red zone to keep us in the game. The one in Tennessee, we got up early, too. We got up early, had a big lead early, and then it was kind of rush and cover and affect the quarterback, so it kind of played in our favor a little bit at that point. But good tape to watch, good tape to go back and see just kind of the plan and how we can correlate it, how we can adjust some things, whatever that might be.

Q: Do you feel pressure to get it right quickly here? Because the two biggest investments in free agency were on the defensive side. They drafted the number three overall pick. Usually, you get time to put a group together, but now you're 0-2 and you're coming off last season. Do you feel pressure?

BOWEN: Yeah, I feel pressure to do my job. I feel pressure to do my job. I'm here for the guys. I'm in charge of that group. And between me, the defensive staff, the players, we got things we got to fix. We understand that. We're working hard to find solutions, to make adjustments where needed. But ultimately, it comes down to everybody doing their job. Do your job a little bit better, a little bit more consistently, and hopefully we can continue to build off the good things, learn from the bad things, and get those nixed where we can take some strides here and win, find a way to win.

Q: What's the morale of your defense? How would you describe it now?

BOWEN: I think they're good. I think they're ready to go. They're excited for Sunday night. They know we have a big challenge with the Chiefs coming in. I mean, they're looking forward to the opportunity. They are. Again, we're two games in. We're not where we want to be defensively. We have to improve. We all understand that. But at the same time, we got a great opportunity this week on Sunday night football to go out there and play against a really good offense, really good quarterback, and hopefully put our best foot forward.

Q: What did you think of how (outside linebacker) Adbul (Carter) played? He got a lot more snaps in this game. What did you think about how he played? Did you like some of the off-ball stuff? I mean, it generates the pressure.

BOWEN: Yeah, yeah, I thought he did a good job. Yeah, the off-ball stuff, just the limited package that we have with him, the ability to do some of those things I think is unique. He's got a good skill set for it. But he was productive. He factored. Just continuing to find ways to really implement all those guys up front the best way we can where we can get them on the field and put them in situations that are advantageous for them.

Special Teams Coordinator Michael Ghobrial

Q: (Running back) Tyrone Tracy (Jr.) on kickoffs. Why did you guys turn to him and what did you see?

GHOBRIAL: He's a guy that he obviously did it in college, and he did a little bit last year. It was something he stayed connected to throughout the preseason, and the offseason in general. So he's always back there working on his catch mechanics, working on his ball skills of catching that ball forward. It's one opportunity to give a guy an extra touch, and he obviously has a skill set that's very valuable to this team, with his run skill as a running back. He has good top-end speed, he has good vision, so whenever you give a guy a touch like that and he's able to have a day the way he did, it makes us very confident in him to have the ability to be used back there as a returner.

Q: Do you want to see more of that?

GHOBRIAL: Yeah, I mean, every week is a new week and it depends on, obviously, volume for different players and all that. But if he gives us the best chance to win on kickoff return, then he may be back there.

Q: You obviously have a history with (wide receiver Xavier) Gipson, but where does he fit in on this roster?

GHOBRIAL: He's a guy, like you said, that I've worked with in the past. He's a great kid, great personality, smart football player, has real speed and he's a guy that I'm excited to work with. With him coming new to the Giants, we've got to just make certain that he understands our system, which I think he'll acclimate fairly quickly. He's a guy that's played a lot of ball in this league. So, whenever we get a chance to work with him, we're going to move forward with him as a big time player for us. We're just going to keep working with him.

Q: What's happened in the league that now we're at a point where 60- to 65-yarders (field goals) are kind of a piece of cake. 64-yarders, unfortunately for you. How has that evolved and how did we get here?

GHOBRIAL: I think, number one, the training of these kickers has elevated in the past 10 years. The strength of these specialists has also risen up as well. I think these guys have understood what the weight room could do for them, what flexibility could do for them. Obviously, in terms of (Cowboys kicker) Brandon Aubrey, he's a generational talent. A 64-yarder is not a chip shot, but for that guy, he did a good job and he was able to execute. A lot of respect for him, because he's able to hit those kicks with ease and that's something that I've got a ton of respect for the guy for.

Q: You have a little bit of an older kicker. Have you seen his range increase too, as he's gotten maybe stronger and worked on those things?

GHOBRIAL: Yeah, the one thing I would say about that is every environment is going to dictate that range a little bit different, depending on whether we're playing outdoors, time of year, wind, all those things. But I would say (kicker) Graham Gano is hitting the ball really well for us right now. Really fired up where he's at. And I have seen, obviously, like I've said in the past, he looks like the Graham Gano that we all know. A veteran, successful kicker with good range, and he's just hitting the ball really well right now.

Q: A guy hit a 70-yarder in the preseason. What do you think of the idea that teams can just get to midfield and basically be in field goal range? Are you for that or against that? You look at it from when you're kicking, yeah, that's great. When you're on the other side of it…

GHOBRIAL: Yeah, it's twofold, because if you miss the kick, you're giving the opponent the ball around the logo. Obviously, if you make the kick, points are invaluable in this league. But that being said, you've just got to weigh in the time in the game. You've got to weigh in how that kicker's feeling that day. Points are always a premium, but ultimately, it's the flow of the game. How are we playing defensively? How are we playing offensively? What is the score differential and how do you obviously get to a position to win the game? So all those things factor into that. It is pretty damn cool to see the range of what these kickers are able to do, whether it's preseason or regular season.

Q: How much does the touchback rule change change the in-game dynamics. It keeps inching out and now it's at the 35. How much does that change strategy?

GHOBRIAL: The 35-yard line, the drive start of that for an offense, like we had said, that puts them in field goal range pretty quickly, or at least puts them in conversations to go for the field goal. So I think in the past couple of weeks, we've seen an elevated number in covered kicks to kind of eliminate that. The nature of it is the same things that I talked about with score differential, with flow of the game, that will always factor into whether a team would want to cover to kick. There's times that you may tell a kicker to kick a touchback and he may not be able to. At the end of the day, I think you've got to be on point on both kickoff and kickoff return, and always just be ready for the ball to be in play.

Q: If it's crucial to not have a return, since there's only a five-yard difference, at the end of the game would you consider just telling your kicker to kick out of bounds instead?

GHOBRIAL: Well, then the drive start would be the 40-yard line. So, it's another five yards closer. At some point, what are you willing to (concede)? That's a conversation and discussion that all of us coaches need to have. At the end of the day, if you looked at us last game, I thought we covered kickoffs well. Whenever you can cover kicks and be able to pin them inside the 30, you're feeling good. Whenever you can pin them inside the 25, you're feeling great, and obviously inside the 20, you're like, okay, this is becoming a weapon. Everything is a discussion every week. You play a new returner every week, and everybody has their strengths and challenges, and you've just got to find the best philosophy for that week.

Q: There was a big kickoff rule change, there was sort of a smaller one with the balls that you guys get the balls now before, during the season. Do you think that's affecting…?

GHOBRIAL: It could, whereas before, the K-balls were only allotted to be worked on the day of the game.

Q: Like an hour before?

GHOBRIAL: Yeah, but at the end of the day, there's not a huge difference between the way the ball looks or anything. It just gives you a little bit more time to get it the way you want. What I would say, there's not as much variation between the three K-balls that you have. They're more similar, whereas before the K one ball through your three K-balls could be a little bit different just based off of how much time you put into each one before the game.

Q: Correct me if I'm wrong, but (wide receiver) Beaux Collins said he's lined up in the middle, right, on your line?

GHOBRIAL: On which unit?

Q: On the kickoff return, on a kickoff.

GHOBRIAL: He did last week.

Q: I'm curious, how do you guys decide who lines up in that position there, as opposed to somebody else who might line up in that position? How do you guys decide, okay, Beaux's going to be in that position?

GHOBRIAL: It deals with schematics. It deals with what the opponent does. It deals with what type of returns you're playing, what type of returners you're playing against. Every week, no different than what we just talked about, it's just trying to find the best matchups for our guys to be able to impact plays. You obviously want to feature all these players to be the best versions of themselves. Some games it may be in the middle, some games it may be on the edge and obviously, the more versatility a player has, the more you can ask them to align in different spots. Beaux Collins, just to see the growth from game one to game two in the regular season has been awesome. You felt his impact last week. He's a guy that, like I said, studies his tail off. He meets extra. He just wants so badly to impact the game and do his job, so he's not necessarily stretching for it. It's really cool to see Beaux Collins show up and be able to impact those plays.

Q: With (linebacker) Abdul's (Carter) role on the punt block, is it basically try and block the punt and then you're out of the play, because you don't see him running back. Is that just because he's too valuable, you don't want him mixing up?

GHOBRIAL: Every punt return called, no different than that, is based off of down and distance, what team you're playing, how many fakes that coordinator has. Abdul may have looked like he has rushed a lot, but he's a guy that certainly can do a lot of different things, like I've said in the past. Situations, time in game, score differential, all will factor into what we ask him to do. Obviously, when we see a superpower rush in the punt, that comes to life so much more because he's very skilled at it. It may seem that way, but he's asked to do everything that our other guys are asked to do.

Q: Can he get around the edge on a field goal or an extra point kick too?

GHOBRIAL: He has the impact to do a lot of different things. For an outside backer to be able to do that specific job, yes, he has the explosiveness, the length that you want in that position. I think (cornerback Deonte) Tae Banks has done a really nice job on field goal block of just rushing the perimeter. We have a few guys that we could definitely work in there, and I'm excited to work with all of them. Again, I've said it before, but the really cool thing with where our players are at right now is they continue to show up to work, they continue to compete and they continue to want to be the best versions of themselves, whether it's on offense, defense, or special teams. So, I'm really pleased with where our guys are at mentally, and this week is going to be a huge week for us. We've got a great challenge against (Chiefs assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Dave) Coach Toub. He is a very respected special teams coordinator in the league for a long time and for the right reasons. He's not afraid to run fakes. He understands when he has to do it. He gets his guys to play extremely hard. They play with a certain style in Kansas City that poses challenges to the opponent. So you've got to make certain that you show up, you understand the down and distance, you understand the situation. And then you study your opponent, the personnel that's on the other side. Because Coach Toub does a great job in terms of attacking opponents and getting his guys to play hard and just keeping you challenged.