Robert Hunt – September 18, 2023
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Monday, September 18, 2023
OL Robert Hunt
(RB Raheem Mostert’s touchdown run last night, you got a couple bodies in that play. You want to break that down for us?) – “Yeah, so we were running a combo. It was actually a pretty good look. It was a look that we probably had seen during the week. We executed it a couple of times during the week, and it came into the game and we executed it pretty well.”
(If I would’ve told you as offensive linemen that you would’ve given up one sack to begin the season in the first two games without T Terron Armstead, and RB Raheem Mostert leads the league with three rushing touchdowns, doing all that without Armstead, what would your response have been?) – “That’s the standard. That’s what I expect. That’s what we’ve been working for since April. And it’s only two games in, but we see it, people see it. This is something that we’ve been working on and it is starting to pay dividends and starting to look the right way.”
(It’s a lot of the same personnel as last year. Are you guys just playing better? What’s the difference?) – “We’re just flying around, man. It’s the second year in the system, and I think a lot of guys are confident. And that’s what it’s about in this league. You have to have some confidence. Like I said, it’s a standard in our room. We practice fast. We play fast. And that’s how we do it. We just run. That’s our motto. We’re just trying to run off the ball and do what we do. I think we’ve been doing a really good job with that. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s starting to go the right way.”
(You guys say, ‘Hey it’s only two wins,’ but these are two impressive road wins. And now you open at home against a team who’s probably desperate to get that first win. How do you keep this momentum going and finally being able to be in front of your home fans?) – “Do what we do. We’ll come check out the film and then we’re going to break it down and do what we do. We are going to keep our head down and keep working. I don’t think anybody is satisfied with two wins because we all have bigger goals of what we want to do. Yeah, it’ll be fun. It’ll be fun Sunday to come home in front of our fans. It feels like we haven’t played here in a while, so we’re excited to come put on a show for our fans.”
(You had 30 running plays and 30 pass attempts last night, which is probably music to your ears. How much of that was the game plan? How much of that was responding to what New England was doing and concentrating on WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle?) – “Gotta be honest with you. So personally, for me, I didn’t realize what it was. I just get a play and I try to execute it. So whatever is called, that’s pretty much what I do. If it’s a run, I get excited. If it’s a pass, let’s go. I get excited to buckle up to protect Tua (Tagovailoa). So for me personally, I don’t know how much it was on game plan. We want to run the ball, of course. And it worked out well.”
(You’ve played for a handful of offensive line coaches here. What does OL Coach Butch Barry emphasize maybe more than the others? Or do a little bit differently than the others?) – “Butch his own his own character, his own guy. Butch knows what he wants. He has a standard, just like we have a standard, and we set the standard and he keeps us on the standard. I mean we set the standard and he doesn’t let us go backwards from the standard. So he does a really good job of that. He does a good job at what he does. Butch is a good coach.”
(What’s your reaction when FB Alex Ingold comes across the formation in motion and digs out a 315-pound defensive tackle?) – “I love it man. I love that. We just watched a little bit of it. When I’m playing, I’m usually trying to – I think I hit pretty hard and play the game pretty hard, but watching him, he’s got a little something. He’s got it. Whatever it is. Guys know. If you look at a game, you look at certain guys and guys have a certain little way they play. He’s got that way of playing. So I respect that and I like watching it on film.”
(On FB Alex Ingold’s fine last week.) – “That’s nuts, right? Come on man. We’re playing football out here. And he’s going against bigger guys. How the hell did he get a fine? It’s crazy.”
(When you see RB Raheem Mostert at age 31 now, putting up the numbers that he is, what does that say?) – “That he is going about his business the right way. He’s doing it, man. He’s fast as hell. He’s strong. He plays the game the right way and last night when I saw him in the open field, that’s a beautiful sight to me. So keep doing what I’m doing and what we’re doing, the o-line is doing, and hopefully we can keep opening holes for him and let him do what he do. He runs the ball pretty hard and he’s fast, so I enjoy blocking for him.”
(How good is it to know you can beat a team running the ball or passing the ball?) – “I think that was always the goal, to try to run the football and be effective with it. That’s always been a goal and that’s never going to change, so if we got a beat a team by running the football, beautiful. I mean you don’t have to protect all that stuff. Those boys are getting paid all that money nowadays to rush the passer, so if you can run the football, it helps a lot.”
(How much have you and OL Isaiah Wynn talked about the transition to guard? You obviously have experience at tackle and guard. His was a pretty long gap between guard at Georgia to now.) – “Yeah, we talked about a little bit. I’m actually impressed with some of the things he does at guard coming from tackle. You can kind of see that it is like a tackle thing, but it’s impressive man. Isaiah is a really good player. I like what he does. We walk through stuff and we talk about certain parts of his game, we talk about certain parts of my game and if we can just keep working, hopefully we can keep that thing rolling on the inside.”
(What does a tackle thing?) – “A tackle thing? For him, I’d just say the way he sets at guard looks like a tackle and it’s pretty efficient. He knows he’s good with his feet. He gets on them and he has awareness for them. I think him transforming or going into guard kind of helps him in a situation to move into space. Now the big boys, that’s always for me personally, too. I had to learn the big boys are a little tougher than the smaller ones outside. But he’s picking up on that really quick, so he’s going to be good at it.”
(Do you have to be heavier to anchor at guard?) – “I don’t think heavier. Those guys are heavy in the middle. Big (Davon) Godchaux? That’s a big boy. You have to be prepared man. Like me playing tackle, speaking for myself, playing tackle my rookie year, those guys, I think I’m a fairly strong guy. So I used to sit out there and not know what I’m doing, and I just wait for him to go, like to come down the middle and just sit on it. If I do that at guard, they’ll take me to the quarterback. So it’s a different ballgame in there. But also you got to be fast. You got to move a little bit out here, so it’s the best of both worlds man.”
