HEAD COACH MIKE MUNCHAK
(on if there is anything new after watching the tape)
I just think that we are very disappointed in how we played. I think we thought that yesterday and I'm sure that our fans are very disappointed in how we played. We had an opportunity to advance our situation in the playoffs. It shows you how this league is, you never know who is going to beat who. Anything is possible. We came out in the first half and didn't play anywhere near what we hoped we would to start the game, but having said that it was 6-3 and we were winning. I think that we just thought that in the second half we would come out and regroup and just play our football and we will take care of business. Unfortunately, we went out there and turned the ball over three times, one for a touchdown. We gave up an 80-yard touchdown run toward the end of the game and got stopped on four-yard line for a touchdown. You can't do those things and win. We put ourselves in that position and we blew a lot of opportunities. We knew we couldn't turn the ball over because that would give them the chance to beat us and that's exactly what we did in the second half and we got what we deserved.
(on how hard it is to move forward after such a tough loss)
It's hard. A loss is a loss. Last week was a tough one to go on from. I know they say you feel better because we lost to the Saints and everyone thought that it came down to the last play and we could have that game and it just shows that a week later we are losing to a team that we all felt that we should have beat, that we beat already this year. We knew going there would be difficult to win. Maybe others didn't think that but we knew that. They weren't a typical 0-13 team. When you play someone that is in your division that knows you so well and when you show life to you get yourself in trouble like we did. As far as moving forward, it's difficult but that's our job to. We are still not out of this thing, anything is possible, as you see at the games each week. We have to look it that way and we have to win our two games. We can't worry about anything else and it's up to us to come back and show what kind of team we have and what we are all about, and what's important to us. You can't dwell on the past on what we didn't do. As bad as it feels, it's back to work tomorrow on a short week and we have to man up and play our best game if we are going to win.
(on a lack of energy with the offense)
Everyone always searches for a word and I don't think that it's energy. I think that when you don't make plays that is what happens. When you don't make first downs, you can call it what it is, it's not producing. Energy comes from making plays and we weren't making them. You can say 'I wish brought more energy,' but you make energy by someone making a catch on third down, by someone breaking a tackle, by someone blocking better. That is where energy comes from. When you watch our first half, as an offense we didn't make plays and when we had a chance to make plays, we didn't make them. We dropped some third down catches, we overcame some bad communication on a few plays early in the game. We had our first delay of game all season long. It was a five-yard penalty on third-and-two and those things just can't happen in a game that means so much. I think that you have to create your own energy that way. I don't think you come in the game and say I'm fired up and I'm going to go out there and play because as soon as someone hits you in the nose in the face, that goes away. Now can you go out there and perform under pressure and as an offense we didn't. We got stopped inside of the 20 twice, at the end of the first half and at the end of the game. If we score there and we score at the other one we have chances to win, but we didn't and they stopped us. That to me is where energy comes from. You have to earn that mentality and make plays and that's where it comes from. As a group on offense especially, we didn't make any plays or we didn't make enough of them. Obviously, CJ (Chris Johnson) had a good run at the end of the game and Cookie (Jared Cook) caught some good passes and (Lavelle) Hawkins did some things, but we didn't put it together when needed to and as often as we should have and if we did that then that game would have obviously been a lot different. It should at least been 10-3 at half when we got the ball down there and we didn't accomplish that. Every time we get something going, Cook catches a great pass over the middle, and fumbles on their 35. An interception for a touchdown and things like that, you can't do that and win.
(on if he regrets not putting Jake Locker into the game sooner)
No. I guess when you lose you could have played a lot of guys differently I guess if you want to second guess everything that we did. I don't know that it would have made a difference or not. I can't stand here and tell you that it would have, if I had known that we would have won the game, I would have started him from the beginning of the game. It may have been worse, it may have been better, I don't know. Like I said, Matt (Hasselbeck) wasn't injured, there was no reason to think we should pull him out at halftime or in the third quarter. Like I said yesterday, a lot of things were happening and it wasn't necessarily the quarterback. When we went to the no huddle offense, I think at one time he was about 12 for 13 in the third quarter. I think that ball was being delivered where it had to be and we just fumbled it and we made mistakes. If he had gone in sooner would we have won? I don't know.
(on if Matt Hasselbeck will start if healthy)
If Matt (Hasselbeck) is healthy and we have no concerns for him, then yes. Like I said yesterday, I wouldn't see any reason to make a change.
(on Matt Hasselbeck's health)
I think that he just has swelling, which is normal for playing a game on his calf. I think he will be fine. It's a short week so obviously there is no way of knowing for sure how he is going to feel, but we are assuming that he will be OK.
(on if Matt Hasselbeck is better this week than last week from a health standpoint)
Well we hope so. We are hoping that he is. We are 7-7, still in the playoff hunt and he is the quarterback that got us there and I think that is what you have to go with. The guy that has the experience, the guy who has been in the playoff situations, the guy who has been to the Super Bowl, and after what he has meant to us this year and how well he has played throughout the season for us that I think we have to give him the opportunity to finish the job. We are happy with Jake (Locker) believe me. We think that Jake is a very good quarterback. He is going to be playing football for a long time for us and the fans are going to love watching him. I don't know how much he will play the next few weeks, that will all depend on Matt's (Hasselbeck) health.
(on Jake Locker having better numbers than Matt Hasselbeck)
Well I hope for Jake's (Locker) sake, I hope its jus the fact that he is just one of the best quarterbacks in football and he is going to be. There is no doubt that the situations that he has been put into, he has done a good job with. He has come in stressful situations and he has handled himself very well. We are very proud of that, we are excited about that. When we have had injuries, he was asked to step in and play and that is why he has been asked to play. We are excited about his progress. He has sat on the bench since August and he has stepped right in there and played at a pretty decent level. Did he make mistakes? Yes, we all know that he made some mistakes when you watch him play. We have a playoff game this weekend and we feel our quarterback who started the season is the best player to put in there right now to help us win this football game. Is that a knock against Jake? Heck no, we drafted him with the eighth pick for a reason. We think that he is going to be special for a long time. I think that we just want to go out and put our best guys out there, which is number eight starting and go from there.
(on if Matt Hasselbeck struggles early, would be replace him with Jake Locker)
I don't know, it's just a matter of if something is missing or Matt (Hasselbeck) is not playing well for a reason. Like I said, we didn't think about pulling Matt out in the Pittsburgh game or the Houston game or Cincinnati game or any other game we lost and no one even asks a question about it. I think that he showed when Matt got hurt that we have a guy that can go in there and play. Jake (Locker) hasn't been asked to play a whole game yet, that's a whole different situation. He will get that opportunity and have plenty of starts for us as we go forward in the future, but for now unless something changes between now and Saturday and Matt is not quite where we hoped he would be, it would be foolish to not play the guy that we thought was best to help us win this football game. If we felt that it was Jake then that is what we would do. Right now we think that if everything is perfect and he is healthy, then the best way to go for this Saturday would be Matt playing.
(on if Matt Hasselbeck's deep throwing ability was effected by the calf injury)
No, we didn't feel that he was limited at all as far as what he was asked to do. I don't think that we limited the play calling by what he could do. It was no different than any other game. We have never asked Matt (Hasselbeck) to move around the pocket much and we don't move him much anyways so this game wasn't any different. This game and this type of defense and the speed of this defense, it's almost better having a quarterback that does handle the ball quickly and well in the pocket because of the type of rusher they have and the way they can outrun the quarterback and they make huge plays when the quarterback thinks he can escape. For us, Matt (Hasselbeck) threw about 40 passes and didn't get sacked, and Jake (Locker) threw 12 and got sacked because of not having a feel for that type of rusher. Matt made some great plays and probably the best play of the first half was Matt almost getting sacked by (Dwight) Freeney and flipping it to CJ (Chris Johnson) which set up that field goal. There are a lot of things within the game that Matt set up nice for us in that game last weekend but no, he wasn't limited in any way.
