DEFENSIVE TACKLE JEFFERY SIMMONS
As you're the leader in this entire locker room, how do you try to keep this group together down the stretch when obviously a game like this, it kind of sinks to the bottom a little bit?
It's hard. At the end of the day, when you are leader, there's only so much you can say. Now we lost the game, I'm sure everybody wondering, 'It's over with. We only got four games left.' For me, I try to just preach, you are what you put on tape. The resume is everything. Your tape is your resume. It's all about what guys want to put on tape. And like I said, you can have that mindset of we're not playing for nothing. But you're playing for the name on your back for the last four games. And that's my mindset, I'm going to give this team for the rest for the rest all I got. From off the field and on the field, we just got to finish the season.
Did they do think they did anything differently than in the first half?
No, I got to see on tape, but I'm sure—the different calls we in, I don't know when they happened, the reason why they were getting (inaudible)—but I'm sure just like it's been all year, someone not just doing their job. That's a tale— like I said, always for us is maybe one guy every time. Like I said, we'll see the tape tomorrow. And like I said, I'm sure it's been the same thing all year. And especially when teams get stuff on us on defense is one guy not doing their job or whatever it may be. Even in that situation, we still had them in the position to stop them. I don't know, man. Frustrating.
Is that pretty much what it's reduced to, you guys are playing for pride?
Like I said, at this point of the year, there's no playoff. We know that. We lost today and at the end of the day, like I said, it's about what you put on tape. You have that mindset that you're going to go out there and it is what it is, then your ass will e out of this league pretty soon. Like I said, my message to even my room and these young guys on the team and will be my message is don't think you don't have nothing to play for because you do. You got to play for the name on your back. And like I said, it's just frustrating.
How big do you want to factor in to win some games down the stretch, roll it into the next to the field build the 'winning culture?'
One thing about winning, it builds confidence. When you win, it helps build confidence. Like I said, we have a lot of young guys on this team, and we have a lot of young guys who are playing a lot of snaps for us. Prime example, Otis (Reese IV), you got Jarvis (Brownlee Jr.), you got (T'Vondre) Sweat, you got so many young guys and when you're losing, it sucks. And even after the game, you see Jarvis mad, throwing his helmet. I told him, 'Chill out.' We didn't do enough to win the game, and at the end of day, you see that, you think yes, guys are frustrated. They're young. Like I said, winning takes care of everything. Can't say we don't have nothing to play for these last four games. Hopefully we could just find a way to try to build some momentum going into next year. But like I said, these last four games we are playing for something.
How do you reconcile this kind of loss with what you've known this organization to be and what it would like to be?
With a loss like this, you get you get two turnovers, we talked about the ball, we talked about affecting the quarterback. We talk about stopping the run, especially speaking on the defense side. We did all that today. We got one sack, it's not all about the sacks. I feel like we affected the quarterback enough, got him off the spot. I don't know. Just got to—speaking on just going forward, we just got to fight. We've got to keep fighting and figure it out. I don't know. I don't really have the words and the answer for you at this point. I don't want to keep saying the same (stuff) over and over.
