Injury-wise, the only one was Chido (Awuzie), he left with a groin, did not return. We'll see what that looks like next week. End of the day, I've not done a good enough job. We're an 0-3 football team, I'm an 0-3 head coach. It's embarrassing and disappointing. I've got to be a lot better than I've been and this is frustrating and unfortunate and not what I thought we were capable of to start the season. At the end of the day, can't continue to have turnovers like that on offense, even though, —we hand seven more points to another team and they did a great job possessing the football. Only got three possessions in the first half and we scored on one of them, we threw interception for a pick six on the other, and the other two, we went three-and-out. We're not consistent enough anywhere offensively, we allowed too many explosives on defense. We still haven't got a turnover. I think we're probably going to be dead last in the turnover margin by a long shot at this point. And that's going to lose you a lot of football games in the NFL, we're not good enough on either side there. We don't protect it well, we don't take it away. We allowed too many yards rushing. We had some tackling issues early. We settled down and then had to get in a drop back situation at the end of the game in the second half as we didn't find much success on the ground versus a good front. And the eight sacks was a result. So ultimately not good enough anywhere.
So Nicholas Petit-Frere (being replaced) was not injury related?
It was not.
What happened on Will Levis' pick six? Just got stuck looking too long over there?
I mean, it wasn't really late. Jaire (Alexander) jumped it. He made a nice play. That's an All-Pro corner, and he jumped the route and took a chance on it and made a really nice play. Timing-wise, it wasn't anything wrong with it. He just sat on it, and that happens sometimes. So that's not something I'm mad at Will (Levis) about. I thought everything there was fine, he just made a good play.
Eight sacks, sometimes they overloaded, other times, it was other things. From your perspective, what was going on there?
Everything. We tried to keep guys in to help. We tried to keep seven and eight in protection. Some of it was good, some of it didn't work as well. We lost some one-on-ones, and that's ultimately what happened a few times. We got ourselves into some third-and-longs in a spot where I didn't feel like just calling a quick game on third-and-14 just to get the ball out. I was trying to be competitive. The game wasn't over. And so, we were in some tough spots for pass protection in general, when you're in third-and-12, and 13, and 14. It's difficult. Tried to call a couple of screens and those didn't get off. But yeah, it's frustrating.
Second week in a row Jeffery Simmons has had a penalty that cost you seven points. Were those both discipline issues?
I don't think so. I was surprised that they called that. I haven't seen that call very often. Again, they call what they call and see how they see it. But, yeah, that was a big momentum shift. We had them off the field with a missed field goal. That's what it is. We can't have—those are critical penalties. That's two weeks in a row. Again, I can't attribute those to discipline. I was surprised it got called and it is what it is. But those are the mistakes that we're making right now, and we just can't quite find a way to create ourselves a break. In this league, you make your own breaks, and we haven't made any of them. And that's a hard thing to swallow.
In two years here and his time here, Malik Willis has never has looked anything close to that. What's it say about your defense that he's capable of looking like that?
Yeah. Malik (Willis) did a nice job. Tip of the cap to Malik and that offensive coaching staff. We let them get in a position in the game that was beneficiary to them, and they made a couple of nice throws. Malik's a very capable quarterback, I think you guys saw his improvement here over the course of training camp. He is capable and they had him in a good spot most of the game. They didn't have to do a lot. They ran the ball well and he made a couple of big throws, which again, every NFL quarterback should be able to make. He did a nice job. So, we didn't do a good enough job.
He's capable, but you guys judge him to only be worth a seventh-round pick. For a guy that you judged to be worth that little, should he be able to do that? And he was doing stuff to you before the game was in hand.
Yeah, he played well. I don't really have anything else to add to that. I think Malik's (Willis) a good football player and they did a nice job with them.
That fourth down play at the start of the third quarter, was that designed for Will Levis to keep it or did something break down?
It was a roll pass, and it was a little high-low. He had a shot to come back—we call it low-high-low, where you take the low first, check the high and come back. Tony (Pollard) was there, he made a decision, thought he could get it. I couldn't quite tell where he was at where I was standing. I was behind the play. But yeah, I felt like we had—I thought we had a chance on the first one, too. They called timeout right at the snap. I thought that one was going to be a good play. And they called timeout right as we were stopping the ball, unfortunately. So, I was trying to get a spark, I was trying to get us going. I didn't want to just punt the ball. Once I saw I was fourth-and-one and a half, I felt like that was a distance we can go for it. And it was aggressive, but we needed something to get moving and get back in the game. Our defense did a decent job, they held up and only gave up three. So I don't regret it. I don't regret the call. Just a missed opportunity.
You saw a lot of missed tackles. How much of a factor did that end up being?
It was huge in the first half. Just felt like we never really had the ball early. They chewed up a bunch of yards and clock with some missed tackles. Certainly, too many rushing yards, too many missed tackles, I think, at the end of the day for us to—for a team that we knew was going to play like that, just didn't come out and execute well enough. We had a good week of practice. I was confident in how these guys looked and the plan looked and felt really good about where we were coming into the game, and so far, O for. And that's not something that I anticipated.
How much did Malik Willis' ability to convert on third downs especially in the first half hurt you guys and the defense?
Yeah, those are critical. You get them in a third down situation. He did a few with his legs. He did a nice job. That's what he's done. That's how he's played well the league is using his legs and doing that, and he did a good job. We couldn't get off the field and it allowed them to chew up clock and chew up time and, again, they did a nice job.
The pick-six, would you categorize that as being aggressive and trying to make a play or a stupid mistake?
I think that was just normal. That was just a normal throw. We just threw a hitch route to the boundary and Jaire (Alexander) jumped it. Those things happen, and if you feel like the corner's that aggressive to it, you can move on. But that wasn't a stupid mistake at all, actually. Will (Levis) did some really good things in this game, I thought. We just got to do more of it, and we got to do a better job protecting him.
You're still firmly put on him being your quarterback?
Yeah. There's nothing—we got to play better around him. Again, I'm not going to overreact to an interception. Those things happen. Guys throw picks. We just can't give it to their team. We keep giving up points the other way. It's killer. It's hard to overcome. We've not played a complete game at any phase at any point yet. We're capable of way better than what we put on the field the last three weeks. No one's coming to save us, so we've got to figure it out.
Even though not everybody is putting it all on Will Levis, what do you say to him with all the turnovers that have happened over the first three games?
We got to get fixed, whatever that looks like. However that looks, it doesn't really matter. We can't lead the league in turnovers at the quarterback position and expect to win a lot of games. So that part has got to get better.
When you go down the laundry list of all the issues that you brought up and you said not really good enough anywhere, as a head coach, where do you start at trying to get this thing back on the right track?
We've got to do the fundamental things right. We've got to tackle well. We've got to protect the football. We've got to find a way to take it away. We've got to pass protect better than we have. Our defense has played pretty good through three weeks. But they had some moments today that I don't think is up to their standards. So, it's fundamental things. It's staying in gaps, and making tackles, and protecting the football and we'll start there and hopefully that looks better.
Where do you think the gap has been between the Nicholas Petit-Frere you saw making progress in training camp and the guy who's struggled these last couple of weeks?
I don't know. I don't know what the disconnect is. I felt like he had a pretty good camp, was in a good spot and, thus far has not been good enough. Game was tough, game script-wise. Got out of hand a little bit. They got their pass rush going. It's a really good defensive front. We knew what they were capable of doing in the pass rush and we put ourselves in a bad spot as well. That makes it hard when they know you've got to drop back and they're up to scores. They get the pin back and play. That's the that's a dream scenario for them with the way that they're playing football, and they did a great job, and we didn't. So that's about the best I can answer it.
Where do you go from here at right tackle?
We'll see what JD (Jaelyn Duncan) can do. We'll come back and we'll see where we can get better. But at the end of the day, JD came in—I don't know, it was a tough spot to go in, so we'll see. But yeah, I think it's—that job is not solidified by any stretch.
