Opening Statement:
"Really, all the way around, nothing was good enough today. That was tough to watch. To start the game the way it started, you go down 28-0 to a good football team on the road. They did to us what good football teams do when you do that and that was disappointing. Positive wise, we had a challenge in the second half to come out. You can't score 28 points in one series. You know, we took the second half to a 14-12 game. We lost it still, but at least we did better in the second half coming out. Our team fights. They didn't tap out on it, on a game that was difficult to stomach. Other than that, there are just too many negative things all the way around. Turnovers early, penalties, four touchdowns in the first four drives. You know, we didn't do a great job of handling their tempo. We practiced it all week. We just got worn down. They had 246 yards in the first half. We weren't good enough on third down. Really rushing yards was way out of line with what you want it to be. Part of that's the game script, and where the game got to but it just wasn't good enough. Couldn't get into rhythm. I think I looked up at one point and we had 10 plays on offense, and it was already 28-0. So that's a really, really difficult hole to climb out of. But again, I appreciate the way our team fought, but we got to do a lot of things better if we want to beat good teams on the road, and that wasn't it."
On what happened in the first quarter:
"The turnovers was the main one. We ended with two balls in plus territory and that's how you get jumped on. When you've got short fields like that. You can't do that. We didn't blow up either on defense in that in that spot. But again, give them two really short fields to go score, and all of a sudden, you're 14-0 real fast. Couldn't get any rhythm going offensively. Got to some manageable third downs, and we got a ball batted on third-and-short, and then we fumbled the ball on a possession, so couldn't get much going and that's what happened."
On what went wrong with the run defense today:
"I'd have to watch it all to tell you, but it just felt like we got, at the end of the day, they ran for that kind of yards. You got physically beat up. We lost the line of scrimmage. The key to beating that team is you got to win both sides of the line of scrimmage, on offense and on defense, and that was one of the things we had harped on all week, and then clearly didn't get that part done. But if you want to beat that team with the with the quarterback run game, it's a challenging scheme. They do a good job, but you can't give up runs the way we did. It just, all of a sudden felt like we looked up and they were in 3rd-and-2, one or two almost every time. So that was not good enough.
*On the defense not having much energy early on in the game: *"I don't know. I don't know if it was just the energy or we put them in some tough spots to begin with. But yeah, the way we started the game all the way around was disappointing. And that's what happens. You do it against a good team, and you get put down 28-0 before the bell even rings for halftime, so disappointed in that. I've got to find a way to fix that."
On slow starts being an issue this year:
"It's hard to put a finger on it. Again, they made some plays and turned the ball over, and that's the early recipe for a bad start. But yeah, I can't put my finger on that one necessarily, and it's just disappointing."
On this feeling like a reversion following last week's win over Houston:
"Yeah, it's crushing to be honest. You know, I thought we were – improvement is not always linear, but I didn't think we were gonna look like that today. I'm disappointed in that, disappointed in myself. I thought we were making some strides, and we'd come play really good against a good football team on the road again, and we didn't do that. So that's kind of what it is."
On taking punitive measures against WR Jha'Quan Jackson:
"He put it on the ground again, so we sat him. That's how it works. That's two fumbles in two games. So, he got sat down. That's how that goes. So yeah, that's punitive. That's exactly what it was."
On if he thinks punitive measures in the last game would have prevented more issues in this game:
"Who knows. I can't answer that."
On if he said anything to Jackson after he was sat down:
"He knows. Nothing else to it. You've got to hold on to the football."
On still having Jackson back on the field for punts:
"Correct. We've only got some many guys who can handle punts right now."
On if anyone else can receive punts:
"On the roster currently? No, we don't. [WR] Tyler Boyd will go fair catch it. That's about it."
On if not having another player who can handle punts is a commentary on the roster:
"No, that's just where we are with the returning spot because you only have some many guys that can return punts. It's a hard job to find. You can't sit him down for that too. But he's got to do better."
On the first half penalties:
"The penalties are frustrating. At the end of the day I don't know how some of them, how close they were, whatever. But when you're giving up, I think we gave up three first downs on a penalty, which is crushing when you got them stopped, and penalties give you first down. So that's hard. You know, the holding calls and all the things that go on, it's hard to know in the moment, but they're a killer. I mean, you go backwards, it's hard and you give up conversions and you get off the field. That's demoralizing on top of it. So whether they are the good penalties or not good penalties, we've got to do better job of not getting called for them. And right now, we're not."
On his conversation with the official after the 12 men on field call:
"Yeah, so they're no huddle. They set up. By rule, they're supposed to stand over the ball, which they were. So, they subbed with about 15 seconds on the play clock, and they stood over the ball and they were holding the clock, and we sub when they sub, which we're allowed to do. And for some reason, they called that as a 12 men on the field when they were having a delay of game. We have the right to the sub. We sub just like normal. They're standing over the ball. So that explanation was a little strange to me and I didn't quite understand why we would have gotten called when we were trying to sub as they were holding the ball, and then the clock ran out. I didn't get that. So, the operation should be that if they hold the ball, we sub, they sub. The clock ran out. That's their fault for subbing that late and there should have been a delay of game on that. But that's one explanation I didn't get. I didn't understand what happened there."
On if the mantra that no one can run on this team should be toned down:
"I mean, I think that we've done a decent job against the run most of the year. You know, today it wasn't our best day on the ground. And they certainly did run the ball on us. And you know, I don't mind the mindset. I don't mind that viewpoint. We've done a pretty good job against the run for the most part. But yeah, we got run on today, and so you got to take your medicine and you gotta look in the mirror and see where we can be better because that wasn't good enough."
On what happened on the botched sequence in the end zone:
"Yeah, I mean, so when you're on the road, we were over on the flash with the guard, and they're trying to recommunicate who the ID was for the protection. And as [OL] Pete [Skoronski] went to go reach, [OL] Dan [Brunskill] thought he was flashing and the ball got snapped. So those are some things – we gotta clean those things up. But that's part of the challenge on the road when you're IDing and trying to get sound counts. So yeah, that wasn't good execution."
On kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns in the red zone:
"Yeah, you're not going to climb back into games kicking field goals when you're down that many points and having to put points, touchdowns on the board in those situations then it might have been a different looking second half, but we didn't. And that's sort of been our thing all year. We've not been able to punch the ball in enough, score enough touchdowns. We kick too many field goals. And I gotta find a way to help that get better because we needed touchdowns in both those spots."
On how drops were contributing to the offensive issues today:
"You know, it certainly contributes. I mean, we don't want to drop the ball. But, it just wasn't a good enough performance overall, and when we had to have a couple plays, you know, we missed two or three of them with some balls and hands. That was disappointing. I don't know if that was necessarily our biggest issue, but certainly I don't want to see it."
