Were you at all surprised that despite having eight- and nine-man boxes at times that Derrick (Henry) was able to do what he did?
Yes.
What can you learn from the way the season ended?
I learned that we need to get better. As a team, individually, collectively. Finding momentum, creating our own momentum. When things aren't going the way they are supposed to, just finding a way. Finding a way and believing in that way and trusting that way. It is what it is. I feel like there was too much ebbs and flows, when we were down, we were down. Somebody's trying to do much of something. Disappointing again but, when you want to do what we want to do and get to where we want to get, we can't play like this.
What's different about what last year's team did down the stretch, essentially when bringing back the same group of guys?
I don't have an answer for you right now. The only thing I can control is the way I perform and the way I play, my mentality, my effort, and what my leadership is to this team. If I can contribute to that, then I did my part. Other than that, we got to sit back and watch this tape and analyze every game to see what happened on offense, defense, and special teams. Ultimately, we got to play together and find a spark. I feel like last year we had a spark and we lived and we just followed that and rode that wave. This year, we were looking for it too much, hoping that it was going to come, and it never came.
Obviously, shell-shocked in light of this, but what was the postgame message from Doug (Peterson) from some of the other coaches, from leaders?
Disappointing. Nobody came here and expected us to lose, obviously. And the way we came in, it was just trying to get back.
For you, if this is the last game, potentially in a Jaguar uniform, do you allow yourself to think about that?
I'm disappointed that we lost this game. That's the only thing I'm focusing on. I want to find a way to get better, see if I could have played a more impactful part in this game.
Do you feel like you guys lost a little of that magic somewhere down the stretch of the season? Was something off?
To be honest, speaking on last year, it was like we had a spark. We had a fire. We had a determination. We had a want. This year, we were looking for that spark. And we never got that lit. We have to figure out if we do have one, and if we don't one, we need to find a way to win games. These last stretch of six games were disappointing. Even last week, obviously we got the win. We have to figure out what it was and how to kind of maximize everybody's play. If we can do that, we'll be where we need to be. We got the guys, we got the talent, we got the trust, we got the locker room. We got the type of guys that can go out there and put the bodies on the line for each other. But when it's time to play with that fire, we gotta turn it on.
