Q. Will, I guess just the overall frustration leaving here today, when you guys had to dig out of a hole?
WILL LEVIS: Just not executing on the keys we talked about all week. It's been the same theme, which is being efficient on first and second and coming out and starting strong. And (I've) gotta look internally what I can do myself better. We all gotta look internally, but we also gotta look at the guy next to us and do what we can to help the dudes next to us and come together as a team right now. But it's frustrating.
Q. In these moments, how important is it for you guys to not press beyond like trying to do what it is that's within your control?
WILL LEVIS: Yeah. We made that point towards the end there. Like, we're still playing our style of ball, even when you're in that position there, it's easy to think that you gotta force something or you gotta try to make something happen. We talk about wanting to make a play, somebody's gotta step up making a play. By being aggressive, but being not reckless with decisions and with the ball in our hands.
Q. Do you feel like there's something since you've taken over that's gotten like at least incrementally better over that period of time with the offense or is that part of the struggle that there's not something?
WILL LEVIS: I mean, we definitely had some more improvement over the last few weeks. We thought we did some great things in practice to put us in a good spot to execute today, but we just didn't do it, and that's what it comes down to, is just going out there and executing the game plan, and too many mistakes that put us in bad position.
Q. At the risk of sounding redundant, is that really where the disconnect is coming? You guys feel good about it in practice and then it just doesn't manifest in the game?
WILL LEVIS: Yeah, like that's the worst when you have a good week of practice and then you can't let it transition into Sunday. I feel like that's the case both these last couple weeks. Like I feel like we had two really good solid weeks of practice, and the focus just wasn't there come gameday. So gotta figure out how to fix that. Leadership, we gotta step up and figure out what we can do. But, yeah, it's disheartening for sure.
Q. When you say focus, what do you mean? Is it stuff that's being mistaken in the plays or how would you define that?
WILL LEVIS: Operationally. And I'd say -- what's the word? Just being fast in and out of the huddle and not having everyone freak out and just being able to understand, like today, the looks we saw, a lot of them were looks that we'd practiced against and being able to recognize it quickly, getting us in position to where we can get the protection set so we can get all of our guys out. Too many instances where either I could help us in protection or just guys not locked in on the snap count, which has been, again, a reoccurring theme here the past few weeks, which just can't happen.
Q. You mentioned being fast out of the huddle. Is that something, like do you have to spit the play out faster? Does it have to get to you faster? What will make that better?
WILL LEVIS: I think just urgency all around. Just getting guys after second down right back into the huddle as fast as possible so that we can utilize cadence. Too many times where we were trying to but we weren't able to get out of the huddle fast enough, so we couldn't use that cadence to get us the protection change or whatever look we wanted to get. So it's just me this week emphasizing again to the guys how fast we need to be in and out of there after second down.
Q. When you have a game get out of hand like this and you know you guys are struggling, what do you say to the rest of the team, the offense specifically, to keep them going?
WILL LEVIS: Just keep being us, play our style of ball, and we were preaching that towards the end there. Didn't matter what the score was, we were going to execute the game plan and execute the play. Like I said, situationally can't affect how we're going to be playing ball. We gotta just play our game and just lock in one play at a time, because when we do that and we string drives together, good things happen. But we can't have an explosive play down there and can't bobble the snap and then when that happens, like that can just change the game just like that. So understand how just important all these little things are.
Q. It's hard to celebrate plays after a loss. Did you ever think you'd throw a touchdown pass to Jeffery Simmons?
WILL LEVIS: No, I mean, we've had that play up in the playbook for a couple weeks. It was nice to get it off, and happy for him to get his first tuddy (touchdown).
Q. You guys talked all the time about flushing losses by the time Monday comes around. Is that getting tougher to do as they kind of pile up?
WILL LEVIS: No. I mean, I think that, for professionals, I think we all have a good mindset of just moving on and learning from the mistakes. And I've been proud of how we've attacked each and every week these past couple of weeks, regardless of how that previous game went. It just sucks that we have that great week and we're not able to let it transition into Sunday. So just gotta put it all together, have seven days instead of just six.
