Brian Flores – October 3, 2021 (Postgame)
Sunday, October 3, 2021
Postgame – Indianapolis
Head Coach Brian Flores (Transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Q: Can you figure out a rhyme or reason why the offense struggles to produce in the first three-and-a-half quarters of games?
COACH FLORES: I think we played bad across the board. Offensively, defensively, in the kicking game, drops, penalties, turnovers. I mean, we played poorly really across the board, so we got a lot we got to fix, a lot of things we got to correct. Offensively just couldn’t get anything going. Got it going a little bit late, but, you know, too late, and it’s not enough, so we got to do a better job earlier in the game, which we’ve talked about, but we’re not — we’re still not able to do it.
Q: I know it’s just four games into the season and you’re playing without your starting quarterback, but as you look to fix this offense are the necessary tools inside the room or do you need to go outside whether that’s switching offensive coordinator personnel, whatever it may be to get this offense going? What do you think the solution to this offense is?
COACH FLORES: I think we have to take a look at everything. We will take a look at everything, but I would say it’s really across the board. Offense, defense, special teams starts with me, coaching. I got to do a better job. I know I say that every week. I don’t want to come up here and say that every week, but I got to do a better job of figuring out a way to help us play better than that, but we also got to play better, and we’re out there taking turns making mistakes in all three phases, and it’s not enough. It’s not good enough.
Q: Coach, what is the biggest disconnect right now?
COACH FLORES: It’s a tough question. I think this is a hard-working team. I think they compete. They prepare the right way. It’s not manifesting itself on Sundays right now. For long enough periods of time we are inconsistent. We can’t string plays together. When we do string plays together, there’s a penalty or a drop that sets us back or a penalty defensively and then, you know, instead of being off the field, we’re back on the field or a penalty in the kicking game instead of getting the ball, we give it back to them. I mean, there’s a lot of things that aren’t connected. We got to play complementary football in this league. We have not been able to do that, and a lot of it is basic fundamentals, watching the ball, keeping your hands down and away from the face mask area or the face area. I mean, there are things that are correctible that have been correctible, and we need to correct.
Q: Did you consider going at any point to QB Reid Sinnett?
COACH FLORES: No.
Q: How would you describe how QB Jacoby Brissett did?
COACH FLORES: I thought he did some good things late. I thought offensively we had some drops that killed drives. We had some penalties that killed drives. We missed some opportunities early to put some points on the board, and then we couldn’t – we’re inconsistent. That’s probably the best term to use right now across the board. We’re inconsistent.
Q: For the second week in a row you got hot on offense at the end. You were throwing the ball down the field, short passes for the first three quarters. Is that QB Jacoby Brissett? Is it what the defense was giving you? Is it the offense?
COACH FLORES: You’re right. I think we try to take a methodical approach early. We did have some shot plays early. They covered them. We had to check them down, and we weren’t able to push it down the field as much as we wanted to early in the game, and then obviously late when you got to push it down field and you are trying to create plays or make plays; we got a couple, but we also had the fumble where we’re trying to push the ball downfield. So that didn’t work in our favor.
Q: Could it have helped to force the issue? I mean I know you want to take what the defense gives you and you want to play methodically but could it do anything positive for you to force that issue, push the ball downfield and try to establish that early on?
COACH FLORES: Potentially. I mean, I think – I know early on there was definitely some shot plays there that ended up getting checked down. We need to do more of it. I think as you’re trying to call a game, you feel like there’s some situations where you’re going to get a first down, and then you’re going to take a shot. We had drops and penalties in those instances. There’s a lot that goes into it that I think you guys probably wouldn’t know, but, you know, that definitely showed up. Hey, you know, we should get a first down on this. It’s there. We got it. It’s dropped. It’s a different — now it’s a different — we have to go into a different mode.
Q: What happened to WR Will Fuller with his hand and if you could update on CB Byron Jones as well?
COACH FLORES: Well, Will (Fuller) was out. Obviously, I know you guys got that. Probably have more information tomorrow, but significant enough that he was out for today and probably have more of — we’ll run some tests. We ran some tests. We’ll run some more tests and have a better understanding of what happened there. Byron (Jones) wasn’t able to come back. Again, that’s another one we’re going to — right after the game, we’ll run some tests. I know he was trying to get back out there. We saw him running around a little bit. He just didn’t feel like he could really go handle a nine ball, handle the things you have to handle at that position.
Q: Before you came out, we heard G/T Jesse Davis describe the locker room as probably not somewhere you want to be right now. Given that and given these two bad losses, how much of your job now is getting players to believe that they can perform so much better than they have?
COACH FLORES: I think our players, they believe that. You can’t play in this league if you don’t have confidence so, I know they know that they can play better than we’re playing. I think we know that we can eliminate some drops and eliminate some of the penalties that are not that hard to correct. It’s just a little bit more concentration, a little bit more attention to detail. They know that. We’ve talked about it. That’s not showing up on game day, but I think right now it’s about that. It’s about watching the ball and staying onside. It’s about kicking the ball on the field of play. It’s about keeping your hands away from the face mask area. It’s about catching the football. It’s about those things, which I think if we just do a little bit more of that, we would feel better. We would have better results.
Q: What went into the decision there, I think it was the first quarter, to take the delay of game penalty instead of the field goal with K Jason Sanders?
COACH FLORES: We wanted to pin them deep, which we ended up doing. 50 — I forget what the score was. I think it was 3-0, maybe. I thought we were playing decent defensively. I think it was like a 55 or 56-yarder. I think it’s a tough decision. I have a lot of confidence in Jason that he would make that kick, but we wanted to play field position right there, and I think we ended up putting them on the 1-yard line, and I think we got the ball back. I’m not sure. I got to go back and watch it, but just, you know, that’s kind of one of those you could kick it. If you kick it, you don’t get it, and then you give them good field position, or do we want to play a field position game and try to play defense. We were doing some good things defensively at that point so just felt like that was the best for the team.
Q: Would you say the lack of consistency or all the things that have gone wrong lately, is that maybe a lack of focus in some players or maybe some lack of talent at some positions or a mixture of the two?
COACH FLORES: I think it’s a lack of focus, a lack of concentration, a lack of attention to detail, a lack of – I think it’s all those things, and that starts with me and getting these guys to understand how important those little things are. The little things are important in this game. They’re very important. The details are important in this game, and if you don’t get them right, then you’ll have a false start penalty when you don’t need them, you’ll have a drop when you don’t need them, and those are momentum-shifting plays that if you don’t make them and they do, you don’t get the result you want so that’s what we have to do. We got to focus on those little things, those details, and play a smarter, more disciplined football game because we’re not doing that right now. We’re not doing that. That starts with me.
