Brian Flores – September 20, 2020 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 20, 2020
Postgame – Buffalo
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I know you guys were down early and came back. What sort of your view of your team’s fight and then ultimately falling short?) – “I think we didn’t do enough to win the game. We had a chance during the fourth quarter. We made a couple plays, took a lead. But you know, just offensively, defensively, we just couldn’t finish the game. So you’ve got to finish in this league. If you want to win the game you’ve got to finish the game off. I thought we played well in the third quarter, but nothing is more important than finishing the fourth quarter. We didn’t do a good enough job there. We had opportunities. We didn’t take advantage. Thankfully we’ve got a quick turnaround and we’ll be out there Thursday night to get back to it and try to play better.”
(I wanted to get your thoughts on the performance of your secondary. Certainly when CB Byron Jones went down that, didn’t help, but some big chunk yards) – “Yeah, we struggled to cover them. Look, they’ve got good receivers. We struggled to cover them. They got open. They had time to — they had time to throw it. We didn’t get enough pressure on the quarterback. I don’t want to put it all on the coverage guys. It’s a team game, but it starts with me, and we’ve got to do a better job of putting them in positions to cover them better. We struggled there for sure.”
(Do you have another update on CB Byron Jones? We only saw him for those first three plays.) – “Yeah, obviously he went out and didn’t return. I don’t have an update. Obviously he’ll get in and get treatment and we’ll take a look at that this afternoon or this evening and tomorrow morning. But I don’t have an update.”
(Obviously with the linebacker issues, did you feel like this is a game where TE Mike Gesicki had to be a factor, and was he as involved because of play calling or just him getting open?) – “He was getting open. And if you can get open, we’ll try to get you the ball whether it’s tight ends, back, receivers. He did a good job throughout the game and gave us some good plays, and we needed them. We just needed a few more today. But we’ll go back to the drawing board and try to turn this thing around and play better on Thursday.”
(You guys had the six plays after the delay, the ten-play drive, the 12-play drive and the touchdown at the end. What can you say about Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey and QB Ryan Fitzpatrick being able to get the offense going there in the second half?) – “I think at the end of the day, we didn’t do enough to win the game as a team. We had some opportunities offensively, defensively, special teams. Didn’t take advantage and didn’t do enough, especially against a good team. They have got good players. They’ve got good coaching. We made a few plays, but not enough and it takes a team effort. So we have to play better offensively. We have to play better defensively. We have to play better really across the board. But they fought. They competed. It’s hard to win in this league and we need to play well for 60 minutes.”
(It looks like they had five long drives – 97, 84, 73, 75, 71 – what surprises you most about what you’re seeing when your defense is on the field?) – “We’ve got to play better across the board – run game, pass defense, pressures. I think we made a couple stops there in the second half and really even in the second quarter. We had it to a 17-10 game at halftime. We took the lead in the fourth quarter, so I thought we put ourselves in position to potentially win the game. And they are a good team. They’ve got good players. So they made some plays. But it was a competitive game. I thought we had our opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of them.”
(I’m wondering from your view what did you see on the last touchdown that the bills scored and was it surprising to you that they were throwing the way they were when conventional wisdom might have been that they just keep running the ball to keep you burning your timeouts?) – “We’ve got to cover better. That’s my thoughts. We’ve got to cover better than that, especially in critical moments of the game. We don’t know – we’re on defense – we have to react. We don’t know what they’re going to do offensively. We don’t guess that it’s going to be a run. We can’t do that or else you’re in trouble if they pass it. That’s kind of always been my thought process on that. So we’ve got to cover it better. We’ve got to play the run better. We’ve got to do a lot of things better. I saw some things that were better throughout the game. I think there was some improvement in a few areas, but it wasn’t enough and we need to continue to make those improvements, and we’ll try to do that this week. Thankfully we’ll have a quick turnaround and play on Thursday.”
(Would you count QB Ryan Fitzpatrick’s play as part of that improvement and what do you think of how he played?) – “I think at the end of the day, we as a team didn’t do enough. I’m sure he has some plays he wishes he had back. Same thing in the kicking game. Same thing defensively. Same thing as coaches. Nobody likes to lose. So we’ll just go back and I’m not – we didn’t play well enough. I guess that’s the answer. We didn’t play well enough. We didn’t coach it well enough. We didn’t play well enough really anywhere. We had a chance and we didn’t get it done. I know that there were some bright spots. I get that. But at the end of the day, we are here to win. When you don’t win, you’re disappointed.”
(Could you take us through the thinking of the fourth-and-goal. Obviously the play was there but the pass was dropped, but when you look at the scoreboard, three points was the difference in the end. Just your mindset of going for it there off on fourth down?) – “We want to be aggressive. There’s a lot that goes into that, but I have confidence in our offense to pick up the one yard. We had a good play on. We just didn’t execute. I think that’s – just want to be aggressive. One yard for a touchdown and six or seven points instead of three, I think it’s worth it in that type of game, especially against that type of team. You’ve got to be aggressive to beat a good team and that’s kind of my thought process there. But we’ve got to execute, also.”
