Brian Flores – October 20, 2019 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 20, 2019
Postgame – Buffalo
Head Coach Brian Flores (transcribed by Buffalo Bills)
(Coach, another tough game, you knew you had to play a perfect game, two turnovers, 15 points off of turnovers seem to be difference in this whole ball game.) – “Yup tough I mean, I thought, did a lot of good things in the game but you know turnovers are the biggest difference from winning or losing this league. We turned it over twice, they didn’t turn it over and that ultimately becomes a difference in the game. We look, there’s some good things happening. But we had an opportunity in this game and we didn’t take advantage of.”
(I know the goal is to win but do you see progress?) – “The goal is to win. Now I gotta go and watch the film and, yeah, you know, I’d see progress but
at the end of the day this is about wins and losses and, you know, I think this teams got to learn how to win. There’s a discipline of winning. Got to have execution in those critical moments and we got to learn how to do that. We did not do a good enough job of that today. I got to coach it better and we got to get better, because it’s there for us.”
(Coach you had a change in the offensive line, Boehm goes to center, Shaq [Calhoun] comes in, seem like you got some pretty good play out of that interior offensive lineman change in there and they were able to go out and get things done on the inside.) – “I thought we, you know, early in the game we put some drives together. We had a slow start with the 10-yard loss to start the game but after that we put some drives together, had some good
execution in run game, in the pass game, made a couple big plays, you know, putting the hands on in the red zone. Those are all good facts great, but at the end of the day we got to do a little bit better job of coaching it, we gotta do better a little bit better job of planning and executing, giving
ourselves a chance to win a game.”
(What are your thoughts on Ryan [Fitzpatrick] and what he was able to do?) – “I thought he played well. I thought he moved the ball well offensively. I thought he made some good throws. I thought he got out of some trouble. They got a good pass rush, he got out of trouble a couple times and made some plays for us. We got to continue to build and get better, and finish
a game. We gotta finish the game.”
(What happen with Christain [Wilkins] at the start of the game? Was that just a loss of discipline?) – “Yeah, I mean look if you want to win a game on the road in a tough environment, and the first thing you got to do is try to play penalty free and play a discipline ball game. We didn’t do that right
from the start. I expect a lot of Christian, already talked to him about that, he knows that. We got to be better now. Period. I don’t think we are asking for too much on that.”
(For the onside kick, what did you see there that allowed them to return the kick for a touchdown?) – “We got to have a better execution. We have to understand that they get it, we got to, you know, finish the play, we didn’t do that, they scored.”
(Brian, it was 14-9 and you guys are driving, start the second half, the ball is in possession, ends in an interception, is that it?) – “There’s other plays in the game. Look that happens. You throw interceptions, you keep playing.
You got to stop defensively, put another drive, the game wasn’t over right there. We can’t think that way, we can’t, I’m not going to go back and sit here and what I was doing in that situation. We had another 18 minutes left to play. A lot of things happen in a football game and you got to be able to move on and sit here and say, “Hey, that was the play.” There’s a lot of plays in the game that, Fitz played well. Turnovers are big though, I don’t care where they happen, or what time of the game, they’re big. They got them and we didn’t, and that’s the story of the game.”
(Are you pleased with how the team responded even after Preston [Williams] turnover, that you were able to cut it down to three with a minute left?) – “We just got to keep playing. Look, it’s a 60-minute ballgame. We preach that on a daily basis and practice that way. That’s what I expect from this team, that’s the standard. Yeah were just going to keep playing and see what happens. So, they did that, we just have to finish that ballgame. You know, we have to make a couple more plays and pull a win out.”
(You mentioned that Fitz played well, did he earn next week?) – “I mean, yeah, he played well. So, yes, he did.”
(Coach, it seemed like defensively you did a lot of good things out there, you threw a lot of blitzes. Did things change when you lose Christian [Wilkins] early on in your scheme or is that what you expected to do?) – “You know, we only dress 46 guys. We lose one right off the bat, that puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the group. I mean that is part of playing with poise, playing with discipline. So, do things change, you try not to change it, but we got to, you know, mix and match different groupings, what are we doing on the goal line, what are we doing short yardage, what are we doing on third down. We got a backup at every position but to start the game like, that it’s not what you’re looking for. So yeah, things change a little bit. I thought we adjusted well. The coaching staff made the right adjustments and we tried to get after them a little bit with a couple blitzes early and you know we got we got home a couple times. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough. We got to do more.”
(A lot of changes in the secondary, how did you feel like your guys were able to step up there?) – “I think it’s the next man up mentality. We’re going to compete. I’m a competitor. This team is gonna compete. We’re not gonna make excuses, we’re not pointing fingers, we’re not. I don’t care who’s up, who’s down, I really don’t. That’s not gonna change. We’re going to fight for 60 minutes and we’re going to keep playing and turn it over and we’re gonna keep playing, we’re going to make a play, keep playing. We’re not going to sit here and you know, point fingers and blame and place blame, we’re not going to do that. Dolphins aren’t doing that. We got to go back and get in, make the corrections. We got another big game on the road again next week against a really good team, in another tough environment. That’s it, that’s what we have to do.”
