Brian Flores – October 4, 2020 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 4, 2020
Postgame – Seattle
Head Coach Brian Flores
(A lot to unpack but wanted to get your thoughts on the third down spot. It looked on TV that they were short of where the sticks were when they measured. What explanation did you get on that play?) – “They ruled their first down. Looked at it on replay and they let it stand. That’s the explanation I’ve got.”
(Can you assess what you saw from QB Ryan Fitzpatrick today? I know a lot of the – some of the two turnovers were not on him, but how would you evaluate his performance?) – “I thought we moved the ball pretty efficiently on offense. I believe – I know we picked up a lot of first downs and moved the chains. What we didn’t do well was finish well in the red zone. You’re never going to beat a team like that kicking field goals. I think we all know and understand that. I thought – any time you turn the ball over, you don’t want that. Those aren’t good, but for the most part I thought we moved it well. I thought ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) ran it, threw it; but at the end of the day you’ve got to finish in the red zone.”
(Those two drives in the fourth quarter by the Seahawks to kind of put it away, what were some of the things that weren’t happening there for your defense in the fourth quarter?) – “We just didn’t play well enough in the fourth quarter. We’ve talked about finishing games and playing well in the fourth quarter, and we didn’t get it done today offensively or defensively. So we’ve got to – it starts with me; I’ve got to coach it better, and we’ve got to play better, try to place emphasis on playing well, playing our best in the fourth quarter. We didn’t do that and we need to. We’ve been in every game. It’s been close in the fourth quarter and we’ve got to finish better.
(Knowing K Jason Sanders was perfect, were there any regrets with the fifth field goal in terms of aggressiveness, not going there on fourth down there, on the fifth field goal?) – “After a game you think of every situation; you could have done this, could have done that. In that situation you lose two yards, it’s fourth-and-5, third-and-3 to fourth-and-5, you pull within two. Just felt like we’d stopped them a couple of times prior to that, felt like that was the best move right there. Again, in hindsight, you could look at it, given the score and given the way the rest of the game went, you could sit there and say, hey, we should have done this, that or the other. But we’ll look at all of it and just hopefully try to be better the next time.”
(Things were going reasonably well at the end of the half until the 57-yard pass that Seattle hit. What did you see on that play and how did it affect your team at that point?) – ”I think we responded fairly well. We came out in the second half, got a turnover defensively. Went down, kicked a field goal. Kicked another field goal. I thought we responded well, so I think they responded well from that as far as that particular play. We didn’t play well. We didn’t play well at all. I think we were out of position and that’s what happens, especially against a good quarterback. So that was the case on a few other plays and he found them on some of those shorter routes. Your opposition or a step too wide or too much inside and he found him. He found him on that long play. You’ve got to play well. You’ve got to be sound. We weren’t on that play.”
(Obviously you say that the CB Noah Igbinoghene is a resilient young man, but when you play like he did today where it was very noticeable about his struggles, how do you respond from that? What’s your response from that?) – “Come back in to work tomorrow, watch the film, make the corrections, make the improvement, get better. That’s what we all do. Players, coaches, doesn’t really matter what field you’re in; you learn from your experiences and hopefully get better.”
(Last week against the Bills and the Jaguars, there was six touchdown drives, I believe seven total by the offense. What were some of the things not clicking for you guys offensively here that resulted in three instead of seven for you guys?) – “I think it’s just execution down the red zone is what it boils down to. When you get down there, the run lanes are tighter, the safeties are closer to the blocks, so the run game – more guys in the box. It’s hard to score in the red zone and you’ve got to have really good execution. We didn’t have that today. And again, against a good team, you’ve got to punch it in. Even though we didn’t, we were close, but at the end of the day those points, – three instead of seven – they add up. And we need every point, especially against a team like that. But Seattle played well. They made plays in the fourth quarter and they played well.”
(Obviously you guys are down CB Byron Jones. That’s part of the reason CB Noah Igbinoghene is playing as much as he is. Has the moment gotten a little big too much for him at this stage? Obviously he’s a really young guy – is it a little too much for him at this stage?) – “I don’t want to make assumptions like that. He’s a rookie. He’s going to have his ups and downs. Last week he played well. This week he didn’t play well. Two weeks ago he didn’t play… you know what I mean, he’s going to have some ups and downs. He’s a resilient kid. He’s a talented kid. He’s got to learn from this. We’ll help him. We’ll coach him, and I think he’ll get better.”
