Brian Flores – September 15, 2019 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 15, 2019
Postgame – New England
Head Coach Brian Flores
(What do you take out of this?) – “I mean, I thought they played hard, and I thought they played hard for 60 minutes. We were there for half, maybe two and a half quarters, and then we just couldn’t get anything going offensively. I thought – that’s a good team, and we just didn’t do enough.”
(What changes are you planning with the defense…?) – “Defensively, I thought the guys played hard, made some stops. I mean that’s a good offense. I thought they played hard. I thought we tackled fairly well. I thought we defended the deep part of the field well. They made some plays, as well. They’ve got good players. Offensively, we didn’t get anything going. We turned the ball over. We’ve got to do a better job offensively and really collectively as a team.”
(Where do you stand with the quarterback? Is QB Ryan Fitzpatrick still your starter or is it open?) – “Ryan is still the starter. We’ll evaluate things over the course of the week, and as of right now, Ryan is still the starter.”
(Do you think the defense just got exhausted out there?) – “They were out there for a long time. I think you want to play complementary football – offense, defense, special teams. I thought we got some good punts out of (Matt) Haack. I thought we played good defense in spurts. We just couldn’t string any drives together offensively, which was — you need to do that against this team. Really you’ve got to do that against this team. They played well defensively. We couldn’t get anything going.”
(How do you turn the page for the next game?) – “We’ll just come back to work tomorrow, come in, we’ll make the corrections on today’s film and we’ll come back Wednesday. I thought we had a better week of practice. But at the end of the day, it’s about our production in games. We’ll just come back, we’ll go to work, we’ll make the corrections, we’ll get better, we’ll improve – and it’s disappointing. Those guys are disappointed. They work hard. They put in a lot of work. But we’ve just got to play better.”
(Today the team celebrated Hispanic Heritage month. Obviously it’s also Honduras’ independence day. Do you feel that the NFL is tearing down barriers for Latinos in the league?) – “Yeah. Football brings people together, from all races, nationalities; so yeah, I think the NFL does a good job of that – a great job of that – and I’m sure they’ll continue to do that.”
(Offensively, all game long you couldn’t get anything going, put a lot of pressure on the defense. Certainly a lot of opportunities left out there on the field. How do you see that improving over the next couple weeks, and what has to be done there?) – “That’s disappointing. There were some drops out there, some plays we could have made. We left some yards out there. I think we know that. The good thing is that we had opportunities. We’ve just got to – we’ve got to capitalize. We’ve got to capitalize on those opportunities. They don’t show up often, and we have to make plays when they’re presented. And I think we’ll do that. I think we’ll improve. We’ll get better. We have some guys – I believe in our players. I believe they’ll make those plays. I know they’re disappointed that they didn’t; but it wasn’t one guy, it was us as a collective group. We’ve got to do a better job as a staff of getting them in position to make more of those plays. The missed opportunities were there. Everybody can see them. We’ve just got to do a better job.”
(It seemed like the offensive line early on was doing some pretty good things and then things started to break down with pass protection, giving the running backs space to run. Tough running out there it seemed like all day long.) – “Yeah, they’ve got a good defense and they do a good job with their rush, picks, stunts, and we’ve just got to do a better job protecting. As the game wore on, we struggled in that phase and couldn’t get anything going.”
(Do you feel good about your defense playing hard against a very good football team, hung in there as long as they could and they just got overwhelmed there towards the end with two touchdowns from the offense?) – “I thought they played hard. Like you said, I thought they played hard. I thought the communication was better, the tackling was better. I thought they played hard, and it’s a good offense. We got them off the field a couple time. It’s a great quarterback, you guys know that. They’ve got great skill players. They made some plays, and I thought the defense played hard. I thought as a team, we played hard. They fought all the way to the end. We’ve just got to continue to do that, and things will turn.”
(You used S Minkah Fitzpatrick differently today, it looked like. How do you think he did?) – “I thought defensively, like I said, I thought there was good communication, there was good tackling. I thought he played well. Again, he’s a very versatile player. You can use him in a lot of different ways. He did a good job today; but at the end of the day, it’s a team game and we’re all disappointed that we didn’t play better. That’s kind of where I’m at on that.”
(Where do you guys stand from a confidence and morale standpoint on the team?) – “I think that’s a resilient group in there. It really is. That’s a resilient group in there. I don’t think anyone is – they’re not making excuses. They’re not going to point fingers. I think they’re just going to – we’re just going to go back to work tomorrow, make the corrections, come back Wednesday, make some more corrections and try to get better. We’ve got a big game on the road next week. That will be a challenge in itself, and we’re going to do everything possible to play better and have a better outcome.”
