Adam Gase – September 27, 2017
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Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(You said last week that guys can be brought back into the fold if the right steps are taken. What right steps were taken by LB Lawrence Timmons?) – “I mean that’s just … that’s something I’m just keeping in-house right now. We just worked through a couple of things. ‘L.T.’ (Lawrence Timmons) handled the business he needed to handle and I’m glad he’s back.”
(Do you have any concern about how the locker room will accept LB Lawrence Timmons back?) – “No.”
(Is the trust restored between you and LB Lawrence Timmons or does that take time?) – “Yes.”
(Has LB Lawrence Timmons or will he talk to the team? Have you addressed that?) – “Anything like that will stay in-house as far as what goes (on) with our team. I don’t know. I’m sure you guys will talk to him at some point.”
(What assurances, if any, did LB Lawrence Timmons give you that this will not happen again?) – “Once again, I’m just going to keep our conversations … I’m going to keep those private.”
(Do you see LB Lawrence Timmons playing on Sunday?) – “(It’s a) possibility.”
(Was it a tough decision to reinstate LB Lawrence Timmons right now?) – “No.”
(Why not?) – “I felt good about where we were at with him.”
(Did this decision have anything to do with wins and losses as far as …?) – “No.”
(Do you think this might be the week that LB Rey Maualuga gets out there?) – “We’ve got him practicing this week, so that’s a positive step and we’ll just kind of see how that goes. I’m trying to make sure … If it was up to him, he’d be like ‘throw me in there and let’s go,’ but I just don’t want to have a setback. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time and I just want to make sure he’s healthy, ready to go and can help us.”
(S Nate Allen left the game on Sunday. Do you have any concerns with him?) – “We’re going to see how he feels today. I think he could have went back in the game if we needed him to. We’ll kind of go day-to-day right now.”
(Where do you stand with any possible changes in your starting lineup?) – “I’m not going to sit here and give any kind of game plan away. We’re going to go through a week of practice and see how it goes and just kind of see what the best fit for us is this week.”
(Without giving anything with the game plan away, did you, after thinking about things the last 48 hours, do you feel just minor tweaking is needed or do you feel like something more significant is needed?) – “I think we need to play better on offense. I know that. The defense did a great job. They kept us in the game as long as they could. The time of possession was way off base. We just can’t do that to those guys and we’re wasting snaps with our defense because they’re getting off the field. Their third down was good. For us to just keep throwing them back out there … it’s going to, like last year, it just eventually catches up to you. Then at the end of the year, we kind of started turning it on, on offense, and then all of a sudden our defense is exhausted because they were going 75, 80 plays a game. That’s why we need to be … If we can be balanced and stay on the field and figure out a way to convert some third downs, that’s going to give us our best chance because when our defense is fresh, they can do some damage.”
(Is time of possession the most important stat to you?) – “Well, when it gets to 37 minutes, 36 minutes, that’s just way off. I just know we’re better than that and we just haven’t done it yet.”
(With regard to LB Rey Maualuga, are you guys still working on conditioning issues with him or do you …?) – “No, it’s more of just his health. His conditioning has gotten better. He’s pretty used to down here now and we just have to … He hadn’t done anything in so long. We get him in here and we’re just trying to get him adapted to how you have to practice down here. He’s a big guy. He’s always been a big guy. You can say ‘Get down to this weight, get down to this weight,’ but that’s what makes him a little different than everybody else because that’s a big man in the middle that can move around pretty good and hit guys.”
(When you expressed your frustration with how the offense looked the other day, is part of it that you’d like to be a little more creative with it? Do you not see enough creativity in what you’ve been doing?) – “Sometimes you feel that way. Really, when we get into too many mental errors or it’s not being executed the way we think it should be, and we’re not in a good rhythm – whether it be a series of bad play calls or we screw some things up – just some kind of consistency, just overall, the whole big picture of everything. We just haven’t had that. The first week, I thought it was okay; but if we hit a couple deals in the red zone, maybe we feel better about it. Last game was just a disaster. It just wasn’t very good. We’re all taking part of the blame. None of us were good. We just have to be better.”
(Along those lines, how would you evaluate your play calling the first couple games?) – “The first game, I was mad that I couldn’t find that one or two things in the first half to really get us going. I was trying to get one with Jarvis (Landry) and felt good about it – we felt good about it all week – and we didn’t get it, get what we wanted. When you get the opportunities and you miss it, it’s hard to get the second one. It’s hard to come back the next play and be like, ‘Alright, now we’re going to score a touchdown,’ because you put yourself behind. All of a sudden now it’s second-and-10 and then you’re third-and-8. There’s not a lot of great play calls third-and-8 from the 15. The defense has a good advantage there. Last week it was third down was a disaster. That’s obvious. It’s embarrassing. It was always something, whether it was play call, execution, we don’t finish the play. Whatever it is, the whole thing was a mess.”
(Do you have a better feel now for how LB Stephone Anthony fits in and do you anticipate him getting some work this Sunday?) – “We’ll see how it plays out this week. We’ve got a better feel now. We’ll see kind of how it works out.”
(It’s hard to evaluate guys after two games. Are you getting what you need from TE Julius Thomas?) – “We haven’t got the coverages that make him a difference maker. It might be part of the reasons why we’re not getting it. When you flex him out and you put a safety or linebacker on him, that’s an advantage for us. We really haven’t seen that. We’ve seen a lot of zone coverage. If we’re more efficient in the passing game, maybe we start seeing some things where it’s too high and now we can get Jay (Ajayi) going. It seems like a lot of times we’re still running against an eight-man box or seven-man box, depending on the personnel. We just have to do a great job. We’ve got to win our one-on-one matchups and find some ways to pop some guys free and try to find some consistency.”
(What do you need to do to have success against Saints QB Drew Brees?) – “If I had the answer to that, a lot of people would be coming to me for that one. You do the best you can. You want to keep everything in front of you. You want to make sure that you put as much pressure on them as you can and try to collapse the pocket, make it tough for him. Just watching that last game, (he) looks one way, resets and then throws just an absolute dime 48 yards down the field for a touchdown. His ability to throw the ball is still as good as it has ever been. You just really have to try to disrupt his timing and cover up those first progressions and give the d-line a chance to get there. He’s a tough matchup.”
(You mentioned all that zone you see. How do you break that?) – “You have to beat it. You have to be able to move the ball, whether it be in the run or the pass. When you do get your opportunities in man coverage, you’ve got to try to really have some good plays. Any time you get (the) middle of the field open and you’ve got two safeties back there and you run it, that’s where you’ve really got to have those 6-, 8-, 10-yard carries. You’ve got to get everybody covered up and take advantage of it.”
(When you hit a point at which you’re frustrated with how the offense is going, how much do you look for player input on that, like from QB Jay Cutler, or the receivers or anybody?) – “All the time. I’m trying to get their perspective too. Even during the last game, I grabbed all three receivers and said, ‘Give me what you like, so we can see if we can get something going.’ The good thing is, those guys can communicate well, and right away they’ll give you two or three things that they like for them, and we try to get to those. You might not always get exactly what you want from the defensive side, but at least it’s kind of them. They’re playing the game and they kind of have a better (feel for it). We’re watching, but they’re doing it. They have a little better feel of how guys are playing them, and for them to be able to give that kind of input helps a lot.”
(Is that typically your first instinct in that situation is the receivers, to find out from them what’s going on?) – “Yes, I do.”
(As opposed to anyone else because…?) – “Well the ball, if we’re throwing it, the majority of the time it’s going (to one of the receivers), especially when I know some of the coverages they’re running and it’s not really applying to the tight ends. When you talk to Jay Ajayi, he’s very good at saying, ‘I like this scheme over this one,’ and he can narrow it down for you to how he’s feeling (and how) things are fitting up for him. He’s always been really good about that with, in game, what he’s feeling and what he likes.”
(If you talk to them in-game, even though you’re right on the sideline, can they see subtle things that maybe you wouldn’t even pick up on that closely?) – “Yes, because they’re doing it. The thing that we try to tell our guys is, ‘Tell us the right stuff.’ To me, that’s an advantage when guys can. I’ve been around some guys, in the past, that were really good at relaying the information back. I’ve been around a few guys that tell you the wrong stuff and it kind of throws everything off, but I feel like our guys do a pretty good job. They’ve been right. When they’ve suggested things, when they’ve told us stuff, they’ve been right.”
(Some described QB Jay Cutler as looking rusty on Sunday against the Jets. He had such a long layoff this summer. Is he still behind?) – “I don’t think he’s behind. He got hit early a couple of times. I think he was trying to get out of the pocket a few times, maybe instead of pushing up, he started to escape. A couple balls didn’t come out as good as he wants. The first play of the game, that was really on me. I should have had him set up sooner and we would have been in good shape and he would have been able to throw a better ball. The guy was coming right at him and he kind of threw it off his back foot. Some of it is just timing. We’ve just got to keep getting better and keep working on stuff. I felt good going into the game with what we were doing passing game-wise and how we were throwing the ball around. Even though Jarvis (Landry) and DeVante (Parker) missed some time in practice, I still felt good about it; but we just weren’t crisp. We weren’t clicking.”
(There was a red zone play where WR Jarvis Landry was open in the middle and the ball kind of went to nobody. What happened on that play?) – “You want me to go over the progression of the route?”
(I’m just curious as to what happened.) – “(QB Jay Cutler) didn’t see him. It happens. I might have not have told him to look there. I don’t know.”
(When you first brought QB Jay Cutler aboard, you guys said that you had planned on keeping him as fresh as possible. Do you feel like you guys have done everything possible to adhere to that and how’s it going at this point?) – “Yes, there’s a lot of communication that goes on there. He’ll tell me if he feels like something’s up, where his arm’s fatiguing or anything (like that); but I’ve yet to have that day happen, so I don’t see any issues. Plus, the amount of throwing he actually does, it’s not a lot.”
(Did C Mike Pouncey come out of the game again good physically?) – “Yes. He played well. He might have been one of the few guys (that played well).”
(Are you almost at a point where C Mike Pouncey’s injury is not even an issue anymore?) – “We’re always going to be smart in practice and we’re always going to go day-to-day and see how he feels. Some days might be better than others; but the way he is, he’s such a competitor. He wants to be out there all the time. We probably look at it like we’re protecting him from himself.”
(Are you optimistic about DT Jordan Phillips’ availability for Sunday?) – “We’ll just see how this week progresses. Any time we can get a guy that was a starter for us to start the season back out there – and he was playing well – it’d be great. I just don’t know.”
Adam Gase – September 25, 2017
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Monday, September 25, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(After looking at the film, what did you see about your defense yesterday? Because statistically it didn’t look that bad) – “I thought the defense did what they were supposed to do. They fought as long as they could to keep us in the game. We had … (their) longest run wasn’t even that long. (It wasn’t like they) had a bunch of explosive runs. There’s a couple of things that we want to clean up. I mean for the most part, guys were doing what they were supposed to do.”
(How do you think DT Davon Godchaux did in his first start?) – “He did well. I mean it wasn’t … He didn’t blow the doors off or anything; but, he did his job for the most part. You know he’s still … There will be some times where we have the neutral zone infractions and some of these guys feel veteran quarterbacks have some ways of getting young guys to jump. Josh (McCown) has been around for a long time. He kind of, when he sees a weakness, he’ll keep trying to expose it as many times as possible. That’s just one of those things you’re going to learn over time, when you’re a defensive linemen, of how to kind of hang in there and don’t get too engrossed in the cadence. You’ve got to stick with what you’re being coached (to do).”
(There was a report that LB Lawrence Timmons went to a Pittsburgh Steelers practice. Is that report accurate and if so, how much did that factor into the suspension?) – “That’s nothing I can really comment on right now.”
(Is there any change in LB Lawrence Timmons’ status with the team?) – “I don’t have an update for you on that.”
(What’s your diagnosis on the offense after looking at the film?) – “The only game I can think of that was as bad as that was the Tennessee game (last year). We’ll make the proper adjustments. We’re probably going to make some changes. We’ll figure out what we’ve got to do to get that thing rolling. I’ve been watching it for two years. It hadn’t worked, so we’re going to figure some things out and make some adjustments.”
(Very much a collective situation you think?) – “Just a lot of bad football. We had more mental errors than we’ve had in the last two years. We’ll just make some … I’ll find the guys that want to do it right and those are the guys that will play.”
(So personnel changes? That’s what you’re…) – “Possibly.”
(What was one thing that just vexed you yesterday that you, again and again, the same issue came up? Or is it something different every time?) – “It’s just surprising some of the stuff that we don’t do right. We’ve basically skimmed it back as much as we could over the last year and try to make it to where we can play fast and win one-on-one matchups. We’re not doing it, so we’ll figure out a way to make adjustments.”
(What was it about the Jets defensive front in the run game that made it a little bit tough sledding there?) – “I mean they’re good. Over the last two games really, there’s like four runs (against them) that were not very good, against the other two teams they played. Everybody got hung up on stats because of a couple of bad runs. We knew that was going to be a challenge. We weren’t buying into the hype of they weren’t a very good run defense. We played them twice last year. They penetrated and caused issues, made Jay (Ajayi) stop his feet which, the whole thing that makes him very successful is getting his shoulders squared downhill, and getting guys that have tackle him on the side, because they can’t. We just didn’t really create much for him.
(What on the film, if anything, did you like?) – “Nothing.”
(You mentioned the hurry up offense. Is that something you want to scale back now?) – “We’ll see. I don’t know. I’ve got some ideas, but it’s not really a hurry up offense when we snap the ball at two seconds every time.”
(How did QB Jay Cutler play on film?) – “Not as well as I’d like him to. He took a couple of vicious shots early. When you’re 34, it’s a little different than when you’re 25.”
(WR Kenny Stills left with I believe his right hand wrapped. Is he ok? Will he be okay for this week?) – “Yes, as far as I know. I think we’re day-to-day right now. With practice, I’m not really sure yet. I haven’t got that far yet.”
(It’s only a two game sample size, but the defense is allowing 3.1 yards per carry. It’s a big improvement from a year ago. What’s going right in that area?) – “I think guys are doing their job. We’re having less missed tackles. We had more yesterday than obviously we had the first game. I think we had nine yesterday; we had two the first game, somewhere around there. That’s really the biggest improvement we’ve had. Even last game, we felt like if we can get that (average at) 5 (yards) or under, that’s really what we want to be at. I think the guys are taking a lot of pride in it. I think the d-line is doing a great job trying to … They are eating up so many double teams with the tackles. We just have to make sure we fit everything right and then when we have them stopped for 2 (yards), let’s make it two. We can’t have a good play and we’re hitting a guy for 1 or 2 yards and then they’re still gaining 4 of 5. There were a couple of times where (Defensive Coordinator) Matt (Burke) called some really good defenses that we should have negative plays on and we’ve got to make sure we make that count.”
(How did LB Chase Allen do yesterday?) – “He did alright. It’s hard to say anybody really stood out on any phase. Any time you get a younger guy in there, it’s a learning experience. Every week you play, the schemes changes dramatically – run scheme wise most of the time – when you’re on the defensive side. One week you’re playing a team that’s outside zone, inside zone or gap scheme – it depends on what their flavor is – and then the next week you see something completely different. It takes time to get used to.”
(What did you think about what happened before the game? The Dolphins owner, Mr. Ross, came out and joined in solidarity with players to support their rights to protest. Did you have any thoughts about all of that?) – “No. I was focused on the game. That’s where my focus is.”
(Do you feel like President Trump’s comments were appropriate?) – “I’m not going to comment about any of that stuff because I’m a football coach. I just worry about trying to win games on Sunday.”
(It seems like you’re most upset with how the line of scrimmage was for you guys on offense. The offensive line didn’t…?) – “I’m upset about the way our offense played. I’m just tired of watching it for two years, just garbage. We’re going to figure something out.”
(I know you’re not interested in excuses, but the reality is you guys have been gone a lot the last couple of weeks. Now you have to get on a plane and fly to Europe. What can you do to keep these guys fresh both mentally and physically?) – “Well, for the most part, we scheduled everything we thought the right way. We feel like this week’s schedule is the same way. We’ve talked to the right people as far as how we want to sleep, nutrition, what we need to do to combat flying as much as we have so far. It’s really about following what everybody is advising our players to do. It’s just whether or not guys want to do it that way. You can’t hold everybody’s hand. At some point you have to be a man and do it right and be a pro athlete. Guys that want to do it right are usually the ones that have success. The guys that don’t, don’t end up lasting very long.”
(I think RB Jay Ajayi may have sat out the whole fourth quarter or something like that. Was that an effort to get him some rest in light of the way the game was going?) – “Any time we can get Kenyan (Drake) in there to take reps in a game situation … We were going to be throwing the ball more at that point. Jay had already taken, even though he didn’t have a ton of carries, he took some pretty good shots. I told (Running Backs Coach) Danny (Barrett) just keep him out unless we have to put him back. We just thought it was the best decision at the time.”
Reshad Jones – September 25, 2017
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Monday, September 25, 2017
S Reshad Jones
(So when you guys looked at the tape today what did it show?) – “We didn’t watch film today.”
(You didn’t watch it?) – “Yes.”
(Any thoughts on what may have gone wrong yesterday?) – “They just outplayed us. All three phases of the game – offense, special teams, defense – they just outplayed us.”
(How do you kind of just flush that one out and say we know we’re not this team? Can you just move past that?) – “I mean it’s a tough league to win in. It’s a division opponent at (their) home. Like I said, they just found a way to win the game and we didn’t.”
(Do you think this team is road weary?) – “Not at all. We just need to go back to doing us, playing our style of football, and I think we’ll be fine.”
(So the idea of getting on a plane going to London this week?) – “No. No matter where you line the ball up, I think we’ll be ready to play.”
(Did you guys meet with the head coach yet today?) – “No.”
(Do you think that President Trump’s comments brought you guys closer together? Is it a unifying factor to have a statement like that made and directed at you guys?) – “I’m really not worried about the President’s commenting and all that’s going on right now. I’m here to play football and help the Miami Dolphins win football games.”
(Statistically, the defense didn’t look that it did that badly. How do you square that with what happened out there yesterday?) – “We did do bad. We didn’t win the game. We didn’t do enough to win a football game, so anytime we lose, there’s no moral victories. We’ve got to find a way to re-group and get better.”
(By and large, are you pleased with how you’ve played coming back from the shoulder and all that?) – “I think I’m playing solid, but I’ve got to do more. We’ve got to continue to win football games. It’s about winning around here and I think I’ve just got to do more.”
(Did you have to get a few hits into it before you felt normal again?) – “Not really. I’m not thinking about it, so it’s cool.”
Adam Gase – September 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 24, 2017
Postgame – New York Jets
Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by the New York Jets)
On how he evaluates the game…
They just beat the (heck) out of us. That’s the best way to put it. We didn’t show up, didn’t play physical, the defense did the best they could with 40 minutes of time of possession. The offense was just three-and-out. We just didn’t have anything going.
On what made the offense out of sync…
Just not enough positive yards and they’re teeing off on us on third-and-long. We were third-and-six-plus the whole game. If we’re going to do that then Todd (Bowles) is always going to have a good package for us and that’s what he did. They just put too much pressure on us where we couldn’t get open fast enough.
On Jay Cutler’s struggles…
It’s hard for me to tell when you’re watching it and you just see an incompletion. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on, whether he was pressured or just wasn’t aligned right, feet weren’t right, or had good throwing mechanics. I’ve got to look at it on tape before I say anything like that.
On what he can say to his team after the loss…
There’s nothing to say. Look at the scoreboard.
On if he sensed this week during practice that there was a chance for today’s poor performance…
Nope.
On Jay Ajayi’s game…
You watched the game. He couldn’t get through anything. Guys were in the backfield so fast.
On if there was poor communication at the end of the game…
No. We got the result we wanted. We’re not going to score 20 points in 30 seconds. Just trying to get good plays, just making sure our guys were good.
On why he decided to run a fake punt…
Try to get something going. Figured we could complete a ball on the punt team.
On if the hurricane or travel affected their performance…
No idea. All I know is we’re going to line up on Sunday and play. So if somebody has an issue with that, they better check their profession.
On how they can jumpstart the offense earlier…
Score points. Get a first down. Might be a start for us to get a first down.
Jarvis Landry – September 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 24, 2017
Postgame – New York Jets
Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry (transcribed by the New York Jets)
On his teammates kneeling…
We’re a team, we’re a family. We stick together, we stand by our teammates and we stand by our family, and that’s exactly what we did today.
On the offense…
We didn’t move the ball like we wanted to today. There are things that we did well and there are a lot of things we need to work on. We have to figure out a way to get back in there tomorrow and figure out what it is and attack next Sunday in London.
On Mr. Ross being on the sideline during the national anthem…
It means everything, all of the owners stepping up and finding a way to create a sense of unity. For him to be here today and lock arms with us, it’s amazing.
Ndamukong Suh – September 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 24, 2017
Postgame – New York Jets
Dolphins DT Ndamukong Suh (transcribed by the New York Jets)
On how they Dolphins will get passed this loss…
Just got to go back and watch the film. I’ll probably watch it on the plane. Get prepared. Like you said, we’ve got a short week, then we’ll be on the road, got to go to London. At the end of the day, we just didn’t execute and they capitalized on mistakes. We can’t allow that to happen.
On what surprised him the most about today’s game…
Our lack of execution, especially with understanding exactly what they were going to do on the offensive side of the ball. And really what they did was capitalized on the mistakes that we made. So, that’s probably the biggest disappointment, especially last game where we were in a situation where we couldn’t make mistakes, and whoever made a mistake obviously lost a game. We were kind of in that same situation and we were the ones who made the mistake.
On whether there were any hints leading in this game that the team had an issue…
In my opinion, no. I think what we’ve got to understand is, regardless of what time of year it is, or wherever it is, guys just have to lock in each and every week. Practice is never going to be perfect. We obviously plan to (be) perfect and strive for that but there’s going to be mistakes, just like there are mistakes in games. Understand that we just have to go out there and understand going back to practice and being on a short week, we [have to be] that much more in tune in what we have to get done.
Michael Thomas – September 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 24, 2017
Postgame – New York Jets
Dolphins S Michael Thomas (transcribed by the New York Jets)
On when he learned Adam Gase and Stephen Ross would join them in locking arms during the national anthem….
I knew immediately after the comments by the president. We didn’t want to have a team meeting about it but we knew it had to be addressed. It was completely different than the meeting we had last year in Seattle. Last year, nobody in the NFL was saying anything publicly supporting us. To see it now and where we are today, you can’t tell me we haven’t made a difference.
On his last communication with Colin Kaepernick…
Probably last year when I took a knee. It’s been a while. We don’t talk often. We “like” each other’s posts on social media and show support that way but we don’t talk every day.
On why he locked arms during the anthem instead of kneeling…
Once we decided as a team to do something, this includes black players and white players saying, “what can we do?” some said they didn’t want to take a knee but wanted to support. Nobody was opposed to locking arms. Some players wanted to take a knee. For me, it was big to have everybody who didn’t support us last year or who might have been against us last year to be with us now. That includes the coaching staff and ownership.
On if locking arms instead of kneeling will lessen criticism…
People are going to criticize regardless. But it does take a little of the heat away because it’s not just one or two players, it’s an entire organization.
On if locking arms during the anthem will last the entire season…
This wasn’t the original plan. This year we were going to focus on what we do in the community. Things change quickly. On Wednesday, we did a piece with Tony Dungy that might air on Sunday Night Football where we said we weren’t going to take a knee this year but work in the community. But Friday night comes, the president makes those comments, and things change. To see the progress and see how many people have joined this conversation is huge.
On his first thoughts after learning about the president’s comments…
It just amazed me that with everything going on in the world, especially in the United States, and this is what you’re concerned about? As a man, a father, an African-American man, as someone in the NFL who you called a “SOB”, I took it personally. But its’ bigger than me. I have a daughter, she must live in this world. I want to make sure she can look at her dad and say he tried to make a change.
Jay Cutler – September 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 24, 2017
Postgame – New York Jets
Dolphins QB Jay Cutler (transcribed by the New York Jets)
On their offensive difficulties…
I think early on we were in a lot of third-and-longs, which is tough against this defense with the multiple fronts and coverages they were showing us. After that, we got one dimensional and got into a throwing situation. We didn’t help our defense at all and didn’t help ourselves.
On if they were having communication problems early on when they had to call time out…
I’ll take responsibility for that. I’ve got to get everybody set and make sure everybody is on the same page. It can’t happen again. It’s an unfortunate situation there. It put ourselves in third and impossible.
On if communication issues continued throughout the game…
We were passing every play. We’re trying to get everyone lined up. We’re getting a little bit tired because I don’t know how many times we threw the ball there at the end of the game. We just have to do a better job there (in the) first quarter, second quarter of getting first downs and trying to sustain drives.
On his teammates saying the team had a bad week of practice…
I think anytime you go out there and play like that, you’re going to go back and look at what you did at practice and refine some things and change some things and try to get better. That was a good defense we saw, but I believe we’re a good offense. We have a lot of talent. We’ll go and look at this game tomorrow and figure things out and go back to practice. That’s all we can do.
On if the team is road weary…
I don’t know. On one side, you’d say that’s fair and on the other, that’s the NFL. You just have to deal with it. Like you said, we’re not going to make excuses. We felt prepared going into this game. We just laid an egg. We’ve got to figure out why that happened this week and practice better and get ready for this next one.
On what disappoints him most about today…
We didn’t help the defense. The way we played on offense, we didn’t give them a chance. They held them to 20 (points), which is unbelievable the way we played on offense. We couldn’t get a first down those first three or four series. It was first down, second down, third down, punt. You’re not going to win any games doing that.
On if the protests before the game were a distraction…
We just stood and locked arms. I think we were just supporting each other. I don’t think that’s too out of line or something that can be misconstrued as us not being focused on the game because we were. You can look at our practices. There are good days and bad days. There are good plays and bad plays, but everyone was focused and everyone felt like they were prepared.
On the president’s comments on player advocacy…
I don’t think my comments are going to help the situation. I want to support my teammates the best that I can. I’d do anything for those guys in there even though I’ve only been here a month or so. They give us everything they can out there. Off the field, I want to help and support them anyway they need it.
On how they will get ready to play in London next week…
I think that game was a wakeup call for us. We can’t just roll out there and expect it to happen. We have to prepare. We’ve got to be ready each and every game because it doesn’t matter who your opponent is and if they’ve won one game, zero games or 10 games. You can lose each and every week in this league. It’s done. You look at the scores each week and there’s an underdog winning and there’s somebody getting blown out. That happened to us today. It should be a wakeup call for our entire team that we’ve got to get it together.
