Opening remarks:
Not as much fun. It was kind of fun for three weeks. I like it better the other way. We're just as disappointed after looking at the tape as we were yesterday afternoon. I don't think anything has changed along those lines. I still say the one obvious fact, which needs to be said, you're not going to play that kind of football and win. It just doesn't happen. We gave ourselves a chance at the end of the game to win the game. If you look at those two sequences where offensively we get the ball at the seven, we have an illegal procedure penalty. We get the ball at the five, we get an illegal procedure penalty. On the one hand we take the field goal. On the other hand we throw the interception. Had we won the game, had we been in position to score there, I don't think it would have changed much. We would have been excited to have won, but there are things that have to be corrected. You have to be able to stop the run. You have to be able to run the ball better than we have and you have to be able to take care of the ball better than we took care of the ball. The un-timeliness of some of the circumstances that took place in the game – in the first half, just noting the fact that we did cause and recover two fumbles, that they were relatively close. Then we had an interception that set up our tying touchdown. We thought we came out at the half in good shape with the kickoff return, it's a touchback. First play is a holding penalty. We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot. The oldest axiom in the world is you have to first keep from beating yourself before you can expect to beat the other guy. We didn't do that.
Q: How do you fix the running game?
A: Well, we're going to keep hammering away at it. If you look at the first drive, there's some good runs in there. We knew exactly what we were getting into with the safety down [in the box] and so on and so forth. We're just going to keep hammering away at it because that is philosophically what I hold to and believe in. I understand that you wouldn't be able to sense it at this point, but it's something that we feel that we have to do. And you have to be able to defend the run or you're not going to have much of a chance. We're going to stay with it. We're going to continue to work hard at it. We're hopefully going to give ourselves some opportunities there which allow for some play action, which allow for shorter down and distances at the other end. Third down was terrible for us yesterday, offensively. We continue to do a decent job on third down defensively, but we give up big plays on the defensive side of the ball. Although we did have some big plays yesterday, not enough.
Q: Is having eight men in the box an excuse for not being able to run the ball?
A: No. It does allow that you think you have other things, but you have to continue to try to run in there even when that does happen. You have to depend on your wide receivers to be able to go in there and be able to help you in that regard too. You think that if you hit a couple play-action passes you're going to start that guessing game. And that's the way it goes, who has the chalk last.
Q: On the run plays, was it just one guy missing an assignment or was everybody off?
A: Well we would have an assignment or two missed, but we didn't defend one particular run very well yesterday. Obviously we have to do something about that.
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Q: One player wondered about your defensive scheme yesterday, and one said you didn't disguise what you were doing very well. Was that just game-day frustration?
A: I would think so. We did do a decent job of disguising with our safeties yesterday. But you have gap responsibilities and you have to maintain that responsibility regardless of what's called. There can be any number of defenses called, you still are recognizing what personnel are on the field for the opponent offensively and what are your gap responsibilities based on the call.
Q: Is it a problem with peaking in the wrong gap?
A: I don't know if it's peaking. Sometimes they get blocked out of there too. I don't know if peaking is the right word.
Q: Update on Chris Snee?
A: He was in here this morning and [the trainers] sent him home so he could rest.
Q: Zak DeOssie?
A: I think Zak's the same way, sent home.
Q: When Cordle came in…
A: I'm glad you asked that. That is a young man that should be recognized. The reason that I say that is, a couple of years ago if you remember, when we went over to Pittsburgh, they lost their long snapper. The backup long snapper heaved one over the punter's head. We got a safety out of it. It provided great momentum for us. This kid comes in the game and really made a number of very good snaps, got involved in the coverage. Had to go in and play at the guard spot, at the center spot – did a nice job of coming into a game of that magnitude and maintaining his poise and so on and so forth. I'm glad you mentioned Jimmy Cordle. It would have been nice to be able to talk about him in a winning effort.
Q: Cordle came in at center and then the next drive was at guard.
A: I think the idea that Boothe had been our center the whole day. They just flipped it and played, he's most comfortable [at guard]. Boothe can play guard, tackle or center.
Q: Did Snee say he felt better?A: He did mention that he felt a little bit better, but he still wasn't feeling real good.
Q: Do you know when he suffered the concussion?
A: I don't. There has been a number of questions asked about was it earlier. I really don't know the answer to that.
Q: An update on Justin Tuck?
A: He said he feels a little better today, but until he gets out there running around…
Q: Osi said, 'If we give up 300 yards running but still win, it is okay.' Is it possible to give up 300 yards rushing and win?
A: We could have won yesterday with a touchdown at the end of the game, but it doesn't solve the issue. Do you know what I mean? You want it solved so that the other guy doesn't think that he can just come in and run the ball.
Re: Did you hear what you wanted to hear from the players on the Seahawks game-winning touchdown.
A: The players took responsibility for it. You have to keep playing. We didn't keep playing.
Q: Did they hear a whistle or did the defensive backs just shed the receiver off?
A: I don't think so. I think we just failed to continue to play and take the guy down the seam because they thought the play was over. Don't ask me how. There's nobody making any excuses about that. They realized that they should have played the play. When you're on the offensive side of the ball and something happens defensively and it's a penalty, you want to continue to play the play for that exact reason, because there is no taking the ball away, obviously. That penalty and what happened when we stopped playing and the two illegal procedure penalties, they just make you scratch your head. In order to win, you have to maintain your poise, you have to be disciplined. You have to be able to be in that frame of mind to know, 'Hey, guess what guys, the game's on the line and the ball is right here.'
Re: Troubles with the running game.
A: There's no consistency. Let's put it that way. One play's pretty good, the next play's not. Let's give credit to the guy across the ball too. They're trying to block some pretty good football players. But you have some breakdowns.
Q: What did you see on film regarding the no-huddle?
A: What you saw. We practiced against this, like I told you last night. They advertised they were going to do it, we practiced against it. I think there were times in the first half when we didn't look as settled as we possibly should have, but we were communicating. I thought the second half we even advanced a little better than that, but it didn't work out for us.
Re: Is there a specific defensive personnel grouping you want on the field to defend the no-huddle.A: Depends on the offensive personnel.
Q: With the defensive struggles against the run, is there a common issue with the runners you are facing, or is every week different?
A: It's different. Good football players, but different.
Q: Can you tell us what was wrong yesterday?
A: I can tell you what occasionally went wrong yesterday. As I said, we didn't cover our gap responsibilities to the point where there was no place for the runner to go. The runner found places to go. And then there are a lot of other things. Maybe we weren't as downhill as we could be at linebacker. Maybe we were late coming down from the secondary. There's a number of issues.
Q: The 47-yard run, looked like Corey Webster didn't recognize the running back.
A: That was part of it, wasn't the only thing. We should have had the edge taken care of defensively, but we didn't get that done.
Q: Has that been a problem?
A: The edge, no.
Q: On the safety, Ballard was trying to pull…
A: Wasn't a real good idea at that particular spot.
Q: Is that block possible?
A: The down block? Yeah, but perhaps not based on the alignment of the defensive end. I don't think you should blame any individual for that one, but collectively it could have been done differently.
Q: You said there's one type of running play giving you problems. What is it?
