Opening Remarks
We played poorly. When you don't deserve to win you don't win. We didn't compliment each other at all today. We had done that last week and I felt good about the end of the game – the way all three phases helped out – but this week, the sloppiness of the game, the turnovers. You're not going to win football games when you're handing people the ball, point blank range or whatever. So our woes continue with the rushing game, we didn't stop the run. You know, we put ourselves in position to win; as a matter of fact, twice at the end of the game with taking the lead, then they came down and took the lead back, and then we drove down and then the interception at the end when we could have gone ahead with under two minutes to go. Poor performance, that's my fault, we didn't play well. As a matter of fact, I thought we settled down and actually had felt like we were going to do some good things in the second half, but had some three and outs which slowed us down right away offensively, and then got back into the turnovers. Victor Cruz made a couple of great plays, but they weren't enough.
Q: Did the false start right before the interception change what you had wanted to do?
A: It certainly did. We had the same situation as the drive before. We had a false start which backed us up five yards and put us in a little bit different situation. But again, you can't throw an interception right there, you just can't do that.
Q: Was there any confusion or did they hear a whistle on the Seattle go-ahead touchdown?
A: I don't think there was confusion, I think that you've got to keep playing. You're a defensive team, make them come. We had done that earlier in the day and they blew the whistle. This time they didn't blow the whistle. So the play stands.
Q: Did you get an explanation?
A: No. The play stands.
Q: Did their use of the no-huddle surprise you?
A: Well, we knew exactly what they were going to do, they said what they were going to do. They publicized it. They got to be in the no-huddle; they went fast, we tried to mimic that all week long, perhaps not the tempo that they exactly played, but we were close, we gave a pretty good look with our scout team. No, there was nothing unusual there in their execution. It was very good and that was the difference.
Q: Did you change any of what you were doing when Whitehurst came in?
A: Not really. They did. They changed a little bit and then as Whitehurst gained some confidence, they opened up and did a lot of good things with him. They started with the go-screens and the quick game and then the running game, then eventually got to the play action boot and throwing the ball a little bit further down the field.
Q: Your assessment on the safety?
A: I thought when I looked at it up above that he had gotten the ball out of the end zone, but evidently that wasn't the case.
Q: What do you think happened on the interception at the end of the game? Was that a ball that should've been thrown?
A: I have to see it, to look at it. Any time a ball gets tipped up in the air it's not a good thing. There's too many bodies flying around right there.
Q: What has to change to get your running game going?
A: I think we have to do a better job with our execution. I think we have to do a better job scheme-wise and finding a way to handle the two weeks in a row the safety's have been down in there and it's been a problem. They made a lot of tackles, a lot of plays. I think we can do a better job with that.
Q: Is this a learning experience or did the team just have a letdown?
A: No, of course not. I fully expected to win. Probably the most miserable feeling as we've had around here in a long time. To win three straight and then come into our own place at home and not win, and not to be representative of where we are. We were plus-four coming in here.
Q: What happened to Chris Snee?
A: You know, I don't really know. I'm not sure what happened there. I didn't get that information right away.
Re: Jake Ballard's play
A: Well, he made some very good plays obviously. The first drive was so kind of bang-bang-bang that I expected good things to happen throughout the day but it didn't. I don't know how he blocked, I know we turned some people loose upfront on occasion, but he certainly did well in the passing game.
Q: Did the fullback just miss a block on the safety?
A: No, I think it came from the back side. We didn't get the cut-off block.
Q: What were your guys up front telling you about why the run game wasn't working?
A: They weren't telling me anything, I was watching it. I will have to look at the tape to definitely say what it was, I'm not exactly sure. I don't know if you can generalize, you almost have to go play-by-play.
Q: You said it's your fault, why is it your fault?
A: It's always the head coach's fault. We didn't play well enough to win.
Q: Could you have predicted a performance like this?
A: No, we had a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of zip, we practiced well on Friday. I thought we finished the week off right, I thought our Saturday night meetings were focused and intense.
