Initial comments ...
"On the injury front, (Ibraheim) Campbell tweaked a hamstring, but did finish the game. We will have a better feel on that tomorrow. (Joel) Bitonio also rolled his ankle; he was available to come back at the end too. I don't know the severity of it, but we will have more information moving forward.
"Obviously, a frustrating way to end it. I thought we competed well for a half; our mistakes just caught up to us. That's a good football team and they made more plays than we did. It just kind of snowballed on us in the fourth quarter. A lot of frustration in that room; nobody is happy where we are. But this is a group of men, competitive and passionate about football. We talked about we are in this together. We are going to take this little bit of time off and refocus and reenergize and know there is a lot of football left to be played. Like I said, we are in this fight together."
Can you assess Johnny (Manziel's) play? What changed from the first half to the second half?
"I think it was just inconsistent. I thought he did some good things, but I just thought in the second half, especially after we fell behind, he was just trying to make too many big plays instead of just taking completions. It's also a function of and you guys are probably sick of hearing me say this, but it's how well did we play around him. I don't know if in the second half we played well enough around him for him to play well."
Did it seem like they made a more concerted effort in the second half to keep him in the pocket?
"That was probably an adjustment they made. He was probably in the pocket a little more. Some of the plays he made in the first half were a result of him getting out. But they did a nice job against us in the second half; I don't think we got a first down in the second half until the last drive."
Can you say whether or not he will play in the next game or not?
"No I can't. When we get in and get back from this time off, we will assess what pool of players are available and go ahead and make those decisions from there. This will be a good time to step away and reassess where we are moving forward."
Why do you think (Tyler) Eifert was able to get open on those three touchdowns?
"On the first one, we were just a little bit too far off of him. As the field condenses, you have to tighten up. It was a good play; a ball fake held the linebacker and they were able to bang it in between the backer and the safety. The second one, I wasn't even sure he was throwing it to him, I thought he was throwing it to the lineman running across the back line. But it was a good play by (Andy) Dalton to at least put it into play. On the last one, he ran a good route and fooled Tramon (Williams). You want to point to reasons they are having the success they are having with the weapons they have on the outside, it's opening up the middle of the field and he is playing good football for them."
It looked like Taylor Gabriel had a tough night and you only had one receiver out there who did anything tonight. What can you do to compensate that?
"It's a tough night and no one is going to be tougher on himself than Gabe. He loves to play and is passionate about the game. Our biggest issue is getting him back because I know he will be down in the dumps feeling like he let us all down. But I will take him on my team any day; he is a competitor. It was just one of those nights."
The penalties on (Randy) Starks were tough; you could have gone into the locker room at the half with the lead ...
"The penalties that come from the lack of discipline, we addressed when they happened and we will address it again. There is just no place for it and it's not acceptable. He knew it right after it happened and he let his emotions get the best of him. The offsides I still don't know about, I didn't see a good replay of it so I don't know if it was him or Armonty (Bryant). That's a little fuzzy to me what happened. It's a shame because we had a third down stop and was going to force them to at least attempt a field goal. That was a big drive for us defensively and unfortunately it was self-inflicted wounds that ended up resulting in points for them."
