Opening statement…
On the injury front, Josh McCown, as we all know, left the game diagnosed with a concussion. So he will be in the league protocol. Also Scott Solomon left with an ankle injury. At this point we're not sure of the severity, so I'm sure we will get that imaged to know the extent of it. It's a disappointing way to open the season. To me, there are no words to express that. You invest so much in the opener. You prepare for it, you over-prepare for it, and to lose the way we did, it's difficult to swallow it. But as I told the guys afterwards, we own this. We own it. You turn the ball over five times, you have 12 penalties, and a lot of the little detail stuff that I thought we had done a good job of leading up to this taking care of, we did not pay attention to detail. There were a lot of little things that occurred that swung some plays. The way the game opened was encouraging. (If) we got a stop, a nine-minute drive, we were going to get points out of it, converted a bunch of third downs. I thought we got a pretty good glimpse of what we could be, then Josh leaves the game. A couple of the plays really swung it, I thought Ryan Fitzpatrick did a heck of a job somehow coming up with that ball in traffic. We recover it there that's a game-changing play potentially. Brandon Marshal stealing the ball from (Tashaun Gipson) was a great individual effort on his part. That's like losing a loose ball battle in basketball. We've got to come up with those. You want to win football games in the NFL, you've got to make those plays. Again, it's disappointing, but it's one and knowing the resolve from the men in that room, we're going to bounce back and be ready for next week.
On McCown diving for a touchdown…
He's a football player. He's a competitor. In that situation, guys that are mobile guys that get out in open space, I don't know how many of them would have handled that any differently when they get that close to the end zone.
On if he had to change with Johnny Manziel in the game…
Not at all.
On if it was fair for Manziel to play with limited practice time leading into the game…
He got the typical reps that a number two quarterback would get.
On how he evaluated Manziel's performance…
I think that's tough on any number two quarterback that has to come in and not just play but play, it was roughly three quarters worth of work. I think that's a tough spot given our practice rules and how little work that number two's actually get. I thought he did some good things. The throw to Travis (Benjamin) I thought was outstanding. I thought he did some good things with his feet. But he's got to be more protective of the ball. We can't turn the ball over and expect to win, so that's something he's got to get better control over. But I think overall for him coming in cold, he did some good things and there are some things he obviously will regret.
On why the running game struggled…
Their defense is built to defend the run. I didn't think we were doing a very good job blocking at the point of attack. Our pad level wasn't great. We were getting knocked back at times. We hit a few runs and this is the type of team you're not going to hit runs consistently, then you've got a chance to hit a big one and that opportunity never came up for us. I thought Duke (Johnson Jr.) did some good things. It was tough sledding when (Isaiah Crowell) carried the ball. But I think overall we didn't do a good enough job of blocking their front in order to sustain any type of rushing attack. I also think the circumstances of the game got away from us a little bit in the second half. That kind of took us out of wanting to run the football.
On what changed from the first to second half
I'm not sure. That's one I'm going to have to go back and look at. I just know it was a lot of little things, a lot of details. Some of it's on the guys, but a lot of it's on the staff. We need to coach better. When you play that way and have the situational stuff that comes up that we did, the penalties, that falls on all of us. So like I said, everyone in that room, we own it.
On the run defense…
Not good enough.
On pre-snap penalties…
The false start stuff is disappointing. I think the one prior to Josh's injury was one that put us in first and 15 which changes your mindset, essentially, there. I think we were first and goal from the 15 which really puts you in throw, throw, throw mode. Those are things we have to get cleaned up. You can't win in this league committing those types of penalties. We had some holds and a chop block and on most of those plays we had a positive that ended up getting called back. We have to get it cleaned up. We have no choice.
On if he has a problem with McCown diving at the goal line…
It's a quarterback who's running towards the goal line and has a chance to score a touchdown. I don't know how you coach a competitor, a real football player, to slide there.
