| Opening statement: “Good afternoon. Obviously, a tough day in the building for all of us here. The game didn’t go the way we wanted it to – (we) didn’t play well enough to win. Give the Cowboys credit, they did a good job, they made a lot of plays in the game, and we didn’t capitalize on enough of our opportunities. (We’re) going through the tape right now with the players. The players have been good, and we’re trying to get it all corrected and trying to do the best we can to get things moving in a good direction. Obviously, we have another big week in front of us, the NFL never slows down. For us it’s about getting in, getting it corrected, and then we have to turn the page and get ready to go for the Redskins. Obviously, we want to do the best we can here to clean up the things that are just not really helping us win, things that are getting in the way. Certainly, we have to take a look at it on tape and make sure we see it and understand it, so that we can hopefully eliminate it. I think that’s the biggest thing right now for us, and probably penalties would be the number one issue for us. We spent a lot of time on that here right now. I’ll take questions.” On if DE Trey Flowers and OL Frank Ragnow are still in concussion protocol: “Yeah, so they’re in protocol right now, and we’ll go through the process with them and see how the week goes.” On the likelihood of QB Matthew Stafford playing again this season: “You know, again we’re week by week with him. He’s the same guy every day. He comes in ready to go and works hard, so we’ll see how it goes as we progress week by week. I mean, I think I’ll just keep it in the week-to-week basis and then we’ll go from there.” On how they can limit penalties: “Yeah, we spent a lot of time on that today. I’d say the top category for all three phases right now is holding, so whether it’s offensive, defensive holding or offensive holding in the return game. I think part of that for us right now is things we need to be more disciplined on. I think there are some things in there with our hand placement, our footwork, our technique that we really have to coach a lot better right now, and make sure that we don’t get undisciplined with that stuff. I think when either you get out of position or maybe get to the point where you’re trying to maybe just too much sometimes and that one little extra push, that one little extra pull, it’s not worth it at that point. We have to try to eliminate those decisions that we’re making on the field.” On if players will see their playing times affected if they continue to accumulate penalties: “Certainly for us, we can’t have penalties and guys that create a lot of penalties for us doesn’t really help us. Hopefully we can start eliminating that. I would say a lot of the penalties for us though, it’s in just a lot of different areas. It’s a lot of variety across the board, so we’ll try to eliminate the ones right now that are just showing up consistently. Those are the biggest issues.” On what makes him believe that his players are still buying in to his message: “Yeah, I mean I think there’s nothing that would give me an indication that they’re not. I think for all of us in there in the meetings and going everything that we’re doing, (we’re) trying to get better every day and (paying) attention to detail to what we’re trying to do. We just had another great meeting again today, so I think those guys understand that I’m working as hard as I can to try to get it right and I think they are too, and we understand that with each other. For us we’re just trying to grind away to get it right.” On Cowboys QB Dak Prescott’s comments about the lack of defensive pressure and if the lack of pressure has been the most disappointing thing about the defense this season: “I think for us, you look at it week by week. The previous week I think we had five sacks, I think that was pretty good. I would say this week we didn’t have enough pressure on the quarterback. I certainly think there were some things in there that we did early in the game that caused him some discomfort that he didn’t like, which was really good, and I don’t think we were able to sustain that enough throughout the course of the game. That was kind of the biggest, I would say, disappointment as far as that’s concerned. Sometimes I think we get into situations where we start to press it too much and maybe get out of a rush lane and maybe go a little bit past the quarterback, especially with a guy like Dak that you know you can’t do that against. (We’re) just trying to be a little bit more disciplined through the course of the game, (which) probably would have helped us a little bit better.” On if he sees a specific area on defense that has been consistent this season: “Well, we’re trying to – I think maybe we talked about it last week – I was really hoping to have another good week in the run game from that standpoint. We did that. That was one of the major things that Dallas does really well was the run game and being able to have a couple, or really I would call it three out of four weeks here, where the run game was probably pretty good against some really good backs. Hopefully that is encouraging for us going forward from that standpoint. Certainly, I think one of the things that when you look at the game that was able to kind of keep some things in perspective was our ability to maybe maintain that run game and not just let them grind the clock out in the fourth quarter entirely. Certainly, the big plays in the passing game were killing us from that standpoint, but I would say (we had) a couple of good plays there in the run and hopefully we can keep building on some of that.” On how concerning it was to limit Cowboys WR Amari Cooper and RB Ezekiel Elliott, and still struggle defensively: “Well, I mean Cooper made a pretty big play there late in the game too, so I think overall with their skill guys I don’t think we did a good enough job with all of them. For us, we knew they were a dangerous team, and we knew they were going to give us some problems. Obviously (it) was just disappointing that the problems were as big as they were.” On what the one factor is that they need to address to close out games better: “Yeah, you know what I think it’s a really good question, and I think all of that isn’t one answer. If it was, I think we would try to attack that answer to its fullest the best we could. I think for us, it’s been different things in different games and that’s maybe the part of it that’s been inconsistent or however you want to phrase it from that aspect of it. Certainly, some of those games we just have to make a couple of plays and to be able to close them out. Some of them maybe it was – definitely we could change some scheme to help us in those situations, and some of it was the other opponent making some plays in those situations that we didn’t. I would say that our team – it’s a really competitive team, it’s a tough team. I think because of that we have led in all of the games that we’ve been in. I think all of our games have been one possession here, even going into the end of fourth quarter, and a play here or there really changes a lot for us. Those are the moments that we have to really – somehow, we have to just go out and execute better than we are right now or better than our opponent to give ourselves a chance. I would agree, some of those things at the end of the game – all of them have to improve in whatever particular situation we’re in, in that game.” On what he saw in RB Bo Scarbrough to promote him to the active roster and then to start Sunday’s game: “Yeah, I watched a lot of him coming out of college. Obviously, I watched a lot of Alabama tape and saw and spent some time with him. His offensive coordinator in college is someone that I know really well too, when he was there, he’s now with Buffalo. (He’s) just a guy that I think is really talented. He’s a big guy that comes downhill, he runs hard, he runs physical. For us, we wanted to get a chance to get him in here and take a look at some of our run plays that we have and see how it fit his style. Through the course of the time that we’ve had with him out at practice, I just think he has really shown to me that he can run big, he can run strong, he can get downhill. Standing behind some of those plays and really in front of them from the other side, from the defensive perspective – when you feel a guy like that come through the line of scrimmage with kind of that power and that speed, sometimes you just kind of say, ‘That’s going to be a really hard guy to tackle right there in some of the different situations that we’re putting him in.’ I thought it was a good opportunity for us to get him out there. I really wanted to see him in a game. I wanted to see him run, and wanted to see what it looked like and see if that could help our team. It’s something that we had been thinking about for a while, and just thought it was a good opportunity this week.” On who or what he leans on when there is negativity surrounding the team: “I think for us here, in regard to the team, we just lean on the each other, and we all understand that we have a tight knit group in there that really cares about each other. We understand there’s going to be some negativity, and there’s going to be people that are going to say stuff. Probably, all of us have gone through that our entire lives. It’s probably why we’re all here. It’s because we’re able to overcome that stuff and consistently fight and consistently get back to what we have in mind as our goals. For us, we lean on each other, we draw strength from each other as a team. I see the guys doing that right now, and that will help us going forward. So, that’s kind of where we start.” On if there is a lack of confidence or missed assignments causing in-game mistakes: “I wouldn’t say confidence. Definitely not. But, I would say there was, in this game in all three phases, I thought there were some mistakes, some ‘M.E.s,’ – some mental errors or missed assignments. However, you want to term it, that hurt us in that facet. I would say on the defensive side of the ball, we know the Cowboys do a lot of shifts, a lot of motions, a lot of different formations, things like that. So, there was going to be some communication out on the field that we had to get right, and I think we missed a couple of those which was disappointing to see from that aspect of it and opened up some big plays. Certainly, offensively, same thing. We had a couple miscommunications out there which caused a couple free runners and some bad plays in that situation. Same thing with special teams. When you have those mistakes, you have to go back and take a look. Are we doing too much, or is it a communication thing? Is it something we can clean up coaching wise? What was the confusion, and why? Part of that’s today when we go through it. Part of it is during the game as you go through it, and you try to clean it up before it happens again, and some of it is guys trying to do everything they can do to help the team out. Some of those situations you just have to remind them, ‘Hey, just kind of do your job and worry about that, and let everybody kind of do what they’re supposed to do, and it will all work together a little bit better.’” On if anything has changed in regard to him play-calling on defense and if things need to change: “I think for us as a staff, and how we’re doing things on defense, I think we need to continually improve it. I definitely feel that that has been my message to those guys throughout the entire season, so that we can help the players more. I try to do as much as I can and will continually try to do that, but I think the coaches are working really hard to try to get it right from that aspect of it. We obviously have to do more, and we will. Sometimes I look at it and think I have to teach it differently too. I always try to evaluate, ‘OK, what can I say differently here? How can I explain it different? How can I term it different that we’ll at least maybe understand it and maybe be able to play a little bit better from that aspect of it?’” On if he has taken more control of the defensive play-calling: “My role, really, on game day it differs game by game. So, some games it’s been more, some games it’s been less, and that’s been consistent throughout the season. That’s true.” On what the team is playing for when making the playoffs seems out of reach: “We’re playing for this game this week. That’s what we do, and that’s, really, honestly, that’s how every week is for us. It’s a one-game season. That’s what they are, and that’s how the NFL works. For us, we’re going to go out, get done with today, get done with the corrections, and hopefully go give us a chance to beat Washington.” |
