Opening statement: “I’ll get started and then [I] can take any questions you have. Tough day at the office, certainly. Pro football has a way of testing you like that, and now we have to kind of -- we talk about having resolve, having grit, responding, getting back to work tomorrow, being candid about how each one of us has to do certain things better. I’ve got to play better and just kind of looking at how do we play better, how do we improve and put together a good week of practice and then try to play your best football you can play next Sunday. But tough day. Felt like we were there. We were hanging around. We had four possessions in the first half and the first one had the penalties that kind of set us backwards, and then the second one, had that throw to Ray-Ray, I felt if we had hit that, maybe he scores. Didn’t get any points from that drive, which that play, missed op, loomed large. And then the third drive scored, and then the fourth drive, the two-minute drive, we weren’t able to sustain that drive. So much of offensive success is being able to sustain and not have that penalty or have that play or that negative play that sets you back and is hard to overcome, and today we did things at times but weren’t able to sustain play in and play out enough to score enough points to win.”
On the Seahawks pass rush and how things felt in the pocket after being clean for a few games: “They had a good rush plan. It’s hard to answer quite well yet because my eyes are kind of down field. But at times they were getting home. But at times we were in a drop-back game where you’re kind of inviting that pass rush as well. So when you get behind, that’s sometimes what happens. And so it’s important that we start fast enough to where we can kind of stay in our mold and not have to turn into that kind of two-minute mode as the game goes on.”
On how the team fixes the false start penalties: “It’s kind of unique, I think, to this week. Some of them was just trying to make a check, trying to get out of a play with a blitz. And so sometimes it’s just unfortunate. And we’ll have to be on the screws about that this week and be better up ahead.”
On Raheem Morris saying the team came out flat in all three phases and whether he sensed that as well: “I think we didn’t go down and score on the first possession. Would have loved to have started faster. Did have the penalties that hurt that specific drive. Converted a first down, converted and moved the football the second drive as well. But then just missed that play to Ray-Ray that I felt loomed large when you had an opportunity there to get behind the defense and we weren’t able to connect, that was one that I wanted back.
On how you the team can put this game behind them but also learn from it: “Well, it’s both, right? I mean you definitely go in tomorrow, and we have to be hard on ourselves, coach one another hard, be candid about what we each can do better. You have to kind of start with yourself and raise your hand and say, I’ve got to do this better. So that’s part of what good teams do, but then certainly you have to move forward as well, and that’s what Wednesday is all about. And there’s a phrase they use in the league that you can’t let your previous opponent beat you twice, and I think that’s kind of what he’s trying to say. At some point you do turn the page, and you move forward. Many times, a performance that you don’t like can galvanize you and sharpen your edge a little bit, and that’s certainly what you want a performance like this to do.”
On whether he would tell teammates to forget about this game or not: “I think it’s everything. I think, whether it’s meetings, whether it’s your own conversations, whether it’s out on the practice field, I just think that everybody understands that you have to go back to work. You have to you have improve, you’ve got to fix things that weren’t good enough, and you’ve got to understand that win or lose, each game is its own entity. The next Sunday is coming, and you have another fresh start there and try to stack a much better performance.”
On whether it is easier to throw this game and look at it as an aberration or a fluke because the team has won in different ways: “Well, I think it’s an opportunity to learn from it. I don’t know about throw it away. I think as Bijan was saying, at some point you do throw it away and move forward, but not until you’ve talked about, hey, I need to be better here, why didn’t this work better, where were we deficient? Where can we be better? You ask those questions. You’re candid about it. You take the coaching. You tell the truth to one another and then you certainly have to move forward. And that rebound is really true in pro football after a tough loss, but also after a win. You have to be able to learn from a game and then move forward regardless.”
On what stood out to him as frustrating aside from the penalties and missing Ray-Ray McCloud early in the game: “Turnovers always loom large. Certainly, the sack fumble was a tough play. That was my fault. I felt like on a third down I was probably trying a little too hard to try to convert and not turn into a fourth and long or having to punt. At some point, you probably just need to throw it away or maybe get backside to Bijan there as a check-down. If it’s not a first down, it’s not a first down. You kind of learn your lesson there in a hard way. So those two plays loom large for me, and I think that’s kind of the ones that stick out right now.”
On whether he feels like he needs to be more vocal now that the team had a game like today off the back of a three-game winning streak: “I think I should really be the same person. You’ve got to be yourself, and in my case as a quarterback, I do think it is probably being relatively vocal. But you don’t change who you are. I think players can see fake from a mile away. You’ve got to be authentic. But who I’ve been ought to be who I’ll be, and just have good communication, have productive meetings tomorrow and we all just have to learn from what took place and how to improve.”
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