Just didn't do anything probably well enough over the course of the game in any phase to put ourselves in position to win. I think the early pick-six was not good. That's put you in a hole that early. We didn't tackle well. We didn't rush well. At the end of the day, we didn't do enough good things to put ourselves in any position to win the game. Don't really have much to add. You guys go ahead.
Realistically, how many more opportunities do you think you guys are going to get to get this thing right given how difficult it's been?
I don't really worry about that to be honest. My focus is on trying to make sure our football team is in as good a place as possible, and the rest of that stuff is what it is. I don't think about those things. You really can't. This is hard enough as it is to put those other things and think about that, it doesn't do anybody any good. So, I just go to work and work as hard as I can. I put as much effort as I can into this, that is what it is.
What happened with the field goal attempt, the delay of game before halftime?
Yeah, I was going back-and-forth. We were talking about going for it or kicking it. That's a kick that (Joey) Slye's made and a chance to make it a 17-9 game in that moment. It's a hindsight thing. If you go for it and get it, great. If you go for it and don't, you're in the same spot. Thought we had a chance to get points there. Slye's been really reliable from deep. He's been a bit of a weapon for us and has been thus far in the season. Then we went to kick it, and they were waiting for some operational things to uncover. Just would like to go faster. Obviously had no intention to take a delay of game there. Didn't want that to happen. Obviously looks really bad at the end of the day. That was not the intention to do that. So wanted to be able to kick it.
Once you call timeout there, don't you know what you're doing? Shouldn't you have your personnel on the field?
Certainly. We were going back-and-forth and wanted a minute to think about it. I was going back-and-forth between a fourth down call and a field goal and decided to go take points in that particular situation. The operational part of it to kick it on time didn't happen.
What's the benefit of having your offensive personnel on the field after the timeout?
Because I hadn't decided yet at the moment what we were going to do.
How could you have their timeout, your timeout, and still not have decided?
Like I said, we were having a couple different conversations about it. Ultimately that was a decision we made.
What kind of message do you think that sends not going for it on fourth-and-not long, not going for it, what message does that send to your team?
I don't know. I don't know what message that sends. I was trying to take points and make it a 17-9 game at the end of the half. That was my intent. I don't know.
What's the downside of not going for it on fourth-and-one?
The same thing that happened when we missed the field goal. Probably get the ball back in pretty good field position and not too far away from getting points. That's exactly what happened. Again, hindsight, it doesn't work. We don't make the field goal, we don't get to kick it off, and we don't get a chance to go for it, so we don't know if we'll get it or not. Ultimately if it doesn't work, you're in the same place. Then the same question applies on the flip side. If we go for it and don't get it, the question is why didn't you try (Joey) Slye from that distance? He's been good from there. It's a hindsight thing. We didn't make the kick, and we don't look good for it. But I thought that was the right thing was to try to take points in that moment and make it a one possession game.
We've seen several times with the roll outward and then just flip it out into the flat and got caught in no man's land several times. What was going on there that was happening that wasn't supposed to happen?
It's a team that they've run the ball well so far over the course of the season. They've done a lot of the same things. Offensively we've hit a lot of the exact same type of plays. Their complements to your run game, and they've run the ball well. When you're trying to stop the run, you are susceptible to some of those boot actions and naked actions. Again, they're not usually explosive plays, but they keep them efficient. Those are the things, when you're trying to fit and play the pass, those are the conflicts you get put in. That's the NFL, that's playing first and second down defense trying to stop the run and playing boot action. We had similar plays offensively. We've got to do a better job containing those things for sure. Just frustrating overall with the inability to get stops when we needed to on defense.
Why not defer?
I'll leave the reasons for that. I'm not going to go too far into detail. But at the end of the day, try to take the ball and see if you can get off to a fast start. See if we could get going offensively, put it in our offensive's hands and try to do something. Obviously, it did not work. But that was the intent was to try to see if we could get a lead on a team that wanted to run the ball and see if we could swing it in our favor.
What happened on Cam's pick? After that, how do you feel like he sort of returned from that?
Yeah, he bounced back. That's one of the things he does well. He doesn't flinch when those things happen. It was the third play of the game. There's a lot of football left at that point. Just the decision-making. He's going to try to check the ball down, and he's got to see the defender sitting there. I don't know, I'll have to ask him exactly how he saw it, but it's one of those things where you put the ball in harm's way like that, it's an easy interception on a check-down. Sometimes it's better to throw it at his feet and eat it or punt it, so you can punt it, but those are decisions. He hasn't had a lot of those, but that one got him.
When do you stop relying on Calvin Ridley based on the degree to which he's hurting the team?
I'm not going to stop relying on him. He's got to help us. He's got to do his part. We're going to keep throwing the ball to him. He's going to keep being put in position to make plays. It's the same thing when a guy doesn't perform his best, they've got to find a way to pull themselves out of it, and we've got to find a way to help him. At the end of the day, I know he's still a good player, and we're still going to need him. If we're going to claw our way out of the spot that we're in, we're going to need everybody in there to do it. Calvin's going to be a big part of that. He's got to find a way to get his confidence back up and perform. Certainly, never going to shy away. He's a big part of our offense, and we need him.
From your side of things, how do you help Calvin Ridley?
You've got to keep coming to him. You've got to keep throwing the ball. The hard part is these things don't show up sometimes in practice. All of a sudden in a game it's a problem. You've got to keep working. It's like a hitter in a slump. He's in a bit of one right now, and he's got to find a way to get out of it. Whatever that is, extra time after practice, whether it's making sure he's catching balls on the jugs, all those things are all a part of it. A lot of times it's an individual effort, but I still believe in Calvin. That's part of it, too. He's got to feel that the guys believe in him, the quarterback believes in him, and we've got to keep working to go back to him, and he's got to come do his part.
Your disappointment maybe in a lot of different aspects, had better moments in the first couple of games. How do you think it was today?
Indy is playing really well on offense, and they're moving the ball at a pretty rapid rate. Every time we had an opportunity, whether it was on offense to answer, on defense to answer, we could never get ourselves back into the swing, and we couldn't make the answer that we needed on either phase, and it got away from us. They're playing well. I thought we had opportunities. I was confident going into the game. We still can't—we haven't done enough good things in any phase. The penalties are still continuing to be a problem. You turn the ball over for a touchdown, we missed tackles, we haven't got the quarterback on the ground enough, all those things factor in. You've got the result that we had today.
What are some of the ways that you could clean up some of the procedural like penalty issues that have plagued the team the first few weeks?
Some of the things we've got to do a better job understanding motions and formations and being set. I think we got called twice for illegal motion and we weren't set. We've got to do a better job doing that. That's and easy thing, that shouldn't be a problem. When you're checking protection and you're moving to the back and then there's a motion involved— some of those are things that Cam's (Ward) understanding too when you've got a lot of moving parts on a third down that you have to have in this league to be able to go against the defenses you play against. That's part of it, and then part of it is we've got to do a better job doing the little things right, and we haven't done that enough and that's disappointing for the amount of time we emphasize and talk about it.
With the struggles that you've had in all phases of the game, do you feel like there's still the confidence and the buy-in coming from everybody in the locker room?
The one thing I know about our guys is they fight and they work. We fought in that game. We fought as hard as we could. Ultimately, didn't play well enough to win. I don't have any questions about guys' buy-in. I know how they perform. I know what they are in the building. I know how they work. We've just got to find a way to play better on Sundays at the end of the day. That's everybody. We've got to coach better. We've got to play better. All of that stuff matters. I don't have any doubts about what these guys do and think at this moment.
Three veterans missed tackles on the longest Taylor touchdown run. How hard is it to survive that? What's your message to them?
We've missed too many tackles through three weeks to begin with. We've had moments of really good defense. We've had moments of really good tackling. At the end of the day, you've got to do it for the entirety of the game. Having guys miss tackles is not something we expect. Again, Jonathan Taylor is a good back. Give a little bit of credit to him as a player. We've got to do a better job of getting him on the ground, and we didn't do that.
