Opening Statement: Two guys left the game did not return, Spears with a concussion. He'll likely be out this week, and JD, Jaelyn Duncan, with a shoulder, he'll be out this week. Really at the end of the day, we needed one more play somewhere and we didn't quite get it. Had chances, had opportunities, it was a low-possession game. I think we only had eight possessions. Two of those were two-minute possessions, so kind of a weird flow of the game with the weather early on and needed one more play to make a chance to get the win and we didn't do it, so we were probably a play short today.
(On the final play of the game) "Yeah, he made a good play. I thought we had a chance at it. The ball was in there, it's fourth down from wherever we were to 20-something yard-line so took a shot to the end zone and had a chance to go make a play on the ball and the guy made a nice play coming over the top of Nick without doing any interference. That was a good play by that kid."
(On the urgency of the offense on their second to last possession of the game) "Yeah, I mean, we were -- it's -- we were trying to go as fast as we can and still maintain the ability to get first downs. It's hard to get -- as you get into those red zones to get the plays you want. A lot of them are huddle calls, we had a couple on the ball, but we worked as fast as we could in the moment and try to make sure we had good play calls, too. Didn't want to waste calls, so, yeah, we got the ball back with a chance to win the game."
(On opening the second half with an eight-minute drive) "Yeah, wanted to have a chance to get the ball back sooner than that. Those drives take a lot out of your -- take a lot out of the clock, pushes the game into a waning minutes really quickly. Would have loved to find a way to get a stop but they kept moving the ball slowly down the field and kept taking up time and getting first downs. It felt like they were in third and short for a lot of it and they kept converting those. It was easy for them to keep the ball on the field and the offense on the field and didn't do a good enough job stopping it.
(On taking shots down the field to try to score quickly) "Yeah, I mean, you're trying to be as smart as you can, trying to make sure you're maintaining the ability to move the ball down the field. You still got to get first downs, you still got to find ways to move the ball and they're playing a coverage that's designed to keep in front of them, too. You're going to have to take the completions where you get them and hope you hit a big one or two, which we did, and got ourselves in position, so, again, just a little bit short."
(On if he thought about spiking the ball on the second to last possessions to preserve time) "No, we were trying to "toro" field goal that to get it before the warning, so we were going as fast as we could to kick the field goal. We wanted to kick the ball out of bounds in the kickoff. We didn't want them to return it either. We were kicking in the breeze so we couldn't quite get it into the end zone, so those two things factored in. We were trying to go as fast as we could to kick the field goal, save as much time as we could and then kick the ball out of the end zone in the kickoff but didn't get that one all the way done and they were probably going to take it out if they were anywhere five deep or less, so, just to make sure they got the ball down there. So, yeah, we were going as fast as we could. Didn't want to clock it. It was a third and long, went to a fourth and nine so would have been tough for the fourth down there to clock that ball."
(On not being able to score a lot of points against Jacksonville) "I mean, that's an overall season. You look at their last couple of games, they've held some teams in check, too. They're not a -- they got talent on their football team, you know. I don't look at those kind of statistics in that regard. We didn't play well enough, didn't make enough plays with the chance to go win the game, so muddy, sloppy game and limited possessions, you're not going to get a lot of scoring done on either end and that's what you got, a 20-13 game."
(On the Jaguars short yardage offensive success) "Yeah, I think thaw probably had a quarterback sneak in what felt like four or five of them. Those are challenging plays to stop. You would like to see one of them get stopped in there somewhere, but, yeah, when you're in third and one that many times, that's a tough spot to be in defensively. Doesn't give you a whole lot of options to get a stop and they just get six inches and they got a first down."
(On RB Tyjae Spears' performance) "Tyjae played great. I thought Tyjae was having an outstanding day. He got slammed on the ground in that last play and got up wobbly and they took him in and had a concussion, so there's a not much we can do about it, but I thought he was playing really, really well. It was good to see that and unfortunate that we lost him. I thought he was having a really nice game."
(On the offensive penalties in the game) "No, no. The snap slipped. It was just a bad snap and it was a wet ball and then Mason lined up and he went to check with the official and she was going to try to tell him to move back and he looked back inside so she couldn't tell him. He was checking with her to make sure he was good and she was about to tell him to move back, he wasn't quite where he was supposed to be and he had looked back inside, so, I mean, it's one of these things. We've repped that a thousand times. I didn't think that was that challenging of a thing to execute."
(On if today's loss feels different) "No. They all feel terrible, to be honest. We still had a tipped ball turnover and that was the difference in the game. We lost the turnover battle 1-0, and that's been the story of the season as the turnovers are putting ourselves in tough spots and that was ultimately the difference. Again, it was one -- needed to find one play
somewhere and they found one, the turnover, and found a way to score and we didn't get one."
(On how he keeps players from getting numb to losing) "I hope they're not numb to them. I'm sure not. It sucks. It's terrible. It's no -- there's no joy in this process. There's no fun in this. It's terrible. I feel it every day I walk in to work. I feel out every day I stand up here in front of you guys. Nothing is enjoyable about this, so I don't get numb to any of it and I hope nobody gets numb to it. My job is to try to fix it and do whatever we can to fix whatever problems we got to fix to add whatever players we have to add to make sure we have a better football team moving forward."
(On what he tells players heading into the final game of the year) "You got one more game to finish it. They've done everything we've asked in terms of how we work and practice, have come up short too many times but you got one more opportunity to put it on tape. You got one more opportunity to play football and you only are guaranteed 17 games. A lot guys aren't guaranteed a couple shots at playing in the NFL so make the most of it. Play your best football, play as well as you can, prepare the same way you prepared to start the season and try to finish it off right."
(On if he takes solace in knowing the players have done everything his staff has asked of them) "No, there's no solace in that. There's things that are positive that I like to see from the way our football team does things, but, no, solace is the wrong word. I don't -- we got to find a way get better and we got to find a way to put together a team that can go win more games. We lost a lot of close games this year and those are the games we got to find ways to win and right now we haven't done a good enough job of it. So, no, there's no solace in that. Trying everything we can to win and right now we're not winning."
(On his message to people talking about the team's draft position) "That's for you guys to talk about. We don't talk about that. It's not something I ever talk to the team about. It's not something I think about. That's all for news and clicks and conversation and we're focused trying to play one more football game this year and try to win it and that's all I'm really focused on and all I put my energy towards. The rest of it is what it is and we'll talk about the draft another time."
