Sorry for being late. I was just talking to Van (Jefferson). So, I apologize for that. Unfortunately, obviously Jalyn (Armour-Davis), with the Achilles, and Van with the forearm. It's hard when you see guys that work like that, and that's the bad part of the game. Van was rolling, making some big plays, and unfortunately, he gets hurt. So it's tough. Tough way to finish the year for him, both the guys, really. It's tough, the Achilles, going down like that early. It's the bad part of the business. To sum it up, we didn't finish. Simple as that. We did not finish. We got outscored 24-6 in the second half.
Seemed like you guys found some openings in the middle of the field, especially hitting Chim (Dike) in that deep route, seems like you guys didn't attack the middle of the field the rest of the game. Was that by what they were giving you with looks, or was that something that you guys have baked into the game plan?
Well, I think like every play you have, when you're trying to throw the ball downfield and do certain things, certain coverages work out a certain way and other times you don't get that throw. We tried to throw one to Chig (Okonkwo) down there later in the game. So, it was the perfect coverage for the play that we got to hit Chim going across, and it worked out perfect. So, if there's coverage that takes certain things away and change your progressions when the middle of the field's open or middle field's closed or safety, post safety. So that changes from what is the route, what's the progression, things like that.
What'd you like about what you did to get off to a good start? And what maybe did you not do well down the stretch?
I think we were moving the ball, obviously, offensively, throughout the game. We didn't finish enough in the red area. But the way the defense started getting off the field, holding them to field goals, we were more efficient as a team. But just for the team things, if you look at it like, Jeff (Simmons), 10 sacks, 10-sack season, awesome. Once again, he comes out there and does his thing. Tony Pollard, 1,000 yards, four straight seasons. And then the special one, Chim (Dike), most yards in NFL history. Pretty impressive for a rookie. Unbelievable. I don't know all those numbers, and I know some people that he passed. It's just what a phenomenal year through this point in the season. He's got one more to go.
Did you get a good look at the review of the replay to Tyjae (Spears)? Can you kind of just talk us through the thought process of challenging versus not challenging?
There's always going to be—anytime throughout a game, there's always great communication. I think they've done a great job, the officials, with me on the sidelines this year, of going through and communicating of what it was, what they see, when the replay assists. And there's times, too, they can say, they tell you, 'Hey, you can challenge this. You might want to.' It's open. It's been great this year, the dialogue I've had with the officials on our sideline and the communication. Same thing when double moves come up sometimes. I'll tell them, 'Hey, we've got a double move coming.' I think when they communicate that way, it really helps us out. That's why we have the replay assists in what we're doing in the NFL today.
On that play specifically was there something that made you not want to challenge it?
Well, no, there's certain things that come up, and things that are said and you make those decisions as you go.
How did you like the way Cam Ward played to keep some plays alive downfield?
There were definitely some wow plays in there. Obviously, the one play, we can't have the sack fumble for a touchdown. That really hurt our football team. But just continues to get better. He's learning. I just talked to him. This is another game to learn from. There's some certain things were covered downfield and trying to scramble around, make some plays. We had a number of throwaways today. They did a good job of covering certain things. But there are some of those plays, I mean the one that they ruled his knee was down. But, I mean, just even having the ability to get that ball off, he's a special player. Week in and week out, he's starting to show everybody those type of plays that he's going to make, and not just the easy ones, but the ones that are really difficult to make. So it's great to see him do that.
Can you discuss how you prepared for Tyler Shough and how you would rate his performance today.
It's like any game plan. You go into a game plan, Dennard (Wilson) and his staff put a plan together of what we always think, what is the coordinator, in this case, the head coach as the play caller, what is he doing with this player? A younger player, how are they helping him? Is it quick game? Is it play-action? So, all those things, like every game plan you go into. And you always look at how are they—because obviously, they made the change at quarterback. So, as you watch tape over the year, were there certain things they're doing different to help this player to be successful.
I know you haven't watched the tape, obviously, so I want your opinion just generally, maybe not about this game in particular, Cam's time to throw today was the longest by any quarterback since at least 2016. When a guy has that long to throw, you know a pretty long time, in San Francisco a couple weeks as well, what does that generally tell you about how they're seeing the field and how their guys are getting open downfield?
Well, I think it's a combination really, of everything. I'll say one thing, like the fourth down call there's nothing like you have a good running game. That's always going to help the protection, especially when there's play-actions and things like that, a number of them that we ran today. So anytime you have the play-actions, you're going to have a longer time to hold on to the ball, do certain things. When you're efficiently running the game, you're committed to the running game. And I think also as Cam (Ward) extends plays, you know that obviously jumps the numbers up from time-to-time. And I know you referenced it earlier, but I'll have to watch the tape to see exactly, 'Hey, could we have gotten rid of the balls sooner or certain plays? What is it? Were plays covered? Is it a progression?' Something like that. So, I'll have a better answer once I watch it tomorrow.
Maybe a question for later. But as a guy who's been around a lot of NFL teams, you've been doing this for a while now, how close do you feel like this team is to being back where it wants to be in the near future?
I think if you look at how we played the last month of the season, really, you can see the growth of the team. Being 2-1 heading into this game, going to Cleveland, getting the win, unfortunately we came up short in San Francisco. They had the phenomenal game last week [against] Kansas City. You see the way the entire team played, the way we started and started playing today, I think there's so many positives you look at. We knew it was going to be challenging throughout the year and how it was going to go. It's hard to win in the NFL. But I think you see the way Cam's (Ward) starting to play and the more plays he's making. I mean, you've got Jeff (Simmons) on defense. You can't build—he's the pillar of the defense, and the way he played, once again today, it's week in and week out. I think there's been a lot of growth this year on the team. It's great for—there's a bright future here. You look at it and the amount of snaps these rookies have played, you are just speaking offensively, Cam is playing with the three rookies with him in the skilled positions. Those snaps are invaluable for their futures. The amount of snaps that Cam's gotten this year, the way he's improved, it's only going to help the organization, Cam, the offense. Then you look at the amount of plays, really, in the secondary part of Marcus (Harris) and Kevin (Winston Jr.) and, unfortunately, they both got dinged and they're not playing right now. You look at Marcus, and both those guys really, at playing not just one position, but two positions. So I think you look at this rookie class and you say this was a really good group moving forward. Give Mike (Borgonzi) and the whole staff credit for the guys we brought in here to help us get to where we are today. They've got a really, really bright future. The thing I love about them, too, is that they truly love the game. They are the first ones in, the last ones to leave often. And you guys wrote the article early about Cam being here bright and early in the offseason. And that's how they all are. I mean, you walk in, by a room, late at night sometimes, and they're all sitting in there watching tape. So, they've all got a really bright future. It's great to see.
