What did you feel like happened on the pick six early, was that just a good play by the defense there?
I'd just call it a good play.
With (Jaire) Alexander sitting on that, did you not see him, or did not you think he was going to…?
I thought he had enough access to–I threw it on time. I thought, putting it on the outside shoulder, I think, I'll watch the film, but maybe I could have done a better job of just seeing him stay put and throw it over his head. But quick game, we're trying to take the easiest hitch there. And I thought I had it and obviously didn't.
When you look at today, how much do you give credit to them for making plays? How much again on this team for not doing its job well enough and making mistakes?
It's a great defense. Obviously, the unscouted looks, I feel like played into their advantage a little bit today. We weren't ready for a couple of those things. I got to be able to do a better job reacting to a couple of those things. They're masking a couple of those looks. We were running man plays into zone. I just got to be better of when those things happen of finding the completions and knowing where our options are. But I haven't watched it yet, obviously, and we'll see kind of if there were things that I had missed or could have done better in those areas. But I'll give credit to them. But we definitely didn't do our job on offense to the best of our ability.
How frustrated are you with yourself that this team hasn't been able to get over the hump yet?
Yeah, I'm this team's quarterback. Every time we take the field and succeed or are defeated, I feel like it's on me. So it's—at least I am a big part of that and I know that. And I have to make sure that I bring my A-game every Sunday to not put our team in tough spots like I have in these few games with the few plays I've made with turning the ball over. And it's tough. I can only look inwardly as to what I can do and then also just do my best to rally everybody else around me. But yeah, it's tough. I'm the quarterback of an 0-3 football team, that's not something that anyone ever wants to say.
Will (Levis), during the week you mentioned needing to rewire your brain. What does that process look like and how can you streamline that this season?
Yeah, it's not like anything that I feel like I can actually like talk to a sports psychologist and fix it like that. It's just getting better. It's just getting better and trusting my process and how I approach my preparation for a game. I think throughout this past week I did a good job with me and my coaches of adding that layer of preparation in, of just getting the extra mental reps of situational football and just things that you can maybe remind yourself before certain plays and situations to not put your team in a worse spot. So yeah, just continuing to work on that and getting better in that area.
Will (Levis), the challenge to get any kind of comfort or rhythm when the pressure is like it was today, especially in the second half?
I just got to react to it and just play with what I have. And obviously it's not going to be a clean pocket every time, I know that. And I've got confidence in those guys to give me the time that I need. But it's making me better, too, though. It's knowing that when there is something in your face and you can't read it out with the timing that you need to get back to the checkdown. I feel like there were a couple of plays today that were like that, that were good to see just because you need to make those type of plays when those things happen, and you can save them essentially. And I think those are plays last year where I might have just been holding on to the ball and taking the sack where we improved a little bit there, I guess. But yeah, it's something that we all got to get better on. I know those guys up front take a lot of pride in what they do, and they want to come in next week and show that they're better than what they put on tape today.
On the scoring drives, it seemed like you found a rhythm. What are some that you liked or plays that were called that you were more comfortable with?
No I think just our openers, we were very comfortable with them. We knew kind of how that first drive was going to look if we were going to get it going. And it was great. It was great for us to respond to their opening score and go down and make it happen. I think that the other one was just like we were able to just kind of start dropping back and throwing a little more. And that was fun just to be able to kind of read things out and take what they give me. A few concepts we had up were dialed up, so that was nice. And I think I just could have done a better job of that towards the end. I was just kind of pressing and trying to get a big run. Yeah, it sucks. But I feel like those two drives were a lot of fun and I got to do more of that.
Are you surprised at all by just the defense today? They've stopped the run fairly well throughout the two games and clearly not able to do that today with (Malik) Willis?
They played well offensively on Green Bay. Malik (Willis) played a good game; he didn't turn the ball over and they ran the ball pretty well. We only had I think 18 plays in that first half and that's credit to them to be able to maintain that possession and run the ball well. And on us we're handing it to them with turnovers. We're last in the league in turnovers. No turnovers on our end. You're not going to win football games when it's like that.
Brian Callahan without hesitation said you're the quarterback moving forward. But he also said that they can't continue to lose games with that amount of turnovers. So for you personally, where are you at confidence wise as well as a sense of urgency to get things turned around to maintain your position?
Yeah, I'm still confident. He said it again in the locker room like it's just something needs to click with this team and we're just waiting for it. I think our week of practice and how we handled ourselves this week, we had an excellent week of practice, we really thought that this was going to be our turning point. And it sucks that it wasn't. But we're going to keep working every day to try to make it happen next week. We recuperate on the bye week and then have a great last 14 weeks of the season.
Do you feel at all like you're maybe pressing, trying too hard to make things happen?
Not until that last pick. I mean, down a couple of scores, I'm trying to get an explosive. I don't know—just don't throw it, take whatever the completion. But no, I didn't feel like I was pressing at any point other than that play maybe.
Were you impressed by Malik's (Willis) play and did you get a chance to talk to him?
Yeah, I just saw him right afterwards and we talked. And I was. I think that obviously they did some things that our defense wasn't 100 percent prepared for. And that's on him for being able to execute those things and put the ball in play. And like I said, just protect the football. So, happy for him. When he got in there last week, I was pumped for him. And then obviously just rooting for him other than when he plays us. So, it was great to see him afterwards—him and Sean (Clifford) who it's kind of a cool little reunion for me.
