Panthers Live Press Conference
[Music] Everybody happy. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I’m going to [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] feel. [Music] Here we go. [Music] I did not care. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] First and foremost, give credit to the Saints for executing a game plan. Uh they came in here, they had a style about how they were going to do it. um came out with some big plays, some explosives, which is an area that we have to make sure that we uh shore up there. Uh some great one-on-one opportunities they took advantage of. We turned the ball over twice, they didn’t um you know, we were fortunate, you know, got the ball back after the uh pat and didn’t turn that into points right there. Uh that was certainly a big one in the game. Um missed opportunities uh across the board and um you know, I just I look at it and I got to do a better job. I got to do a better job of making sure that we have answers and compliments to our run game. They did a fantastic job taking care of that part of it and uh we hit a couple of passes but not enough. Um I got to make sure that we get put our heads together and game plan so that we have answers uh for when team make it difficult to run the ball. Dave, why is this this passing game struggle to create consistent vertical plays? Yeah, that’s something we’re working on. You know, it’s uh it’s just taking advantage of those opportunities one-on-one down the field and you know, comes down to just me to you factor and making those plays. Um, at the same time, from a game plan standpoint, I got to make sure we’re putting our guys in the right spots, taking advantage of matchups. What were the Saints receivers doing to keep this secondary off balance? Uh, they just made their plays. Uh, some phenomenal one-on-one opportunities. You know, obviously the long touchdown. Um, JC would be the first one to tell you, you know, you can stay up and make that play right there. And, um, you know, Ave made another one-handed grab right in front of our sideline. You know, they came up with a couple of big plays there. Extended on a couple of, uh, of, you know, off the pock rhythm throws. Uh Tyler Shuck did a great job of extending the play, finding guys down the field in the extension of it. We have to do a better job containing him there and then making sure we stay attached. Um we did not get that done. JC seemed to be asking for OPI on that play from what you saw. I mean I I I don’t know. I’ll have to look at it. I’ll have to look at the replay on that one. But you know, I think he’d be the first one here to tell you and take take responsibility for the one-on-one opportunities regardless of what’s happening on the other side. We got to make sure that we stay on top and make those plays. What what are the limitations in the passing game that you think are holding this offense back? Right. I think it’s just timing and rhythm, but also it’s the choices. Um the type of passes, you know, that’s something that starts with me and I got to make sure I look at that and make sure we’re putting our guys in the right situations with the matchup and leverages that we’re working with uh to give them access u so that Bryce feels confident to throw to the guys in different spots. What did you see on the interception in the fourth quarter? Uh just a good play by the uh Buzz defender. He ran underneath number one outside. um made a great play on the ball. You know, Bryce would love, I’m sure he’d tell you, he’d love to have that one back. Um but it was a really nice play by Alante Taylor. Give him credit for that. Bryce in the locker room after what feels like maybe a let down here. Yeah, just you know, frustration, you know, um because we didn’t play our version of football. That was not us. That we can’t have that. We can’t give up big plays and we can’t turn the ball over. offense has to be more opportun opportunistic and take advantage of of some of the situations where the defense made some adversity stops for us and got us the ball back over and over in the second half and we didn’t come away with anything off of it. Were you surprised with the way they handled the offensive independence? Are you surprised the way they handled the offense and defensive front? Surprised by how they did? No, this was a this is a team that, you know, regardless of their record, they’ve been playing hard. They got a good group of veteran guys to make it difficult. They have excellent schemes and all that and they put it together today and we didn’t take advantage of our plays. Dave, when you guys can’t run the ball consistently, you have struggled. You have struggled mightily to kind of keep pace, how do you find answers in the passing game when you know, Rico proves to be human right now? Yeah, that’s what we’re working on and we got to make sure we take advantage of that those the loaded line of scrimmage. You know, we got a couple plays, you know, out there. Um, just trying to find those right styles for our guys based on what the coverage is that they’re playing us. Dave, it seemed like defensively you guys, they kept you guys in it, but in particular, Nick Sport was everywhere in the back field today. Where have you seen his growth from day one till now? He’s taking great strides. Uh, week in and week out, he gets better and he’s he’s into it. He’s working hard. He’s improving. He’s taking to the coaching and and applying it to the game. Um, so I’m really proud of him for that, you know, but there there are some technique things, uh, some little stuff that we got to make sure that we’re really disciplined on, you know, starting with the run game and certainly with our pass rushing lanes and, you know, letting Tyler get out a couple of times to make these plays. We got to do a better job there. What did you see from the miss field goal? I a block. I just saw a good push. Um we knew that about this group. Uh they’re they’re a big group, really physical on the inside. You know, they have their best guys out there pushing the guards and doing things and they executed it, you know, really to perfection and get the ball down and um you know, we hustled to get the ball back once it advanced past the line of scrimmage. You know, they were reviewing that for a while, but um it was just a really well executed block. Was the kick low or um I I didn’t I don’t know. I I’ll have to look at it again, you know, to see if it was more if it was lower than normal. I just know that they got good push and got their hands up. This team has been pretty opportunistic this season to to have the two turnovers come when they did after the sort of extra chance with the block field goal and then the the fourth down stop. How deflating was that? It was frustrating, you know, but we have to go to the next drive and and hope that we can get another opportunity to try to turn this game around. So, um in the moment, you just got to go to the next drive. You got to refocus. you know, as we sit here and look back at it, we’re sick about the opportunities that we missed. Dave, what are you seeing from Legette? I mean, he just doesn’t seem to be much of a factor and certain times he just kind of disappears. I I think X is running fast. Um, he’s doing everything we ask of him. You know, I think if you just broaden it out a little bit and look at the full group, we need better execution in general. Um, and that starts with me, that starts with myself, and making sure that we have the right schemes for our guys. What were your Dave, on the jet sweep where Horn fumbled? What did he think he was getting the ball there? What happened? Absolutely. It was just a poor exchange and we got to make sure that we’re sharper on all those little things. Can you just say how your overall assessment of Bryce today? It looked like probably one of his worst performs. I think just generally it’s our group making sure that we we are advancing our pass game so that we could be a balanced offense and um making sure that we know yes, we can run the football, but there are going to be days like this where a team is really stout and they play us well. We have to be able to adjust and go to that next phase of our game. um and make that come alive. Following up on that, what are your thoughts on how Bryce is throwing the ball? I think he’s throwing the ball great. Um I think he’ll have some plays that he’ll tell you that he would like to have back. But in general, this is not about Bryce. This is about me. This is about our group. This is about us taking the steps so we can be a balanced offense. Do a couple more. Was team act 100% today or how close was He looked great. Yeah, he looked great to me. Do you feel like you guys are spreading the ball around enough? See, like prior to Bryce’s injury, he was kind of, you know, to everybody, but like the last couple of games, it’s been pretty much situated on T-Mac and and a few others. I think general pass game success will get the ball distributed. Um, but we have to find that rhythm and the ball will find guys in different zones, uh, different areas based on where the read goes. Um, you know, we certainly try to make team an emphasis of what we’re doing and, uh, that continues to be a part of what we’re doing, you know, but, um, we count on the other guys to make those plays as well, but I think it’s just collectively where we have to go as a pass game. Was there any possibility that, you know, you’re seeing six and four right ahead of you? Was there any possibility that you that that y’all might have looked past the Saints this week? I certainly hope not. Our our approach is to come back to work every week regardless of the opponent. We’re in pursuit of our best football. that was not our best today. Um, and we did not let the things that we’ve been successful with come alive today. So, we have to make sure that we take the next opponent um, and look at what they’re doing and have that type of mentality. Our mindset has to be to find our best, find our best football. It can’t depend on who the opponent is and how you respect a bunch of pros and every week they’re going to bring a bus full of pros every week. And so, we have to make sure that we’re detailed, we’re locked in, and get back on track with our with our work. Do you have an update on class? Uh Trevan, we’re evaluating him for uh right shoulder. So I’ll have we’ll have more information as the week goes on. All right. Thank you. [Music] Now we know. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I’m happy. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Remember [Music] anything? [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Green. [Music] Down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] control. [Music] I can’t Everything. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, well down well. [Music] [Music] [Music] reflecting. What’s going through your mind after this one? Uh, no one likes losing. So, still in the 24 hours. Doesn’t feel great. We’ll flush it tomorrow and get back to work. Bryce, why is this offense struggling so much to push the ball vertically? Uh, I gota take accountability. I got to be better. Um, we got to execute. We got to do better stuff. It’s on us. Give credit to that defense. It’s a good group. We respect them, but we got to execute and it starts with me. What do you think happened on the interception? A bad bad read, bad ball. Again, 100% my fault. That’s on me. I got to be better. What did you think he saw the defender there? Bad read on his own coverage. Again, he did good play. Um, in respect to our opponent, have to do a better job. That’s on me. On the fumble, was that what happened? I take accountability for that. Regardless what it is, I touched the ball. It should uh it should we should end with the ball. Um, we got to we got to focus better. We got to execute better. I got to execute better. Um, you know, we uh we got to be better. So, uh, we’ll we’ll get back to work tomorrow. So, frustrating is it to get, you know, five and four maybe in the playoff hunt if you get a win today. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. There’s no long-term. We’re We were 0 and0 going into this game. Now we’re 0 and one and that sucks. So, um, uh, we got to turn the page. Turnovers have been an issue so far this season. What do you think you can do to keep the turnovers from constantly having the ball out of harm’s way? Yeah, I got to keep the ball out of harm’s way. That’s on me. I have to um I have to make better decisions. I have to do a better job with the ball as a as a quarterback, as a leader, it all falls on my shoulders. I have to be better with that. I I’ll work to be better. We’ve seen you after losses, but it seems like I don’t know what demeanor seems like this one is hitting differently. Does this one hit differently? No, nothing’s different. Um no one likes to lose. I certainly don’t. No one in that locker room wants to lose. No one’s happy in there. Um, I’m grateful to have a lot of competitors around me. Um, no one’s no one’s in a great mood right now. Um, sucks right now. It is what it is. We’ll own it. We’ll live it. We’ll turn the page tomorrow. We’ll we’ll learn what we have to get better at and then we’ll we’ll we’ll grow. How do you balance flushing and there still feeling some confidence knowing this group? How can you help in that moving forward this week? Yeah, we we’re of I have all the confidence in the world in this group and this team. There’s no place I’ I’d rather be. Um, it sucks because we didn’t get it done today. We know we’re better than that as a team. Um, and you only get so many opportunities in this league and in in in life. You only get so many opportunities and for us to leave one out there. Again, we respect our opponent. They they execute. They did things better than us today and they deserve to win. Um, but to to leave opportunity, it it sucks. Um, the the the other blessing and other side of that is there’s one next week. So, we’re going to learn from it right now. It’s it is what it is and then we’ll turn the page. Bryce, given the resilience of this group, how much momentum did you guys feel like you had coming into the fourth quarter after after the defense got that first stop? We’re always confident. Um, you know, we always want the ball. We always um believe in what we can do with it. We didn’t execute that today. Um, again, that’s on me. I I I I take that that’s and we have a group of guys that are accountable. We have to be better. Um, but we we know who we are. We know what we’re capable of. Um, that confidence doesn’t change. That uh you know that that faith and belief in each other doesn’t change. It just sucks we didn’t get done today. What did you see after I mean you guys drive you take the opening kickoff you drive down and get a touchdown score the rest of the game. What did you see that they adjusted to maybe or what was different moving after that? They executed better than we did. Um you know at the end of the day it’s it’s it’s players we got to make the plays work. Coach had a plan. Um you know we we called the right plays. There are enough plays out there for us to make and we didn’t make them. Again that that falls on my shoulders. That’s on me. Um as a unit we all take ownership in that. Um and and we have to be more efficient. So it was just execution. What happened on the handoff to Jimmy? Again, just just just just not executing. Um, again, it touched my hands. It’s I I fumble the ball. That’s on me. You know, I always take that. Jimmy came up to me and took accountability because that’s the type of competitor and the person he is. But, you know, again, it’s it’s at the end of the day, I’m I’m the guy who touched the ball. It’s on me. So, uh, we have to get that out of our system. Um, you know, that’s uh stuff have to be better. We all have to be better as a as a team. Agitated with this one. you haven’t any all year. Is that fair to say? And what? Again, it’s it’s it’s one week. I I don’t like to lose. No one likes to lose. Um I’m definitely frustrated. Uh but that frustration doesn’t isn’t with the team. That’s not with anybody. That’s not with frustrated because we didn’t win. We didn’t execute. We didn’t be the best that best version of ourselves that we’re chasing that we know we can be. And again, it’s not just me. We’re all, you know, we’re all competitors. We all want to win. But, you know, at the end of the day, again, I’m grateful to be here. I have all the confidence in the world in in in these guys. It it sucks. It’s it’s not fun. And you know, until we get to go back and watch the tape and correct it, it’s it’s it’s going to sting. But um again, I I have all the faith in the world this group. I I love the guys that I get to work with. I love being part of this building, this organization. Um so that’s, you know, we’ll we’ll get to that point. [Music]
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