We didn’t do enough to give ourselves a chance. We got to be prepared more. Starts with me. We to to give ourselves an opportunity to compete in these games. And so too many penalties, too many missed opportunities, big special teams plays early in this game that put us behind it. And I appreciate our guys’ battle through the second half. They didn’t quit. I do appreciate that. But this is going to be a very powerful lesson for our guys on adversity and how we respond, and simply, we can’t start the football game like that with the sequence that we had and put ourselves in a really poor situation.
Why do you think this team was so unprepared at the start of this game?
Starts with me. Obviously we didn’t do good enough. We missed the fourth down opportunity there, penalty when we got them stopped to kick a field goal, we got a 100 percent control penalty, dumb penalty on our part. And then we had three big special teams plays in a row. We got to do a better job of putting ourselves in better situations.
What’s sort of your message to the team after a loss? You talk about adversity, but how do you kind of keep it going?
I think that’s what it’s about. It’s a test of adversity. It’s how you respond. You have to narrow your focus, look at the items that are good and certainly recognize those, but again, we did not do enough to start the game to put ourselves in a really good position to be competitive there. And so there’s no one is going to feel bad for you. No one is going to come save you or anything. We got to put in a bunch of work, and we gotta get better right now and put ourselves in better position moving forward.
How would you describe this team’s discipline right now?
We’re not clean enough. We’re not clean enough. Too many penalties, again, and too many of them they’re under our control. There’s judgment penalties in every single game. But the ones that we can control we can’t have that. We got to do a better job.
You mentioned the three special teams plays in a row. Like what did you see that was going wrong against on you special teams?
That’s a great question. I think obviously they took advantage of a couple opportunities. They had a really good design on kick return, the punt block, we gotta be better there. Punt return, again, they made a play. So we gotta do a better job there certainly, and that will be something for us to certainly spend a lot of time this week getting better.
Was the punt return touchdown just a matter of like outkicking the coverage on that?
Great question. I’ll have to look at it more closely, but certainly, yeah, you can kick it deep, but we still got an opportunity to get that one down and get ourselves back in position.
In your history when penalties like that and slow starts like that have become a consistent theme, how can coaching overcome that or where can you pinpoint that?
We got to do a great job of studying this. There’s no throwing this film away and just move on. This is a 100 percent we have to evaluate every little item that happened today and get better from it. Again, we did not put ourselves in a good enough position to start the game. It starts with me. And we got to find the solution.
Obviously nitpicking with the scoreboard the way it was, but how come the decision was to go for the field goal in the first half?
Just taking points at that point. We just got to get some momentum going our way. So obviously we knew it was an uphill battle at that point, and we’re going to have to be really perfect to have any chance moving forward.
I mean the one before halftime in particular when you were on the five-yard line, I mean was it because you felt like a field goal could help you
Yeah, felt like we needed to earn some points out of that drive. We got some points, and we’ll see if we can stop them and get ourselves at least in a position where you gotta play the game perfect to have a chance, but we just needed to get something going.
On that note, I know we’ve asked you about Blake Grupe before. Are you concerned about him? I know that was a long field goal.
It was a longer one. We got to find a way. We just got to keep getting better, and that’s all we can do.
Heat of the moment coming right out of the game, but how do you go about establishing the accountability when it comes to repeated issues like penalties and things like that?
I think it’s something we have to spend a lot of time, acknowledge, talk through and obviously understand it’s something we can’t play that way, then obviously we got to find the guys who can. But I have all the confidence in the world these guys will respond the right way. This is going to be a really valuable lesson for us today. It’s going to be a really valuable lesson. Our guys are going to learn from this. It doesn’t feel good at all but again, no one is going to come help you. We got to dig in together and find the solutions.
Does anything strike you about maybe what you need to do differently in terms of preparation?
Obviously it’s something we’ll have to study. Obviously we’re not — we did not play up to our standards today. So I got to find what parts that we can improve on, get better at. And we’ll find it.
The penalties (no audio).
We’re playing the battle the right way. I don’t take that for granted. Guys are competing each and every play. Certainly the second half our guys are still going for it, which I certainly appreciate. We got to knock down the hard situations, and there’s competitive situations. Again, we always talk about there’s big plays that change games, and they can happen in any of the four quarters. Whether it’s the beginning of the game, towards the end, we just got to find a way to be more consistent.
I know it’s easier said than done to suggest getting the ball down field more, but these 10, 12, 14-play drives when things are going well, is that by design how you want to play these teams?
Yeah, I think at the end of the day it’s really hard when you put yourself behind like that. They can sit there and play on top of everything. They’re up by 28-plus points, whatever it is. So they’re going to make you earn it. They’re going to make you go the long way. We do have to find a way to get down field more on which. That’s certainly the goal and the aspiration, but we got to put ourselves in position to actually be able to accomplish that.
What did you think about Spencer’s play?
I thought Spencer played fine. He gave us some opportunities. He did some good things. We just got in too many obvious pass situations where we weren’t able to get the explosive plays, and I got to find a way to put him and help him be in better positions.
Despite the loss, what does it mean to you coming back to your home state being the head coach of the New Orleans Saints?
Obviously I think a lot of us, we all have different experiences in this NFL. We all have hometowns in different spots. Obviously I appreciate my time here. I do love this place, but it’s far from my thoughts right now, to be honest.
Both times you guys have tried the tush pushes here you guys have been penalized. Is that overstating things to makes a direct correlation between how much you practice it versus how it looks?
Yeah. Right now we’re 0 for 2, and we’ve invested a lot of time in it, and we’re 0 for 2. So obviously we got to get better there.
Quincy Riley seemed like he entered the game even before a lot of the backups started entering the game.
Yeah. He played a little bit more. We kind of anticipated that being the formula. Play him a little bit more, just get him a little bit more in the rotation and we’ll just kind of see how all that progresses.
Kool-Aid was healthy at that time?
Just because of safety of avoiding any assumptions, the decision to go to Tyler Shough, can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yeah. I just wanted to get as many of those young guys in and get them a couple snaps in the game at that point. Obviously we weren’t going to win the football game. Try and get Tyler a few reps in the situation.
When you have this kind of start to the season, is it too early to start considering personnel changes? Do you look at that already?
No. Our job is to get better right now and just get better and put ourselves in a really good position to be successful. And so we’re not there yet. We’re 0-3 so far. Doesn’t feel good for anyone, but we got opportunities ahead of ourselves, and we got a group of guys that need to look forward, and they will look forward and get better this week and go for it next week.
Do you think that challenging environment here played a factor?
Obviously we had a couple penalties on the offensive line with the presnap. Those, again, under our control. We got to do a better job there. But, again, we got behind it. We got behind in a tough environment, too early, and that’s a challenging formula in this league.
Was Tyler like an emergency option today?
Yeah, a little bit. He was just getting back into it. He had a great week. So we’ll see how it progresses this week.
You said a couple of times here today that this whole thing starts with you. What’s kind of like the first thing comes to mind with you that stands out that I want to do that better, I want to improve this or whatever it may be?
Obviously we got to be prepared and put ourselves in the best position to be successful. You got to eliminate all the silly things. We need our guys to just play fast, free and confident, and we gotta get there. And, again, we got to find the formula. We got to look into this film really, really closely and hold each other accountable. Starts with me, again, and we’ll find a solution.