HC Freddie Kitchens (8.23.19)
(On the overall team execution)
“It was a frustrating night all the way around. Defensively, I thought we did an incredible job of being physical and setting the tone of the game. We came out to affect the quarterback and I think those guys did that and I think they did really well the whole first half. They defended every blade of grass, it doesn’t matter how far the drive is, just keep defending the grass and those guys did that. Offensively we didn’t execute, not even close to where we want to go.”
(On taking consolation in not having all of the starting offense in)
“Not at all, those guys are coached to execute. Those guys are coached to do their job and we didn’t do a very good job of preparing those guys to do their job and they didn’t do a good job of doing their job. We’ll look at the film and see what it was but I know that the execution wasn’t there and it had been before. Those guys have played in other previous games and they performed in practice and they’re expected to perform. Whoever goes out there is expected to perform. We don’t care who it is.”
(On the strong night from the kicking game)
“That’s pretty good, huh? I like that. I like it a lot, that’s what he’s [Austin Siebert] supposed to do. I will reiterate, I just want to know what we’re getting when they cross the white line. From a skill position, from a kicker, from an offensive line, from a defensive line, from a DB, from a corner, I just want to know what we’re getting and then we can make adjustments from there.”
(On if the plan was to give Austin Seibert all the kicks)
“It was. That was the plan.”
(On if the kicking plan will change the next game)
“We haven’t – we’re trying to finish up this game first, evaluate this game.”
(On who is to blame for the first team offense struggles)
“I just know it didn’t get executed, I’m not trying to place blame tonight on anybody. We’re going to evaluate the tape, we’re going to make corrections. It wasn’t very good all the way around. We have to see what it says, but I promise you it gets corrected, one way or the other. We had people around the quarterback all day too. It wasn’t just one position or one anything. Execution wasn’t there and that’s the whole group. That’s not the quarterback, that’s not the receivers, that’s not the offensive line, that’s not the tight ends. We had inopportune penalties. We got down there in the red zone, first-and-goal from the five and we end up kicking a field goal from the [12]. That’s unacceptable, it’s not going to be acceptable and we’ll figure out why it happened – bad technique, bad execution, bad plays, bad play call. It could be any damn thing. We’re not going to start placing blame tonight, we’re in this thing together. We’ll figure out what it is and fix the problem.”
(On David Blough’s performance helped his chance of making the team)
“We’ll see. We have another week and a half. You don’t have to make cuts now until after the last preseason game so we’ll see. I’m very pleased with how David’s performed. He went in and took us down the field and gave us a chance for a score – a touchdown there. We didn’t get it done, we were 0-for-4 in the red zone. You not going to win many games when you’re 0-for-4 in the red zone. Now it was good to see the kicker. I’d like to tell you that we meant to do that so the kicker could kick the ball, but hell we didn’t. So I’d rather see, can we kick extra points? We were 0-for-4 in the red zone and probably terrible on third down. I haven’t seen the stats yet, but I don’t remember too many third downs getting converted. You’re not going to win many games like that. I’m glad this one didn’t count. Everybody is happy as hell whenever we are winning these games. I’m happy as hell when we lose them because they don’t count. Hopefully we’ll get them all out now.”
(On Braxton Miller’s production despite not practicing)
“He was ready to go. I think he was a bright spot, though. We got the ball in his hands and you could tell he was explosive with the ball. I’m anxious to see what he does this week and see if he can continue to get better.”
(On keeping the desire to win preseason games)
“I approach every game, if they keep score I want to win and they kept score in this one. Whether it’s preseason our job as coaches is to put these guys out there in situations to be successful, whoever walks out between those lines. Whoever it is, I want them to have success. I want them to generate some confidence from having success. I don’t think we did very much of that tonight. I can’t really think, besides the kicker and defense, I can’t really think of good execution anywhere else.”
(On Kareem Hunt)
“I like Kareem, he’s a good player. I like his explosiveness, I like his ability to make people miss, I like his speed, I like his hands. I like a lot of things about Kareem. I think he’s right where he needs to be. It’s hard to answer just because he’s coming off of a groin. He’s been with us probably a week now, as far as doing things, a week now, a little bit longer than that probably. I think the Wednesday when we went to Indianapolis was his first day, really first day back. Kareem is fine, he knows what to do, knows how to do it and knows when to do it.”
(On the run game and the lack of execution)
“We didn’t just line them up and execute wildly good in the run game. I’ll reiterate, the kicking game and defense were about the only things that were executed good tonight. Everything offensively, with the exception of maybe a couple of throws and a couple of run after catches, execution was very poor. I did a poor job of preparing them for this third preseason game.”
(On if he will play starters in the fourth preseason game)
“Not a chance, not even remotely possible.”
(On the starting defensive line and its impact)
“I think when you set out to do something from a defensive perspective and you do it, that’s good. A lot like we did offensively in the first preseason game when we did a two-minute offense. I still think the defensive front is one of our strengths of our team and they just got to play and they’ve got to play well. They can’t take anything for granted and just they got to keep playing play after play and they did a good job of that tonight.”
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