HC Kevin Stefanski (10.30.23)
Opening statement:
“Okay, I’ll update you guys on injuries Wednesday. Still got a lot of information incoming. You know, yesterday, obviously very disappointed when you watch the tape and in the moment, just not to come away with a win there. We didn’t finish. You have the lead in the fourth quarter late, and we didn’t finish the game. And that’s frustrating. Obviously, we’ll learn from it. We’ll be better because of it, and then we’ll turn our attention to a big one this week at home in front of our fans. And with that, I’ll take any questions.”
A lot of debate over the third and three play. Why did you opt to pass the ball there?
“You know, we had options there, Tom (Withers). I felt good about our group. Obviously, you’d prefer an incompletion there, you know it stops the clock at the two-minute [warning]. We knew that. And obviously, you would have preferred a run for a gain of zero one or two or get it. All of that’s true, but the result didn’t go the way we wanted. That’s the truth. But you just got to continue to just do what you think is best for your team.”
P.J. (Walker) is trying to throw to Amari (Cooper) there, and I think he’s got Elijah (Moore) in the slot. And then obviously, Jerome (Ford) comes open late, and it seemed like P.J. had already committed. There is Ford, then his second read or maybe even his third on that play?
“You know, with that play, I don’t want to get into all the specifics, Tom, but you have options on that play. But ultimately, it didn’t work out how we hoped it would.”
Off of that, you practice at ball security and you guys preach ball security all the time, but what can you do like this week in practice to prevent situations like that, to prevent those costly late game turnovers?
“Yeah, all those turnovers are costly, and that’s frustrating. We lead the league in giveaways right now with 17, and it’s hard. It’s hard to win in the NFL, period. It’s hard to win on the road. It’s hard to win when you turn the ball over. So, we have to really, really commit ourselves as an offense not to give that thing away. Obviously, it’s a team stat in terms of takeaways. That can happen on defense and special teams. But first things first, we have to take care of that football.”
I’m sure that defense was maybe a little bit disappointed, frustrated in themselves that hey weren’t able to get that final stop. What was their response to not being able to do that and giving up that late game touchdown on the other end?
“Yeah, as you know, our defense played really well for a long stretch of that game. That’s part of finishing. That’s why we all share in this thing. Offense, defense, special teams, players, coaches. We share in it. We didn’t finish the game like we can.”
Kevin, I know you mentioned that you will update injuries later in the week, but can you just give us any idea whatsoever what the outlook is or what the feeling is on Deshaun’s (Watson) chances whatsoever this week? Is he making progress? Are you hopeful? Can you characterize it in any way?
“Yeah, I just would tell you Mary Kay (Cabot), he’s continuing to come along. We’ll make those types of decisions later on in the week.”
Kevin, you know, it is easy to focus on that last play, but I want to go back to the first quarter. What happened to the defense that allowed Seattle to get those two early touchdowns?
“Yeah, I mean, we settled in after those early drives. It’s always multiple things, Jeff (Schudel). There were a couple of times we were out of our gap, maybe didn’t get a guy on the ground with a tackle here and there, but they had some good plays. They made some plays which we knew they were certainly capable of doing. But our defense then settled in and played really, really good football, and that was early in the game. I think the sense on our sideline was it was going to be a long game and we just had to hang in there as a team.”
Hey, Kevin, to go back to that third and three again, obviously, you have not your starting quarterback in there. How much do you take that into account when you’re making that kind of decision?
“Yeah, I think you take everything into account, Scott (Petrak). I think you take all of your players, certainly the quarterback, things that have been working throughout the game, run, pass, you name it. So, you try to make all those things factor into really every decision.”
And then did you feel the need to talk to Kareem (Hunt) after what he said after the game?
“You know, I will talk to Kareem like I talk to all of our guys. Kareem wants to help this football team. Pleased with really all of those running backs. I thought they all ran hard. They made plays in the pass game as well. I thought we had a good balance of all those guys, but I like players that want to help the football team.”
Is there a reason he wasn’t used at all in the fourth quarter?
“No, just a balance of using all of our guys, really, is what it was.”
Coach, how do you keep the team encouraged? I mean, it’s a heartbreaking loss that seemed like that defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory, so to speak, a game that pretty much you all were in control until the end. And then with the third and three call, it just kind of seems like the running backs didn’t have a chance to put this game away. So how do you keep your team encouraged as far as going to this next game, which is real crucial against Arizona?
“Yeah, I think our football team is a bunch of pros that understand where we are in our season. We’re not even halfway through this season. You’re right. it’s a disappointing loss. They all hurt. Every loss hurts. They all sting. What we do is we learn from them and then we don’t take them with us. You identify things that you want to correct. You do that and then you move on. That’s about being a pro in the NFL. These games come at you every week and this one is the most important game in our life because it’s the next one versus Arizona.”
Looking at the quarter-by-quarter scoring breakdowns for the season, I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me, but I know the first quarter is the largest disparity for you guys where you’re getting outscored. Is there any commonality that you guys are noticing with these defensive, maybe the first drive doesn’t go as planned or things like that are allowing opponents to get so many points on the board in the opening quarters?
“I think it’s a small sample size right this minute, I would say. And our focus is to play good offense, good defense for 60 minutes. We understand that it’s a challenge and sometimes you’re going to get an opening script from an offense that’s going to have a couple of beaters, if you will, and they may make a few plays here and there, but our focus is just to play sound team football for 60 minutes.”
The flip side of that, I mean, the fact that these guys do seem to bounce back, even if they do give up an early score, too. Just what that said about the defense’s resolve or whatever you want to call it so far this year.
“Yeah, I’d call it resilience. I think our team understands that these games can be nip and tuck. That’s the NFL, it’s going to be close games. So again, I mentioned it earlier, we got in an early hole, but the guys fought out of it, you know, that’s kind of what these guys are made of.”
Hey, coach, I know with Deshaun (Watson) we’re unsure, but if he cannot go, would P.J. (Walker) start or is there any possibility you would look at the rookie (Dorian Thompson-Robinson)?
“Yeah, we’ll make again, all those determinations roster-wise are for later in the week.”
What about Donovan Peoples-Jones, it seems he’s kind of disappeared this season after a lot of catches last year? I don’t think he had any yesterday.
“Yeah, nothing. He continues to be dependable for us. Ball sometimes finds the way to other guys. I know Amari (Cooper) obviously had a bunch of targets in that game. But that’s all it is.”
Kevin, what did you like yesterday about the balance between both the pass game and the run game and just how that’s developed over the course of the season?
“Yeah, I thought the guys did a nice job with the plan, with what we were trying to do in the run and the pass game. Like we mentioned. got all the running backs involved, had a good number of rushes, which we felt was going to be important there, but ultimately need to finish the game like we’ve talked about. But I thought the understanding of the plan was there.”
Kevin, can you let us know or give us an idea of your thoughts? With the trade deadline coming tomorrow, do you feel the need to bolster certain positions on your roster or do you feel fairly comfortable with what you have at this point?
“I like our football team, Mary Kay (Cabot), as you know, Andrew (Berry) and the personnel department, they work through all those types of things, but I like our football team.”
On both sides of the ball. Pierre Strong and then Mo (Maurice) Hurst, both making really big plays. For those guys to kind of have earned their spot and their way up into these roles and to provide that kind of depth and talent there, what has that meant to this football team, to have guys like that in kind of every area?
“Yeah, it’s really important, Cam (Justice). Mo has been with us since the spring so has a real good understanding of what we’re doing and continues to give us really good reps. And then Pierre obviously was a later add onto our football team but got up to speed and then right away made an impact on special teams and did a great job and has done a great job for us there. And then his role has grown on offense as we’ve seen. I think he continues to take strides there as well.”
Hey, Kevin, I know you said you’re going to update injuries later in the week. Are you worried that there’s anything serious coming out of yesterday’s game?
“We’ll see. It’s a bunch of guys that we’ll look at and still getting all the information, but we’ll see.”
I know I asked you after the game, do you know if Za’Darius’ (Smith) x-rays came back negative?
“I don’t know. We are still getting results on him, but I’m hopeful on Z.”
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