00:00I thought disappointing on offense, you know, we've hung the defense out to dry a couple times on the first half, three games in a row.
00:08And, you know, to hold them to 14 points at halftime, seven of them coming off a turnover in a short field,
00:13it really gave us, and then the second half, starting with another turnover, giving them a short field, points, that's my job.
00:22I call the plays on offense, I put this thing together, I've got to be better for this football team,
00:26because it just hasn't been good enough, and I put that on myself, and we've got to get it fixed.
00:30I'm confident that we're going to get it fixed.
00:32It's disappointing and frustrating, again, that we've scored three points three weeks in a row in the first half.
00:38You're not going to win.
00:39You're not going to win against these teams we've been playing against when you do that.
00:42So that's my responsibility to get that fixed and find a way to score some more points,
00:47and I promise you we'll be no stone unturned in getting that done.
00:50What did you think of Jake's performance?
00:52Again, put this on me.
00:53I've got to do a better job getting us into a rhythm, getting us in a way where we can sustain some drives,
00:58put points on the board.
00:59There's some plays he's going to want to have back.
01:02I'm glad he hung in there.
01:04He made some plays, forced down the stretch, three straight touchdown drives at the end of the game.
01:07I'm sure a lot of people wanted him on the bench at that point.
01:09I could hear it.
01:10And you stuck with him, and he comes back and has three straight drives for touchdowns.
01:15And that's the Jake Browning.
01:16I know he's resilient.
01:18He'll stare adversity in the face.
01:19You can count on him to keep bouncing back.
01:21Obviously, we've got to protect the ball better to be able to beat a team of that caliber.
01:26So we're not going to run from that.
01:29But to sit here and say I'm not proud of our football team for the way that they fought back, that wouldn't be true.
01:33I'm extremely proud of these guys, the way that they continue to fight in the face of adversity when it looks like it's real dim.
01:39And all of a sudden, there's some hope there that we can get this thing done.
01:42And that's what this team's made of.
01:43And five games in, that's what I'm counting on to get us through this, the last 12 games, where we can go win some games.
01:49I'm not oblivious to what goes on in the AFC and their vision.
01:53There's going to be plenty of opportunity there if we can just get through this storm and stick together
01:57and find a way to put some better positions on offense together and score some points.
02:01And I'm absolutely confident that we will get this thing turned around.
02:04And fans will want to be in the stands, because I get it right now.
02:07They're going to want to be in the stands, and I look forward to sold-out crowds again, back to what we're used to.
02:11And I promise you, with every breath I got, we're going to continue to work to get back to that.
02:15You said to put it on you.
02:17I call the plays.
02:19I've got to get us in a better rhythm.
02:20I've got to keep us out of danger.
02:23There's some things I've got to do a better job establishing.
02:25And just when the offense doesn't score points, that falls.
02:28The head coach is the play caller.
02:31That's where it ends right there.
02:32Did you leave Jake in the game because you know you're going to need him going forward?
02:36Is that part of it?
02:37Yeah, I believed in him.
02:38I saw the turnovers that were happening.
02:40We've got to be better.
02:42We can't excuse them.
02:45But what we saw with those three straight touchdown drives, you know, to find a way to win, I knew that he gave us our best chance there.
02:51So do you still believe in Jake going forward as your starter?
02:54I do.
02:54Of course, after a game like that, we're going to look at all personnel to make sure we're doing the right thing.
02:59So I won't shy away from that because it's a very fair question after the amount of turnovers we have.
03:04But to say that I don't think Jake can win games for us, I believe Jake can win games for us.
03:09I do.
03:09And we'll just continue to look at everything we can personnel-wise.
03:12Do you feel like you need to build Jake's confidence back up?
03:15Yeah, I think any time you go through some adversity, there's always a little bit of self-doubt.
03:21But when you put in the work, which he's put in the work, then you know what to do and you know how to get back to it.
03:30And it's a good defense.
03:33It's an offense that puts a lot of pressure on you.
03:36Our guys gave us a chance to get back in that thing.
03:38We just came up short at the end.
03:39And I wish we'd done a better job in the first half of, again, getting points on the board when we hold them to 14 on the short field.
03:46So, again, there's a lot of things I've got to do better.
03:49Do you feel like there's anything you can take away from that fourth quarter where – that Jake can take away, I should say, from the fourth quarter, you know, where you guys found something on offense you guys were able to score after the last 11 quarters when you only had one touchdown before?
04:00Yeah.
04:00I mean, I've had a lot of games like that here where it looks bleak and our guys find a way to respond.
04:08I would say Jacksonville falls in that category.
04:11I thought we were going to win the game.
04:12When we were kicking the onside kick, that they recovered there at the end, it just felt like one of those deals where we were going to find a way to go win the game.
04:20And that's just – I guess that's just my belief in the guys in the locker room that I've seen this happen with us before and that we're going to figure it out.
04:28And someone's going to step up and make a play and we're going to go win the game.
04:30And that's how I felt until the very end there in the last two minutes.
04:34How was the defense of which team?
04:36To stick together.
04:36I mean, it's – I don't like giving a message three weeks in a row where I appreciate the heart and we're sticking together.
04:44I don't like that.
04:46That's not what the NFL is about.
04:47The NFL is about winning games and moving on to the next one and creating some momentum for yourself.
04:53We're allowed to create momentum at different parts this season.
04:56It hasn't been these last three weeks.
04:57We're allowed to start now.
04:59And I do believe in these guys.
05:01I mean, that's what I just told them.
05:02I believe if I'm betting, betting on this team, to find a way at two and three, five games in, to find a way to be in contention for everything that we wanted to do.
05:11There's a lot of football left and I believe we're going to get it done.
05:13Zach, why does the offense look so different at the fourth compared to the first three quarters?
05:17Again, it's just – turnovers certainly hurt us there, those two turnovers in the first half.
05:26So you weren't a chance to get into a rhythm.
05:28The second half, we just got into a rhythm.
05:30Did a great job protecting the ball.
05:32Did a great job protecting.
05:34Got some tough yards.
05:35There's not a lot of easy runs against that group.
05:37So I thought we found some tough runs over the course of that game and just found some rhythm.
05:42And that's just – that's the Bengals.
05:44When you get into a rhythm on offense, we score points.
05:48And in the first half, look at the drive stats.
05:52I mean, there just wasn't good enough rhythm there.
05:54You talk about leaving no stone unturned.
05:56What are the things you do the next couple days to, you know, whether it's scheme, whether it's play-off situations?
06:00What do you explore?
06:01Well, that's – it's still a seven-day week.
06:03We still got the Packers to get ready of.
06:05And that's really no change from every week.
06:07We have personnel discussions.
06:09What scheme have we been relying on that maybe isn't good enough for us?
06:12So, again, it's difficult to define that in this room.
06:16But, again, we'll address everything we've got to address.
06:19Are you seeing any hope over the last three weeks or over the last two weeks?
06:24Yes.
06:24I know that we went into two really difficult road environments.
06:27And turnovers killed us in the first game.
06:30I mean, that game's a completely different game if we don't turn the ball over four times in the first half.
06:33It's easy for me to say.
06:35Last week we hung in there.
06:38I did not manage the end of the first half well.
06:40It should have been exactly like this, 14-3, with our defense trying to get a stop to come out the second half to keep that a better game.
06:47And so, again, there's a lot I've got to do better as the head coach to make sure that we can build on some of the things we are doing positively.
06:55I'm going to sit here and say, and whether people want to hear it or not, our defense has given us what we need in these first half of these games.
06:59It's hard to sustain that over four quarters when there's turnovers and there's punts and there's no points going on the board,
07:06especially against teams like that in Denver who can do a little bit of everything and keep you off balance and call all their fun things.
07:14When their play caller sees it's 21-3, what's the worst thing that can happen if I call this play and it doesn't work?
07:19We're still up 21-3.
07:20So we put them in an incredibly difficult bind, and all they have done is bow up and try to do everything they can to keep our team in the game.
07:27And I've got to do a better job as a play caller to bail them out.
07:30You say in the first half the defense has been good, however, on the opening drive and for the five games the opponent has scored.
07:38Yeah, so the first drive was tough.
07:39But beyond that, they've done a good job.
07:41Is there anything that you can change for that opening drive to not bow up?
07:44No, I mean, it's something we're aware of.
07:46It's disappointing.
07:48Again, that's not something we can run from.
07:51So if we can get a stop on the first drive, we're going to be much better off the way that they have rebounded towards the end of those halves.
07:57With all the turnovers, is there a thing that you're noticing?
08:01Well, I mean, we're going into some coverages where the ball can go elsewhere.
08:07That's the simplest way, trying to think through what some of them looked like.
08:11And Jake would sit here and say the same thing.
08:14It's not something we're going to hide, you know.
08:16So we've got to take care of the football.
08:18And punting is not the worst thing in the world.
08:20I don't want to punt, but sometimes when we're going to have to punt, flip the field.
08:24You could just feel the field position was really never in our favor early in the game.
08:27I feel like we were always backed up inside the 10.
08:29And so we've got to do a better job.
08:31We've got to win the Turner battle.
08:32We've got to dominate penalties.
08:33We've got to win field position.
08:35We've got to do those three things to beat some of these teams we've been playing, and we haven't done any of that.
08:38What does it mean to see Jamar finish the game the way he did with two?
08:41Yeah, because these guys have heart.
08:42Like, our great players, they've got heart.
08:45Everybody on our team.
08:46I mean, I look there, and there's no one giving up, no one feeling like, here we go, we're down whatever the score was when it was at its worst.
08:54So, 28-3, I think it was.
08:58And then you're sitting there at the end of the game, we've got a shot.
09:00We've recovered an onside kick, and they're going to tighten up a little bit.
09:03And so, I am proud of our group for how they fight, and I'm looking forward to sitting at this podium and saying I'm proud of the way we found a way to win.
09:12I'm very confident that's going to happen.
09:14You talked to your end of the week about urgency and how you kind of welcome adversity or whatever.
09:18I know, obviously, no NFL team wants to lose, obviously, but do you feel like you saw some of those ingredients in that fourth quarter?
09:26Yeah, this team has character.
09:28That is something that will carry you through an NFL season.
09:31We have talent.
09:31We have character.
09:33Our head coaches do a better job managing the first half and giving us a chance to play with the lead in the second half.
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