Black and Blue Review
Click on a name to reveal quotes
“Odd. I really don’t know what to tell you. I had to think about what I was going to say to the players. The big disappointment is productivity. Some guys played tremendous football today, but we have to go back and correct the mistakes we made. It’s the little detail things that come back to bite you in the end.”
What was your thought process behind kicking a field goal at fourth-and-one?
“A little too much. It was hard to see how far we had. If it had been a little bit inside the one where I was trying to get it to be, I thought about going for it. But it was outside the one, so I figured we would kick it and see what happens.”
From your vantage point could you tell their final field goal was no good?
“Well the biggest giveaway was their crowd. It was silent. As soon as the ball got up in the air you didn’t hear the crowd.”
Why was today the day to take the wraps off Cam Newton?
“Because everything pointed to his health. I said from the beginning we weren’t going to do anything to jeopardize his health. We took our time and did everything the doctors and trainers told us to do. He did everything he was asked to do. It came down to watching him throughout the week. It’s the culmination of all the work he’s put in.”
Do you think a game should end in a tie?
“I think you have to because these guys are at peril anyway going into the fifth quarter. Guys are getting dehydrated. You don’t want anyone to pull or tear anything.”
With that in mind, will you give them a day off tomorrow?
“No, it’s not a victory Monday.”
“It’s kind of a weird feeling. We did show flashes, but not enough. Coach always says that when you play just good enough, you play good enough to get beat, and you play good enough to win as well. But today, we were kind of 50-50, for the most part. It was kind of weird, and I don’t know how to act right now. I am proud of a lot of guys who played through adversity as a team. We still didn’t come away with the win, but there was still some good effort out there.”
You say you’ll do whatever the coaches call, but did you expect to go out there on fourth-and-one in overtime and go for the first down?
“Well, if you ask me, we had first down, second down and third down, and we should have put ourselves in better situations. Moving forward, I don’t have any regrets of the game. Of course I’m going to do whatever is asked, I was just disappointed that we couldn’t muster 10 yards with the first tries on first through third down.”
Given how well you were running the ball, did you like your chances to possibly pick up the first down in that situation?
“Hindsight is always 50-50 — or 20-20 — whatever the number is (laughs). We didn’t go for it. Who am I to judge? Players play and coaches coach. That’s what I was told to do. We made the field goal and put our chances in the defense’s hands, then we got a much-needed (field goal) miss from those guys. But still, it didn’t come down to a fourth-down decision. We had ample opportunities to get it on first through third down.”
When did you realize you were going to be running the ball a lot today?
“It was kind of weird. Now everybody is questioning how much am I going to run, or if I’m going to run, or why I’m not running. When I was running, people were saying, ‘Don’t you think you’re running too much?” But in the situation today, I was just doing — like I said — whatever coach asked. And it was there for me to take.”
Did you feel better or different on the ankle this week?
“You still feel it when you’re running. I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t feel it. But being able to run like I did today puts it assured that you’re getting closer to 100 percent. I don’t think that with the way the offensive line was blocking today, I didn’t have to be at 100 percent. Those guys create gaping holes for me.”
Thoughts on coming so close to a win?
“We’ve got to have more genetics as a team of winning tendencies. We had some winning tendencies today, with the long, methodical drive to answer those guys (the Bengals) coming back. But still, for us to finish or call ourselves a playoff-contending team, there are a lot of things we did today that can’t happen.”
“Yeah you don’t play football to tie. It’s not as bad as a loss, but it’s pretty close. So at the end of the day you want to win. We came to Cincinnati to win. When you think about playing, you never think about tying, growing up. Like I said, it’s the second tie of my life, both in Cincinnati.”
Was the first time with the Philadelphia Eagles?
“With the Eagles, yeah. With the Eagles, I was kind of oblivious because I didn’t necessarily know that you could tie. So but this time I knew once the clock went down, I knew if he missed it we would be in a tie. I was hoping and praying he would miss it.”
“Closer to two (yards) than one. It was the right play. There were still two minutes left. It was the right call to tie it up.”
Somewhat satisfied with the tie?
“You put in a full week and fight our asses off to tie. That’s a little disheartening.”
“We’re not used to that style of defense we’re playing right now. We have certain times we play good and certain times we don’t. We’re up and down right now, so we need to learn how to be consistent.”
“He’s been kicking for a long time. He’s done a good job. I’ve been in his shoes before, and it’s hard to see that. But at the same time we’re competitive and we don’t want to lose the game.”
“It’s a missed opportunity. It’s a game that we had in control in the first half, and we had the turnover in the second half, which put us a little behind. We gave up the drives on defense and we didn’t get the stops on third down.”
“It’s a weird feeling. You didn’t lose, but you didn’t win either. It’s strange.”
“Probably not, just because it was a very long game. It was a difficult game. I only have one job to do, and I didn’t do it today. You’ve got to be a closer, and I didn’t finish it for us.”