Obviously very disappointed. Our guys played extremely hard. Fought all the way to the end, but I told the team, look, this game is my responsibility. You got to give Tampa Bay a lot of credit. We knew they would fight to the very end, which they've done all year, and are a very tough and very good football team. But I have to do better with our defensive game plan and execution and how we call it. When you put up a performance like that it means that I didn't prepare them well enough. It hurts. It stings. It should, because our guys work extremely hard and they care. But we're going to use this to move forward and that's the only thing we can do. We're going to take it on the chin and move forward tomorrow and move on and grow and go get ready to play our best game against Jacksonville. It's that simple. Offense played great. Special teams played great. I'm sure there are things on that end too with penalties we got to fix. We'll learn from all these things and move forward but we have to do that.
A lot of injuries on the back end. How big of a factor was that?
Yeah, look, they were banged up, too. Injuries happen in the NFL. I have to design better plays and put our guys in better positions consistently to play better on defense. It's that simple.
Sam was prolific and had the hiccup at the end, but how to you assess the whole of his performance today?
Sam was great. Played a tremendous football game. Thought we were going to have a chance to win the game there at the end. What was it, 99-yard drive, fourth down, extending plays. I thought Sam played tremendous.
You guys have been able to really stifle quarterbacks all season long. What was it about Baker? Seemed to have a lot of guys that were wide open most of the game.
Well, they did a great job of scheming stuff open. We obviously have to play better. I mean, so it goes both ways. But we knew they were a great offense. We just didn't get it done. When you have guys open like that, that can't happen. That's my job to make sure that doesn't happen.
With the pass rush was that just the lack of -- just a matter you think of not having Tank and D-Hall?
No. Our guys went in there and played. The expectation is the same no matter who is out there. But again, we got to design better things. Pressures have to be more locked in. Got to call them at better times. All these things. Our pressure coverage was very weak today. That's something we need to look at.
Seemed like there was some missed tackles and things like that, too.
Yeah, missed tackles, diving on the ground, not doing the things that we're trained to do. Look, when it doesn't come to life on the field -- I'm responsible for what comes to life on the field, and it doesn't come to life to do so it's my responsibility. But we will definitely be looking at that. We missed way too many tackles.
The fourth down to Sam, was there any doubt about going for that?
No. We were going for it. No, at a certain time, at a certain length we weren't going to. I think it was a definite go at two.
Seem to rule D-Hall out pretty quickly. Does that signal it may be serious?
Yeah, we will image it tonight. It's his oblique. We'll see how bad it is.
Tariq? Any update on what it is?
Yeah, it's a concussion, so you know how those things go. The protocol starts and we'll work through from there.
Why were you caught in between maybe blitzing more and applying more pressure and not leaving your back end exposed with the injuries you had?
We wanted to pressure this game, and we didn't do it well enough. And so like I said, it wasn't designed well enough and didn't call it in the right spots and we didn't get it done. But you're right, against this team it's kind of pick your poison at a certain point.
What do you think of just another loss at home? I know you guys really want to get that fixed.
I'm thinking about how well we played as a football team and how well-prepared we were. Us playing at home or on the road doesn't have anything to do with that. We got to defend our home turf. We know that. But that doesn't make you execute better. Doesn't make you call better plays. It's really important that we play better at home. It's been an important emphasis since I was hired. Hasn't come to life yet. We're determined to make it come to life. Our fans were awesome today. The 12s were on fire.
We're asking you pretty much every week about Sam and Jaxon and the connection. They had another big game.
Yeah, both guys played great. Thought our whole offense played a great game. Protected Sam really well up until that last play. Guys are fighting really, really hard, making big time plays in those spots.
What did you think of the run game?
Our run game we knew it was going to be tough sledding against this front, and thought our guys did a great job. Coaches got the good plays and felt like we were blocking through the echo of the whistle. Our guys were running hard, too. So thought we took a step in the run game.
AJ Barner, talk about his play. You talked about blocking and running.
They're (the tight ends) right in the thick of all the things on offense, right? Just they're instrumental in the run game and in the pass game, them coming to life, we knew we would need them in this game and they continue to come up and make plays for us. So AJ is the leader of the pack there. He's doing a great job.
Sam do anything different on that final play?
I got to take a look at it.