Start with the unbelievable pressure on Trevor. He got pressured 20 times on an unbelievable number of drop-backs. I think seven sacks.
Yeah, just a combination of whether it's one-on-one protection, some stunts. We knew they were pretty good in some of their stunt games, twists and pressures early on. He made a protection adjustment where he got sacked, and it kind of confused the running back a little bit and didn't pick up the blitz.
I think it's probably a combination of, probably, some good players on their side in beating us, maybe, at some point. I've got to watch the tape. And then whether we're being able to progress or not, you know, being able to get back to other throws. Maybe didn't feel like he had enough time in some ways.
So got to move the pocket a little bit more. We tried to throw some screens and their D-ends are reading all the screens. The only screens that were effective were the play action halfback screens. When you're in a little bit of a drop-back game, you're trying to throw screens to balance the rush. They played those well. So credit to them. They beat us up upfront.
Devin Lloyd on the sidelines, saw him a little bit in the second half, holding his helmet. Was this anything health related, decision coaching wise and what did you see from Ventrell?
Devin had something get a little tight on him. Played the first half. Came in in the second half, it tightened up on him. We tried to loosen up. He tried to go, in the second half. Just couldn't do it. I honestly have no idea truly how Ventrell played or not, but we made that decision to ultimately kind of protect him that way.
Liam, a couple guys just said in the locker room, quote, we killed ourselves today. If you agree with that, how frustrating is it that some of those pre-snap things keep popping up?
It's on me. It's an undisciplined operation at the moment, and it's on me. It's got to get fixed. It's a great opportunity this week to get it fixed, right? We're going on the road. We're flying to another country. Being together as a group, looking ourselves in the mirror and try to figure out from an operation and habit standpoint what is standing in our way. Because right now, it's us.
Do you have an initial thought on how you can -- if that message hit home?
We had a very honest conversation in there. That was a conversation we had. They were probably echoing the message. We tried to go tempo to ultimately chill out with the motions to just line up and get them in a formation to just go play. We had a touchdown called back because of an alignment issue. We had two tackle after positive plays. So it's not even just the penalties. It's when they're happening, as well, is the Achilles heel at the moment.
Liam, lack of pressure on Darnold, and I know Travon's obviously not in there, so that played a role. What can you do?
We've got to heat 'em up. Maybe look at, all right, do we need to send a little bit more. Just didn't get enough pressure at all. I thought they did a nice job at times of being balanced, right? Like they were able to run it effectively enough. It was kind of a weird game. You look up at times, and you're, like, how are we losing? From a first down standpoint, all of that, and I think they had 53 yards rushing at one point in the second half or whatever it was. So, it just felt weird. They hit enough explosives, and we didn't. That's the reality is we didn't get after their quarterback. They got after ours. They hit a couple big plays in the pass game, and we did not. So, I don't think either team probably ran it as well as we've been running the football. We did come out with a mindset of us wanting to throw the ball, but we've got to get after their quarterback more, as they got after ours.
Liam, how different is this loss compared to the Cincinnati loss, in your mind? And how much of a step back do you think this team took after such an emotional win on Monday night.
I think any loss, you're dealing with some sort of, quote/unquote, adversity. I think the Cincinnati one was a game where you're leading the entire time, and they just win at the end. And so that was frustrating because you felt like you dominated the game. This was a different deal where we come out, we don't really do much offensively early on. We score and miss an extra point. So, it was like those deflating moments. I think that probably the theme of today was positive, then something negative would occur and kind of take the wind out of our sails. I thought it was a very honest locker room in there in terms of understanding, guys, that we will not beat good quality teams like this, whether you're home, on the road, in London, on the west coast. Doesn't matter, if we continue to hurt ourselves and have these self-inflicted wounds that ultimately is on me.
Concern level with your kicker?
No. I mean, look, I think the extra point, I don't know exactly quite what happened on that. The field goal, we didn't help him. We took a sack on the prior play that knocked it back about, I think, eight or nine yards. Look, he knows he's got to make kicks, and he's as hard on himself as anybody. I still have a lot of trust and confidence in Cam. I think we've just got to go make some of these kicks in real-life games.
How much is a reality check on not getting the takeaways you've been getting? Do you think this team spent the week reveling in a big Monday night win?
I don't think that was the case. I could be wrong. When you walked into our building after the Kansas City game, it wasn't like everybody was walking around like we were God's gift to ball. It was a pretty frustrating, actually, week in some ways, in terms of like you're so happy, obviously, you won. But it was that process over the results that ultimately bit us in the butt today, right? Like that not getting those turnovers in excess, and then with a lack of explosives on offense, in a lot of ways and giving up a few explosives on defense, with the amount of penalties we had, you're not going to win that game very often. And we had a chance to win, right? You're down by one score at halftime. You score, miss the kick, and just not going win.
The two explosives given up by the defense, what did you see on those? Did it feel like they called the right things at the right time?
They did. I've got to give those guys credit on their side of the ball, as well. I think Kubiak's done a nice job being balanced and mixing it. They caught us in quarters and had a quarters beater. They had their fast guy run right down on a post and play action where your safeties are trying to fit the run and caught us in outside leverage quarters. And another one on the over, he caught us in three-deep. He definitely got us in a few priority calls and priority looks. Got to go watch the tape and see if there's anything we could have done better from a one-on-one or fundamentally technique leverage.
But, ultimately, they had some timely play calls.
Thanks, guys.