Great, great win. Just talk about how we played. We pick each other up all the time. I thought our defense played outstanding. Their defense is a dang good defense. Averaging 12 points a game. I don't even know what the score was. We outperformed that. We obviously got to take care of the football. But the guys played hard. We responded to all the adversity. Affected the quarterback. Took the run away. There's a couple plays there at the end I probably could have called better plays to put us in better situations. But our guys fought. It's great to win at home. Definitely a point of emphasis. I'll tell you what, the 12s were on fire. Great atmosphere. Our guys are fired up. Our home crowd was just tremendous. We're thankful for them to keep showing up, keep supporting us. Told the team we come back after the bye, it's time to go, the last half stretch of the season. Playing a lot of really good football teams.
**Talk about Ernest Jones, the sack, interception. What can you say about him?**
I thought Ernest played a really great game. The plays actually I'm thinking of, they're getting down there in the low red zone, he's just scratching and clawing and fighting, making great plays there to bleed all that clock. Just an absolute warrior.
**A lot of guys involved, but the short yardage run stuff.**
I thought we had a good plan coming in. The guys are the ones that do it. Short yardage, it's not always going to be pretty. You got to win your one on ones and then some. Our guys did that. Big-time steps there on third-and-one and fourth-and-one.
**On the first potential safety, the sack, what was the explanation you got?**
Look, I don't know. I saw them signal safety. I thought it was a safety. All of a sudden it wasn't. I'd like more of an explanation. That's what happened. I saw them signal safety. We thought it was a safety. All of a sudden it wasn't.
**How important is the importance of being resilient?**
We talk about picking each other up for the whole 60 minutes. These games are hard games. Houston is a really good football team. So we got to pick each other up. Our offense picked our defense up against Tampa. We weren't able to close it out. We picked our offense up today on defense. That's how it's going to roll. That's how you have to win. Once we start to get all three phases rolling in a game, that's where you have games where you're not coming down to the last possession.
**This mentality of don't let them in the end zone, how do you reinforce that?**
It starts from the very beginning. It's the culture that A.D. helps create on defense. It's our veterans. It's how we practice. We take a lot of pride in how we practice. We've intentionally over the last couple weeks put our guys in some really, really difficult situations and have them respond to it. We get used to playing in those situations. Our guys have done a good job. Taken us a while to kind of get used to it. These are the things that we're learning as a program, how we build our guys, build our mentality. It's the players, man. They take a lot of pride in what they do, the standard they want to uphold. They do it. Just keep fighting.
**How do you do that? Sudden change?**
You name it. We call it death zone football.
**You've been emphasizing getting hands on the football since day one.**
Couple MOBPs, missed opportunities on big plays. We got to squeeze it, man. Have a chance to close games out. They got to start going to the Leslie Frazier School of Ball Skills.
Yeah, I mean, he's on his stuff. There's one that we could have played a little better. He came right to the sideline. He knew, I knew. That was good. Talking about plays like late in the down. The poise. 40, 50 yards down the field where he has no help, playing through the hands, playing the ball. Those are the things that he's been working really hard on and it showed today.
**How do you balance the good and some of the sloppy plays?**
We'll look at the penalties. There's a ton of penalties throughout the whole game. It's kind of a blur right now. Just seemed like there was a lot. Wasn't really a clean game. We'll look at it, get explanations for it. I thought our guys fought. Our guys fought really hard. Seems like the things that went wrong were kind of late in the down, what happened when the ball started being in jeopardy. We got to take care of the football.
**Jones' interception, was that his assigned place?**
Yeah, right in the paint.
**Exactly where he was supposed to be?**
Yeah. Where he's supposed to be. Right where the ball is.
**How have you seen Jaxon grow as a person and player?**
He's a Seahawk, man, how he operates, his determination, the pride he takes in his work. I'll tell you what, guy's a great teammate. The great ones are. I know everybody is out there supporting him. He fights like crazy for his teammates, as well. But he's obviously doing great. What did he end up with today? That's pretty good.
**I don't know if you could see a replay of the skirmish on the sideline.**
We got to look at that. Didn't look good over there. I'm glad that he's okay and he made a smart decision in that moment. That's a really, really poised, smart decision.
**5-2 going into the bye. You said you haven't played a complete game. Were you feeling fortunate, encouraged?**
Yeah, it's kind of cool. We're finding ways to win games, which is, like I said, really difficult to win. You got to celebrate those things. Look, we could be 7-0 and have won every game by 30 points and trust we're going to find stuff we're going to want to improve on. When we watch the tape, we'll go back and regroup, self scout, try to get those answers for next week. It will be very clear on where we need to grow. The guys see it. They see it. They feel it. We got a great group of guys. I'll tell you what, they're going to be really determined coming out of the bye.
Tory? Yeah, had an ankle. Did he come back?
I think he came back and finished the game, we'll see. I'll give you a hard and fast timeline tomorrow (smiling).
**What did you think of the push you were getting in the run game? Leaned on it as much as you could have late in the game?**
Yeah, we were searching for answers. Able to punch it in the low red was nice. We got the penalty at the end to close it out. But it would have been great to get a first down there. The one where we do pop, we get a holding call. We knew against this front it was going to take every down. You got to keep attacking. Eventually that's your chance to go get the run game alive. That was the mentality. I think we'll look at it and realize there's things we want to get better at. Our guys were playing really hard.
**On Cooper Kupp's pass attempt.**
It might go in the freezer.
Really proud of Ty. Talk about another guy as we walk in the door, just does everything right all the time with a great attitude. His teammates love him. Just an absolute worker. He's tough, smart. We take a lot of pride in upholding the standard. That was one of the things our guys talked about last night. Ty is one of those guys that does it. He's done a phenomenal job. Hopefully we'll get Julian back. For the record, we should get Julian and Spoon back and D Hall after the bye, unless something changes. He deserves a major shout-out. He's worked his tail off for this opportunity. He's helped us win, what, two football games here in the last three games.
**How have you seen the chemistry between Ernest and Drake manifest?**
Drake, same thing we talked about all week. Ernest, him and T Knight are really tight. We've had some turnover in that room over the course of the year. But Ernest is the leader of that room. It will go as he goes. They just keep preparing. T Knight has done a great job preparing, too. You've seen what Drake is doing out there. Hard to take him off the field.
**With the trick play, why take the ball out of his hands.**
We just want to stay aggressive. We want to keep the foot on the gas. That's really where it came from. Trust Cooper. Have to trust Cooper Kupp, right? I think he's earned that. Look, you don't like the result of the play, but we want to stay aggressive, keep the foot on the gas.