QB Ryan Fitzpatrick
Monday, October 8, 2012
On if the game was as bad on tape as it looked yesterday:
It was bad. It was a quick film session because we had 46 plays. We were not able to sustain drives, little things here and there. (We) just got outplayed. We just watched some stuff on the Cardinals. We have to find a way to get a renewed sense of energy and optimism. Just make sure that our confidence level remains high. I think that is the most important thing for us as we move forward here.
On keeping the confidence level high being a concern:
It definitely is. I think with confidence I am kind of the guy that people are going to be looking at, especially offensively. I have to make sure that I am out there and 100-percent in it. Making sure that they know that I have confidence in them, just like I have confidence in myself and just like I expect that they have confidence in me and themselves. That is an important thing for us as we get into this week here, but we have a group of guys who have been around each other. We have been a confident bunch at times. Right now it is a little low I think because of what has happened the last few weeks but I think we will get it back.
On if team leaders have to measure the pulse of the team:
I definitely think so. Sometimes it takes just having different conversations with guys. The great thing about my job and what I do is the wide receivers, running backs and linemen—they are all such different people. There are just so many different ways to approach them and deal with certain things, whether it is guys getting too high or guys getting too low. That is something for me, I feel like is a strength and something that is going to be paramount for me this week to make sure that I have a pulse on not just the team, not just the offense but individual guys. Making sure that we keep the confidence high as we go on.
On that going on during the game as well:
Definitely. It does. Part of that is you have to go out there on the field and make plays. When you are falling behind and not making plays, it is hard to keep the confidence because of the lack of us moving the ball and because of the points that are being put on the board on the other side. That is a tough thing. It is something, the last few weeks, that has happened to us. I think we have lost confidence a little bit during the game because of it. It is hard not to.
On if they had an overall team meeting and what Coach Gailey said to the team:
Chan (Gailey) talked to the team. His biggest thing was he addressed us and let us know the things he knew about us as a team and the things that were still up in the air in terms of our confidence level, how we were going to respond and the things he was not quite so sure of. Really a lot of that is stuff we will keep in-house, but he challenged us and I think it was a good message today.
On if that was Gailey's way of building confidence in the team:
I am not going to get into it a ton, but talent level. We have the talent. That is something we know we have. So he touched on some of that stuff and some of the stuff he was not so sure about. I think it was a great message. I think it was a speech that he is not a huge rah-rah guy, but I think everybody really took to it and took it to heart today. I thought it was a necessary speech and a good one.
On the fate of Gailey and himself being tied together:
That is something that, for me, I do not think I need to sit and put that on my shoulders every week and every play. I think if you do that and you start pressing, you are not going to be effective. I have to go out there and just play. That is the biggest thing for me. I do not think about that stuff when I am out there. I do not think about 'I have to make this play or else' or 'we have to win this game or else.' For me, it is just going out there and trying to execute the offense. The one thing that I love about Chan, and it is not just me it is a lot of guys, he has given a lot of guys here opportunities. Guys have taken advantage of it and they have taken advantage of those opportunities. Now for us, we have to repay him with the confidence he has shown in us, go out there and get the job done.
On at what point the opportunity comes to an end:
I think this is a production business and everybody knows that. You have to be able to go out there and produce, produce consistently at a high level and for us as a team and really as an offense, we have to do a better job than we have the last few weeks. And I think we will.
On offensive line and the injuries there:
We are banged up and that is something that, I do not want to say we have to overcome but guys have to step in. The good thing is the guys that are still healthy and in there have played together for a while. So if we are going to have to plug a guy or two guys in that have not played as much, they are going in there with guys that know what they are doing. And that is important. We are in a tough spot now in terms of the numbers game. I am sure Chan will address that more in terms of injuries, who is playing and who is not. I think there are a lot of unknowns there right now. That is just something we will have to deal with.
On being home in Arizona:
This is a really cool week for me. Being able to be here, growing up around here and growing up a Cardinals fan. It is cool for me to be here and being able to spend a little bit of time with my family during the season. This game will mean a lot to me; obviously (it will) mean even more if we come out on top.
On what family members are in Arizona:
My wife and kids are here, but I have a lot of extended family that is here so it is nice to be able to catch up and see them.
On how much he gets back to Arizona:
After the season we end up here. So we spend months here at a time. When the football stuff is going on in Buffalo that is obviously where I am, but otherwise I am here in Arizona.
RB C.J. Spiller
Monday, October 8, 2012
On his thoughts coming off of the loss:
(It was) disappointing just because we were really in it that first half and then came out the second half and did not play our brand of football. The things we see on film are very correctable. I think we will do a great job of getting those things corrected. Come Sunday try to play a full football game. You are not going to win too many games when you play half. I think if we play collectively as a group, four quarters of football, I think we will be fine.
On what is preventing the team from playing a full four quarter game:
We are not sure yet. We are still trying to figure it out. I think that being out here in Arizona is really going to make us come together as a team. Not saying that we were not close, I just think this will draw us closer here. Guys get to know guys more now, closer on-and-off the field. Once you do that, once you have guys come out here and treated like a family that will translate over to the game field. We will do that. We are not using this trip as a vacation; we are using it as a business trip. Hopefully it will pan out for us.
On if this is a good time to have the road trip, coming off of two loses:
We are really not going to worry about it. I think the biggest thing is for us not to worry about what everybody says because last year we were 5-2 and everyone was on our bandwagon. All of a sudden we went through a little skid and they saw how far we were. It is the same thing now, we were able to win two games in a row and everybody was all about the Buffalo Bills. Now we have lost two and everybody is telling us how terrible we are. We are not worried about what the outside world thinks about us. The only thing we are really worried about is everybody going out and playing up to their potential.
On having to put it on themselves to turn things around:
You are never happy when you are sitting at 2-3 and you had an opportunity to win both games. At the end of the day, there is nothing we can do about one of those games. The only thing we can do about it now is learn from it and move on. That is what we will do. We have watched the film, time to put that behind us and our attention just to the Arizona Cardinals. I think we have done a great job, win or loss, with being able to put games behind us and move on. I do not expect anything less from that.
DT Kyle Williams
Monday, October 08, 2012
On how the team moves forward after the past two games:
I think with talking with some guys here, it stinks right now. We have stunk the past two weeks. I have said it to you guys before, there is a difference between being disappointed with how it is going and being discouraged. We have three months of the season left. We have a lot of football left to play. That being said, we have to get a lot better fast. We are going to try to define some things, make it clear so we can try to play faster and be more gap sound. Get back to doing what we think we do well.
On no one being able to have envisioned how bad it has gotten:
Well no. There is no way you would have thought it would have been like this, but when you do not play gap sound and when everybody does not take care of their job bad things happen. I think you get to a point where you get behind or there are critical points in the game and guys are trying to make a play, the do too much and they are not where they are supposed to be. That is when big plays happen. The main thing is you cannot say if the d-line had been better, if the linebackers had done better, if safeties or offensively had done better…the main thing that everybody on this team, especially on defense has to look in the mirror and say 'OK what can I do better? How can I do my job better to make us a better football team?' That is what we are doing. Doing your job. Not worrying about everybody else's.
On what was said in the locker room after the game and the mood of the room:
The mood is terrible. There is no other way for it to be. If we had guys in there, laughing having a good time then I definitely would not want them on our football team. The mood is bad, there is a bad taste in your mouth. The things that are talked about are a lot along the lines of the things that we just talked about. There is a lot of things that have to be corrected. If we want to win football games, we have to get a lot better fast. Hopefully that is what we are going to do this week.
On how important it is to stay in this thing together:
Every guy on this team has to understand that the only way we are going to get better is if you point at yourself. If you watch film and say 'OK what can I do better? How can I do my job to help us be better on defense or help us be a better football team?' If you are not looking at it that way, you are looking at it the wrong way. That is something we talked about today. Hopefully it carries a little weight.
C Eric Wood
Monday, October 8, 2012
On the mood around the team:
It is not as festive as you would like to be this time a year. There is nothing like celebrating a victory. We take the losses pretty hard. A loss like that you take real hard. I think a lot of guys are really looking down deep to figure out what you can do better to make this thing right. You cannot worry about anybody else. You cannot finger point. You have to worry about you doing your job better. I feel like that is kind of the mindset people have today.
On Bills fans being pretty depressed after the loss:
I guarantee they are. They have a right to be. We are upset. We are ticked off. That is unbelievable the records we are setting. We are breaking National Football League records. How long has the game been around and we are just laying an egg right now. You hate to say 'Oh we are not far away,' when you get beat 45-3, but we got the ball trying to tie it up in the second quarter when it is 10-3. It was 3-0 and we were going into score and had a dropped pass right near the end zone. We could be up 7-3 right there. We are just riding too much with momentum right now. When the momentum is down, we are really going in the tank. We have to play more steady.
On if the struggles are simply a matter of execution:
I would say a majority of it is execution, but when you are getting beat as bad as we have, everybody is to blame. Nobody is really inexcusable here. I felt like we have been prepared these last two weeks. We have kind of known what we were going to get from the offensive stand point. We knew what we were going to get from San Francisco. They have a lot of really good players. Some of the best at their positions around the league, so you have to bring your A-game. But they are not doing anything that we have not been coached or taught throughout the week.
On why things seem to go bad so quickly:
I am not sure. I guess, I do not know if people are thinking about it and thinking here we go again but at some point you have to put your foot down and say enough is enough. Hopefully this is a week we come out and natural progression would be for us to put a lot of pressure on ourselves and say 'Hey we have to get a win. We have to get a win to get back on track and get our mind right.' But if you put too much pressure on yourself and start playing tight, you are going to get beat again. We have to come out loose and play desperate football, but I feel like we are playing desperate football every week. We have to get a lot of wins to get in the playoff so we have to come out strong this week.
