Defense. That's a good defense, good team. They play hard, and we just couldn't stay on the field, you know, we couldn't stay on the field. And then uh yeah, we just couldn't established long drives and put things together and just didn't execute. On the second and goal from at thede eleven, it looked like, tell me if it's right, did you check to a run there where the small even If so, what did you see on that play?
It was it was already a run play down the next play after that, you drew to Arst on this on a slant. It looked like what was your decision making behind that? Yeah, they were just playing super soft coverage. You know. I was just trying to get it to him underneath so he could hopefully get in, get in from in the middle there, because they just went shelt coverage and got wide. So when we just didn't hit, it was a where you went the opening kickoff was reversed,
went back to the councoys. Yeah, honestly, I'm not I never even saw it, so I just I just know that that we all went on the field assuming it was that way, and um, yeah, I got no opinion on that though. How frustrating. Is it getting that? It seems like every week we said here and ask you about the slow starts, and we're here with thirteen or four. Yeah,
it's frustrating. I mean it's absolutely frustrating. And with the talent that we feel we have on the offense side of the ball, and um, just couldn't execute, couldn't sustain drives and came up short here and there, and um, yeah we got a doubt. That's frustrating. Which really flipped and you know down the stretch in the fourth quarter there,
what was the key? Hard to say? Um, you know, I think we just started playing our our football, you know, just kind of went back to the basics a little bit and just gave our guys, um, you know, they were playing a lot of one on one on the outside and just gave you know, Nelson and uh Aj some opportunities there and they were able to make some big place. We went some more dual persnow down the stretch and Dallas became a factor allowed that. Yeah. I mean,
first of all, Dallas is a great player. You know, he's a great player. Tough matchup, um as far as being covered and everything. So, UM, you know, I think it's just kind in response to how Dallas was playing us defensively. Um to get Dallas and Hurts on the same on the field together, Um, I and we tried to take advantage of it a little bit. How do you explain kind of where the teammates at this point?
Say that again, you knew the stakes of this game, obviously, how do you explain where the teammates at this point or I guess rationalized where the teams Yeah, I mean we're not gonna you know, get anything, do anything crazy. You know, as far as you know where we're at, you know we um, we will never quit, you know, I know that will never quit. And um, you know we're just gonna keep competing our tails off and preparing our tails off and let the chips fall where they may.
There was a strip sac at the end of the first half. What happened on that part? Uh, it's strip sac. You know. I was trying to get it out and I didn't just feel more here or I mean, yeah, I mean it was behind me. I don't know, it's hard and stuff, but ideally I could get that ball out earlier, hopefully. And there was a lot of frustrating moments in this game, and how much of it impact you think the rest had from that opening kickoff to even if they got her teaching coming back. Yeah, I
never want to sit and question the rest. I mean, they have a hard job to do, and uh, quite frankly, I don't ever really see the calls. You know, you can't really see them on the JumboTron from where we're at, So I don't really I'm not gonna stand up here in question um what they did and how they affected the game at all, like a stunned silence and a lot of them a game your perspective, what were you guys feeling? Yeah, I mean that's a tough loss. It's
tough loss. I mean again, we kind of knew the stakes of this game, and uh, you know we were able to uh stay in it. You know, we were able to stay in it, and you know, we were we were struggling there for a while and then we battled back and we were extremely resilient and we just came up short, you know, and that's uh, that's never fun.
It's never fun. And then to lose on on that play the way it happened, um, where Ursul made a great play and it just you know, bounced their way and um yeah, just kind of you could say stunned a little bit, but just frustrating for sure. Is part of the journey may be open for you guys this season. Yeah,
we don't. We don't look at that at all, you know, I mean everyone, Um, like I said earlier, we're gonna just keep competing and keep preparing, um, and not really look at any of that outside stuff and just keep doing what we do and you know, try and get on a role here. And like I said, let the ships fall where they may. Did you want to go for them two? Um? Yeah, that's coaches call. You know, that's a coach's call. And um with him one hundred percent.
And you know it's always you could always argue it's easy in hindsight to to look at that, but um, we made the decision and went over time and just didn't get it done. That said after after you guys didn't go for two, and you do get to touch the ball again. So let's go through your mind as you watch the rest of the game. Wan pulled the helpless feeling. You know, it's helpless feeling. You know, I got a lot of confidence in the defense they were
making place today. Um, and then you know, we just didn't you know, like I said, it's help was feeling not not going back out on that field. But you know, we just didn't do an early offensively and that cost us as much talent as you guys have. And then you ain't kind of mentioned it there with slow starts. But are you surprised you guys are sitting where you're sitting with three games to go with what you guys did last year and having so many pieces that. Yeah,
I mean, we're absolutely surprised where we're at. You know, we never envisioned ourselves. We never kind of pencil ourselves into be a losing record at this point in the season. We hold ourselves to high standards and high expectations, and yeah, this is extremely frustrating where we're sitting right now, after seventy five yard touchdowns called back? What are you saying there?
What are you doing in that moment? Yeah? I mean, and first of all, everyone was tired because everyone just ran all the way down there and had to come back. But you know, I just said, hey, keep a leaving, keep a leaving, and then let's let's go get this done. And we did. You know, we went down and scored there at the end. But again it was just too little, too late. It's sort of arbitrary for a coin toss to have such a big impact on the game. But did you But why did you choose what you chose?
Did you consider? Yeah, I didn't make the call. I didn't make the call. And you know that's just over time, you know, that's just the way it happened today. And um, again, it's it's tough. You look back at this team previous twelve. Is the overriding theme that you guys have not been able to get a rhythm game. I mean you could
say that a little bit. You know, we we obviously, Um, everyone's seeing what we put out there, you know, and and getting in rhythm and starting slow has unfortunately been a common theme for us, and that's something we got to look hard at. And um, again, we believe we have the guys to start fast and just stay on it. Um. But again, it's it's tough, and you could say there's there's a bit of a theme there that's that's frustrating
for sure. That's a follow up to that. As you fly back tonight, what's gonna bother you the most, the fact that we lost, I mean, first and foremost fact that we lost. You know, there's there's handful of plays that you know, I think everybody wants back. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna watch the tape and um be critical of myself and everything. But it's hard to say one specific thing other than that we we just didn't get it done. Thanks Gad,