Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor React to Bengals Week 11 LOSS to Chargers
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00:00Joe, what do you think is lacking for you guys to not be able to win these one score
00:05games?
00:06I missed some throws down the stretch that I usually make, so that was disappointing.
00:11We just need to make the winning plays at the end.
00:15Joe, why was the offense not able to get it going in the first half?
00:21It's tough to say.
00:23I mean, we moved the ball, we just settled for two field goals, and then their front
00:30was disruptive today.
00:33Joe, what do you say to Evan after he misses those two field goals there at the end?
00:39Nothing.
00:41Joe, how do you explain the way this season has gone, where it feels like we've been in
00:45the spot after so many games, they've all felt one play away, like you've made so many
00:49winning plays.
00:50Are you able to explain it?
00:51How do you explain it?
00:53Just got to make the plays, just got to make the plays.
00:57And we have it down the stretch, and we're not a good enough team to, our margin of error
01:06is slim, so we got to make those plays.
01:09I got to make those plays, we all got to make those plays.
01:12Is there a play that's sticking out to you in your head right now as you go through it?
01:16I missed Jamar on the go, and I missed Jamar on the slant.
01:19What kind of adjustments did you make this second half?
01:22He had that, he scored three touchdowns in about nine minutes.
01:26What adjustments did you make?
01:28We got a turnover, we hit some shots down the field, started to run the ball well.
01:36We didn't really make any adjustments, we just started executing better.
01:41Zach is telling us that he has full confidence that you guys will put together a run and
01:45still make a run at the playoffs.
01:47Do you have that same confidence?
01:49I hope so.
01:50What gives you faith, given the 4-7 record that you can do?
01:58You know, I guess we'll find out where we're at.
02:04I'm not happy with where we're at, I don't think anybody is, but all you can do is come
02:12back tomorrow and try to get better.
02:15Has this been the most frustrating season you've ever had?
02:17Yeah.
02:18Why?
02:19Pretty self-explanatory.
02:21Joe, you've seen Evan make plenty of big kicks, game-winning kicks, in big moments.
02:27You said you wouldn't say anything to him necessarily, but were you confident when he
02:32was going out there for the second one that he was going to make it after the minute?
02:35Yeah, I was.
02:36The second touchdown of Jamar, it looked like you were kind of motioning with your hands.
02:43What happened?
02:44If you could break that down a little bit.
02:46It doubled him.
02:47You know, the line gave me time, I was able to sit back there and kind of direct to where
02:54I wanted him to go, and he made a great play.
02:57I didn't see what happened, I was on the ground, but it sounds like a good play.
03:02Joe, a lot of times late in the season, to have a bye week coming up like this, teams
03:07would rather have it a little bit earlier.
03:09How does it fit now, and with what you guys need to do from here to regroup?
03:16Yeah, it's a tough one to end on, going into the bye week.
03:22I'd prefer to go and play, but it'll be nice to get a little break.
03:28It seems like you feel like you have no answers right now.
03:31Do you have any idea why this season unraveled the way it did?
03:35It's not making the plays at the end of the game to win.
03:38Was it especially frustrating the first half with the way it did, given you guys came out
03:43here early and you guys felt like this would be a really good opportunity for you to get
03:48the season going?
03:49Did that make it that much harder?
03:53I wouldn't say that.
03:54I just think it was a tough loss.
03:57First half didn't go our way.
03:58We fought back, had our opportunities to seal the deal, and we did.
04:05There was a lot of orange out in the stands.
04:07They followed you out here.
04:08Anything you want to say to them?
04:10Any words of encouragement?
04:12We always appreciate the fans.
04:16They're a big part of what we do, and we'll always appreciate the support.
04:24Hopefully we can come back from the bye and get a win at home.
04:28It's a disappointing loss because I don't know how many teams in the league are going
04:32to come in 24-6 at halftime and dig their way back, fight the way our guys did, or are
04:38going to fight back.
04:39There's going to be some opportunities we had to finish it off, and it didn't go our way.
04:44Proud of our guys.
04:45Sick for our guys.
04:46Those guys left it all on the field and gave us everything they had.
04:49Stuck together.
04:50Made play after play to get us back in that thing.
04:54They just made more of a play than we did.
04:56That's been the story of our season so far.
04:59By no stretch is our season over with.
05:01We had a chance to use the bye to get back and get into a groove here in the last part
05:06of the season.
05:07We're going to have to win a lot of these, obviously.
05:09We put ourselves in a tough spot, but I believe what I just saw from our guys, I've seen it
05:12every single week, we're going to be right there in the end and just got to finish these
05:15games off.
05:18Our guys were just confident.
05:21Over years we've been in these situations before, and you just got to take it one possession
05:25at a time.
05:26That's all we preached at halftime.
05:28That's what we preached after every possession to start the third quarter.
05:31The defense just kept making stops, and the offense just kept scoring points, and guys
05:34kept stepping up and making plays.
05:37You thought with no doubt we're going to finish this thing off.
05:39We had our opportunities.
05:40We crossed the 50 a couple times and just couldn't get seven or three on the board.
05:46Then they got one more possession and they knocked it in.
05:48That's the story of the game.
05:54We expect to make them, certainly.
05:56We got a lot of confidence in Evan, and it just wasn't his day today.
06:01How do you explain the performance of the defense in the first half?
06:07They got all the momentum.
06:09We started getting some three and outs there on offense.
06:12Gave up touchdowns on several back-to-back drives there.
06:16Just needed a break.
06:17Needed halftime.
06:18Needed to readjust and just get our feet underneath us.
06:21Guys got confidence in each other, and they stepped up and guys were flying around making
06:24plays, and that's the defense we expect to see.
06:27Momentum turned our way, and guys were just stepping up.
06:30I saw so many guys make big plays in the second half, and that's what we're counting on.
06:36Just couldn't get it done.
06:37There was a lot of frustration, obviously, Zach, in the first half.
06:40How did you manage to contain it?
06:42How did you try to?
06:44It's emotional.
06:45When you're down like we were down, and we weren't generating a lot of momentum our way.
06:49Guys are frustrated.
06:50We get into halftime and settle down.
06:52It's okay for guys to show emotion.
06:54It's okay for guys to be frustrated.
06:56That doesn't bother me.
06:58We just got to take a deep breath, and we did.
07:00There was still confidence in the locker room, and you had to see it because you saw in the
07:04second half the way that those guys came out and played.
07:06As badly as you need to put the streak together, how does the bye week fit into all of this
07:12equation now and how you want to regroup?
07:15Just gives us a chance to be healthy.
07:17There's not a lot of wholesale changes we need to make.
07:18Every game we lose comes down to the last play of the game.
07:20We just got to find a way to win these and generate some momentum for ourselves.
07:25Bye week, get healthy, and then come back.
07:29We've got a huge divisional game at home, and we've got to find a way to create some
07:33momentum for ourselves.
07:35You guys put Josh Newton in for Cam Taylor Britt until DJ Turner got hurt and then had
07:40to come back in.
07:42What was the reason?
07:44Consistency.
07:45Why do you think that's kind of lacking from Cam Taylor Britt?
07:48He's working on it.
07:50We talk about it a lot.
07:52We still have high expectations for him.
07:54When you have a corner that's lacking consistency like that, you can go to the next guy.
07:58With Evan, he misses back-to-back kicks.
08:00How do you treat that?
08:02He's still got confidence in him.
08:04What happened offensively?
08:06What changed in the third quarter?
08:08Just the three and outs.
08:10We were putting ourselves against the sticks.
08:13We had some second tens, some get-back-on-tracks.
08:16They were playing with a lot of confidence because we weren't doing a lot to take that
08:21confidence from them after those first two or three drives when we got points on the board.
08:26Again, they got us in some three and outs, and our defense was stuck out there on the
08:30field.
08:32We just needed to readjust to halftime, and our guys did a good job of that.
08:35You had that great stretch in the first nine minutes.
08:38That nine-minute stretch in the third quarter when you tied it.
08:40What was working for you?
08:43That first first down is usually the key for us to get a chance to get some momentum, get
08:48some flow, get a better feel for what they were trying to do to us.
08:52I thought the coaches did a great job adjusting as the game went to what we were expecting
08:58to see coverage-wise.
09:00Lineman did a great job holding up for Joe, moved through the ball 50 times again, got
09:05us enough in the run game where we were keeping ourselves on track.
09:08I thought the lineman and Chase did a great job there.
09:11The protection was good, and we were able to score some points.
09:14Do you have anything on EJ Tarver?
09:16Clavicle.
09:18I don't know how long that'll be.
09:20How do you explain the way all these games seem to be ending the same way?
09:23I can't.
09:25I wish I could.
09:27It's a team we believe in, a team that believes in each other.
09:29It's sick the way that these games are ending and the way that we feel coming off the field
09:34every week.
09:35The feeling I got when I got to talk to the team in the locker room after all these endings
09:39this year.
09:41What I just keep telling the team is, at some point, this has got to help us.
09:45At some point, we've got to find some momentum, and we've got to get on a run.
09:49We've got to find ourselves in a good position where we reflect back.
09:52We don't ever want to use a loss for good, but it's got to help us in some way.
09:57We've played some really good football teams.
09:59We've just got to find a way to finish it.
10:03I keep saying that.
10:05Obviously, more play away every time I say it, but I've still got the confidence that
10:11we can get this thing done.
10:13To that point, what's the balance you find as the head coach?
10:15Obviously, you have a system that you really believe in, and it's led you to a lot of success,
10:19but in these games that are ending in the same fashion of, you said you don't want to
10:23make wholesale changes, but by continuing to...
10:25I think we all watch the game.
10:27We can see it's just coming down to one play in every single game.
10:31Why would you make a big wholesale change when it's just coming down to one?
10:33That, to me, is just panic.
10:35That's not what we're about.
10:37We believe in what we're doing.
10:39Again, we're not going to be those people that just panic because the record's four and seven,
10:44and we start making all these significant changes.
10:46That's not what the answer is.
10:48We play good football.
10:50We're a good football team.
10:52We believe in our guys.
10:54We've got good systems in place.
10:56Again, we're going to hang in there and support each other and find a way to get this thing done.
10:59If we can get it done, it's going to be a dang good season.
11:00Again, it's not so far what we would have written for ourselves,
11:05but I'm telling you, I stand here today with the utmost belief
11:08that we can still get this done on the back half of our schedule.
11:11Do you realize the pain you must be in when this team still has a shot at making the play?
11:14I'm not just saying it just to convince others.
11:17I say what I believe right now.
11:19When you watch this team compete and the guys we got and the coaches we got,
11:23I love going to work every single day.
11:26It's not something you dread.
11:28You're four and seven, and you don't want to be around these people.
11:30It's the opposite of that because I can see that something special can still be there.
11:35Again, people may not believe it, and that's okay.
11:38I get that, but I've seen this group do some really good things before,
11:41and I still believe that we can get this thing turned around and do that.
11:44Zach, you hate the word desperation.
11:47Is there a sense of desperation now that perhaps a team could play a little bit better?
11:52No. We still have the same mentality that we're just taking it one game at a time.
11:56That's the way this league works.
11:57We've got a lot of experience doing it this way where you just focus one game at a time,
12:03and you find that win, and next thing you know, you can catch some momentum,
12:07and the team's got confidence, and people rally behind you,
12:10and you can still have a pretty special season.