On the game: "We've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of areas we've got to improve on. I think this bye week comes at a good time for us. Gives us a chance as coaches to look at and evaluate what we're doing, who we're doing it with and come up with solutions that can help us get better and help us win some games."
On 3rd quarter issues: "That's one of the things we have to look at. We've got to come out and play better to open up the third quarter. I think it's 55 to 7 and part of that is we've got to play better in the first half specifically on third down, convert third downs on offense, get off the field on defense. Especially on defense so we don't have to play so many plays so we don't get tired and worn down in the second half."
On halftime adjustments: "Hey, listen, we're making adjustments. I think we've got to come out with a greater sense of urgency coming out after halftime. Again, the second half is one of the byproducts of the first half. And the first half, we haven't had enough plays on offense so we don't develop that continuity and the flow. And then on defense, we play too many plays because we haven't done a good enough job of getting off the field on third down. Starting the second half and the third quarter, we're going to evaluate that, but part of that is a byproduct of where we've been in the first half."
On if lack of pressure on QB is because they've played elusive QBs so far: "When you begin to blame others, you give up the power to change. We're not looking at it as an external factor of why we're not getting enough pressure on the quarterback. We've got to look at what we're doing and we have to control the things we can control. We've got to do a better job of finding ways to affect the quarterback and I've talked about that since I got here. We've got to affect the quarterback. You do that two different ways – you do it by rush and you do it by coverage. So we've got to blend those things together. We've got to cover them better and give our rush a chance to get there and then when we do cover them, we've got to win our one-on-one matchups up front and get to the quarterback."
On Tommy Kelly and Richard Seymour: "I think just like everybody else, they need improvement. We've got to improve in a lot of areas. I'm not going to get into the finger-pointing game and trying to say this guy or that guy. Really what we're in to is playing better as a football team. And within doing that, we've got to evaluate each of us individually. We've got to evaluate ourselves and then ultimately the coaches, we have to evaluate the players and find out who is doing the right things in the way that we're asking them to do it."
On moving Michael Huff from safety to corner: "Really, at the end of the day, we've got to make decisions that we feel like give us the best chance to be successful. That was a decision that we made moving him to corner gave us the best chance to be successful. We're going to continue to evaluate that as we move along. That'll be one of the things we look at this bye week."
On injuries at cornerback limiting the defense: "Obviously, it's a factor, but at the same time, I believe this, we've got NFL football players and we're going to ask them to do an NFL job. That's what we've got to continue to do. Everybody in the NFL deals with injuries. We're no different than anybody else and we're not going to use that as a crutch."
On if bye week comes at a good time and if they'll use it to work on themselves: "I think that's when you get a great opportunity to do that. We're going to have a couple practices this week. CBA allows us to have a couple practices and then we have to give them four days off. But it gives us, as a coaching staff, time to really evaluate and look at what we've done over the first quarter of the season, see where we're at and the things we need to do improvement without the added time of trying to prepare for an upcoming opponent."
On the time off: "Yeah, it is quite a bit of time off, but at the same time, this is the time you really get a chance to work on you during the bye. You've got two practices to work on the bye. When we come back on Monday, we'll spend some time working Raiders on Raiders and so that's when you really get an opportunity to work on you. When you're into the game week, you're more focused on preparing for the upcoming opponent, so this is a good time for the bye for us."
On if they'll evaluate the zone-blocking scheme: "We're going to evaluate everything. We're not going to stick our head in the sand. We're going to evaluate everything and see what things we need to improve on and where we can get better. There's a lot of things that go into that. We're going to go from A to Z and we have a lot of getting better to do. That's what we plan on doing."
On problems running the ball: "There's a lot of things that go involved in it. I've already talked about third down and the time of possession and chasing points. When you're chasing points, you're not able to run the ball consistently and therefore you're not able to run the ball effectively. So there's a lot of factors that go into that and that are involved in that and that's what we have to do this bye week."
On if Coach Allen will work on himself too: "It's like I told the players today, 'All right, we've got to take a good hard look at ourselves and we've got to make sure we're doing everything that we can to give ourselves a chance to be successful.' I'm no different than anybody else. I think we all make mistakes in this business and we have to be able to learn from them and that's part of what this bye week is all about. Coaches and players, we all have to get better this week."
On if Coach calls specific guys for advice: "Yeah, I've got resources that I go to, to talk about different coaching decisions, schematic decisions, a lot of different things."
On Rolando McClain: "He needs improvement just like all of us. We're going to continue to work to improve in that regard. Listen, we have a lot of areas we have to get better at. So we're not into the singling out business, we're into the team business. We're going to evaluate everything this week and see where we can get better."
On how many areas need improvement: "Obviously, your record says who you are, so we've got a lot of improvement that we've got to make. Our guys are still committed to sticking together, staying together as a team because we're the only people that can help ourselves out. There's no magic formula. It's a bunch of guys in the locker room and a group of coaches that are committed to each other that are going to continue to work to get this thing fixed."
On defensive coordinators and Darren McFadden: "I think if you ask the DCs they would say that he is a factor. Listen, Darren, when you look back at the end of the year, you're going to say Darren had success this year. Again, we're going to evaluate everything that we're doing from A to Z, offensively, defensively and in the kicking game and we're going to try to utilize our personnel the best we can to give us a chance to be successful."
On defense getting off the field on 3rd down: "That's what it's all about. It's about getting off the field. We have to get pressure on the quarterback. We have to be able to win our one-on-one match ups. When we get opportunities to make plays, we have to be able to make plays. We'll evaluate schematically what we're doing if there are some things we can do differently to give our players a chance to be successful."
On getting Andre Carter onto the field: "It's important to get as many players on the field as we can that have a chance to affect the quarterback whether it be through rush or whether it be through coverage."
On Shawntae Spencer: "He's still in a boot. I would not anticipate him being back…when he gets out of the boot, we'll have a better feel for exactly where he's at."
On injuries during the game: "As of right now, there's not been anything that's come up that's any different than what we had going into the game other than mostly your normal bumps and bruises. I'm sure we'll have a better update on Wednesday as far as where everybody came out. There's still medical things that have to be done."
On if Darrius Heyward-Bey will be back for Atlanta: "I'm hopeful that he'll be back. I haven't talked to [Head Athletic Trainer H.] Rod [Martin] specifically about that. He seems to be doing a lot better so we'll see where he's at, at the end of this bye."
On Khalif Barnes: "Khalif, not this last Friday but the Friday before, had a little procedure to help heal that groin. We'll evaluate him after he comes back off the bye, but obviously he's kind of a week-to-week situation."
On Carter's work during bye week: "It'll be burying his head in the playbook to make sure he understands what we're doing and then it'll be on the field work for two days this week and then including Monday of next week. Obviously, he'll spend time in the training room making sure he's got his body ready to go. So it's a combination of getting his mind ready as well as his body to make sure he's ready to go for Atlanta. We'll see where he's at early in the week next week and have a better feel for how much if he'll play against Atlanta."
On if young cornerbacks can make a push: "Hey listen, potentially. Again, I'm not ready to make any of those decisions right now, but what I am going to say is we're going to look at everything. We're going to look at everything because we've got to do better than we've done the first quarter of the season."
On confidence in being able to get things accomplished: "I'm confident. We've got a group of guys in there that are going to continue to fight, continue to battle. Our coaches are going to work tirelessly to get it done and we're going to continue to work until we get our problems fixed."
On the team's mood: "We're all disappointed. Nobody set out this season to be 1-3 at this point. Yeah, there's disappointment, but our guys, like I said before, we showed that we could battle against Pittsburgh. We're going to continue to battle here and we've got to focus in on getting better and taking it one game at a time. The next team we're ready for is Atlanta. We're going to prepare for them, get ready for them and then we'll see what happens the rest of the year."
On how Coach will use the next two weeks: "It'll be pretty much half and half. It'll be time spent on what are we doing well, what do we need to improve on, how can we improve in those areas that we need to improve on. Then it will also be studying Atlanta, seeing what they're doing and coming up with a plan for them."
On areas he's pleased with: "Obviously, I'm not pleased with the record so there are a lot of areas I'm not pleased with. Things that I am pleased with – I'm pleased with the competitiveness at times of our football team, the way we've hung in and battled, specifically there against Pittsburgh. But there's a lot of areas that we need to get better on and that's really where I'm focused is how can we improve as a football team."
On Carson Palmer: "I thought at times he played well. There was obviously some plays that you wish you would have had back. I think he was put in a tough situation. It's hard to chase points against a team like that when they've got a pass rush like they do. He's no different than the rest of us; we all have to improve. There are areas for all of us to get better at and we're going to keep working to do that."
On not challenging play on first drive of second half: "When I looked at the coach's tape, it's still inconclusive. I thought it was inconclusive at the game. I thought it was inconclusive on the coach's tape and my thought process was right there that I had already used one challenge. If I used my next challenge and don't get it, I don't have a challenge for the rest of the game. Being that it was inconclusive to us in the box, I didn't feel like it was worth that challenge."
On fewer catches for McFadden since Week 1: "No, its part of taking what the defense is giving us. We've had some opportunities down the field and we've converted on some of them and some of them we missed. It's not limited in the times we throw to him; it's more fact of what the defenses have been giving us."
