On putting together two halves of football: "Well yeah, I think obviously we've got to come out and play a complete game and we've got to start stronger, or start faster. I have been pleased with the way we have finished some of these ballgames -- the two wins, being able to come back from double-digit deficits and continue to fight and continue to play and ultimately win the football game. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about."
On the decision to go no-huddle: "Well it's something that we've had in the offensive game plan and it will remain in t e offensive game plan and it's something that, on a week-to-week basis, we try to determine how much we'll use it. Obviously, we were not executing in the first half on offense. It was the worst half of football we've played offensively. We knew we needed to do something to try to change some things up and the no-huddle worked good for us, so we used it more in the second half."
On why the no-huddle allows them to execute better: "I mean, it's worked well in some situations and in others it hasn't worked well. Really, it's kind of a feel, on how the game is going. Obviously, in the game the other day, we felt like, with the no-huddle, we were able to wear them down a little bit more and they were less fresh and our guys, it seemed to increase our focus offensively. And we executed better offensively. So, like I said before, it will remain part of our offense and some games it will be more of a part of what we're going to do than others."
On the offensive line issues: "Well, it was a little bit of both [offensive line's own issues and Jaguars defensive pressure]. I don't think we executed well at all up front, both in the running game and the passing game. We've got to get better in that regard. We've got to be able to establish a line of scrimmage, a new line of scrimmage, give our backs an opportunity and some space to run. We've got to do a better job in protection. And we're going to continue to work on it. We've got some new pieces in there, a couple of young guys in there that are still learning, but we'll continue to work on it and we'll continue to get better."
On play-calling and offensive line control: "I think at the end of the day it comes down to execution, and we've got to execute better. We've got a job to do and we've got to do our job and we've got to do it better than we did yesterday."
On if Darren McFadden looks like the same player he was last year: "Yeah, he does. He's still an explosive player. We've got to do a better job of creating some room for him to run. We've incorporated a few more of those gap scheme-type plays. Again, you can say this on every play, but we're one block here or one block there away from a big run. Really, you go back and look at the Pittsburgh game and that was his best rushing output of the game and he had an explosive run. That's how you get those big games. You have one or two explosive runs in the game and all of a sudden you look up and here's a guy with a hundred-and-something yards rushing. So that's what we've got to continue to do. We've got to continue to work in the running game and I feel that if we continue to hand the ball off to him that those big runs are going to come."
On continuity versus mixing things up on the offensive line: "Listen, we're always in a constant evaluation process. We'll continue to evaluate all positions as we go through and we're going to play the guys that we feel like give us the best opportunity to win. So the guys that are out there are the guys that we feel like give us the best chance to be successful offensively, defensively or in the kicking game."
On Philip Wheeler moving to Mike linebacker in passing situations: "Our decision we made over the bye week. We felt like, it was two-fold, we felt like Rolando [McClain], we were asking him to play more snaps, I think, than he needed to play, and we felt like making the move, putting Philip Wheeler at the Mike and Miles Burris at the Will position in our nickel stuff gave us a little more speed on the field. It gave Rolando a chance to get a little bit more rest and be more fresh when he does get an opportunity to play. Again this week, he had another productive game in the base package. I think that moving forward will be productive for us as a defense."
On Miles Burris: "I think Miles continues to get better every week. Again, I've said it before, he's the type of guy that we're looking for here. He loves the game of football, plays extremely hard, eliminates the repeat mistakes and I'm pleased with the way that Miles Burris is playing."
On Lamarr Houston's hustle plays: "Those are the plays that we're looking for. He does those things. He plays and makes those hustle plays. For us to be the type of defense that I feel like we're capable of being, that's the way you have to play the game, and you have to have 11 guys playing it at that effort level, at that pace, and if we get enough guys doing that, we'll have a chance to be successful."
On how close the defense is to being what they're capable of being: "We're getting closer every day. I think our guys are getting a better feel for what we're asking them to do and how we're asking them to do it. I think they're gaining a little bit more confidence in themselves, and therefore, they're able to cut it loose a little bit more. That's the standard with which we expect our defense to play."
On if the game was most mistake free on defense than any other: "Yeah. Obviously as coaches we come in here every day and nothing's ever perfect so there's still a lot of things that we've got to get cleaned up and a lot of mistakes that we made that could cost us at some point down the road. I think the biggest thing when you look at over the last couple of weeks what our defense has done a lot better job of is we've done a better job of getting 11 hats around the ball and we've played harder and we've had more success. I think those things breed off of each other."
On how he felt down 17-3: "Well I'm disappointed that we're down 17-3. But I also understand it's a four-quarter game and they don't stop the game at halftime, they don't stop the game at the end of the third quarter. You continue to play for 60 minutes and that's what our team did. We played for 60 minutes and we were rewarded at the end of the day with a win."
On how the players responded to what was said at halftime: "I think what's pleasing is that when negative things happen, our guys don't hang their head and lose hope. I think our guys believe that we can win and they continued to fight until the very end. At the end of the day, the game's all about making enough plays to win, and that's what we were able to do yesterday. I was pleased with the way that our guys, no matter what happened in the game, no matter what was negative in the game, the fact that they kept playing and kept competing and they responded and rebounded back from negative situations."
On Rod Streater bouncing back after a quiet couple of games: "I think it's the NFL. When you look around the league, one week somebody may jump up and make a lot of plays and the next week they may not be as big a factor. Some of that's due to execution, some of that's due to what the opponent's are trying to take away or what they're doing to you. Part of it is, hey, listen, young players, they're going to be a little bit up and down. Sometimes you have to ride the rollercoaster ride with the young players. But I was pleased with the way that he responded, especially after the play in the end zone where we felt like he had an opportunity to make the play in the end zone earlier on one of the earlier drives to score a touchdown instead of us having to kick a field goal, but he came back. He responded to a negative situation, made a big play on third down, converted it to a first down and gave us an opportunity to go down and score the tying touchdown."
On if the offense's first half issues were execution, mental errors, or other team dictating: "All of those. I don't think we came out and executed like we're supposed to execute. We had too many mental mistakes. Their team was very well prepared. They came out and had a good game plan and executed their game plan. I don't feel like we played the type of football that we're capable of playing and the standard which we set for our offense. It wasn't good enough in the first half."
On no timeouts with three minutes to go in the game: "A couple of them were communication errors. We had one where we had to take a timeout on offense to save ourselves from a delay of game. One on defense, it was a mistake. We gave a signal on the sideline and they thought we were calling for a timeout so we called timeout. That's on me. I'll put that on me all the way. Then the last situation was on 4th and 10 you have to make a decision: Do you kick the field goal? You need two scores to win the game. Do you kick the field goal knowing that you're playing good defense, feel like you can go and stop them and go and get the ball back with decent field position with a chance to score a touchdown because you need a touchdown no matter what. I decided I was going to kick the field goal. After I sent the team out there, I thought better of it and decided I wanted to try to convert the 4th and 10. To do that I felt like we had to call timeout to make sure that we got the offense back on the field. That was the thought process behind that. Whatever decision that we made I felt like we were going to get the ball back and have an opportunity to get another drive on offense, and at the end of the day, we were able to get two more drives on offense and still had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation."
On taking a timeout or taking a delay of game: "It's situationally where it. It depends on where it is in the game. I didn't like the delay of game that we got when it was first down on the nine-yard line. I didn't like that at all. We have to have better clock management than that. That was not good. Put us in a first and goal from the 14. Then we had the offensive pass interference on the very next play. So we shot ourselves in the foot there. But yeah, time management is something that we look at, and that was really the first time this year that we lost some timeouts that we really needed at the end of the game."
On Brady Quinn starting for the Chiefs and what a QB change does to a team: "It depends. That's their team. I don't know how they'll respond to it. But obviously I don't see them changing a whole lot as far as philosophically what they're going to do on offense, the plays that they're going to call and how they're going to try to execute it. I think we have to go and look at the tape and look and look at what they've done up to this point. Their last game, Brady Quinn was their quarterback, so we'll have a feel for what they think they can do with him."
On Aaron Curry: "Still in the evaluation process. We still got two more weeks to make a decision on him. At whatever point it is that we feel like he's ready to go and can withstand the rigors of a National Football League game then we'll have him active and ready to roll."
On odds of them not using the whole window to make decision on Curry: "I don't know. We'll see how he works this week and what he looks like in practice. We'll go from there."
On Shawntae Spencer, Khalif Barnes and Richard Gordon: "I would expect that we would probably be able to get Gordon back at some point this week. I don't know exactly when that would be. Barnes and Spencer are probably doubtful."
On Ron Bartell: "He's eligible to start practicing Saturday, which, at the end of the day really means that next week he'll be ready to start practicing."
On if there is supposed to be someone to spy for that onside kick: "Well, it's not a spy. The guys on the front line are taught to not leave until the ball is kicked. They've got to see the ball off the foot, and really, the margin for error is about that small [holds two fingers close together]. We left a little bit early. They did a good job of executing it. We didn't execute like we're supposed to, and they made a good play."
On other injuries from the game: "Yeah, we had a few, none of which I think are major injuries to cost anybody some time, but I'll go through them. Rod Streater has a knee. Dave Tollefson has a shoulder. Miles Burris has an elbow. Desmond Bryant has an elbow. Keenan Clayton had a shoulder. Mike Goodson has a hip. Again, I don't expect those to be anything that causes us to miss any time. But we'll probably have a better feel for that on Wednesday."
On if he's surprised Goodson didn't have any carries: "No. Obviously, in the first half, there was a lot of three-and-outs, so we were using Darren in that situation. We got in the second half we went a little more with no-huddle, which makes it harder to substitute, as well as the fact that Goodson had that hip. So, he had to miss some time due to the hip, too. But he's a guy that, as he continues to progress, we'll find a role to use him a little bit more."
On if the team block better in short-yardage situations: "Well, we didn't have as far to go, so that makes it a little bit easier. But, no, we did some good things in the short-yardage situations to get a little push up inside. A couple of them on sneak situations, the full back dive, that kind of stuff, where you're really just trying to get a yard."
On if he is surprised by the running game struggles: "Well, I don't know if surprised is the word. I'm disappointed that it's not doing better. Again, we're going to continue to work, continue to see what can we do better, both as a coaching staff and how can we execute better to give our guys a chance to be successful? I don't think there's any doubt that we want, and need, to run the ball better than we have."
