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October 7, 2007

Transcript: Romeo Crennel press conference

We came up and played a good football team here at their place and we did not do enough things to win the game. We had a good first drive, drove it all the way down into great scoring position and came up with no points, and I think that hurt us in the first half. That kind of set a tone for the first half. Then, also we threw some turnovers. They intercepted some balls in good field position, and when you give Tom Brady good field position he is going to hurt you. Sometimes when you give him bad field position he is going to hurt you. So, we didn’t do enough against a good football team to win. Those guys did a nice job, and when I say those guys [I mean] the Patriots. They did a nice job. They have a good football team. I think they are going to be hard to beat. But our football team, we still learn a little bit each week about ourselves and about what it takes to play in this league and to be successful in the NFL. Our guys did try to rally up in the second half a little bit and try to make a little comeback to make the game a more competitive overall. So, we are just going to go back and keep working. We still have a lot of games to play and try to get back on a winning track is what we need to do. So that is what we are going to try to focus on and get done. I know Jamal [Lewis] had an injury and we will take a look at that later on and they will let us know what the prognosis is there. Also Joe Jurevicius had a knee and we will find out about his prognosis and see what happens there. I think Brodney Pool got hit in the thigh and got a little contusion and we will find out about that. But, everyone else played in the game. A couple guys got some nicks and bruises and the doctor is going to look at that and he’ll let us know if they are serious or not. But, we are not satisfied by any means because we lost the game. We wanted to win and I thought that we would play a little bit better than we played. So we have to go back to the drawing board and get ready to play a game at home against the Miami team. I think that will be an important game for us. So we are going to try to put everything we have into that game and try to get back on track.

What is the proper etiquette at the end of the game when a team is so far ahead? Do you throw it in the end zone in that circumstance like Belichick did?
The proper etiquette is to try to win the game, and I think that is what he tried to do. When you go out there, it is the defense’s job to stop the offense. Whether they run or whether they throw doesn’t make any difference. It is our job to stop them. We were able to stop them, so we were able to get off the field in that instance.

How did not having Jamal Lewis for basically the whole game affect what you were trying to do?
Well, I think the score affected what we tried to do more than anything else because Jason Wright came in and I thought Jason did a nice job of running the ball. He stepped up pretty decently. I think it was the score. Sometimes in the NFL you get behind early and you feel like you have to try to catch up quickly, and against a good football team like that, if you don’t catch up then you probably get further behind. So, the score in this situation probably dictated what happened more than Jamal’s injury.

It looked like many of Derek Anderson’s interceptions came on tipped balls. Were those poor decisions or bad throws?
No, I thought they were good decisions. I was looking right at one of them and the guy was open and he tried to get it in there and the linebacker broke on it and tipped it up and they intercepted it. And then on the other one he got the arm hit and so that hurt. That is part of the game a little bit. We’ve got to protect better and we have to deliver quicker.

What about the third-and-one play on the goal line?
The third-and-and one down there. Was that one tipped?

Yes, it was tipped.
He thought he could get the ball in and he was trying to get it in. He had a chance to make it happen. The thing that happened on that one is he got flushed out a little bit and I think probably maybe his feet weren’t set enough because he was on the move. Maybe if he had been able to set his feet and deliver the ball he could have gotten it in.

It seemed like he didn’t get enough air under that pass to Jurevicius earlier in that sequence on the goal line.
Well, yeah. Sometimes you’ve got enough, sometimes you don’t.

You were able to control Randy Moss today, but Benjamin Watson and Sammy Morris had big games. Do they just have too many weapons?
They have quite a few weapons and you have to try to pick your poison a little bit against these guys. Moss has been killing people and we didn’t want him to kill us, so we died by the hands of somebody else.

One of those players was Donté Stallworth. What was your take on that 34-yard touchdown?
Well, we missed some tackles. If we make a tackle then we can line up and play again, but I think we missed two tackles on that play. We need to tackle better.

This isn’t the first game where Derek Anderson has had one good half and one bad half. How important is it for him to develop consistency?
Well, is always important to play consistently and be consistently good, and that is what we aim for and that is what we try to do. If we get that touchdown on that first down then we probably look at it differently because now you have a little confidence, you score on a team that hasn’t been allowing any points and then maybe you are able to do some things the rest of the game. But, by not scoring I think also some of the guys wonder about what we are able to do and how we missed that opportunity and those kinds of things. But, we did get it together a little or bit in the second half and were a lot more competitive.

Is that all part of the growing process?
Sure. It is a growing process for this team because we do have some young guys and everybody has to learn a little bit. Each game is a learning situation for us.

What was the plan with Ryan Tucker and how did he look?
We were going to rotate him in and we did rotate him in. I think in the running game he was okay. I think maybe he was a little rusty with his timing on pass protection, but from what I could see he wasn’t terrible.

Did you plan on playing him the second half? I didn’t see him out there.
Well, you know we were just going to rotate it in and sometimes you just get a gut feel about whether you need to put the guy in or not, so it just developed the way it developed.

You coached both Jarvis Green and Richard Seymour. How impressed are you by how seamlessly they can slide guys in and out of there and not miss a beat?
Jarvis Green is a very good football player as well. Jarvis is a hard worker and a good technician and he never says never. I expect that from Jarvis.

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