LB Jonathan Casillas
Postgame vs. Detroit, September 18, 2017
Q: How difficult was that sequence where it looks like Brandon [Marshall] has that catch along the sideline and he doesn’t reel it in and then a minute or two later you’ve got the punt return. How debilitating was that going from a tight game to all the sudden a two-touchdown game?
A: It was tough but it wasn’t over yet, we still had some football to play after that. It was a tough point in the game. I actually talked to the team before the game and I talked to them about adversity and how there was going to be some type of adversity we’d be facing and that was it. I don’t think we responded how we wanted to respond collectively as a team.
Q: Why don’t you guys think you’re stopping the run as well as you did last year?
A: I think we’re just a little leaky. I don’t think we’re percentage-wise as good as last year. We were maybe 85% good at stopping the run and maybe it’s a little less now. The last drive they broke a long play on us so of course that put them over the 100-yard mark. I think they were at 90-something before that. We’ve got to do a better job collectively and number one on defense, we’ve got to be able to stop the run. If a team has a lead at the end of the game we’ve got to be able to get our offense the ball back in the four-minute drill and we didn’t do that tonight.
Q: How big of a hole do you consider yourself in at 0-2 with your next three or four on the road against teams that are considered to be pretty solid teams?
A: We’re 1/7 of the way through- I don’t know, I’m making numbers up, but we’ve got 14 games left. We can go 14-2. That’s still a possibility. In all seriousness, it sucks but we’ve got a short week so we actually can’t even think about this game anymore because the 24-hour rule is technically over because Tuesday we’ve got to move on to the next team, which is tomorrow. This is a short week, we’ve got to move on. We’re going on the road to play a division team so we’ve got to have a short term memory and forget about this game, which sucks, but at the same time that’s football and we’ve got a long way to go.
Q: How concerned are you about giving up 3rd downs in the first half?
A: That’s very concerning. The first two weeks I don’t think we did a good job of getting off the field on third down, but I think that has to do something with first and second down as well. I think we have to do a better job of stopping them on first and second down and getting in some more advantageous third downs, longer third downs, where we put some pressure on and do what we want to do instead of being on our heels and letting their offense dictate what we’re going to do.
