Post-Game Transcript: Head Coach Brian Daboll

Head Coach Brian Daboll

Opening Statement:

"Competitive game. Disappointed in the outcome. I was proud of the way the guys competed. I thought the quarterback played well. There was a play here or there that we came up short on and that's the outcome of the game. I thought there were improvements made. Checking on the offensive side of the ball. Red zone, third down, efficient running game, efficient passing game. We went for it there at the end of the game. Thought our chances were good throwing it to Malik [Nabers] with Daniel [Jones] the way we were playing. Better than making a 40 yard or 39 yard field goal, so that it was I decided to do."

On only having one kicker active today:

"We thought Graham [Gano] would be okay. He got hurt chasing down a [runner]. It was a hamstring. He didn't hurt his groin. He hurt his hamstring."

On if he is saying you can't hurt your hamstring while running while favoring your groin:

"I'm not a doctor."

On knowing the risk of Gano getting re-injured:

"I mean anybody could get injured. He was chasing the kickoff return, he pulled his hamstring. I'm not making excuses."

On whose decision it was to not activate another kicker:

"We thought he [Graham Gano] was good. We thought he was good. All the decisions that are made are mine."

On his past decisions to use P Jamie Gillan to kick field goals and extra points and on why he didn't today:

"He missed the first one and we thought our chances were better going for it or going for two as the game went on. And how we were playing offensively, I felt good about our plays. We had one to Slay [Darius Slayton], we had an opportunity there. A two-point. We had another one with [Tyrone] Tracy that ended up covering the scramble. And then I went for it on fourth-and-three. It was fourth-and-three right at the end to [Malik] Nabers. A little undergo and we just didn't finish it off.

On the goal of the first kickoff:

"I'm not going to get into strategy but again, I feel bad for Graham, I feel bad for us. There are no excuses. We had our opportunities."

On Gano's condition during warmups and on not using Gillan for the kickoff:

"Yeah. Again, we talked about a lot of things. We thought he'd be good to go. We talked to him. Talked to the trainers and again, I can't tell you he's going to get hurt chasing down a 100-yard kickoff return that was called back."

On a player's risk of injury when dealing with soft tissue injury:

"I'd say I'm not a doctor."

On if he talks to SVP and GM Joe Schoen about the roster moves the team makes:

"It's collective."

On considering kicking instead of the two-point conversion to Darius Slayton:

"We had an opportunity on it to make. I felt comfortable with what we did."

On whether or not Gillan missing the first extra point had anything to do with the decision:

"No, we had discussions down there. I just figured look, we had some two-point plays that we liked. Thought we'd be okay with going, which we did and didn't end up making the plays."

On if there was a yard marker that they had if they had gotten to at the end where he would have attempted a kick:

"At the end? Yeah."

On how seriously he thought about elevating K Jude McAtamney:

"I'm not going to get into the discussions that we had. Again, we thought Graham was good. I think he would've been good if he didn't pull his hamstring."

On Shane Bowen's rushing defense performance:

"Yeah, they rushed the ball well. They were efficient in the passing game. We had them in a lot of third-and-longs that we stopped them on. We did play a good red zone defense which was held up but certainly areas that we gotta be better at. They were rushing to the ball. They were efficient and we had them in some long yards. I think we had five sacks. We had some long yards that they capitalized on."

On their strategy for defending QB Jayden Daniels running game:

"Yeah, a couple of them we had spies on him."

On what he will say to WR Malik Nabers after dropping the pass at the end:

"Keep your head up. Keep your head up."

On what he thought of Nabers overall:

"I thought he played well. I thought Daniel played well. I thought the line played well. I thought we ran hard. I thought we were efficient. [WR] Wan'Dale [Robinson] made a nice play there in the end zone when we needed him to. [WR Darius] Slayton had his opportunities. Nabers – it was a bunch of one-on-one coverage and they started running split safeties. So with them playing split safeties, we ran the ball some. Post-high, we threw it to him. What did he have 18 targets? 10 catches. The last one, he is as competitive as can be. I appreciate how competitive he is and how much he cares."

On if he is comfortable with 18 targets for one player:

"Yep."

On worrying about his job security if results don't change:

"I've done this for a long time. My focus is on our football team."

On if he would've made a different decision about kicker looking back:

"Knowing that he was going to get hurt on the first kickoff, yes certainly. On a pulled hamstring, yeah. Any player gets hurt at a certain position. The quarterback gets hurt, I mean, whatever it may be so certainly. I mean he got hurt, so that's too bad."

On why he didn't take extra precautions knowing Gano wasn't at 100 percent:

"Again, we felt okay with the decision that we made. Obviously, it didn't pan out because he pulled his hamstring."

On how the offense can build along with the defense:

"I think it's complementary football, so it's the entire units working together. Obviously, we have to do a better job on third downs. I think we were four-of-eight, 50% on third down which I know is a good improvement but they were 7-of-14, 50% on 3rd down. They were 0-6 in the red zone. We were 3-3. Turnover again. I talked about it again last night. That turnover was critical coming out of the half. We had that drive going and we didn't create any so that was a loss in the turnover ratio, which I said during the press conference on Thursday. It was 10 and one last week so we have to work on some things. Some things we improved on and we'll continue to do that."

On how he felt Jones improved:

"He went where he was supposed to go with the football. He saw the field well. Threw it to the guy he was supposed to throw it to. Gave them chances. We had chances on other plays too that we didn't connect on. I was proud of him. I was proud of the way he competed. I was proud of the way he prepared during the week and I was proud of his mental toughness. I thought he did a nice job."