JAGUARS HEAD COACH GUS BRADLEY (Opening Statement) "A tough, hard-fought battle. I just got done with the team, and we're well aware of the situation we are in right now. As the head coach, I'm the problem-solver. We've got to solve these problems and quickly, and that's exactly what I told the team. We've got to look to extract more from our players, from our coaches, from everybody involved with this, asking them to give more. They came back and had opportunities in this game, especially at the end there with two situations where we were in four-minute situations and all we needed to do was get a first down, and we didn't accomplish that. It's up to the coaches to put the players in position to succeed, and it's up to the players to make plays. We all take full responsibility with this. We just didn't have enough to get it done. There are times during the year when our character is tested, and that's now. We'll rely on that. We'll rely on this team's character to come back and get back to work and figure this out quickly.
(On if the play calling was too conservative following the turnovers) "No. We were trying to run the ball. It comes back to that. We didn't run the ball very well again today. They were very stout up front. We knew it was going to be a challenge to get a first down. That's what your goal is in four-minute situations, and we had two four-minute situations after the takeaways. To get a first down is what we're looking for. I know we threw an interception on one and didn't get the other one."
(On whether they considered taking a shot at the end zone after the takeaways) "No. We weren't thinking about that. We were thinking about getting a first down."
(On QB Blake Bortles performance and if he's regressing) "I have not talked to him yet and had conversation. I know he's showing up and making some plays and not enough plays as he would like, as we would like. I think the big thing is he's got poised and he's got to rely on that poise in these difficult situations like this. We've just got to protect and all come together like that."
(On Bortles' sack on the last series) "That's situational football. There's things like that that happen through the game and you've got to understand the situation you are in. And he knows that. He knows in that situation we don't want to take a sack. And we thought, at that time, on third down, let's get a first down. We ran routes past the sticks to try to get a first down and it just didn't work in our favor."
(On why the running game isn't working) "You know, I think just maintaining our blocks and the execution of our blocks. They are stout up front. That's a very good defense we faced, and they've been good versus the run. So we've just got to look at our execution in different ways. And that's why I said as the head coach it's my responsibility to take a look at everything and really challenge all of us to really look at different ways, creative ways to run the ball."
(On the lack of downfield production compared to last year) "We took pride in that last year, that we could have explosive plays. When we get explosive plays we get more points on the board. And we took some shots today, and we just misfired or didn't have the protection. That's what I mean, we just really need to look at everything to see how we get some of these explosive plays to be more in our favor."
(On the concern with the offensive line after today's performance) "Well yeah, when you don't have the opportunity to score as many points as we think we're capable of. Everybody takes ownership in that. That's what I said, it's players and coaches together."
(On the defense's turnovers and third down stops) "Yeah it did. The third down stops, the pressure, the getting some turnovers. They're pretty good against the run. I thought I didn't see the stats completely, but I thought in a couple phases. Special teams, we set up a score with that fumble recovery, we got that field goal and then we had the one block. So in games like this, I've mentioned this for years, it's a precision league and it's execution. Our penalties were down but we still had some foolish penalties and we just got to knocking those down."
(On Fowler's end of first half penalty and if he was aware of the rule) "Yeah, aware of it. And you know he's emotional and passionate and tried to make a play. In those situations, critical situations, good decision making and that comes back, like I said, to me."
(On how it seems the team has been making the same mistakes for three weeks) "Well I think there's times where I look at it and there are some same mistakes. Now that I looked at today, some things on the defensive side that was corrected and I see that in the special teams, some things that were corrected. Even on offense but just not enough. Not enough in a game like this."
(On the best way of correcting those mistakes like taking away playing time for example) "What specifically issues are you talking about?"
(On Dante Fowler's hand penalty) "Yeah, he came out of the game right after that."
(On if that's the best way to do it) "Taking away playing time. You got to realize that situation."
(On how deep does he have to dig now this week to make sure this doesn't slip) "I think every week you dig. I mean you see it, man. It's week to week. It's week to week in the NFL. It's not like okay let's kick it in this week and you know every week you do it. So that's when I say I believe in this team. We just didn't do enough good things today and it sounds like a broken record a little bit and it is. And although I can print out some positives they were making some ground on defense and special teams, it's not good enough. Ultimately it's about getting a win and we didn't get it."
(On what he saw on the blocked field goal) "The last one for us it looked like they got pushed on the left side. It looked like they got pushed. I don't know if they got double teamed but it looked like they got pushed and penetration."
(Was it a push rather than a low kick?) "Yeah, it looked like they got pushed and they got some penetration and a hand up."
(On the progress of Jalen Ramsey and how he's improving every week) "He is. We keep challenging him with different things. He moved to the left side this week. We keep putting those challenges on him. There are some things out there that he needs to get corrected. I know early in the first half there was a placing issue so he'll keep learning that but as far as his technique and as a football player, yeah he's progressing nicely."
(On what he said to the referee at halftime) "Just an explanation on a call."
(On if he didn't have a huge problem with Blake Bortles' last interception because he has to take that shot at the end of the game) "Yeah, we said we had to gain some yards. We had to find a way to dump it to the back in the flat. We got to somehow find a way to get chunks of yardage in that situation."
(On Allen Robinson's two touchdowns) "Well I mean, you've seen them in practice. The guy practices his tail off and competes his tail off in the games. And we've got multiple guys like that that we want to try to find ways to get the ball. He's always a guy you can count on."
(On Chris Ivory's conditioning prior to game and if that affected his playing time) "I know we substituted quite a bit. I'll find out more when I go in there and see him and how he really handled it. I know it wasn't an issue. I kept checking with the trainer and they said he was fine."
WR ALLEN HURNS
(on his thoughts on his performance) "For me it's all about making plays, I think I haven't made enough plays for my team so far, so I just want to try and go out and do that."
(on if today's loss felt worse than last week's lost) "Every loss is tough so you can't put one loss higher than another; they're all the same so you've got to go out and get this thing turned around."
(on the character of the team to turn the season around) "I think this team has a ton of character with the passion you see guys go out there with defense, special teams and offense, so I think for sure we have the character."
S JOHNATHAN CYPRIEN
(on if the defense can take confidence from this game going forward) "Yes, we'll take some confidence. I haven't look at the film yet but what I do know is that the defense executed a little bit more with less mental errors as far as offsides, and we didn't have too many running backs running through open holes. So that's an improvement; we just have to be more steady and continue to do that because with our team the sky's the limit."
(on how the new guys on defense are coming together) "It's great because football is supposed to be a fun game. When my teammates make plays and when I make plays it gives you a lot of excitement, so football is not that fun if you're not making plays."
S TASHUAN GIPSON
(on how he would rate today's performance) "I would say on a scale of one to ten it's a ten because of the preparation. This was kind of a bounce-back week for us; we came out and did everything we had to do but towards the end of the game I think things got a little out of hand and a little sloppy and they were able to come out there and win the game. But that's the difference between good teams and elite teams; find ways to come back and make plays and win the football game. But it's tough, we felt like we should have capitalized on some of the mistakes but it's unfortunate; we're not here to play the blame game. Offensively, defensively and special teams we all had a hand in this loss."
(on if there has been any finger pointing) "We definitely can't point fingers but at the end of the day if you look at the Green Bay game Blake's the reason why we stayed in that game. So the defense made stops when we needed to but Blake played an amazing game, but it's the nature of this business. When you lose, the quarterback takes the blame and win you win he gets all the glory, but nobody points fingers at him and everybody respects him. I'm excited that he's my quarterback and he knows some of the plays he'd like back."
DL MALIK JACKSON
(on his take on the loss) "It's definitely frustrating and it's on the defense to not let the offense score more points, but we fought hard holding them to a few
CB DAVON HOUSE
(On battling sickness) "It was tough. It's been a tough two weeks. Last week I had a 102-degree temperature. It's probably one of the harder games I've played."
(On if it's frustrating to come up with turnovers and still lose) "[We're] 0-3. It's never good to be 0-3. We work hard, practice hard and play hard so it sucks when the final result on the scoreboard is not the Jaguars winning."
(On if he's concerned about not getting wins) "Yeah it is. We've got to go back to the drawing board and it starts with the little things. There are some things we talked about and we'll keep that in the locker room, but we're going to regroup."
CB JALEN RAMSEY
(On frustration in losing) "Very frustrating. It's tough, man. All I can is that every day coming here every guy works their ass off. I don't know. The guys in this room have fire and desire in their hearts and I know how hard they work."
(On if it's a hard loss to soak in) "Yeah. I'm not used to losing. It's tough. It's probably the first time in my life that I've lost like this. I really wish I had some answers for y'all. It's just tough when we work our asses off all week and come out here and play with heart and compete, but still lose."
(On if things boiled over with Ravens WR Steve Smith Sr.) "I don't know. Ask him. When you've been beating the opponent that's in front of you both physically and psychologically all day, they tend to get mad like that. I don't care how old he is. If that made him angry then he can go home and sleep on it. I don't care. It is what it is."
(On if he didn't want to hear from Smith Sr. after the game) "Yeah, but I'm not worried about him. He was still mad because I was locking him up. Alright, well sleep on it. I'm not trying to hear that after the game."
(On if he believes he got into Smith Sr.'s head) "What do you think? You tell me. Any time I lined up on him – y'all go watch that. Y'all tell me who got in whose head. He came up to me after the game. He's an old man acting like that."
(On the pass he tipped for an interception) "I was just doing my job. I saw the ball and tried to make a play on it. I wasn't able to make a full play, but my teammate Gip [safety Tashaun Gipson] was there to make a hell of a play."
(On if he thought the Ravens moved Smith Sr. around to field to get away from him) "Yeah. I noticed that throughout the game a little bit. If you go back and look he's lined up away from me. It is what it is. As a player, he's still a good player. I'll say that about him. I don't respect him as a man though."
DT ROY MILLER III
(On frustration of losing despite strong defensive performance) "Obviously, it's frustrating when you're losing. I feel like, defensively, we were clicking and making plays so we've got to build on that and keep our spirits high. We're going to get better."
(On the offensive struggles) "I don't want to speak on it because I don't really know what's going on. In the heat of the battle my job is just to go out and play defense. I don't ever try to get caught up in what's going on with them. I just go out there and play defense."
(On how to keep young guys from getting discouraged at 0-3 start) "We've got to protect our spirit. We've got to find things to build on. Jalen [Ramsey] played well today. Some other young guys did as well. With young guys like Jalen, you've got to protect their spirit and show them that if we play like that defensively, we'll always have a chance. The biggest thing is just staying positive and finding a silver lining."
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RB CHRIS IVORY
(On his first game) "There's not much to say about it. When you go out there, you expect to win, but it didn't go that we. We've got a few small mistakes that we need to fix. Now it's just about moving on to next week."
(On his health moving forward) "I'm just doing the things that I've been doing to stay healthy. I'm making sure I'm in the cold tub, hot tub and massage. I'm making sure to keep myself in a position to stay active on Sundays."
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RB DENARD ROBINSON
(On Blake Bortles) "He's got the keys to the team. We run as he runs. It goes through him. At the end of the day, we believe in him. Everybody in this locker room believes in him. We're going to continue to believe in him. That's the biggest thing. He just has to know that everybody believes in him."
(On the muffed punt recovery) "I was running down the sideline with two guys on me. Once I saw him [punt returner Devin Hester] put up the fair catch signal, I was thinking that I should push my guy into him. When I got there, he had already dropped the ball so I pushed his guy into him and just fell on the ball."
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G A.J. CANN
(On why the running game struggled) "We just have to wait until we get into the film room and see what mistakes we made."(On not taking advantage of opportunities following turnovers) "It bothers you a little bit when you get the ball in those situations and you can't seem to close it out. Things happen. Hopefully we can figure it out and start making those situations count."
(On how he sees the next 13 games) "We'll come in to practice, come into meeting rooms and make sure everybody is on the same page. Everything will go from there."
JAGUARS QB BLAKE BORTLES
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(On taking a sack) "Definitely I was trying to extend the play for as long as possible to try and give some guys downfield a chance to get open. There comes a time when you just kind of have to cut your losses and throw it away and get another opportunity. I didn't do that; I held on to it for too long—bad play."
(On how bad the loss felt) "I think every loss feels pretty much the same. They all feel pretty bad. I thought the defense played awesome; I thought special teams did a really good job. We had unbelievable field position and continued to tremendously underachieve as an offense. That's nobody's fault outside of mine, I believe. I think Olly (offensive coordinator Greg Olson) called some plays that put us in good positions and we didn't get it done. We had way too many turnovers, played careless with the ball. We've got to continue to work and try to establish a running game, but there are times when that's not going to work, so you have to win in a different way. Whether it's throwing or doing different stuff, you've got to find a way to win and we haven't done that yet."
(On if the lack of running game affects him) "I don't think so. Any time you get the run game going, it kind of opens up everything, but I don't think one way or the other, it bothers me. I get excited every time he calls a pass play. I think it's something we have to continue to work on and continue to do. That's three games in row now that we've started pretty slow, pretty poorly. If I knew what we were doing wrong, we wouldn't be doing it."
(On if he thinks the team is taking enough shots downfield) "We're definitely getting more split safety coverage with guys really deep. I thought A-Rob (Allen Robinson) did a good job today, getting him the ball for the first time and getting him his deserved targets. I had Marqise (Lee) early on a big one that I missed. And then the pick to A-Rob down the field, probably should have gotten that one in there. Definitely should have made a better throw. The plays are there, the calls are there. I think it's really a lot on me and not executing them."
(On why the team can't run the ball) "If I knew, we would be running for 200 yards a game. I think it's a little bit of everything. Obviously, if you're not running the ball, I think it's on me not getting us into the right play, it's on missed blocks, it's on backs missing things. At the end of the day, it's about owning the line of scrimmage, controlling it, moving it and being able to run the ball. We haven't been able to do that."
(On his reaction after the final interception) "I didn't really care to watch them take a knee."
(On a stat that the Jaguars lead the league in blown leads in the past few years) "I don't think guys are thinking about that stat or even knew about it. Guys are realizing and understanding that it gets old. Guys are tired of being bad. Guys are tired of losing. I thought the defense and special teams played plenty well enough to win, but we didn't offensively and I didn't as a quarterback. It's hard to look the guys in the locker room in the eye and try and do whatever when they played as hard as they could and they played pretty well, gave us two short fields on two turnovers, had a muffed punt that we had on their side of the field and just couldn't do anything with it. It's also a mentality. That's when you put teams away, to not sit there and play for a field goal, to score three or four touchdowns at the end of this thing."
(How much control do you have at the line of scrimmage?) "I think there's adjustments within every play, rarely do I ever just go off the reservation and go in a completely different direction. But there's freedom within the play and the adjustments within that."
(On frustration leading to second guessing) "I don't think so. I personally know not for me. I'm going to through reads and throw the ball. If our team catches it, great. If the other team catches it, I have to continue to try to get better and be better. I think from everybody's standpoint, they have a similar mentality, whether it's a penalty, a setback, a turnover, whatever, guys are pretty good about staying true and getting after it and be aggressive."
(On the confidence level staying the same) "Yeah. I think so. For me, definitely. I think continuing to get better. Have to play better as a quarterback. Have to play better as an offense for this team to be successful."
(On the team's mood after starting 0-3) "I think it's a special situation. I think you get a chance to find out what kind of people are in the locker room, what kind of people are in the building. When you go 0-3 and there was a lot of hype before the season, now that's completely gone. We know that and we can see that, so I think you get to kind of find out the character of the team, the character of the coaching staff and what we're going to do about it. We still have 13 games to play. It's a long season, there's a lot of ball left. We're not where we wanted to be by any means, but we're still excited to have 13 more opportunities to play and win."
(On the team getting booed at the end of the first half) "There's a lot things you can say about that. I mean if I went into somebody else's work and paid money to watch them work and they did a bad job, I would probably boo them too."
