(Lucas walks in with a slight grin on his face, he waves to the press and gets behind the podium)
First off, what a game it was. How's everyone doing tonight? Let's get to it,
What stood out to you this week from your game, both good and bad?
I won’t use the term bad but we need to clean up our penalties. We had some costly mistakes, one particular that turned a possible 4 and 10 and punting situation that could have closed the door on the game became a first down plus some more after that big facemask. We have to do a better job wrapping these guys up and stay away from the face. The fact that we had a game ending 83 touchdown run called back on a late facemask call was a killer but we were still in the game. We had the lead nearly all game but those penalties helped keep Miami in it. But, we take a breath, it was week 2. We are still getting the kinks out which leads us to the good. This team is just all around playing better. Our WR’s are bringing the ball down, Pitts had 143 yards on 6 catches. We had two fourth down conversions that kept us in the game and put us in the position of overtime including a 40+ yard grab by Zambrano on fourth down. We are coming up big in tight moments. Our run game is on point. Mazza is making good decisions and throwing the ball down field, Joseph Carter, what can you say, Music City let go of this guy too soon. That was a huge 53 yard field goal for us that kept us in the lead earlier on. So there was a lot of good. Our defense held them to 0 for 10 in regulation on third downs and only about 80 yards. Our offense put up over 400 yards on what is considered to be one of the top defenses in the league. So overall, besides not getting the win, I am happy with our performance all around.
How do you feel about GM's feuding with the owners of other franchises?
Not sure if it’s necessary. It’s not for me, everyone has a job to do. We are all human and sometimes we can’t help ourselves, sometimes boredom kicks in and people hit send. Don’t hit send. I have a lot of respect for most of the GM’s in this league but even those I don’t care for I try and stay professional. I learned a lot last year. All I have to say is that these GM’s need to be careful, I would hate for anyone to get sneak attacked by an owner during the Bye week.
Two games into the season, are you getting what you expected out of your team?
Absolutely. Two years ago when I was given the wheel I wanted to do 3 things, build a top defense which I believe our pass defense has proven to be one of if not the best in the league last year and still one of the best at this point. I set out to build a balanced offense and a bruising run game. Last year I saw glimpse of what we could be and now I am starting to see it all come into fruition. Again, we aren’t 2-0 but I liked to think if not for a miraculous string of unfortunate events we probably get the win. Again, a horrendous late facemask call on Collins to end the game was brought back. We go into overtime, Douglas nails Huerta and slings him down but somehow Huerta stays on his feet and launches it. It seems like it’s going to be short near the sideline, Cavanaugh plays excellent defense on the ball, tips it, the balls finds a way to stay in and up a few second to long and Randolph concentrates long enough to make the miraculous grab and there goes 2-0 , hello 1-1. So, hats off to them for staying in it long enough to get the big play when they needed but I am very happy at What I am seeing so far overall.
No team is perfect, what do you feel your biggest weakness is going into week three?
Well if we can’t clean up these penalties we might be in trouble. Our two biggest issues have come from either not playing through the tackle and grabbing the guy down or playing to aggressive and dragging guys down the wrong way. We need to find that happy medium that allows us to make plays without the penalties. We gave up sixty yards in penalties and normally you don’t panic at those stats but three of them came on third downs which kept the drives alive for Miami. So we just have to clean it up a bit. Going on the road is never easy, the crowd noise, the fandom but if we focus and each player does plays to the whistle I’m confident we will do well enough to win.
Which match up will be the key to victory for your team this week?
How our Cb’s play against their WR’s. Against a pretty good Charlotte team Music City put 48 points, 28 of them through the Air. So I’m excited to see our pass defense in action this week. I also want to see how this team reacts to their first loss. We got that first loss out the way so we no longer have that pressure of going undefeated (Lucas smiles and chuckles) Anymore questions?
