"Before we get started just [want] to ask everybody to keep Chuck Pagano in their thoughts and prayers. Chuck is as you know by now battling some health issues. Chuck and I were together at the University of Miami and [he] is a heck of a coach and a heck of a man. He is a fighter. He will fight this too, but keep him in our prayers."

Now that you have looked at the tape has anything jumped out at you from yesterday?

“Like I said last night, we missed too many tackles. [We] made too many mental errors defensively. Later on played better, but put ourselves in a hole. From a team wide standpoint, we did things penalty-wise that is just not us. Again, there are certain penalties you live with and there are others you can’t. Offensively, we threw the ball deep effectively in the second half. Probably needed to take more shots in the first half. Running the football, we needed more plays to be able to run the ball more. It is not like we didn’t run it effectively. We ran it—I think we averaged 4.4 yards a carry with a 20 yard run taken back on a hold penalty, but you just need more shots to do it. We need more plays to do it. So you got to convert on third down. That gives you more plays. Chicken or the egg. Does our first and second down keep us from converting on third down or is our third down not good enough right now. A lot of stuff.”

What have you seen with Josh Freeman early in games and does he look comfortable?

“I think he looks comfortable. He came out game busters the first three series this year. This game [he did] not. I look at this quarter of the season now, you step back with the bye week and you look at—that’s what we are doing right now is looking at our first four games. Then attacking some things in the next two days. If it were one thing he was comfortable with or not comfortable with we would just cut it out, but there are different things [and] different defenses. I think it is just—I just walked out of a meeting where we are talking about the things we need to do. Some of the things are just cumulative repetition. We just got to keep doing it and we will keep getting better at it. I did think the deep shots that he hit were as good as you could throw. Some of the lasers that he threw in there were as good as you could throw. We just got to get, like you said I do think there is some of that really pin pointing what we know he is most comfortable with and what our offense is most comfortable with. So that’s our job to do [and] make sure we get it right quickly.”

How are the injured guys doing such as Eric Wright and Ronde Barber?    

“Okay, you ask me the names and I will give it to you because I don’t have a list in front of me. Eric Wright has got to be evaluated further. It is a head [injury]. We [will] find out if it is the dreaded C word [concussion] or not I am not sure. Ronde (Barber) is going to be okay. We planned on resting Ronde this week anyway at this stage in his career, but he is going to be fine. There will be some guys that whether it be years of service that they—we want to make sure that this 12 week run after this—that they got rest going in. Or if they are bumped. So some guys will not be out there or be out there in a limited capacity Tuesday and Wednesday. That’s the guys you asked for.”

Is there anything behind the decision to put Jeremy Trueblood as inactive?

“Well, again everything we do is what we feel gives us the best chance to win that day, that Sunday. With position flexibility the way we were going we felt that Jamon (Meredith) gave us more position flexibility and we did it. It was a tough one because I love (Jeremy) Trueblood. I think he is everything we want. [He is] hard working, attention to detail, tough, but it is just when you are not the starter, then when you are a backup and you dress seven offensive linemen it is position flexibility at that point. Blood (Trueblood) is a team guy and he was excellent—disappointed but worked his tail off during the game helping us. I expect nothing less, but I am glad that he did that.”

On that last defensive series were those a couple calls you had back or was the execution not proper? Tell me what was good or bad about that?

“No not calls. Not in this instance calls I wish we had back. We didn’t execute them. We didn’t execute the calls.”

What didn’t get executed?

“That’s all I leave. If I start saying that then people watch the tape and say oh that’s what it is supposed to be. So if we screwed it up once, I don’t want to aid somebody going down the road and screw it up twice. Suffice it to say we made a mistake on two of those plays—critical.”

Was it the aggressiveness there, I mean you want to be aggressive?

“I thought it was a mix. If you look it is cover, pressure, cover. So we are mixing it up. We made some mistakes in the cover too. We didn’t execute well in that last drive. We executed very well the entire second half. We didn’t execute well that last drive, but you got to be able to in that situation to execute better. Do you get into some different calls? Sure, if you look at it now you say oh maybe we should have called that or maybe we should have called that, but we didn’t execute the call we did call. So you can’t judge it. Like I say to the players all the time, give us a chance to evaluate by doing what we ask and then we will figure it out from there. A lot of times I wish we didn’t not call what we called, but this instance is not one of those.”

What did you see out there in that first half in terms of tackling?

“We didn’t tackle well. Why? That’s the 64 thousand dollar question right now. I have some theories why that I am not going to get into, but we have to. Regardless of why, can’t, won’t, doesn’t matter—it has got to get done. The result is got to be we get people on the ground. We have been doing better. Like I said, first three games I though a real mark of improvement. The first half we missed 11 tackles. Got better in the second half. The second half much better, but we dug a hole. 21 points we dug a hole.”

Is there anything you would do different in that series where Connor Barth kicked the field goal - your play call and team still had one time out?

“That is a tricky one. If you are on the 24 yard line there is no trick to it, but we start the drive it is a 52 yarder or a 53 yarder. Now Connor (Barth) is kicking the daylights out of the ball, but still over 50 yards is over 50 yards. Right? And so you want to get it closer. If you hand it off and it gets stoned you do eat clock, but it is still a 50 something yarder. That’s not an easy one and if you make the play you are right, but if that thing gets intercepted we are deadly wrong and then it is incomplete and stops the clock then you are wrong. if it is complete, now you are not only right, but you are eating a whole other set of clock because it is a first down. Really that is one of the tougher spots on the field, especially when you have a good kicker like we do, because then it makes it even more, but we went through every scenario. Pregame we went through the scenario right then and reviewed it, would I have changed it? I won’t say how, but I would have changed that three play sequence. I would have changed [it] slightly. I don’t want to give away strategically again what we should have done. It is not a drastic change. It is just small. That’s where you earn your keep. We make the field goal again we make it is there too much time? I don’t think. You go out and play defense. That’s what we do. You run two minute drills and you defend two minute drills. We just came up short this time. I wish it were a little clearer cut situation on that offensive possession because if it was it is easy in retrospect to say we should have handed it off. But if those are two stops and then you miss a 52 yarder, then why didn’t you throw it? That’s not an easy one. We will get it right though.”