Marvin Lewis News Conference
Paul Brown Stadium
November 7, 2014
Initial comments...
"After looking at video of the game, I'm going to be repetitive of some of the things I discussed last night. The first problem was our turnover early in the game that leads to the touchdown. W get an opportunity to score a touchdown on offense, but we don't get it done, we don't get the ball in the end zone.
" In every area last night, we get an opportunity now to go back and look at our consistency. We're not being consistent enough. We weren't consistent enough in any area last night from tackling, to stopping the run when we needed a stop, to stopping a third down conversion when we needed to stop it, to converting a third down on offense when we needed to convert it.
"We have to do better in all those areas as we move forward. We punt the ball very well except for twice last night. We needed big punts at those times, too. There are lot of things that we have to continue to do better, and we get a chance to take a step back and reevaluate, which we would be doing regardless of the outcome last night. That part doesn't change."
A couple of guys talked about players not reacting well to negative things happening during the game. Do you feel like that's an issue that you guys are trying to fight through right now?
"That was one of the things that you all wrote about in the first few weeks of the season, that we were doing so well in that area. That'd be an excuse, one way or the other. If we didn't react well, we didn't react well. You've got to come up with something. I don't blame that. That's part of playing anything, playing sports, playing football, is that there's going to be things that don't go quite your way all the time. You've got to come back the next snap, the next play. We just overcame those a couple weeks ago, you would say, against Baltimore, particularly bad plays. Those would not really be a reason why."
Andy, in particular, from day one has been a guy to compartmentalize and move on. Last night it just never really happened for him …
"We never came back and made a big positive play, no. We had opportunity, and we never did. But we got punched off of a route. It looked like he was throwing the ball to them, but the guy got hit down the field, which slowed A.J. (Green) down. We had some inopportune things that happened, when you really look at the video of what happened and why. It was better explained to me at 2 a.m. this morning (watching the tape) why things were the way they were."
How late were you up watching this?
"Until 3 a.m. I left at 3 a.m. Came back at five. So it was quick. I watched them pour concrete this morning (an overnight stadium construction project). Those guys were working, too. (Laughs)."
When you have a game like this, how important is it for you to go back and watch it right away?
"I'm not going to sleep anyway, so there was no reason for me to go home and try to go to sleep. It's very important for me to look at everything quickly. I come in here and have to answer your questions after the game, and I might hear one side of the ball, and I know if I can see it , but you can't see all 11 guys every play, so it's hard to figure things out. That's why it's important for me to watch it as quick as I can, particularly as upset as I was last night."
In this era, players can look at it right away, too. I'm sure a lot of guys didn't sleep very well last night either...
"They went to sleep. They needed to get their rest and put it behind them. We've got to challenge every position to get better. We've got to challenge within the groups. We've got to challenge offense, defense and special teams to play better, because it was disappointing. It was here at home, we hadn't had that (prime-time home game recently). And that was disappointing for our fans. It was an awesome night for our city, and for our fans, and we didn't play well enough for them."
How do you challenge the team to play better in showcase games?
"We've got to play better, just grind better. We've got to do it better in every way, every detail, every aspect. Each guy's got to make sure it's up to snuff all the time."
You talked about last night helping Andy move forward from this tough game. How do you do that?
"There are things that we like in what we do, things that sit well with Andy when we do them, and he feels good about it. I'm going to stop it at that."
Do you feel like he's still comfortable out there?
"We broke down in protection a couple of times. I don't think it would make any of us comfortable just sitting there, with Paul Kruger bearing down on us. Those things we have to do better. We've just got to do better."
Was the wind a big factor last night?
"I don't know if it was a big factor. It was a factor. Both teams play with the wind. It's better to play with the lead in the wind than not with the lead. I can tell you that."
Do you have a sense of how many guys you're going to get back off your injured list in time for next week's game?
"I would hope a couple, but we'll see."
Where are you guys at with Tyler Eifert right now. Is there a thought that he can come back soon?
"We're continuing to get Tyler healthy. I can't give you an update until he gets close to being healthy. He's on the mend, he's healing and doing things, and if he gets back and healthy, and he's going to be able to contribute and not risk further injury, then he'll be back and out there. We're obviously not going to risk Tyler's future for any part of this season right now until he's completely 100 percent healthy to be able to do his job."
So there is a chance he wouldn't come back at all this season?
"Right."
In terms of both teams' ground games, when you had a chance to look at the tape, what was your assessment?
"We were able to effectively run the football, and then we got away from running the football. We were forced away from running the football. We had the fumble on another big gain. We've got to have the mindset to stay after it, continue with it. It was a 17-3 game at halftime. We've got to stay after those things. It wasn't that big a deficit.
"Conversely on the other side of the football, we allowed too many gains to become four-yard gains. We've got to be more consistent in our 11 guys on defense, because it's not one thing, one guys, one area, we've got to put all three areas together consistently all the time. I guess they had 50-something runs last night --52 to be exact. Thirty-five of them were played pretty well. The breakdowns are things that we've got to correct. It's not up to our standards, it's not good enough, and obviously it didn't help us win the football game yesterday."
What has you believing right now that this team has what it takes to turn this around?
"We lost a football game. We don't have to turn anything, but turn ourselves, and right the ship, and go get ready to play in New Orleans this next coming Sunday. We've got to go back and play football our way. We lost the football game. We didn't fall off a cliff. We're all right there. It was an important football game, one we know that was important. I would say the same thing to our football team come Monday--win or lose--that it makes the next one up that much more important."
