Marvin Lewis News Conference
Paul Brown Stadium
December 8, 2014
Initial comments...
"Obviously, the disappointing thing for me is that after all the positive things that went on throughout yesterday's game, how poorly we played in the fourth quarter. It was a bad whatever amount of minutes in the fourth quarter where we didn't respond. We didn't play from one phase to the next phase to give us an opportunity to win the football game. They obviously took advantage of it and won it going away. In the critical moments like that, we need better play. We got a big play with the touchdown at the end of the third quarter, but we need to have that throughout the fourth quarter, too. We've got to make some game-changing, game-winning plays, and we failed to do that yesterday."
You guys have bounced back a couple different times this season from losses like this. What is it about the makeup of this team that is able to do that?
"We're going to check it out. We've got to go back, and we've got to worry about us, break it down to us, and fix us, and go forward, trust our technique, trust our plan, and continue to update it as we go but don't spit the bit."
Is a common theme in the four losses this year that when things start to go badly the team didn't respond they way you wanted them to and it snowballed?
"No, I can't really go back and say that. We got outplayed in the fourth quarter yesterday that's for sure."
You've talked about sacks and the legitimacy of them as a stat is probably a little overrated, but you only have two in the last five games. How much do you feel that's a need to fix things to get more pressure on the quarterback?
"We're getting the pressure when we get four-man chances, but we got seven and eight-man protections again yesterday, and they do a good job of that. We've had how many sacks taken away by penalty, so I prefer us to eliminate any kind of fouls in the secondary that somewhat become mysterious later in the week. For whatever reason, we're getting the flag on them, with one of them being legitimate in the last four or five that have been called. We've got to do that better, because that's taking away sacks and field position. I guess two actually, because Geno (Atkins) did grab the facemask a week ago. Those things are unfortunate and they take away. The illegal contact and so forth that have been called take away from those opportunities."
As the weeks go on, how much is the defensive unit missing Vontaze Burfict now?
"I think you miss good players all the time, but we've adjusted, and you move on and until Vontaze is there with them, he's not there. It's not a part of what we do."
How is he doing?
"I don't know, we'll see."
Is there a chance we'll see him again this season?
"Again, I don't know. We'll see him when everybody says he's ready to play or good enough to play we'll have an idea."
How was the play after the adjustment of the right tackle position yesterday?
"We adjusted a little bit yesterday, and we'll continue to go through that as we go. With moving Clint (Boling) there and starting Mike (Pollak), we'll see what's the best combination of guys as we continue to move forward."
Some of the guys talked yesterday about how the final three weeks will be all like individual playoff games because of how close things are in the division …
"They were going to be more and more important--and again I said this yesterday after the game--they were going to be important, they've been important all the way through. That doesn't change. We play three division games in four weeks, so they're going to be important with all the teams in the division within striking distance of each other."
Do you prepare anything differently this week not knowing who Cleveland is going to start at quarterback or do you just pretend that Brian Hoyer is still the guy?
"We've got to pretend that Hoyer is the guy."
Does their offense change dramatically with Johnny Manziel?
"I don't know. I haven't looked at it."
