Buffalo Bills Head Coach Chan Gailey
Opening statement…
Before we start questions, a bit injury wise, both of them were knees. Fred (Jackson) doesn't look as bad as David (Nelson). We don't know how bad David is but it doesn't look good right now. Fred doesn't look nearly as bad but we are going to get a further evaluation tomorrow. We made too many mistakes early to get in the ball game and we have got some things we have got to work on and I understand that.
On how disappointing this game was…
It hurts. It is no fun. It is awful, all of the above. This is a cliché and I understand it. It is one (game) of 16 and if you win enough, you get in the playoffs. This was a learning experience and if you don't, then it was the start of something bad. That is the bottom line. I understand that. I think our football team understands that, but we are not going to go around like the sky is falling. We are not going to do that. I am not going to do that and I am not going to let them do that. We didn't show it today. There were some things that we did better, but overall we didn't show it today, but I think we have a chance to be a good football team before it is over with and nobody will change my mind until we get to the end.
On C.J. Spiller…
He had a couple of huge runs. He made some big plays which we saw last year. He is capable of doing that, almost made another big one on the pass. There were some positive things out of him and we know what we have got in him, and we are going to keep running him because we can score as fast with him running it as we can throwing the football. We don't mind that at all and it was a good job by him and we are going to have to rely on him a lot more until we get Fred back.
On Ryan Fitzpatrick…
Really bad early. Some of those I put him in bad situations with some play calls. After we got past a couple of those bad situations, he did some decent things. Overall it was not a good day. It was a bad day for him.
On Cromartie's intercepted pass for a touchdown…
David broke out and (Fitzpatrick) thought he was going to go out. Cromartie squatted on the outside route there. We read that as a turn in and when he broke out, we threw it to him and Cromartie was right there. That was a miscommunication and that was my fault. I am responsible for the communication.
On the Bills pass rushing…
They chipped some. They chipped some guys on the edges. They did, but nothing major. Nothing we hadn't seen.
On going down 21-0 in a game…
It's hard. I told the guys, we came from behind last year, from 21 and from 18. We could have done it but we didn't go out there the first series in the third quarter and get it done. It got hard from there.
On if he overestimated the ability of the team…
I can't control everybody else. I really can't. I can control what I think our football team thinks or believes and the way they go about their business. That is my responsibility, I understand that. I don't think the sky is falling. Everybody is going to say that. You (the media) are going to say that, the fans are going to say that, I understand that. That is your job to say something like that, but I don't believe it in a million years.
On the performance of the defense…
To summarize it, they were running too wide open and we didn't get enough pressure on the passer. We stopped the run pretty good until they went ahead some late. We stopped the run for the most part. We have just got people running too wide open right now and we are not getting enough pressure on the passer and that is something we are going to address. Dave (Wannstedt) and I have already had a conversation about how we are going to address that. We have got to change that. We understand where we are and we don't like it. It is ugly and that is my responsibility.
On if the youth of the secondary defense was responsible for errors…
No. That is making an excuse for youth, that is what that is doing. They have been out there, they have been there the whole preseason. We didn't let anybody run that free and open before. We are better than that.
On if it is too soon to say there is an issue with pass rushing…
Yes. It would be too soon for that to be an issue. Let it go. It was awful today, I understand that, but don't kick the dirt on (it).
On what he told the team after the game…
We made too many mistakes to win a game like that. You can't make mistakes and win games like that. I told them to not feel sorry for themselves and not to mope around. I am not going to tolerate that and I am not going to allow that. We are going to be where we need to be, I fully believe that.
On if he was surprised by Sanchez and Tebow…
I can't say that we were surprised by it because I think we worked on everything else we could have possibly worked on in the last two weeks to get ready for their stuff. When he (Tebow) came out as an H-back, when he came in as the quarterback, when he came out and Sanchez was in there, we had seen it all and I thought we contained that package pretty well.
