Quote

(On if after reviewing film he thinks his play-calling was worthy of his post-game criticism)

“Yes, I just think some of the things that we did in some of the spots. Anytime that you’re in the role that I am, our job is to try to put our players in the best spots and you don’t want to waste plays. Every play is so important. When you think about a couple of the specific instances… the fourth play of the game, when we end up having (R Todd (Gurley) coming across in that motion, we hit it. It’s an incomplete pass, but you really waste a play right there in the high red zone where every play is so important, but specifically in those area. My gut told me to take a timeout in that instance and I didn’t do it. It ended up leading us to not executing the way that we’re accustomed to, and that’s a result of the operation that starts with me. That’s an instance right there. When you’ve got a situation at the two-minute, the first play of the drive, when you feel like they’re going to play a split-safety match coverage and you call a longer developing play and there’s really not an answer, leads to a sack. Those are the plays that I was really disappointed in myself. I thought the sequence when we’re up 20-3, we get the ball back, and really, as a result of us not communicating properly. But again, it all goes back to it starts with me and it starts with us as a coaching staff in terms of making sure that, ‘Are we getting plays in that we have the opportunity to be able to communicate?’ If we’re trying to run two plays, or one or the other, are we being mindful of the atmosphere, the environment? That really ended up hurting us where it ended up leading into a turnover, they get a quick score and get it to a 20-10 game. And then I thought the two plays that we ended up taking sacks, when we were on the 19 yard line. Fortunately, the second one on the bootleg didn’t end up hurting us, we were running the ball so efficiently. Then the third down-and-three, where we end up knocking ourselves out of, what you feel like is going to be a good field goal range. So to answer your question, yeah, I’m still bothered by those. I thought that you got to learn from them. I’ll move on, but I think it’s great. We ask our players to try to learn from some of their decisions or their execution and things like that. It’s the same way. Those plays didn’t work out in our favor, but they didn’t really go in alignment with some of the flow and the feel of the game, with the way we were running the football. Those are the things that, hopefully, you get better with and you learn from experience. But the aggressive nature in which we operate and try to attack people, I’ll never apologize for that. It’s more of the situational awareness, within the framework of ultimately playing complementary football to win a game and are you really putting your players in some of those spots? I thought I put (Q Jared (Goff) in some tough spots specifically and then the start of the two-minute drive. Those are the plays that bother you the most.”