Ted Karras on Bengals' Loss to Steelers
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 you said that's the league.
00:03 What do you mean by that?
00:05 Well, you have to execute to win.
00:06 That's a good football team.
00:07 They did enough to win today and we didn't.
00:09 We find ourselves, you know, five and six
00:14 with still a chance to back ourselves into the dance,
00:17 but we need to play a lot better.
00:19 This room isn't used to records like this,
00:22 this late in the year.
00:23 How do you think the room is reacting so far?
00:25 Kind of what you're experiencing right now.
00:28 I think okay.
00:29 I mean, this is a tough loss to a division opponent.
00:34 You know, they played a good game.
00:35 We had chances to win and didn't,
00:37 so what we're not going to do is come in and pout.
00:39 We got a big Monday night matchup against the Jaguars.
00:41 I think it's an opportunity for everyone to,
00:46 you know, see who their football selves are
00:49 when you're not rolling,
00:51 when you find yourself in a position
00:54 to have to fight your way in to a postseason bid.
00:57 So we're going to come in here tomorrow,
00:59 get to work.
01:00 We have a longer week.
01:02 We're going to go down to Jacksonville and get a victory.
01:05 In your opinion, where can you guys find answers in the red?
01:15 I think it comes down to individual execution.
01:17 I thought we had a good plan coming in.
01:18 Obviously credit to the Steelers.
01:19 That's a good defense all the way around.
01:23 But, you know, I don't know how many we called,
01:26 but I don't think we executed them, you know,
01:29 to get many yards.
01:30 So we need to take a look at ourselves,
01:33 find out what happened, and, you know,
01:35 everyone be on the same page
01:36 and be able to execute their assignment
01:38 to get some yards in the run game.
01:40 How much tougher is the game for you
01:41 when you're unable to execute in the run game?
01:45 I think that's kind of been our problem this year.
01:48 Obviously we've very much underachieved in the run game.
01:51 I think when you have a new quarterback come in,
01:53 you want to be able to lean on the run.
01:55 We were not able to today.
01:56 Still had a chance to win, but ultimately failed.
02:00 Can it flip immediately, or is it at this point
02:02 that that is who you are as far as the running offense?
02:05 You're never who you are in the NFL.
02:07 This is a, you know, you're judged on 17 days,
02:10 so that's who comes ready to perform on Sunday
02:14 or Monday night in this case.
02:15 So, you know, you see it all around the league.
02:18 You saw it on Thanksgiving.
02:19 You see it every week, weekend in, week out.
02:21 This is a league of, you know, highly trained professionals
02:25 and, you know, amazing athletes.
02:27 So you got to be at your best when it counts the most,
02:30 and when it counts the most for us is game day.
02:31 So we're going to get to work,
02:33 and I know they'll have a good plan for us against Jacksonville,
02:36 but it comes down to individual execution,
02:38 each guy, you know, winning their matchup.
02:40 I know you're not going to question play-calling or anything.
02:42 You're not doing this.
02:43 This is more about, like, your mentality in a game
02:44 like this, a real physical game.
02:46 How much can it help you, more run plays,
02:49 just to take the fight to them a little bit more
02:51 in a game like that?
02:53 Like, is that something that's helpful,
02:54 or is it, "Look, if we got to drop back and protect,
02:56 we drop back and protect, that's fine"?
02:58 Anything we need to do to win the game.
02:59 We did have a chance to win the game.
03:02 When you're talking about volume of runs,
03:04 I think the biggest factor that goes into that
03:06 is just time of possession and total play count.
03:09 I know our defense was out there for a long time today,
03:11 so you never want that as an offensive player.
03:14 So, you know, I thought we had a good plan
03:17 and put ourselves in a position to win,
03:19 even at the end when it looked like we didn't.
03:22 So this team's going to fight,
03:23 but we all got to take a look at ourselves
03:25 and find out what we can do better to get a victory.
03:28 Were they stacking boxes a lot today to try to stop it,
03:31 or was it kind of their standard --
03:33 more of a standard defense most of the time?
03:34 Standard Pittsburgh defense
03:35 is always going to stack the box heavy.
03:37 I mean, they have good players over there.
03:38 Credit to them. They had a good plan.
03:41 But, you know, we're going to need to bust
03:43 a few runs out of there at some point.