Jason Garrett reacts to another Cowboys’ loss: ‘We have to learn from it and move on’
Jason Garrett was the same Jason Garrett.
The Dallas Cowboys’ 26-15 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday didn’t do much to alter Garrett’s demeanor during his post-game press conference. But that’s not much of a surprise.
Garrett discussed the offensive struggles after scoring a touchdown on its first possession, Dak Prescott’s errant pass to Ezekiel Elliott and going for it on 4th down twice.
Here’s what he said during his post-game press conference per the Cowboys’ transcription service:
On how would he describe the mood of the locker room after today’s loss?
“Obviously it was disappointing. We didn’t do enough to win the ball game today. Everyone put so much into it, but we didn’t get the job done.”
On starting well on the first drive and what happened after that
“There are a lot of different things that happened throughout the ball game. I did think it was a good start for us, going down and scoring a touchdown at the outset of the game. Offensively I think we had to many drives where we had the ball and didn’t cash in. We had a couple of missed field goals and later on in the game we weren’t able to convert a fourth down, down in there close. The two turnovers obviously hurt us and gave them favorable field position, but the defense did a good job responding. For the most part in those situations you can’t do that with a team like this. We found some things we liked and were able to move the ball a few different times, but certainly efficiently enough to cash in the drives we needed to. The defensive side of the ball, they did a good job. They ran fairly consistently; their quarterback did a good job delivering throws in critical moments and also run with the ball keeping the drives alive, and they did a better job cashing in on their drives than we did.”
With everything on the line today, was he surprised with the performance?
“Obviously, we didn’t get the job done. [The Bills] are a good football team and we didn’t do what we needed to do to win the game. When you play a team like this, you’ve got to cash in on your drives, you can’t lose the turnover battle 2-0. Give them credit. They did a good enough job and we didn’t do a good enough job. We have to learn from it and move on.”
On the 4th-down play in the third quarter when Dak Prescott threw incomplete to Ezekiel Elliott
“We were down very close and went for it in that situation. We just felt like that was the right thing to do. Trying to score a touchdown. The heat is up and I think we had a decent opportunity. I’d have to look at it on tape. Obviously, we weren’t able to complete the ball out on the left flat. Unfortunately, we didn’t execute that particular play and finish the drive the way we wanted to.”
On the two missed field goals, if he saw anything different mechanically with Brett Maher
“We’ll have to look at that on tape.”
On at the end of the first half, what his thought process was going down the field and using it
“It was a third down situation and we wanted to bleed the clock, and once we converted the third down, I think there were 40 seconds left and that’s where we wanted to use our timeouts. So we used it and in those situations having a timeout allows you to complete the ball inside, but I will have to go back and specifically look at the plays. I think we had incompletions, we had balls that went out of bounds, so unfortunately, we weren’t able to use the timeout relatively in the time left in the half there. We had a good opportunity, we had a good drive, and unfortunately we didn’t make the kick.”
Do you and your staff have faith in the players after what transpired and being 6-6 with four games to go?
“Absolutely. Our guys come to work, our guys, we have a fantastic group of guys, and they do things the right way each day. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the job done today.”
On his thoughts on how Dak Prescott played today
“We will have to go back and look at the tape on Dak and really everybody on our team. At times, I thought we moved the ball well, and the biggest issue was not really cashing in on the drives consistently enough in the game. To come away with goose eggs on those drives with a good team like this is going to hurt you in the end. That’s on everybody and we’ve got to do a better job in those situations.”
On his thought process going for it on 4th and inches on his own 20 early in the game
“Once it became inches, we just felt like we could make that and keep that drive alive.”
How does the team recover from this with six losses?
“You just have to get back to work. That’s the nature of the National Football League. It’s hard every week. You are going to deal with adversities over the course of the year. You’re going to deal with successes over the course of the year. You have to learn from them and move on and get ready for the next challenge.”
Did you see a passion throughout the game with the team?
“I thought we played hard, we didn’t play well enough. They did a good job in critical moments converting some third downs in keeping their drives alive. With some short passes or quarterback runs here or there. Again, offensively, we moved the ball fairly well throughout the game, but we didn’t get enough for those drives. To me, that was the story of the game. We had those two turnovers where we got nothing on the drive and they get favorable field position. That’s what these games come down to. We’ll go back and look at it. We’ll go back and try to learn from them and get better from this experience today.”
On Connor Williams’ knee injury
“Connor hurt his knee then he went back in and hurt it again, so we don’t know the seriousness of it yet, but he was not able to come back into the ballgame after he hurt it the second time.”
Do you need a new kicker?
“We’ll evaluate the kicking situation. We need to make those kicks. Brett’s done a really good job for us through the course of his time here, but we’ll evaluate that situation, just like we’ll evaluate everything else.”
His thoughts on the pass rush today
“The pass rush is a challenge with a quarterback like this. Often at times you sell out and get deep in the rush and that creates lanes for him. The challenge is to be able to restrict those lanes by having good discipline, and sometimes that prevents you from rushing as freely as you need to. That’s one of the challenges with a quarterback like this. He’s a good quarterback throwing the ball from the pocket, and he’s really good when he gets out on the move. We knew that going in and you try to do different things to combat that, but he was able to get out too many times in the game.”
On knowing what he brings to the table was he surprised with Cole Beasley’s performance
“Beasley is a good player. Beasley was a good player for us. He’s done a good job for them all year long. We understand the challenges of him. It’s good to see him doing as well as he has.”
On this being the fifth game not beating a team with a winning record, does that not matter?
“The biggest thing we try to do is focus on ourselves and see what we can do to get better. Obviously, we try to win every ball game regardless of who we play. The big thing is we have to learn from this experience and grow and get ready for the next challenge. It will be here before you know it.”
Where do you start? What’s the element that he starts on to improve this right now and get it going?
“I think there’s every aspect of it. Offensively like we talked about we didn’t cash in consistently enough on the drives. Defensively I don’t think we stopped the run as well as we needed to. The quarterback got out a couple of times, they made some third downs. I think we did some good things on defense that you can build on. It wasn’t consistent enough and different things on special teams we have to make sure we focus on, and that’s what we’ll do and we’ll get back to work tomorrow.”
Was it frustrating getting that good start and then going down hill?
“That’s obviously what you are trying to do. You are trying to score the ball, and score points. We did a good job on that in first drive and as the game wore on, we didn’t do that consistently well enough. We came away on three different drives where we had real good scoring opportunities and we’d cash in on those, then you add the two turnovers into that, and that’s the big part of the story on the offensive side of the ball.”
Have you seen a locker room as frustrated as it was today?
“Our guys are passionate about our football team. They put a lot into this, and they work hard every day. Obviously, they want to win ball games and unfortunately, we didn’t get things done today. We have to channel that passion and get ready for the next challenge.”
