Postgame Quotes: Coach Brian Daboll, QB Jaxson Dart, DL Dexter Lawrence II, OT Andrew Thomas

Q. What do you see with your defense right now? Three straight games with 30-plus points.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, and look, they ran it. I wouldn’t say they had a ton of explosives but they ran it and they were pretty productive running the football. Longest one was that last one, I think 18 yards, whatever. But you know, four or five, six, average 4.1, 40 carries. We’ve got to do a better job in that area. I don’t think it’s a secret. Team game. Team game. But certainly got to do better.

Q. How big was that last sequence in the first half? You get the turnover there and don’t get anything out of it.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, that’s a great play by Burns and Abdul. Didn’t come away with points. That was, I wouldn’t say the breaker, but you’d love to have points down there. Didn’t get it done.

Q. Are those tears of emotion or is that just —

BRIAN DABOLL: Is it what? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear what you’re saying.

Q. You walked in here, it looked like there were tears coming out of our your eyes, or that just allergies?

BRIAN DABOLL: No, it wasn’t tears.

Q. I know you haven’t watched the film but what did you think of the tackling, particularly in the secondary?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, look, nothing was good enough. You know, the guys battled but ultimately not good enough.

Q. How are you going to fix it, and how are you going to make it better?

BRIAN DABOLL: We’ve got to keep working on our tackling. Thought we eliminated some explosive plays, which was good, but four of five in the red zone is tough, and three of those were on third down, and we got picked with the one with McCaffrey on the way back there. You’ve just got to keep working at it and making sure you’re on top of it, whether it’s finishing catches, finishing tackles, whatever it may be, we’ve got to continue to work on it, coach it better, and ultimately, do it on game day.

Q. Defensively, when things are not getting better, 30-plus and three straight, tackling still an issue, is there a disconnect from what you guys are trying to teach and what’s being perceived by the players?

BRIAN DABOLL: Well, we didn’t get the results. Again our guys are working. The stuff we work on each week. You know, but it’s not getting done.

Q. How did you see the effort at the end?

BRIAN DABOLL: I just thought they ran hard. D-Rob had that one hard run. The guys were battling. Again, four yards, six yards, eight yards, ten yards, whatever it may be in the run game, 40 carries, or 39 carries, 100-some yards, 4.1. Wanted to eliminate explosives from McCaffrey both in the run and pass game. I thought Mac threw on rhythm. Was pretty good in getting the ball, distributing the ball. You know, we missed a couple things that we had opportunities on third down offensively to keep drives going. So –

Q. On the McCaffrey touchdown, you said you guys got picked, is that one where you were supposed to switch or stay with it?

BRIAN DABOLL: They had a nice play design and guessed what we were playing and ran across from the opposite side and the linebacker got picked. Give them credit. It was a good play design.

Q. What was the thought process on kicking the field goal in the red zone in the third quarter?

BRIAN DABOLL: Fourth and four. So that was — if it was a certain distance, we would have went for it. Made it a 10-point game, I believe. That’s the reason why.

Q. What did you think of Jaxson Dart’s performance, the diving touchdown at the end, his progression overall?

BRIAN DABOLL: I think he battles. Kid gives everything he has. Competes 60 minutes. Makes good decisions. We’ve got to do a good job of finishing plays around him, too. But he battles and I’m proud of him.

Q. He looked pretty beat up after the game, Jaxson.

BRIAN DABOLL: You’d have to ask Jaxson. I just saw him coming in. He said he’s good — not good, though. He’s a competitor. So when you get these results, it should frustrate you. It should have you, for lack of better terms, not happy.

Q. Why not take him out in the final couple minutes of these games because you know he’s ultra competitive? He’s going to put his shoulder into guys. He’s that important to your team.

BRIAN DABOLL: It was 34-24, we had three time-outs left. Went for the onside. If we would have held them there, get the ball back with, say, 50 seconds, so we are going to try to play till the end there. That’s what we’re going to do.

Q. Last year you had talked about how important it was to get quarterback play and the level of quarterback play that you’re getting from Jaxson, does it feel like a missed opportunity for this team to not get overall play from all phases when you’re getting the play that you’re getting from Jaxson?

BRIAN DABOLL: Look, we can all do a better job but I’d say that he’s steadily improved. You know, continues to make plays. Continues to battle, compete, give guys opportunities to make plays and that’s what we’ve got to do.

Q. In many of the games he has played, you’ve scored a touchdown on the opening drive. What are you seeing on that opening drive that’s giving you guys such success?

BRIAN DABOLL: Good execution.

Q. Would you consider a change in defensive play calling to see if that could spark something?

BRIAN DABOLL: Look, none of us did a good enough job. That starts with me. We’ll continue to work at it.

Q. You mentioned before about Jaxson, you said it should frustrate and should be upset by that and he clearly shows that.

Q. Are you seeing that across the board with your team?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, Jaxson is the leader of our football team. I know he’s a rookie and that’s a hard thing to do as a rookie. And the way he competes, you know, people need to feed off of that. Again, there’s plenty of plays out there that we had opportunities to do — and just didn’t get the job done.

Q. Ownership said after last year, they expected better results next year, otherwise things would be different. This year, how much does 2-7 concern you?

BRIAN DABOLL: We’ve got to continue to improve here. Again, there’s some things that I think are improving and there’s some things that are not.

Q. 2-7, but it’s the end result, how much does that concern you?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, look, we are not where we need to be.

Q. Did you get enough from Dexter Lawrence today? Obviously he had a week in the headlines —

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I’d say we’re going to sit back and take a look at. This is immediately after the game. Look, the guys battled. We just didn’t get it done.