Q. Have you been given an update at all on Albert O and Demar Dotson?
VIC FANGIO: No, Albert's -- I've got the knee injury, and Dotson had a groin injury. I don't think they've determined the severity of either one yet.
Q. Defensively without A.J. and Bryce today, as a play caller, how did you have to adjust your coverages and your pressure to account for that experience?
VIC FANGIO: Yeah, it was a struggle. Obviously, I never did find the right combination there in the first half in particular. We had some good pressures, but when we weren't pressuring and rushing forward to try and help the secondary, our pass rush wasn't good enough, and times when we pressured, the coverage wasn't good enough.
They're a really good offense with great quarterback, good group of receivers, and our pass defense, which the pass rush is part of, we struggled today.
Q. How do you feel Ojemudia and Bassey held up?
VIC FANGIO: You know, it's hard to say right now. I need to watch the tape in its totality. But our pass defense wasn't good enough, and that includes pass rush. That includes me making the calls. And we've got to do better.
Q. Vic, you guys have trailed by double digits at the half three consecutive games, five of the last seven. Is there something in common with those early deficits, and how do you get that remedied?
VIC FANGIO: Well, we definitely have to get it remedied, that's for sure. You know, when one side of the ball is struggling, the other side has to pick it up, and we weren't able to do that this week. You know, we definitely have to start better on offense, start better on defense. So when you're on the road, although the road's not the same this year, if you're struggling on offense, the score is 10-0 at halftime, 9-0, 13-3. It's not way out of whack the way it was today.
Q. Coach, what did you think of Drew Lock? He seems, you know, makes mistakes that hurt you, but also you're never out of it with him, it looks like.
VIC FANGIO: Yeah, he's a fighter, just like all our guys are, but I just thought our whole offense, not just Drew, was out of sorts, you know, in the first half in particular. We were struggling to move the ball, obviously, and not making first downs, not scoring. We've got to get that fixed.
Q. Coach, we did see Jerry Jeudy have his first 100-yard game. Can you talk about where he is in his maturation process?
VIC FANGIO: I think he's made really good strides here the last couple weeks, two, three games. I like where Jerry's been playing, like where he's headed. He's been practicing better, and it translates to the game. I think he's doing a good job, and his arrow is definitely up. He's what we thought we got when we drafted him.
Q. Coach, were you surprised that you weren't -- I know you need to see film, but Bradley and Malik -- you guys weren't able to get pressure other than a couple of times all game. Was it anything that you saw them doing up front that allowed Ryan to just kind of pick and choose?
VIC FANGIO: Yeah, our rush, which is part of the pass coverage, wasn't good enough today when we were rushing four. That's just as important as the coverage, particularly on some of those ones that the deep ball they completed, you know, from about midfield. He was able to step up. We didn't have good rush there. But you're right, the pass rush wasn't good enough.
Q. Vic, were you surprised or caught off guard a little bit by Callahan's injury? I mean, it looked he was working all week in like red zone and other stuff. How did that go?
VIC FANGIO: Well, he came in Monday after the last game and had some swelling in his ankle, didn't even realize it happened in the game, and it never did quite respond to the treatment. He tried to practice with it a couple days, like you said, but he was hobbling around out there, and we worked him out before the game today, and he didn't, nor did we feel he was ready to play.
Q. You have a young team and a team that's beat up a little bit. What positives do you take out of a game like today, where you got the loss? Does the loss overcome or overshadow everything else?
VIC FANGIO: Well, obviously, the loss is main priority number one. We're here to win the game, but I do think we're getting better although it's hard to see that when you have a game like we did today. We just need to become a more consistent, efficient team, particularly on offense, and we need to be able to cover better on defense and rush the passer better. That was evident today where we came short.
And I need to do a better job of calling the defenses.
Q. Vic, you mentioned about the offense being out of sorts. Do you think it's the missed reps are just catching up to you guys? You've had to miss practice the last two weeks.
VIC FANGIO: Oh, I don't know. That's a real thing, I'm not going to deny it, but it's also a convenient excuse, and we're not going to use it as an excuse. We've got to make do with what we've got available and play better.
Q. Coach, one particular situation I want to ask you about. Deciding to punt there in the first quarter instead of trying that long field goal, you called a time-out. What were you kind of talking over on the sideline?
VIC FANGIO: Yeah, I had a strong urge to try that. I believe it would have been a 58, 59-yarder, but Tom talked me out of it. It was a strong enough urge that I wanted to think about it some more, to the point where I did call time-out.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports