Q. I am going to ask you one question you're not going to answer and one you will. How is Jalen doing today? Do you have any update on him? And B, we haven't seen Tanner. Wanted to get an update on him and how he's been doing in case he has to play? What have you seen from him and how confident are you if he has to go in there?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, Jalen is in the concussion protocol. When that happens, we just lean on the doctors to let us know on a daily basis of where he is.
As far as Tanner goes, yeah, him and Kenny have been getting a lot of reps on scout team and in our developmental periods. Both of them have done a really good job there I think and are continuing to develop.
Q. Saw you guys finished three of 16 on third downs. Was there a common thread you noticed watching the film where it was inefficient on third down?
NICK SIRIANNI: A lot of different reasons go into it. Obviously our goals are to be well above that on third down, so we didn't hit our goals. I think we been pretty good this past couple months of the season on our third downs after starting a little bit slow.
Yesterday wasn't up to our standard. We were able to convert on three of three on fourth downs and we kind of look at it that way, too. But we weren't good enough coaching and we weren't good enough playing there in our third down scenarios yesterday.
Q. You said before that Jalen does a pretty good job protecting himself. Would you have liked him to have slid there?
NICK SIRIANNI: Shoot, yeah, he always has done a good job protecting himself and has been dynamic as a passer and runner. Any time something goes down and you lose one of your best players, you wish they would do something else or not take that hit.
In that scenario we always run runs that protect him and we always want him to protect himself. Again, unfortunately this is an unfortunate part of football, the injuries that happen. Sometimes it's with head injuries, and you never want to see that. You always want what's best for your players and their wellbeing.
So, yeah, I mean, obviously don't want him to take that hit.
Q. You used the word "sloppy" a lot after the game. After watching it back, what were some of your takeaways on a larger scale defensively that let you guys down?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, again, a lot of different things. I think when you talk about that, too, when you talk about -- it's never just, hey, this is defense or, hey, this is just offense or, hey, this is just special teams.
You got to look at the big picture of it. We were unable in the second half on offense -- put four field goals on the board, right? We finish one of those drives it's a different scenario for the defense.
Then you think about your kickoff coverage, and that wasn't up to our standard. So we gave them really good field position multiple times. Gave them a short field on a turnover as an offense.
All these things play into it.
As far as I'm always going to talk to you guys about and talk to our guys about we had some missed tackles yesterday that gave up some extra yards. We weren't on the same page here and there. Gave them some free yards on penalties. There were some sloppy things we had as a defense.
Everyone contributes to those 36 points being put on the board, like I said with the offense and the special teams. This is a team sport, and it takes everybody. Just like we get excited about complementary football when we take the ball away and punch it in on offense or have a big return and do something good on offense, same can be said when it doesn't go your way as well.
Q. How do you go about game planning on offense this week without knowing who the quarterback will be? Do you almost have to have two game plans ready?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, there is different approaches that we take with that. Depends on skillset of guys and the different skillsets. Sometimes it's to give the player the things that he operates well at; sometimes it's what you're going against, the defense.
So there is not -- you obviously, just like would when a wide receiver is out of the game or defensive back is out of the game, you adjust. This is no different. You adjust. There is a lot of similarities; little differences, but there are differences.
But it's just something that you adjust to and this is the unfortunate part of the NFL. We've had a lot of experience doing this with different positions and that includes the quarterback.
Q. Quarterback obviously is a little different though than a receiver. How much does that change...
NICK SIRIANNI: The way I answered...
Q. A lot of similarities...
NICK SIRIANNI: I'm sorry? Sorry, somebody just jumped in.
Q. I think it was an echo.
NICK SIRIANNI: Okay. Yeah, what I'm saying is every position -- what's bigger or what's smaller of an adjustment, you guys can debate that. What I'm saying is every position that you are without a guy that's normally playing there is an adjustment to be made; quarterback is no different.
So there will be an adjustment that we have to go through. I'm not going to sit here and say this is how much adjustment, but every time there is a player out there is an adjustment to be made.
Q. Did you get any further explanation as to why Gardner-Johnson was ejected in that game? On a larger point when it comes to guys like him and Jalen Carter who obviously play with a lot of fire, do you accept that there will be things like that that come along with that style of play?
NICK SIRIANNI: No further explanation there. Again, I'll always keep my conversations with the league to us and the league. No, haven't had any further conversations there.
No, you never want to have penalties like that. Again, I always encourage our guys to be themselves, have fun when you're celebrating, play how you play, but do it within the confines of the rules.
That's something I say to our guys all the time. That's the same message here. Obviously you don't want those situations. I love how much energy and fire those guys play with, but obviously at no point do you want them to get a penalty or is it acceptable to get a penalty.
Again, like I said, there is a reason we have an edge on defenses. We have really good players who play with great passion and great fire. That's huge. We just always got to understand and know to do it within the confines of the rules.
Q. Yesterday Kenny was saying after the game that he was going to get his ribs tested today. I was wondering if you had an update on that. Also, the value of having a guy like Kenny as a backup, someone who has started for two years in Pittsburgh being able to come in cold like he did yesterday.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, no new update there, Martin. Kenny did some really good things there yesterday. Obviously we missed Jalen. Jalen is a great football player who has had tremendous success and led us to a lot of victories. So we missed him and his contributions to the team and leading the team.
Kenny, under the circumstances, came in and did a nice job and played good football; gave us a chance to win the football game.
Obviously he's going to want some plays back, but he did a lot of good things. That's the nature of his position, that they have to be able to do those things without reps. Everyone knows that. I mean, they don't get a lot of reps there.
Now, we try to do as much as we possibly can as coaches, and we kind of thought about this, too, going all the way back to Gardner, who wasn't with us in the pre-season. We had to find ways post-practice and pre-practice to get him meaningful reps, and we've tried to do the same thing with Kenny and Tanner getting meaningful reps at developmental periods so they have opportunities and chances to rep our plays, not just the scout team plays.
You know, but great job by Kenny doing everything he could do to help this team win yesterday. He played tough, made some big plays and big throws, and did a lot of good things.
Q. Hey, Nick, coaches often offense talk about the high points never being as good as you think it's going to look, the bad points never looking as bad. After the film, what did you like coming out of that game?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know, I thought through everything our guys just stuck together as a team. I think we played with relentless effort and toughness. I thought that those are things that were highlighted. We had five turnovers on defense. We were able to do some good things. Had some explosive plays on offense. You know, made some kicks on special teams, in that second half particularly.
Now, at the end of the day like I said, our detail needs to be better in things. I have to coach better and our detail has to be better. Our guys fought like crazy until the very end.
Obviously it wasn't enough to win the game, but I know how together this team is and how tough and how much relentless effort this team plays with.
That was on display against a good football team yesterday.
Q. Just to follow up on Kenny, if you got bad news on him, how comfortable would you be moving forward with Tanner if you needed to? I know you said that the quarterback uncertainty doesn't change the game planning standpoint. From a practice schedule perspective I'm sure you were going to do some things this week with the holiday. Does that change at all?
NICK SIRIANNI: All I said was every position requires adjustments. I kind of generalized it. Every position requires adjustments when the guy is not in there; quarterback is no different. It's going to require adjustments.
As far as our practice schedule, you know, yeah, again, we'll adjust things as we need to. You guys will see how this week is playing out. Got a lot of things to balance, a lot of things to juggle. It's not just about one position. There are many positions and groups to think about, and where we are here at this point of the season.
I'm sorry, Beau, what's the other part of your question?
Q. Tanner. If you had to move on to Tanner, how comfortable would you be?
NICK SIRIANNI: Like I said, Tanner has done a good job in scout team and developmental periods, and so, again, Tanner gives us a lot of confidence; Kenny gives us a lot of the confidence. That's just a tribute to Howie and his staff of all the pieces that he has given us to work with, right, and the depth he's given us to work with.
We've had to play deep into our O-line. Had to play deep into our secondary. Yesterday we had to play into our quarterback. Got a lot of confidence in the guys that are on this roster, both the 53-man roster and the practice squad.
There is a reason every one of them is here, and it takes every one of them to help us get each and every victory we have gotten.
Q. Understanding the concussion protocol is out of your hands and in the medical staff's hands, the players who were cleared, it's typically not until the end of the week. Would Jalen be able to play if he doesn't participate in practice?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, each and every week is a different scenario. What I've seen is Jalen knows how to prepare, not necessarily how to get himself ready. He's a true pro. I just can't say enough good things about Jalen. Jalen the leader, Jalen the player, Jalen the person.
Every week is a little bit different, and I know Jalen does everything he can to get ready for each and every week regardless of the circumstances.
Q. And then if I could ask a followup to that, would you want to see Jalen get work before the playoffs at this point?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know, Zach, just taking this one week at a time. I'm not going to get too much ahead of ourselves. We have work to do, and so we got a really good football team playing good football coming in here to play.
So we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports