Q. Welcome back to the end zone. It's been a long time. Why don't they throw it more to you?
MO ALLIE-COX: I mean, we have plays every week, but that's the kind of thing we calling, the defense is in, things like that. Last week they called a screen pass at the 5 yard line twice, but the defense wasn't in the right look, so we killed it. It just depends on the looks they give us.
Q. Is it hard to be patient?
MO ALLIE-COX: It's hard to be patient, but I mean --
Q. When you're losing?
MO ALLIE-COX: Especially, but you've got to play the long game.
Q. When you're in the red zone, do you feel like with your size and strength, you can go up and get the ball?
MO ALLIE-COX: That's just the confidence I have. If he's right on me, just put it up. I think I can go up with anybody. That's an example of that. Almost had the first one, kind of went through my hands a little bit. The second one he told me he was going to put it on the back shoulder and put it up there, and he did it, and I just made the play.
Q. Kind of like getting a rebound over someone on the basketball court?
MO ALLIE-COX: For sure.
Q. This offense, it hasn't really flourished yet. Your offensive line has kind of been messy and Carson's been hurt. Do you feel like you're starting to see the improvement?
MO ALLIE-COX: Yeah, it happened last week with the run game. We started running the ball well, but the way the game went, we couldn't get as many runs called. But this week we started running the ball well, and it opened up the rest of the offense and we could do what we want to do. We didn't play perfect, but it's a start, and we can build on it.
Q. You guys met just players this week. What was the message and who spoke up?
MO ALLIE-COX: Buck spoke. Darius spoke. And Quan spoke, 97 Al-Quadin. Pretty much they were just like -- Quan said, if you're hurt, you're hurt and injured, he was talking about just go out there and practice. If you're hurting, everyone's hurting. We're losing. We're 0-3. Go out there and practice and sacrifice for the rest of the team and things like that.
Darius talked about doing your job. Nothing else matters but doing your job, and everyone else is going to pick up on the energy. That's pretty much what Buc said also.
The message hit, and Wednesday was probably our hardest practice in five years. That was probably my hardest practice ever since I've been here.
Q. When was the meeting, Wednesday morning?
MO ALLIE-COX: It was -- I'm not sure. It was either Monday or Wednesday. One of the days. It was at the start of the week. That's all I know.
Q. What was the response from the rest of the guys?
MO ALLIE-COX: Guys just took it. Everybody just listened with open ears. Nobody took anything personal or anything like that. At the end of the day, the goal is to win. We're losing, so guys are going to listen with open ears. We're all professionals. We know what we need to do.
Q. You talked about missed opportunities the last couple weeks and stuff like that. When you're trying to feature in the offense and the defense keeps coming up with the wrong looks, doesn't get going, how tough is it to stay patient?
MO ALLIE-COX: It's tough, man. It's not just tough that, you hear the outside noise. Everyone's like why aren't you getting the ball? You all don't understand everything that's fully going on. It's just a lot of stuff.
I mean, one thing I learned really from Coach Smart back at VCU is just that mental toughness and having that mental capacity to flip it. Ignore the outside noise and stay the course. I've been patient up to this point, and today it paid off in a big way.
Q. I know Carson's been pretty much hurt since week 2, but what are you seeing? Are you starting to see the guy you thought you were getting?
MO ALLIE-COX: Yeah, for sure. Coach talked about taking some of the simple sets out there instead of just waiting to try to get the big play, and you saw some of that today. If we just continue to keep that going, that's going to open up a whole lot of stuff in our offense.
We have guys that could make -- get YAC, yards after the catch. I get a lot of yards after the catch. Pittman, you see how hard Pittman runs with the ball in his hands, J.T., things like that. Just get us the ball, and we can make plays down the field.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports