Cardinals 23, Seahawks 13
Q. How are you doing?
RUSSELL WILSON: Good.
Q. We just heard Jamal and Tyler talk about their confidence that this team can still get things going. What gives you that belief?
RUSSELL WILSON: We feel like every team we've lost to we've been able to play against and play with, and we were talking in the locker room. There's still belief in us without a doubt and what we can do. It's going to be a challenge. It's going to be hard. It's going to be tough. It's going to be possible, too. That's what we realize. It's still possible. For us I think you have to have the right mindset and the right belief. There is no other thought, no other choice.
Q. How do you explain the third down, and I know it's been an issue all day, but today really stood out.
RUSSELL WILSON: We had a few third and longs. They made a couple of good plays, a couple of situations. You've got to look at it. I think the biggest thing for us is that we just have got to find ways -- third downs is always about making plays and finding a way. I think that's really what it is. We've got to figure out what that is and figure out how to do it, and it takes a couple more third downs a game, conversions, that's really -- if we can convert one more, then the next drive, just that next one, and so that's what we have to stay focused on. We have to do better.
Q. Russ, you expect yourself to play at a certain level, and we've all come to expect you to play at a certain level, and right now that's not happening. Why is that?
RUSSELL WILSON: Well, I think that today it felt like we had some good chances, and some things didn't go our way, a couple of plays here and there. I thought that we could have played a little bit sharper. I think that for me the standard is always high. The standard is always to find a way to win. It's what it's really about. I think one of the things we did well was picking up the tempo and moving the ball really well. We went up and down the field before half, and near the end of the game there we responded really well with that, and I think that we have to figure out how to tap into that a little bit more maybe and then as we do that, I think also staying with confidence.
We had a tough game against the Packers. It was tight-down-to-the-wire kind of game pretty much for the most part. Didn't go our way, obviously, and this game we just didn't play clean. There was just some stuff that wasn't as clean as we needed it to be, and so for me I'm going to look internally to see what can I do better, and then also, too, what can we do better collectively? So the reality, though, is that I've been through tough times before. Been through tough times before. And I think about some of the tough moments I've gone through. There's always something better on the other end of it. That's what I really believe, and so the thought process of it, man, it can feel like it's your worst day just as a team, as a group, and it can feel heavy and all that, but I do think that you have to have perspective and know that there's still opportunity, and we have to decide and we have to execute on it, and we have to go do it.
Q. The time that you missed and having never been hurt in the NFL or at least hurt to miss a game, do you feel like rust has been an issue for you?
RUSSELL WILSON: No, I don't. I think we got to see the deep ball. You won't say rust when you watch it. The ball is coming out of my hand just fine. You can make as my thoughts and excuses. I'm not going to make excuses. I'm not an excuse kind of guy. I'm a guy we want to figure out how to fix it and get better, and and that's how we're going to stay neutral and think through it.
Q. How different from the (indiscernible) -- dumping the ball off when there's coverage down the field on --
RUSSELL WILSON: One more time.
Q. How different is your nature off the pass -- would you take what the defense gives you. They're taking away the deep stuff and double-teaming Lockett and Metcalf down the field, and at times you're throwing the ball deeply anyway. Is that against your nature sometimes to dump it off and not go for the play?
RUSSELL WILSON: I think about the ball flat to Colby. We had some other things. Got the ball to Dissly a couple of times quickly. We have some quick throws in there today that we felt like we were trying to get the ball out. That was really when we were in tempo. Then we had some deep shots too. Tyler had a great game on the scrambles. He made some great plays deep down the field. D.K. almost had that one deep down the field. Those are shots you got to take, and those are opportunities that are massive opportunities, and it didn't go our way, but I think that for me you just stay focused on what we have to do, and I think what we have to do is to block out a lot of the noise right now. Just to be honest with you, block out a lot of the noise and understand that there's still opportunities. There's still time to get better. There's still -- not much time, but there's still time, meaning tomorrow, and that's what we to do.
Q. It feels like you guys, the defense is sometimes giving you different looks than what you have seen and it takes time to adjust to that. Have you been feeling that?
RUSSELL WILSON: Not really. Honestly, we had a few funky things in the first half that just are uncharacteristic of our football team I felt like. We were moving the ball, and something happens, and it's like, shoot, you know, now it's a minus play. We can't have those minus 5, 10, 15 yard plays. Just can't happen. When you go against a good defense, you can't do that. I think that we responded really well. I thought in terms of what he were this trying to do and everything else, you know, we were able to run the ball efficiently on a few plays here and there. I checked a few runs, and we had that drive, like I said, right before half. We had the drive near the end of the, game too, to put us down by three, and just didn't go our way.
Q. Russ, is it shocking to you that you are ten games into the season and you haven't found answers to the same problems that have been bothering the offense to date?
RUSSELL WILSON: Yeah, I think that it's disappointing. It's disappointing, but I also know that every guy in that locker room has the right intentions and hope and dreams and beliefs that we can fix and we will fix it. I know the past game or two, whatever, it doesn't feel like it or even the past several weeks, to be honest with you, but I also know what we're capable of. I know that I see it every day in practice. I see what we do, and so we have to translate that, and I think that we have to figure out how to -- the biggest thing is how do we eliminate these big moments?
Going back to your question, I think we had some good drives, good feeling drives, and then, boom. Especially today in particular. I think we limit those little mistakes like that, then I think we can be better.
Q. Are defenses playing you similarly to how they were in the second half of last season when your offense struggled?
RUSSELL WILSON: I wouldn't say that, no. I think it's a little different. I think they didn't do anything surprising, to be honest with you. They played three, four, six, they play two. Every once in a while they play a good amount of match-man. Typical NFL football. They didn't do anything alarming or anything like that. I think we just didn't execute on making plays.
Q. What were the issues in the red zone today?
RUSSELL WILSON: We almost had a touchdown. D.K. almost got his foot down. It was a sweet catch in how he got that, and he almost got his foot down there. Unfortunately, it didn't -- it wasn't counted in. Then the one I missed to Freddie there kind of low. I was trying to throw it low to him, and it was a little too low. Other than that, I think that we had the drive. Just trying to remember them all. We had the drive right before half, and we ended up kicking the field goal, and then I think about how we had that one two-minute drive all the way down the field, and then I checked to the run. Had a pass play and checked to the run to D.J. He ended up scoring for a touchdown. That was sweet.
We've been one of the top red zone teams in football. Today it didn't go the way we wanted it to, but that's just been what we've been, so I think that's -- unfortunately, didn't happen today.
Q. Russ, you've been so clutch in big situations throughout your career, and on third downs at different times in your career. Right now you're making just 35% of your passes on third down for the season. Why do you think the passing game is such a struggle on third down?
RUSSELL WILSON: Yeah, I think we've got to stay out third and longs, and then, too, we had some several third and long today, and I think also, too, is we just have got to find a way to make two more conversions. I'm not going to overcomplicate it, but how do we find two more? How do we find three more? You can take one possession at a time, and we're going to have another opportunity next week, and we can't go back. There's no going back.
I think that to go through all of this, it's been a challenge I think so far this year and I think there's been a lot of -- we're up against it a little bit, and if anybody likes being up against it, I'm okay with it. What this team is going to get from me is everything I got every day, every moment, every second like I always have. Laying it on the line every play no matter what the score is, and no matter what the circumstances are. I think that I've had harder days too. This is a pretty hard day. It's a hard couple of weeks, whatever, because we're feeling it right now, and we know that we're up against it, but what I also do know is that, man, I think about my dad when he was on his death bed. That's what I was thinking about when I came back in the locker room. What we're up against is not harder than that. He lived another three and a half years, and they told him he had only 12 to 18 hours left to live.
For me seven games sounds good to me. I look forward to the next seven, and when we do figure it out, which will hopefully be this week when we do figure it out, everybody better watch out, and that's got to be our mentality. There's no other mentality or thought, no other options, no other hoping and wishing. There's no going back and saying wish we did this differently. It's about right now starting tomorrow morning when we wake up and if he with get the opportunity to wake up in the morning, it will be a gift, and when we do, we're going to do everything we can to be better than we were yesterday -- today, I should say -- and so I think what's really important is that there's going to be a lot of noise, a lot of this and that. At the end of the day we have to answer, and I like answering. I like the tough times too. I like the good times. I also like the tough times. I don't shy away from it. I don't think anyone in this locker room does either. We've got to be better. That's the truth.
The truth is, too, we are better than what we've been playing, and the truth is that we also believe that we can be better as a collective group, and the other truth is we've got seven games to go, and we'll see what happens.
Q. Given how frustrated you were in the offseason and how you went about expressing that, how does starting 3-7 impact your future, do you think?
RUSSELL WILSON: It doesn't impact any of my thoughts at all. All I think about is right now what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. I love this team. I love this organization. I love being here. Like I said, I like the challenge. I'm looking forward that it, where it's going to be a great story.
Go Hawks.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports