Cardinals 23, Seahawks 13
Q. What happens now after starting the season 3-7?
JAMAL ADAMS: Got to keep going. At the tend of the day, we're pros. We have a job to do where we have to keep fighting.
Q. What's going on third downs today?
JAMAL ADAMS: Not getting off the field.
Q. Were they not executing?
JAMAL ADAMS: I think it's a little bit of both. When ten guys do their job and one doesn't, that can happen. You've got to give credit to those guys over there. That's a great group of guys. Well-coached. Have a lot of talent on that side. They made things happen. We just couldn't get off the field.
Q. They beat you guys with a lot of underneath stuff in the passing game. Is that what you expected to see out of them with the passing quarterback?
JAMAL ADAMS: Absolutely. He was getting the ball out of his hands quick, making precise throws, and their guys were catching the ball and making plays.
Q. Jamal, if you all expected that, why was it so difficult for you all to stop it?
JAMAL ADAMS: Again, you know, those are pros over there. They made plays. They get paid as well. We just couldn't get off the field. We couldn't make our plays when we needed to.
Q. What's the message in the locker room right now?
JAMAL ADAMS: Still fighting. Staying as positive as we can. At the end of the day, we're pros, like I said. I'm going to keep saying it. We have a job to do. We have to stick together as a group, as a team. Can't have individuals going one way or the other. Everybody has to be pulling on the same rope. We've got to climb out of this. We're in a storm right now.
Q. Is it a challenge to stay positive right now?
JAMAL ADAMS: Absolutely not. You know, in life you go through a lot of ups and downs. You go through a lot of B.S. You lose people and have incidents. Whatever it is, you go through a lot of ups and downs, a lot of trial and error in life, and you've got to keep going. The day you stop, the day you quit, that's the day you'll fail, that's the day you'll die.
I just try to stay positive on my mindset. I try to preach that in the locker room as well. You know, nothing in life is perfect. You just got to keep on fighting, keep on going. You know, sooner or later that storm will end.
Q. Came into the season with high expectations. I can't imagine this doesn't sting pretty significantly, though, at this point where you are in the season and knowing where it sits in all of that. How do you guys kind of process that at this point?
JAMAL ADAMS: Yeah, obviously, it's shocking, but all the games we've lost we should have won or we were in it. You know what I mean? Just didn't come out on top, whether that was executing, whether that was playing smart or whether that was just getting off the field. I'm speaking for defense-wise and making plays. It's a tough situation, but at the end of the day we have to stay as positive as possible. We've got to keep our working hats on, and we've got to stay focused on the ultimate goal.
Q. Did you think you had the stop there on that last third down when they threw it to Ertz, that they threw the flag on?
JAMAL ADAMS: Hey, it's an offensive league. Bang-bang situation. I kind of put my hand on him a little bit and hooked it a little bit. Maybe they called that, but I let go. Bang-bang situation. Everybody has their opinion about it, but obviously, I can't have that penalty towards the end of the game to hurt the team. I've got to get better.
Q. Jamal, when you try to ground the team in the storm that you are talking about, how much is the balance of looking at what was behind and what's forward in the locker room, the grounding and the message?
JAMAL ADAMS: Well, again, man, however many games we have left, right, those are our opportunities, and those are our opportunities in life. Those are our opportunities with the game of football. We're very fortunate and very blessed to play this game of football. At the end of the day we're pros. I'm going to continue to say that. We've got to stay focused. We got to stay positive.
Obviously, this is not what Seattle is used to, but at the end of the day we've got to go out there and we've got to switch it around. We're in a storm right now, and it's going to take all of us to get out.
Q. What was Pete like in the locker room after that game?
JAMAL ADAMS: Everybody is just like Pete, man. We're frustrated, obviously. You know what I mean? We're frustrated. We want to win, but it's not happening for us right now, so what are we going to do to get out of it, and that's got to be a collective agreement as a whole in that locker room. We will. We will get out of this storm sooner than later.
Q. Jamal, the first drive in Arizona had nine minutes, touchdown. What do you guys talk about that's progressing? We've many several of those over the last couple of weeks, the long drives that you have clocked. What's the discussion like?
JAMAL ADAMS: So you are saying the first drive as far as the time management?
Q. Yeah.
JAMAL ADAMS: Well, I mean, we can only do so much, right? If they control the clock, obviously, we want to get off the field, but we can't control the clock ticking down, you know what I mean? Yeah, our ultimate goal as a defense is to take the field and get the ball back to the offense. That's our goal. We're not focused on anything else but executing and getting the ball back to our offense. Obviously the time and possession of them having the football, we can't control that, but we can control getting off that field, and that's what we needed to do, but obviously, in that situation for the first drive, we didn't get off the field and they scored. Does that answer your question?
Q. Why did you guys have such a struggle getting off the field?
JAMAL ADAMS: We weren't executing. You know what I mean? There's no ifs, ands, or buts. It's just execution. We have to get off the field. At the end of the day they had players as well. They get paid as well. They made their plays, and we didn't.
Q. All season long Minnesota, Green Bay (indiscernible)-- today you guys are dropping off. What's the balance there of how you get out of that? How do you not -- how do you counteract and be more aggressive with the team that's obviously taking what you are giving them?
JAMAL ADAMS: You get a little more aggressive. You attack. That's the nature of the beast. That's what teams are hitting us on, and we got to adjust.
Q. You say, attack. You mean blitz more, or is there more to it than that?
JAMAL ADAMS: A little bit of everything. I would say blitzing and a little bit -- that's what we did towards the end. We started to get a little bit more aggressive with it and attack them at the line of scrimmage. I look back on my play that I -- it was a bone head play. It was first down. It should have been down in the seat gap a little closer. It was in the man. They ran the ball. You know, just situational football, first and second down, just knowing the situation, and I knew that. That was a bone head mistake. Obviously, gave up five on that run. I could have been in my gap to slow that down and prevent that, but just little things like that we've got to get better. Myself included. You know what I mean? We're in this together. It's not an individual game. It's a team game, and I like us always.
Q. How much time did you spend preparing for Colt McCoy to be their quarterback?
JAMAL ADAMS: What?
Q. How much did you game plan for Colt?
JAMAL ADAMS: Countless hours. We game plan every week.
Q. Is it difficult to do this right here?
JAMAL ADAMS: Absolutely not. Nope. Because this is -- there's no point in running from it. You know what I mean? You've got to attack it. Like I said, in life if something goes wrong, you don't run from adversity. You attack it. For me I've been through a lot over the course of my career, so I'm not really -- I'm not shying away from anybody. At the end of the day this is my job. This is what I asked to do at a young age. When I was just 3 years old running around, I have always wanted to do this. To be successful in this game of football, you have to sometimes come up and do hard things and things that make you uncomfortable, so I'm fine, man. I'm doing all right.
Q. Why should people outside of the locker room believe that the Seahawks can turn this around?
JAMAL ADAMS: That's a great question. I think that they should believe because you can never lose belief in something as far as a team, an organization. It's a great group of guys that's fighting for one purpose. You know, each and every week, every day. A lot of sacrifice. We're going to turn it around. Do I know when? No, I'm not that guy, but we will turn it around.
It's just about taking those steps each and every day, and for the outside, obviously, we can't control the outside noise and who believes in us, but I like us. I believe in us. We believe in each other, and that's really what matters at the moment. It's not really what matters what other people are kind of thinking about us right now because that's when you get into feeding into that. That's where you lose focus on the real goal. So the 53-man roster, the team, the practice players, the coaching staff, the training staff, the equipment staff, we all believe in one goal, and that's winning. So we're going to continue to do what we do, and we're not going to waiver or listen to the outside noise. Obviously, it's going to come. When you're not successful, it happens. It's the NFL, right? It's the game of sports. We just got to keep our foot on the gas and continue to work, and that's where we can go from there. Appreciate you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports