Seahawks 37, Panthers 27
FRANK REICH: Start out with some injury updates.
Mingo had a concussion. Frankie Luvu had a hip pointer, and C.J. Anderson had an ankle.
A tough loss. Coming in we knew the environment would be tough. Good football team and a tough place to play.
We talked in there. Let me say this as a general statement. First of all, what we said in there, and I mean every ounce of it, I have a very strong belief in our team and our players. I have a strong belief in our coaches, and I know we can be a good football team if we don't beat ourselves.
That being said, the number of penalties that we had on offense was pathetic. That starts with me as an offensive coach. That starts with our offensive coaches getting our players ready, and that starts with our players.
That's unacceptable. I mean, it's like we never played in the noise before. We knew it was coming. We practiced all week with noise.
I mean, Wednesday it was so loud out there you couldn't even think, but as coaches and as players together -- and I mean that together. As coaches and as players, if you have that many self-inflicted things, it's hard to overcome those. So we've got to learn from that for sure.
Defensively I felt like we held them in the first half to no touchdowns. They hit some runs on us late. Listen, I said to the defense, I know we put the defense in a hard position. We put the defense in a hard position with the slow starts on offense, and it puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
Then what happens is sometimes later in the game that mounts up, and then you get a little crack, but we've got to stand strong as players and coaches on defense.
We got it to a one score -- we got it to two points or within a one-score game there in the fourth quarter, and then they drove down and scored, and we needed a stop right there. We needed a stop, and we didn't get it.
I do know this. I do know in this locker room there's two things that are going to happen. One, there is belief; and number two, there will be no finger-pointing. That's not going to happen.
We're each going to own our mistakes, man up to our mistakes. We understand that the mistakes are collective. Coaches and players together have got to get better, but we each individually have to look at our specific area and the way that we can individually get better as well.
I'll open it up from there.
Q. Frank, four of those false starts were called on Ickey. Anything in particular you think he needs to improve?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, that's what we have to figure out. We have to figure out -- Ickey has to look at it himself. We have to look at it like what can we do to help him in those situations? That's the process you go through. Like I said, I just had not experienced it like that before.
I mean, we have to be able to change plays on the road. The quarterback has to be able to change plays. That's going to happen. So we talked about keeping our poise, and we didn't do that.
Q. 58 pass attempts for Dalton. I'm sure that's not --
FRANK REICH: Yeah, you don't come into Seattle and throw it 58 times and win very many games. So that was not the formula that we wanted.
The run game was nonexistent. So we've got to continue to work on that. I did think that Andy handled the pass game pretty well. I think he handled the pass game pretty well, made a lot of good throws.
We made some plays in the pass game. I thought giving 58 attempts and here -- there are times the protection broke down, but it wasn't horrible. Like, it was -- I have to look at the tape, but in many ways I thought Andy -- I thought Andy was pretty solid. I thought Andy did a lot of good things today.
Q. Frank, after you guys ran so well in Atlanta in the opener, it hasn't been as much of a factor. Why is that after --
FRANK REICH: It's surprising to me. It really is surprising to me. It's surprising to me. So we know for us to be the offense and the team we want to be, we need to have more balance in the offense, so we have to continue to work on that.
Q. You said Bryce would be the starter when he is healthy, but with the way the line is playing right now, are you worried about putting him back in there?
FRANK REICH: No, not at all.
Q. Frank, you referenced preparing for the noise. What do you think attributed to the challenges?
FRANK REICH: I don't know. Wednesday -- I promise you it was louder Wednesday at practice than it was out there today, and we never really turned it down.
When they were in the huddle, we had it loud. It was loud at the line of scrimmage. I don't remember us having a false start on Wednesday.
Then on Thursday and Friday we still used the noise. It wasn't quite as loud because, honestly, Andy was really hoarse after Wednesday just from screaming the whole day, so we had to manage it just a little bit so that he didn't lose his voice. So we've got to figure that one out, yeah.
Q. (Off microphone).
FRANK REICH: Listen, this game, we're in the fourth quarter, and I think it's a two-point game at one point in the fourth quarter, or I don't know. It was within one score. In spite of all those penalties, we got it to a point where we make a stop -- if we make a stop and then follow up with a score, we can win that game. We're in the fourth quarter, and that game is winnable if we can put it together in all three phases just for one quarter. We're in the fourth quarter, and if we can put it together, we can win that game, and it got away from us.
Q. Do you worry a little bit, Frank, about the message being well received in there when you're not seeing the outcomes that you want?
FRANK REICH: No, those guys are pros. I don't. Listen, we're three games into this. Everybody understands. The kind of guys we've got in there, I believe everybody takes ownership. Everybody understands it's a long season. There's no guarantees in anything. We know we can be a good team.
Again, I've been 1-5 and won playoff games, and here's what I know. When you are in a situation like that where you are 0-3 or 1-5 or something like that and you are behind the 8-ball and you say, well, can you still make the playoffs, absolutely. The way you do it is not thinking about that. All you worry about is the next team.
So really right now what we do is go back and look at this film and get focused on the Minnesota Vikings, and it's one week at a time and keep getting better.
I do think there are some areas we got better. You know, we made some plays in the pass game. D.J. flashed making a few plays down the field. There were more positive things.
Third down conversion was better. That was progress. Defense in the first half, again, no touchdowns in some pretty difficult situations that we put them in. There's still plenty of positives to build on, and I think we all know that.
I don't think anybody feels like we've been outmanned in any game. We just have beat ourselves, so just have to continue to get better.
Q. Of all the injuries that you mentioned, any immediate concerns coming out of this?
FRANK REICH: Kind of we have to wait and see how it all -- you know, 24 hours later see -- with Mingo going through the protocol, just have to wait and see what that looks like.
Xavier, I'm not sure the severity or degree of his hamstring. Then Frankie's hip pointer, those things, they vary in degree. So it's kind of wait and see how that and then same thing with C.J.'s ankle. I haven't heard how severe that is yet, so we'll find out in the next 24, 48 hours.
Q. Along those lines, how concerned are you about simply the fatigue for guys like Derrick, Brian, who were out there playing a lot of snaps and things have gotten away the last couple of weeks?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, I mean, that's what we're paid to do. That's what we're paid to do. Shoot, I'm assuming those guys like -- I'm not saying this like as a smart -- shoot, these guys are paid to play football. We're paid to coach football, so let's go do it.
You want me to play 80 plays? Let's go. I'll sign up and play 80 plays. You want me to do that 17 weeks in a row? Yeah, that's what we do.
That's our mentality. What does it take? Hey, what can I do to help this team win? Play more plays? Okay.
Now we as coaches have to manage that. Is there wear and tear? I think we do a pretty good job during the week managing, getting guys ready physically with how we practice, pulling guys out. We manage reps during the week knowing that certain guys are playing more.
When a guy plays a lot of plays in the game, that next week in practice we pull back on him to allow him to recover. So we don't just count the game reps. They mean a lot, but we look at the week worth of work, and we manage that load and try to make it manageable for each of the guys.
Q. To piggyback off of his question, you've had a lot of injuries to key players and new staff. So many new faces here in the building. I know that you have to kind of change your game plan. To what degree have you guys had to make so many changes just three weeks into the season?
FRANK REICH: There's been a number of changes, but of course, we're never going to look at it like woe, is me. New staff. A lot of injuries. My guess is everybody is dealing with the same thing we're dealing with. That's just what I assume because I've dealt with this before.
I've got confidence in our roster, the depth that we have, and I think a lot of guys have stepped up. Yeah, it's a new coaching staff, and I feel like in some ways we -- I know I feel like we're getting better in some ways as a staff and as players and in each unit.
It wasn't good enough to win for the first three weeks, but we'll keep fighting and scratching.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports