Dallas 20, Minnesota 16
MIKE ZIMMER: Disappointing loss. Seems like for many weeks here we've had teams on the rope, haven't been able to finish. Then we either win 'em at the end or lose 'em at the end. That kind of stuff caught up to us.
Had two turnovers tonight, didn't get any points off of them. First-and-goal on the four yard line. Don't get anything there. We get three points. We give up a long ball down the middle on third down. Miss a tackle on third-and-10. He ran through two guys on a check-down. Those kind of things will get you beat.
Got to continue to try to do better in those situations.
Q. What made it difficult to get anything down the field offensively?
MIKE ZIMMER: Well, their pass-rush is really good. They bring a lot of guys, do a lot of movement up front, twists, games. Gregory is disruptive.
Q. It seemed like there were a lot of check-downs from Kirk today. Why do you think that was?
MIKE ZIMMER: I think because of the pressure. Sometimes they were in the coverage to get the ball checked down. First play of the game we tried to hit a big play. If I remember right, we checked that one down. They did a good job.
Q. In terms of defensively, you had a lot of stops all the way through. What made it so difficult on the last drive?
MIKE ZIMMER: We gave up the big play on our sideline. Trying to remember what else. We got 'em in third-and-long. He checked it down, they ran through two guys.
We're trying to help the corners out a little bit tonight because they were needing some help on that particular play.
Q. What are the challenges of going against a backup quarterback when you didn't have a tremendous amount of film?
MIKE ZIMMER: We had a lot of film on him. We had a lot of film on him.
Q. How do you feel you did against him?
MIKE ZIMMER: Not good enough.
Q. Do you have any update on Danielle Hunter's injury? How did that affect you?
MIKE ZIMMER: It affected us obviously. Yeah, I don't know. He's going to get an MRI tomorrow.
Q. Adam just said if you're not frustrated, there's something wrong with you. You shouldn't be a coach or player if you're not frustrated. How do you take that frustration and turn it? Big games coming up.
MIKE ZIMMER: That's a good question.
I think there needs to be some time to think about it, kind of figure out what we need to do from here. This was a tough loss tonight. We had a good crowd. It was loud. Home prime time game. We had plenty of opportunities to win that football game and we didn't do it.
Q. The offense always seems to come out well on their opening drive, like today maybe sputters after that. Is there any reason other than not having a game script?
MIKE ZIMMER: We actually have two scripts that we have to start the game, then we have script coming out of halftime. I don't think it's that.
During the first part of the game everybody makes adjustments. They did some new things. We had to adjust to that defensively and vice versa. I just feel like we're just not as consistent overall of a football team as we need to be.
We go right down and score. We did it I think in Carolina two weeks ago. Then we get stagnant, then pick it up again at the end, so...
Q. What were you seeing on the third-and-16 that led you to call that second straight timeout?
MIKE ZIMMER: Yeah, I screwed up. Somebody yelled at me. I knew the play they were running. Really the same play they hit down the middle against us for the long touchdown. So somebody said, Call timeout. I did. The official wasn't supposed to grant it. They're supposed to not. Anyway, it's not his fault. So ended up getting a five-yard penalty.
Q. In the final drive, you should have had one timeout instead of zero?
MIKE ZIMMER: No, no.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports