Carolina Panthers 23, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20
Q. What happened on that final play between Baker and was it Mike?
TODD BOWLES: Looked like miscommunication. I'll wait until I go talk to them and see, but Mike turned in and the ball went out. It's unfortunate for us.
Q. Are were you almost in field goal range?
TODD BOWLES: We were close. We weren't in field goal range. I think before the penalty we were about six yards away, second and four we went to second and nine. I think the turnover happened right there.
Q. I think you guys had a number of penalties. I think Goedeke had four or five. What was going on with him today?
TODD BOWLES: False starts were a problem and the other thing, we can't start first and 15 every drive and expect to overcome that offensively. We did some good things, but too many penalties that hurt us and shot ourselves in the foot.
Q. Didn't get a lot of pressure from your outside pass rushers. How much does that affect else you do on defense?
TODD BOWLES: It affects a little. I mean, the ball was coming out with some empties and some things like that and the pressure we did get, we missed the quarterback one on a touchdown. It doesn't affect everything. I thought for the most part the coverage held everything in front of them. I know they got behind Morrison one time at the end and they got behind Dean before the half, which can happen, but the pressure, when the pressure was there the ball was coming out so fast. We got to make some plays in pass rushing getting back there.
Q. Into the half, that touchdown over Dean, you just went all blitz there. They were going to have to -- they had no time-outs so they were going to have to throw it --
TODD BOWLES: They had to throw it inbounds or have to throw it out of the end zone and he should have been back and made that play and he did not make it.
Q. Where's your team at right now? Six out of seven and remarkably if you win two games you're still the champion.
TODD BOWLES: We understand that. Our biggest thing is our confidence is good and our comradery is good and that's high but that's not enough right now. It's the execution that we're lacking and missing a few things here and there.
We shot ourselves in the foot enough today to lose this ball game by three. We understand that. We definitely understand that and we got to take it one day at a time and again, I think the guys are accountable. The cultures are accountable. We're going to load up and we're going to come back Monday. Hopefully in two weeks we get a chance to see them again and play for something.
Q. As much as you talk about refocusing after the loss last week, how disappointing is it to have those kind of penalties and as you said, shoot yourself in the foot where everything is self-inflicted with this loss?
TODD BOWLES: It's self-inflicted and it's a different kind of focus between penalties and a different kind of focus between MEs and two weeks ago or last week, it was penalties and this week was more -- this week was penalties and last week was more MEs. So we got to correct that part of it. It's not disappointing, it's frustrating, but you got to wake up and move on like you do every other day. We know that as a team and we understand exactly where we are and we got some great leaders on this team that will lead us there.
Q. You ran the ball a lot today. Was that by design to try to keep their offense off the field or were you trying to play complementary football?
TODD BOWLES: By design to play complementary football but at the same time, you don't play well when you rush over 30 attempts per game statistically speaking. I think we had some runs in there and we had a chance to throw it but we controlled the time of possession and the clock all the way down until the end.
Q. Do you think the miscommunication with Mike is that just he hasn't been at practice very much? These guys have played a lot of ball together. Was that the option route? He's reading leverage wrong? What happened there?
TODD BOWLES: I would have to talk to them first. I got to see the tape.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports