Buccaneers 32, Eagles 9
Q. Fourth and two at your own 44. You punted there.
NICK SIRIANNI: Beginning of the game?
Q. Yeah. What's your thinking there?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I'm not going to give them a short field. It was fourth and three on the stat sheet. Not going to give them a short field on the short drive. Always think about that on the first drive.
Not going to get into all in the decision making on fourth down as far as what I think or when I think it, but that's one I'm right there not considering going for it at that particular time. We punted. I didn't want to give them a short field after one possession.
That's a little bit of the reasoning behind it.
Q. Beginning of the game, halftime, four carries, what was the flow of the offense in the first half and...
NICK SIRIANNI: We were just a little out of sync obviously. We had the dig play to DeVonta. Besides that we were just a little bit out of flow. That's always going to start with me. Wasn't good enough. Obviously not putting them in good enough positions.
Sometimes when you're in second and long and third and long and you're not continuing drives, it's easy to look at the stat sheet and say they didn't run it enough.
There is things that aren't being accounted for. Second and long, third and long. There is nothing to say that you can't run it there, but it's going to be harder to pick up a first down in those scenarios.
When you're out of flow like that and not in sync like we were, it's going to be hard to get your carries when you're behind the sticks in.
We had a two-minute drive there as well. We need to be able to run it more. Obviously we weren't able to today to get into flow and that's on me.
Q. Third and shorts...
NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously in a big slide, and any time that's the case I always look at myself first. I didn't do a good enough job. Obviously we lost five of the last six and lost today.
Almost like you couldn't get out of the rut -- we couldn't get out of the rut we were in. That's all of us.
We'll have look our selves in the mirror and accept that and find answers and solutions. Obviously when you start 10-1, you know and then you get into what happened for us, obviously the expectations were high. Expectations were higher when we started off 10-1 and fell into a skid.
I'll look at everything. I'll look at obviously the playcalling. I'll look at the scheme. I'll look at the practices. I'll look at everything that we're doing.
Because I think that the past two years did some things -- we got hot a little bit at the end and then this year wasn't that case. So any time that's the case you're going to look for answers in those scenarios.
The answer isn't always like, okay, we finished hot last year, lost our last game, do the same thing. Got to be able to adjust. We did some adjusting but we'll look at everything.
Q. Does that include potentially changing coordinators?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I mean, that's premature to talk through that. Everybody in the locker room is hurting right now, coaches, players, staff. Everybody in the locker room is hurting. My job right now is to be there for them, there for the guys.
We will get into all that. I'm not there yet. But, yeah, we're hurting right now. It's tough to go out the way we did. Hats off to the Bucs. They had a good game plan and did a good job. My mind right now is not there.
Got a lot of time to think about that. My mind right now is on the locker room, the guys, the coaches, all those things.
Q. Are you concerned at all about your job status?
NICK SIRIANNI: Like I just said over here, I'm not thinking about that. I'm thinking about the guys. Again, there is a lot of guys in that locker room, all the guys in that locker room, every single one of them, that put their heart and soul into this. I'm not worried about me.
You know, as the head coach, I'm just trying to be there for our guys and staff right now through a tough time. Obviously we didn't finish anywhere near where we wanted to finish. And so, again, my heart feels for these guys.
We are all taking it hard and that is where my mind is right now.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
NICK SIRIANNI: You know, obviously it was almost a similar play that the safety that we got on them with momentum, and so any time a safety like that happens, it's a big momentum change, right? They were up 16 to 9. I thought our defense was going a good job at the end of the first half, beginning of the second half. Kind of swung the momentum there.
They made a good play and we didn't.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
NICK SIRIANNI: Not necessarily. I'll have to look at the tape of exactly what happened on that. He's trying to make a play. That's what -- he and so many good things with making plays and when he extends plays when something is not there, and you can't get really excited and when -- he makes game changing plays and then crush him when something like that happens.
So he's made a lot more plays than he hasn't there in this particular case. We got to put him in a better position to make a play to start things off. And then, hey, like I said, he's made a ton of plays that way. He was trying to make a play in that situation; didn't work this time.
Q. Through the weeks, and you mentioned early in the season you guys were near the top of the league, when this turns in a drastic direction how do you look at that as a coach?
NICK SIRIANNI: Sure. Yeah, again, you just got to look at how you're going about your business. Tackling is a tricky thing. Not a lot of teams are going to tackle live, right? I don't think any teams are going to tackle live to be quite honest with you, especially late in the season.
Got to look how you're drilling it, the different technology they have to help you drill it. Obviously through the body of work of the season it was good, but wasn't as good in the last couple weeks. I think you can look at everything, if you look at the body of work in a lot of different things this season, the numbers may say one thing but it wasn't good enough in the past month of the season.
Again, that's going to go back to how we practice. I know we had a lot of guys healthy and only two starters not here for this game. So part of you wants to say to yourself, well, all hands were on deck for the most part. Obviously Nakobe and Sidney. AJ been able to be back I'm assuming. Two guys out that were season-ending injuries, you want all hands on deck.
Also want to make sure you're doing the right things with practice. So we'll look at all that. Again, I'm not there yet with that.
Q. How do you think Jalen handled the blitz tonight?
NICK SIRIANNI: We scored nine points. The better way to say that is how do you think the coaching staff and the players handled the blitz tonight, because it's not on one person. We didn't do a good enough job. Starts with me being able to put them in the right position to make plays.
Tried some different things. You know, hats off to them. They had a good game plan and we didn't coach or play well enough tonight.
Q. Kelce was emotional coming off the field. Thoughts on him particularly, if this was the end.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I love him. I love him. Yeah, obviously we're not there at that -- ready to talk about that, but he's special and I love him. He's one of the most special guys I've been around.
Yeah, obviously always -- he's always got a place here and always want him to play. See what happens as time progresses here.
Q. Begin the way the last -- second half of the season went what gives you the confidence that you can fix some of the problems?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we believe in ourselves. I'm not sitting in this room for any reason, and it's the same thing with these guys. I'm really not built that way. What gives me the confidence to think that we can fix it is because we believe in ourselves and we're in these seats at the top of our profession because we worked our ass off to get here.
I can promise you that nobody in that locker room thinks that way even a little bit. I don't know in what profession anyone does think that way and doubts themselves. Sure as hell ain't us.
Q. What are your next few days look like in terms of meeting with Jeffrey? I know you said your focus is on the players right now.
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I'm not -- again, like I said, I'm not there yet. I don't know exactly quite yet. Wasn't expecting to end tonight. It did. I'll put together a schedule on the plane ride home tomorrow.
Q. ...Bucs did on offense that really let them move the ball at will on you guys?
NICK SIRIANNI: Ran it well. Baker did some good things with some pressure things that he made that really good play against blitz zero down the middle. Was that to Godwin? I think that they got some really good players and I thought they ran the football well. Hats off to them.
Q. When you talked about not being able to get out of the rut late in the season, do you look back at some the decisions and wonder why they didn't work?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, again, like I said, any time -- I'm not going to -- any time we make a decision that doesn't work, I'm going to drag myself through the mud and at the point to get better from it.
We don't brush things by. We just try to look for solutions. Obviously our solutions weren't good enough here near the end.
But we'll go back it the drawing board we continue on.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports