Falcons 29, Buccaneers 28
Q. 14 point lead with 10 minutes left, what went wrong?
TODD BOWLES: Didn't execute. A few guys that didn't make some plays, weren't where they were supposed to be. Inexcusable. Can't happen.
Q. Why do you not stay aggressive in situations when it's working?
TODD BOWLES: Third and 28, you got to be able to play it. It is third and 28. It doesn't matter where you rush four men, five men, six men, you know where the ball is going, you got to get off the field. It was inexcusable the way we played the fourth and 14.
Q. Why not keep blitzing?
TODD BOWLES: You could say that. Fourth and 14, they get one out quick, throw a screen, there's nobody there, it's a touchdown. That's not even an issue right there.
Q. Getting to Cousins on the last drive. They said it was a simultaneous recovery. Is that something reviewable?
TODD BOWLES: Tried to get it reviewed. Couldn't. They kept going. They kept it going.
Q. To see Pitts and Robinson get open as often as they did, how does that happen?
TODD BOWLES: It doesn't happen. We played bad technique. A few guys played some bad things. It's inexcusable because we knew it all week. Just didn't execute it.
Q. What do you tell them in the locker room after a game like this?
TODD BOWLES: It's inexcusable. You don't make excuses. You got to fucking care enough where the shit hurts. You got to fucking care enough where the shit hurts. It got to fucking mean something to you.
It's more than a job, it's your fucking livelihood. How well do you know your job? How well can you do your job? You can't sugarcoat that shit.
It was fucking inexcusable. There's no fucking answer for it. No excuse for it. That's what you tell 'em in the locker room. Look in the fucking mirror.
Q. Talk about the unique challenges of facing (indiscernible).
TODD BOWLES: He's a good player. He's a very good athlete. He's been making catches like that the last couple weeks.
We got to execute. Taking nothing away from him. We have to execute. We did not do that.
Q. You got a boost from Mike Evans tonight. What did you think about him?
TODD BOWLES: Played winning football. Played winning football. He cares. He's one of the guys that cares. He gave his heart. He gave his all. Need more guys like that.
Q. How many of your guys don't care?
TODD BOWLES: They all care. It's just a matter of execution. They all care. It's just a matter of execution. There's nobody out there trying to mess it up. But at some point you got to get it right.
Q. Jalen McMillan returned tonight. How do you feel he played tonight?
TODD BOWLES: Played winning football. Played tough. Played winning football. Made some big catches for us.
Q. We've had multiple games here where you talk about trying to right the ship. How do you get this ship back on track?
TODD BOWLES: At this point you've seen everything in the season. The coaches have done everything they can do. This is a player-driven team in the last four or five weeks. You got to execute. They got to hold each other accountable.
As a coach you can sit there till you blue in the face. Until they start holding each other accountable and doing the little things right, and that's not everybody, we're talking about a small, select few. But the small, select few is what's getting us beat. Until that happens, it's not going to get right.
We got to get up and go to work tomorrow. No matter how bad today looks, you got to put it behind you. We got to win the last three games. We know that.
Q. Did you try to bring pressure on Cousins?
TODD BOWLES: Once Zyon went down, it got to be awfully tough. It messed up a few packages. You are trying to rotate people in. We heated them up some. Some were successful. Some were not. It was a cat-and-mouse game. Some of the coverages were successful, some were not.
If we just played the right way, played the right leverage, we would have been fine.
Q. What do you say to the coaching staff? How do you get the guys ready? How are you going to talk with them to see what exactly can be done so they're ready in these situations?
TODD BOWLES: I just told you, we were ready in the situations. We got to execute. Coaches and players are all in it together. When the coaches are bad, the players are bad, and vice versa.
We've been in these situations. We understand what's happening. We know exactly what's happening. We got to execute better. If you have to execute better, you definitely have to coach better, regardless.
That's where it is right now. We're all in this together. Nobody's pointing fingers. At the same time we have to hold each other accountable and we got to be better than that because there are no excuses.
Q. What happened on the third-and-long and the fourth-in-long?
TODD BOWLES: Third-and-long I felt we missed tackles. Fourth-and-long, it was a big blunder. That was inexcusable. Inexcusable. I'll discuss that in the meetings. It's nothing. Watch the tape, I'm sure you can see it.
Q. Are we at a time where you can make a change to some of these positions?
TODD BOWLES: We got what we got for the year. It's not college. We don't have 150 guys. Some guys are playing in place of injured guys. Some games some guys have to play.
We got to correct the things we can correct and we got the guys we got. We're all in this together and we're going to line up next week and play.
Q. Talk about the Falcons pass-rush.
TODD BOWLES: They did a good job, especially in the first half. We had some missed pickups right there. But they did a good job disguising a few things and getting to him.
At the same time we didn't turn it over from an interception standpoint that way. We picked it up a little bit in the second half. Just got to make more plays.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports