Head Coach Mike Macdonald Discusses The Week 8 Loss To The Bears

Mike Macdonald (0:02)

All right, I think it's just a tip of the cap to the Bears. They won the game, they won it fair and square, they won it in all three phases, and then we got beat. No other way to sugarcoat it. I think when you look at the things that it takes to win in our league, we didn't do those things and they did. So credit to them. Obviously, we have some work to do, and that's what we intend to do, get back to work and attack the heck out of it. So we got a short week. This is the first of, I think, maybe four or five throughout the season. So it's really important that we get our bodies back and get our minds ready to go on Wednesday. So again, credit to the Bears. You look at all the stats, the things that happened in terms of playing complimentary football, we can rattle them off if you want, but they made it happen and we didn't. So it's a team effort. We're all officers of a team, I think, in all three phases, we can have better plans, we can coach it better, we can prepare our players better and we can play better. So, but we'll go back to work, go attack the heck out of it. The margins in our league is too small. When you don't do the things that it takes to win, that's how a game like that shapes up.

Well, I'm not sure yet. I mean, we came off of last week feeling good and then obviously we have some change up in our offensive line. So I expect us to get back and get better. But I don't have a great answer for you right now.

But just like what I told the teams, this is what we do, we find solutions and we move forward, we stay together and go make it happen from there.

SPEAKER_2 (1:50)

Was the running back rotation sort of as you envisioned it I guess going into the game? What did you think of that?

Mike Macdonald (1:53)

Well, without getting into the play counts and all that, I mean, you can't ask guys to come back and play certain amount of snaps. So obviously the game shook out a certain way and that affected how we played our guys.

SPEAKER_3 (2:09)

Mike, you said Sam has said, Brian Fleury has said focus on getting the ball out quicker for Sam. When he has to extend players and there are certain things you're seeing that are problematic because of stats, like if he's got the ball for over 2.5 seconds, the stats would really go down.

Mike Macdonald (2:22)

Well, I think we want to keep encouraging Sam to use his legs and use his athleticism and his playmaking ability. But can we design it better and coach it up better and be more prepared so we can throw it on time? Sure. But again, if we keep forcing ourselves into, if we're not efficient on early downs or not moving the ball forward all the time, it's tough sledding. When you play a team like that, that is really proficient on third down, then that's the type of stuff that happens. But the sense of urgency for us to improve right now is high.

SPEAKER_2 (3:01)

The sequence where the delay game penalty look like maybe you're going to get to stop there and then on the next play, the third down.

Mike Macdonald (3:08)

Yeah, I mean, there's some unfortunate series of events that didn't go our way. But I mean, you got to play the game, you know? I mean, you got to be able to tackle guys on the perimeter and understand the situation and execute, you know? So they did that and we didn't. So it's just, I mean, it's pretty cut and dry.

SPEAKER_4 (3:25)

You guys are normally very good on special team, but there's a handful of gaps tonight.

Mike Macdonald (3:30)

What did you think of that?

Again, it was a team effort. We lost in all three phases, you know? We knew the timing of the kickoffs would be different on our kick returns. And it just didn't seem like we could get the return, you know, timed up with the blocks, you know? And that's how they make their hay and they're good at it. So, you know, expect us to improve.

SPEAKER_5 (3:53)

Jaxon obviously had his numbers out there, but where's your concern level with the fact that you had two receiving cards from anybody not named Jaxon for a half? It just seemed like it gets a hard time getting anybody else involved till late game.