Well, stating the obvious, obviously it's a difficult loss today. Stating the obvious, losing two games at Lambeau Field in six days is not quite part of the formula that we're looking for as our season moves forward. But we're 5-4. The performance today, defensively, we weren't quite good enough. As far as stopping the run, the big plays. Offensively, I thought we started strong in the run game. There were some situational things we could have done better. Special teams was solid. What I felt the game came down to probably was a half dozen critical plays. We might have made one of them, they made them, we did not. Congratulations to the Eagles. I'm disappointed, and I'm disappointed as the head coach of this team because we have a reoccurring issue that I have to get fixed and we'll get on that tomorrow. I'm not going to get into that right now, but we had a lot of tough situations today. No excuses. We lost our quarterback after the first series, and I thought Scott Tolzien played as well as to be expected. The one throw down in the end zone, he probably wishes he had that one back, but other than that, I thought he did a lot of good things. I'll tell you right now, Scott Tolzien will start against the New York Giants, so we'll answer that question right here. With that, I'll take your questions.
On the challenge of preparing Seneca Wallace all week and then having to go with Scott Tolzien
COACH McCARTHY: It's ditto. It's two weeks in a row. I mean, you have a guy that goes through the week and takes all the reps. Unfortunately, he suffered the injury there in the first series. I thought Scott did a hell of a job. We're running plays he hasn't even practiced yet. He comes here, and it's a totally different language from where he's been his first two stops. He's worked diligently on our language, transferring plays he's had in the past and how we do things. For the most part, he was seamless in the huddle. I thought his game management, especially from the amount of preparation he had going into this game was outstanding.
On if his team rallied around the quarterback
COACH McCARTHY: I don't necessarily buy into the whole notion of always having to rally around the quarterback. I can give you a pretty clear picture. I understand the importance of the quarterback position, but it was important for everybody to go out and do their job today and play the best that they can and do the little things. There were a lot of fundamental issues we had on the field today, and that's really what we tried to stress as a football team going into it. Everybody just needs to do their job and do it the best they can and we would win the game. I felt that in my heart and if we would have been able to accomplish that, I think we would have got that done. The quarterback is a very important position, but there's men that play quarterback. There's a group of people that coach the quarterback, and we'll make sure the quarterback is ready. Yes, it's unusual. I've never lost a quarterback after the first series two weeks in a row. It's an unusual situation, but there was plenty of production offensively to give our team a chance. We just need to focus on our jobs. Everybody needs to take a harder look, which I thought we did this week, inside. We need to do our jobs better and it starts with me because I didn't get it done today. I fully expected to win that game, regardless of what happened. We had a lot of guys go down, and the coaches were scrambling on the sidelines. I thought the players did an exceptional job. TJ Lang jumps in there at center for a couple plays when Evan goes out. Barclay goes down. It happens. We had guys going in and out on defense. However, the Philadelphia Eagles had a lot of injuries, too. That's the game of football. We needed a little help today and we didn't get it. Wevhave to make those plays yourself and we definitely came up short.
On what he could have done better
COACH McCARTHY: It always starts with me and ends with me. It's about anything in life. You get what you emphasize. You can look at it any way you want to. There's some things we have not done a good job of all year. We'll talk about that as a team and we'll make sure it's clearly understood what we need to do. We need to play better. We had an opportunity today that we let slip by. You don't lose home games. Everybody knows the formula, it's no secret. It's been going on in the NFL for decades. You got to win your home games. We've lost two in six days, and it stings, it definitely stings.
On the performance of Datone Jones recently
COACH McCARTHY: I think Datone is getting better, and we need him. He needs to get a lot better, too. He's got ability, he does some things well, but he needs to be more consistent Monday through Saturday and I think it will help him on Sunday. I was very proud of some of the things he did today, but we need more.
On if the Eagles long touchdown passes were coverage issues or playing the ball issues
COACH McCARTHY: It was clearly playing the ball. When I referred earlier to the critical plays in the game, I definitely feel that those plays when you look at the ball in the air, you're expecting the ball to go your way, and it didn't. Both those long throws, when the ball is in the air that long, as a defensive back, you're licking your chops. When the ball gets up and down, that's when it's a bigger challenge.
