What Matt Rhule Said Following the Loss

RE: Opening StatementObviously not a very good day for us. A lot of credit to the Patriots. I thought they did exactly what they needed to do to win the [url=https://www.wildjerseymall.com/eric-staal-jersey]Eric Staal Jersey[/url] game. Special teams. Field position. Ran the football when it mattered. Good on third down. I thought our defense did a nice job in the second half. They had 100 yards rushing in the first half and came back and held them to like 46 in the second half. We were much better on third down in the second half. At the end of the day, the game comes down to turnovers. We gave away the ball three times. We were plus 2 in the first half without capitalizing much on. Offensively, it was about the turnovers and penalties. Just mi sed opportunities. Not very good. The defense I thought hung in there at times. Gave us a chance. But in the end, they played better than us so a lot of credit to them. RE: Decision to not bench Sam Darnold I thought he was going to have to play his way out of it. I just thought the shame of two of the interceptions were. The second one, I dont know that that was nece sarily on him. He throws the ball, lineman jumps up and intercepts it. It is what it is. But the first one and the third one, the shame of it was down inside the 30-yard line about to get points and keep that a close game. He was moving the offense, made those two plays. Like anyone else, figuring what to do and just thought when we got the ball back there was seven minutes left, just wanted to see him take us down at the end and put us in the endzone. I pulled him two weeks ago and he played a really good game last week. I wanted to give him the chance to play his way out of it and try to at least get us in the endzone at the end. Just seemed like the right thing to do. RE: Was Sam Darnolds lack of practice reps this week a contributing factor?He would have to say. He got reps on Thursday. He got reps on Saturday. At the end of the day, I think that I dont want to lay things on one person but we just cant continue to keep throwing the ball up. We have to protect the football. If you [url=https://www.wildjerseymall.com/darcy-kuemper-jersey]Darcy Kuemper Jersey[/url] have an interception, if its a third down interception, thats one thing. A first or second down interception, cant happen. So, to me those are decision making things we have talked about and talked about and talked about and here we are at game nine of the season and it hasnt happened. I wouldnt say it was a misread or anything like that. Wasnt anything with the game plan. Obviously, we knew they were going to come out and try to take away the run. I thought Christian McCaffrey did a nice job of getting some things going for us at times but our ability in the first half to convert third downs and in the second half to turn the ball, really the pa sing game in general. As bad as it was, it still just comes down to me to throwing the ball up in the air and we just cant be that team. We never wanted to be that team. We cant be that team and unfortunately, we were that team in the second half today. RE: Does Sam Darnold still give you the best opportunity to win?Ill watch the tape before I make some big statement. To be quite honest, I want to make sure I see everything and consider all factors. I know Sam prepared hard. I thought he went out there I thought he showed toughne s. He gritted to the end so I dont want to lay anything at his feet. We cant have a quarterback throwing the ball up in the air. He knows that. I know that. Whether we have to get with the coaches and figure out is [url=https://www.wildjerseymall.com/thomas-vanek-jersey]Thomas Vanek Jersey[/url] it the coaching, is it him, what is it? We just cant keep doing this. But I have to see everything before I can probably answer that better tomorrow.RE: Was Sam Darnolds history with Belichick and New England a factor in leaving him in?No, no, just really thought about us. RE: Christian McCaffreys performance todayI thought it was a good first game back. We had him on a double move touchdown that got batted down early in the game. I thought he obviously was good as he always is in the pa sing game. I thought he was good in the running game. He is always going to generate offense. I thought he did a nice job of that. Obviously, it was good to have him back. RE: Do you have enough of a sample size of Sam Darnold to determine if you can win with him?I already answered that. I think I have to wait until tomorrow. I have seen good things. I have seen bad things. My job, our job, is to try to get people to play their best. We knew there would be some ups and downs. Again, I thought Sam did some good things today. Its just a matter of really two plays that cant happen. Two plays that are about to - still going to be a one-score game, a two-score game. If we just eliminate those plays but we havent done it. Its a fair question. I want to make sure I say that. I dont want to answer those types of questions in my brain right now coming off the game. Obviously, we are all disappointed. Im disappointed. We also dont need a 15-yard penalty when it [url=https://www.wildjerseymall.com/jason-pominville-jersey]Jason Pominville Jersey[/url] is 2nd and six at the 20-yard line. All these things, you can preach it, you can talk about it, but at some point, we have to go do it. To have that many penalties, you know. One more thing our guys have to learn, when you have a reputation for getting penalties, you are going to get a lot of penalties thrown, even when they are tight. You know, we had ten penalties today. Just not a very good team lo s. Scroll to ContinueRE: Does a conversation need to happen between wide receiver group and Sam Darnold (Robby Andersons frustration)?I saw that. I wouldnt make anything of that. Robby was frustrated because we had our third interception. I think we all were. It wasnt generated at anyone. It wasnt anything like that. We communicate a lot. [url=https://www.wildjerseymall.com/]Minnesota Wild Jersey[/url] All of know we are not going to win if we turn the ball over. That was the whole key to victory was protect the football. We did it in the first half. We didnt play great on offense in the first half either but I dont know what it was at halftime, 10-6 or 13-6, I think they scored right before the half. We just cant turn the ball over. I think all of us were frustrated with that. RE: Offense was still down eight with being +2 in turnovers in the first halfNo doubt. I think the first half was really an example of just third down, I think we were 1 of 6 or 1 of something on third down. Got into halftime and talked a lot about that. Knew we were going to throw it a little bit more in the second half. I thought we kind of started to move the ball. Got down to the 30 and had the interception to Ian Thomas. It was just not a good day. I think thats more offensively, kind of the whole group. I think when you lose two linemen like that its obviously not going to be perfect. Matt Paradis has played a lot of football for us. The running game never quite really got going. But as we t