What Chris Tabor Said Following the Loss to New Orleans

Carolina Panthers interim head coach met with the media after Sunday's game.

Opening statement

“I will first start off with the injuries. #67 (Justin McCray) had a calf strain (and) did not return. #80, Ian Thomas, had an ankle (and) did not return. Those are the two injuries right there. Obviously, I’m going to tip my hat to New Orleans. We did’nt play enough complementary football today. (We) had our chances and didn’t capitalize. Then, we shot ourselves in the foot and had catastrophic mistakes, so we have to regroup. We are going to regroup and come back.”

Fumble returned for a touchdown

“It was a blocked punt. Man didn’t go out and block the guy he was supposed to. That’s a mistake that, obviously, cannot happen.”

Turnover being ruled as a fumble

“It’s a blocked punt; they scored off of it. However people want to score it in fantasy football, it doesn’t matter to me. We made a mistake and didn’t do our job. That hurt us there. I thought that our defense played outstanding to keep us in things. There in the fourth quarter, we had an opportunity to go down and tie it, and we didn’t.”

Why they can't get a lead in close games

“Because we haven’t won yet. We need to figure out how to win. That’s what we got to get done. And you have to keep chopping wood and keep going in order to break through. It’s just not going to magically happen for you. When your number is called, you’ve got to make a play. You never know in this game when it is going to happen.”

If Bryce Young can get anything out of this game

“Absolutely. I think that he is going to continue to improve. That doesn’t concern me at all. We ran the ball for 200 yards today. I know that you are going right there at the (offensive) line, but we ran the ball for 200 yards. Somebody is blocking him.”

If it's frustrating to have a game like that

“Everything is frustrating right now, if I have to be completely honest. As I said, (it’s) how you are going to handle it. It’s tough after this loss, but we’ve got to keep going.”

Not taking shots downfield

 “We took shots today, a lot of shots. Obviously, we didn’t connect on enough that we wanted. Then, unfortunately, we didn’t get any PI calls or anything along those lines. It’s a good secondary. It’s a really good secondary. We had chances there and we didn’t capitalize. We have to continue to work on getting that better.”

Why the passing game is a struggle

 “I do not know that answer, because if we had the answer, we would have already fixed it. I think that it is just something that we have to continue to work on. When you pitch and catch, we have to pitch and catch. We had opportunities. Whether a guy is open or not, put it on him. When a guy is open, catch the ball. There are a lot of things…everyone has a job and a responsibility. We just need guys to work hard and continue to do their job.”

The frustration

 “I don’t like to lose. I don’t care what the circumstances are. I don’t like to lose.”

Saints March Past Panthers, 28-6

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