What Frank Reich Said Following the Loss to Miami

Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich discusses what went wrong in Sunday's game against the Dolphins.

Opening statement

"Okay, open up with injury updates. Yetur (Gross-Matos) did not finish with a hamstring. Laviska (Shenault Jr.) didn't finish with an ankle. Frankie Luvu didn't finish with a hip and (Calvin) Throckmorton with a calf. Tough loss. Came down, obviously got a good start in all three phases. Weren't able to sustain. Give the Dolphins credit for coming back. I thought our guys fought hard, just need to play better in all three phases."

The start offensively

"Just thought there was good execution, like I said, in all three phases. Thought we ran the ball well, had a good mix of run and pass. Hit a chunk play to Adam (Thielen) and then we were able to run it for the first one. The second one, we moved it down there. Had an incompletion on first down, and then Bryce (Young) made a great throw to Adam (Thielen) in the back of the end zone. So just two drives really. Bryce was super sharp. The offense was good. We were protecting well, running the ball well, mixing it, feeling like we should feel, and then we -- I think it was the next drive or maybe a couple drives later then we crossed midfield, we go with the fake punt. Obviously just missed that. So we just missed an opportunity there. And then on offense, too, we got down in there one time, had a fourth down and we threw into the end zone. So we missed some points there. Missed a field goal. So we had a few opportunities to score more points on offense that we didn't convert."

If anything changed with play-calling

"I have to go back and analyze it, but we went in thinking it was going to be a mix of huddle and no-huddle. Honestly, was thinking we were going to come out primarily in no-huddle. Then what happened was we had success early. We were running the ball and I called a couple huddle plays that were successful, so I thought, ‘Well, we'll just eat up clock and move the ball down the field.’ Then that stalled out. So I felt like that was a part of the plan. Our plan was to go some no-huddle, some huddle. I thought we did that at times, moved the ball effectively, especially early on, but didn't feel like it was much different."

Getting the run game going

"I mean, that's what we want to do. We're a little bit of spread them out, run the ball. I think at the end of the third quarter, I asked the guys how many runs do we have right now. At the end of the third quarter, we had 23 runs and we're behind by two scores. So that feels to me like a pretty good mix of run and pass at 23 runs, because if you're playing good football and it's a close game or you're winning, you're going to get a bunch of runs in the fourth quarter. There are positives things to build on. Obviously, you lose by three touchdowns, so nothing feels good about it. Nothing. But we’ll look at the tape, and I know there are good things on the tape. So we'll get better from the good and the bad."

Giving up 35 unanswered points

"We know their offense, when they get hot, they're hard to stop. They have some big-time playmakers. Tyreek (Hill) just is -- man, he hits that thing running. It looks different and feels different. He goes in that motion and hitting it full speed. You watch that on film, but when you feel it on the field, he's a difference-maker. Obviously, he had a huge day. I mean, averaged over 20 yards a catch. So credit to him and their offense.

Self-scouting during the bye week

"Yeah, we'll really dive hard into the self-scout. I think it's a good -- you know, sometimes you like the bye to be a little bit later. But after six games, it's a good sample size to feel some things from a self-scout standpoint. We as coaches will work hard on that. We have a process that we'll go through that's kind of a systematic process of how we look at ourselves in all three phases before we take the weekend for the bye. The players will come back – I'm going to have the players come in this week for a couple days. Monday, tomorrow, to watch the film, and then Tuesday and Wednesday just to have something on Tuesday and Wednesday for us to learn and get better from tape and looking at some of the self-scout and looking for ways that we can continue to build on the positive. What we're talking about is we're doing it the right way with the right people, and we just got to keep fighting and believing. So that's what we're going to do."

Message to the team

"We've got 11 games left – anything can happen. But anything can happen means just come back and get better. That's what I think we all know in our room. I think that's what we all believe. If you commit to getting better and you commit to hanging together, then we can do some damage. We can win football games; we can win a lot of football games. So that's what we'll do."

Bryce Young improving

"Yeah, I think he's getting better every week. I thought he was seeing the field very well today, particularly in the first half – well, really the whole game he saw the field well. I really like the direction that he's going. The offense overall has to be better, but here are some positive things there. Our defense, when you look over six games, our defense has done a lot of good things. When you look at over six games, special teams obviously has been rock solid pretty much most days. So we’ve got to build off that, correct the bad, and build off the good."

What the officials said on the fake punt measurement

"It was close. It was close. Laviska (Shenault Jr.) made a nice effort. We knew going in all week just talking to Coach Tabor, he does a great job. The guys did a great job. As a head coach, that's the first fake punt I've called. They made me a believer during the week that this could work, and it actually -- we just missed it by a few inches. We missed it by a few inches. We said we would go anywhere to all the way up to fourth-and-10, because we thought it would be a big play. Obviously, we got to be a little bit more productive -- would've been better to run that on fourth-and-6 rather than fourth-and-10, but it was executed well, just came up a few inches short."

Calling the fake punt

"They did a good job of reacting. If I'm remembering, I have to look at the film, when Laviska (Shenault Jr.) went to make the catch, he kind of had to stumble to make the catch. Maybe if he catches it clean, he hits it running. When I say thinking it's a big hitter, I'm really just thinking plus ten yards -- it's going to be a first down. Any first down is going to be good. We kind of went in saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got feel like it's going to make ten yards.’ We said ten was the longest. Plus when you're -- everything played out right except we just missed it by a few inches. It was the perfect spot to call it at. Good time in the game. They're an explosive offense. You can punt them down there and they're going to get it at to 20-yard line or whatever, and in two plays could be right back at the 50. So I felt good about the decision, the execution, just came up a couple inches short.

Laviska Shenault's injury

"Don't know yet. It is ankle so you know how those go. We got to wait probably 48 hours to really determine how severe and what the timetable is."

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