O'Brien, Fitzpatrick, and Brown Monday Presser Recap 10/6/2014

Duane Brown on how Bill O’Brien handled such a heartbreaking loss…

"He was pretty upset, as were the rest of us. The disappointing thing, and I think this comes with both of our losses now, is that we’ve had so many self-inflicted things that have happened to us throughout the game. Just penalties, mental errors, things like that that you really can’t afford when you’re going against good teams. Not to take anything away from Dallas, they played a good game, but we don’t want to hurt ourselves and that’s something that we did a few times throughout the game yesterday and I think that was probably what frustrates him the most and that’s something that we’re going to have to adjust and fix going into this week."

Ryan Fitzpatrick on having to improve his play…

"It’s one of those things where in order for us to get better as a team, in order for this offense to get better, I’ve got to play better. I met with Coach O’Brien this morning and went over some stuff and just talked through some things…just constantly evaluating myself as a player, evaluating what I’m doing, plays that we’re getting in and all that kind of stuff with the tools that we have on offense. So a lot of it is not necessarily the physical part of it it’s the mental part of it, it’s the confidence, it’s the swagger…whatever it is I’ve just got to continue to – especially early in the game – play better and play with more confidence. Maybe some of that is up-tempo, but some of that for me is maybe just finding a better way to get going early."

Bill O’Brien on the fan support in Dallas…

"I just want to start off with a message to our fans. Yesterday was an unbelievable turnout with Houston fans in Dallas, and as we all wish that the outcome was better, we just can’t thank the fans enough for that turnout. For Dallas to have to go to a silent count because of the Houston fans just says a lot about this city. We’re going to continue to work extremely hard to put a winning football team on the field but we really appreciate our fans, and we really need our fans on a Thursday night here at home against Indy. Our first division game for this staff, for this team, and we’re just looking forward to the game."

O’Brien on the quick turnaround to Thursday night…

"Everybody has to go through it, so it’s not like we’re the only team that has to go do it. Obviously Indy’s coming off of a physical football game against Baltimore. We just have to do a good job of making use of our time in the right way, meaning extra meeting time, extra walk through, extra film study but also finding that fine line of making sure we get our players enough rest and so we’ve got to do that. We have a good schedule this week for our players we feel and we’ll meet here at two o’clock with our team and get going on Indianapolis right away."

More on getting players ready for TNF…

"I think again you have to do a good job of making sure that they get the proper amount of rest. You can’t really have a very physical week as far as the practice field is concerned. It’s much more of a mental type of, you know, trying to get ready for the game. It’s mental. It’s walk throughs, it’s film, it’s making sure that all your bases are covered in the meeting room and on the walk through field and hopefully your team is as fresh as it can be on Thursday night."

O’Brien on trying to improve the sense of urgency in the offense…

"This is something that we’re working extremely hard on. We’re thinking of different ways to improve the tempo of our offense whether it’s shortening the play call or getting the play call in faster or the players getting to the line of scrimmage faster and going right to the ball. Maybe huddling and getting to the ball faster from the huddle. We’re definitely thinking of ways, both coaches and players, we’re working extremely hard with players to pick up the tempo of our offense and hopefully in this short week we’ll be able to continue to improve on that."

"I think one of the things that I look at in this league is that this is a league to me that is an improvement league, a progress league. Like what teams can improve the most between now and the end of the season. What teams can make the most progress between now and the end of the season. To me that’s the key here. We’re not even a third of the way through the season and we have a long way to go. Let’s make sure our next game is our best game. Let’s try to improve every single day and every single game and I think if we take that and we continue to have that type of theme, hopefully you’ll see our team get better and better every game."

O’Brien on Ryan Fitzpatrick leading the offense…

"I think it has a lot to do with a lot of different areas. When we’ve done well, everybody has been on the same page. Eleven guys out on the field, the coaching staff, we’ve communicated well with each other. I think our communication is really good in the meeting room, I think it’s good on the practice field, I think it’s good in walk through. I think where it’s been too inconsistent is on the most important part and that’s on the game field. So basically Fitzy and I just went through the game film today and we talked about things that he can do better and things that we have to do better around him as coaches and players. That’s the thing about this sport is that obviously in the National Football League the quarterback position, the head coach position, we understand what comes with those positions but the thing that’s important for everybody to understand is that it’s eleven guys being on the same page on every play and we’re working very hard to get that done. It has to be more consistent for us to be successful but we believe it can be."