Head coach Ron Rivera and four players spoke to the media after the Washington Football Team's 56-14 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Here's what was said during their press conferences.
Ron Rivera
On what happened:
"We got beat. They played better than we did and we didn't take advantage of our opportunities when we had them."
On what the message was to the team afterward:
Well, more so than anything else, we've got to games left to play and we're going to play them to win. That's just the way it is. I told them, I said, 'If you play this game long enough, you're going to get beat like this. It happens. How you respond to it, how you bounce back, how you play, that tells more about who you are than anything else."
On the defense taking pride in sticking together for weeks and then to have this happen on a national stage:
"That's the disappointing part. That's the frustration of it all. They feel they're better than that. They feel they should have performed better that. But still, it's one of those things where you don't have all the pieces."
On getting the team mentally back on track for the last two games with everything going on off-the-field, especially this past week:
"Well, we've got two left to play. Who knows what happens but we'll show up, we'll prepare, we'll get ready, and I told them, I said, 'Guys, that's all we can do. We're going to play hard and that's what we're going to do. We're going to show up. We're going to practice. We're going to work. We're going to get ready and we'll show up on Sunday.'"
Taylor Heinicke
On what wasn't clicking tonight:
"I think it is just the same story it was two weeks ago. They kicked our ass in all three phases of the game. I know I've been up here and said before, we'll see what happened on the film -- we will. We are pissed off right now and rightfully so. We'll get back to practice on Wednesday and get after it."
On why things got so out of hand early:
"The first play of the game, it was unfortunate. You want to take a shot and the ball was just too flat; it needed to be a little higher. If it was further, I think [Terry McLaurin] would have had a better shot at it. That second pick was just unfortunate. […] had his hand up and it went through his hands. When we get down 21 points right off the bat, it is hard to come back from that. Against a team like that, you don't want to get down because then you have to start throwing the ball a lot and that's what they want you to do. They want their D-linemen to pin their ears back and get after them. So again, we dug ourselves a hole really early."
On how they regroup mentally:
"You have to have a short memory. You can't let this linger into next week. Next week is a new game. You can't change what just happened. So, yeah, short memory and then get out and play next week."
Jonathan Allen
On the team dealing with a lot of issues off the field:
"It does affect us. But as professionals, it's our job to go out there and play good football. Which, for the last two weeks, it has been probably some of the worst football I've ever been a part of, including myself. We have no one to blame but ourselves. We just gotta to what we gotta do, starting in practice."
On the team performing as it did in front of a Sunday night football audience:
"It's unfortunate for sure. We are better than that. But as a man, I'm going to take full responsibility for my actions, and I plan on doing the same."
John Bates
On how the last week has been for the team with everything that has occurred off the field:
"It has been a lot, but something I think every team is dealing with right now. We can't think too much about that; we just have to focus on the game and focus with what we've got."
On whether that is hard:
"It's our job to show up every single day and to do our job to the best of our ability. So, we just have to keep that focus at the end."
On the team's effort in the second half:
"We wanted to go out there in finish. That was our goal, regardless of what the score was at the time. We want to go out there and finish the best possible way."
