UFL Michigan Panthers Post Championship Game Press Conference via Alan Alford Sports Talk Show!!!

Sorry about the lost fellas, but this is Allen from the Allen Alfred Puck show. I just wanted to ask, you know, coach and also Bryce, it seemed like there was definitely a a hesitation, I would say, to run the ball. Was there anything hampering you as far as ankle injury and any sort? Um um I mean it it felt it felt okay. I mean when I had to run the ball I run the ball. Um I think you know going into the game you always want to be smart. Pick your pick your uh your ops. But um I mean kind of same thing as last week too. I mean nothing I mean run the ball you know when you have to. Um, you know, just just being smart about it. You know, I obviously, you know, it hurts a little bit, but um, you know, I think when I when I we had to get out there and run it, you know, I felt like it did it job and it it held up pretty good. We're going to go to second route. Mike, obviously disappointing. Um, but uh, can I stop you for one second? Can I stop you here one second? First, I'd just like to congratulate All right. I'd like to congratulate Shannon Harris, coach of the year, uh, and, uh, the DC Defenders, uh, on their victory. All right, they deserve that. They obviously won this football game. Um, hands down. So, I think that needs to be said first because they did an outstanding job. So, no question. Like, u, they, uh, they they took advantage of some long long bombs all night. Uh, you know, I don't want to say when why did that happen, but no, that's the question. Look, it uh we we broke some fundamental coverages. Uh, we just, you know, we didn't we didn't play very good assignment football. I mean, it was pretty, you know, if you have a half of the field, you need to be deep and not get let it get behind you. And we did the we did it several we did it several times today. We let them get behind us uh when we had deep zones as responsibilities. And that's why that happened. We've had that problem for the last few weeks. As a matter of fact, last week we got it nipped and bud a little bit against uh Birmingham the second half, but uh the weeks prior to that we were doing the same thing. We were giving up a lot of explosive passes. And that's something that we need to rectify in the offseason. We come back next year and do a much better job because it hasn't been that way the last three years, but this year it uh like I said, second half of the season, we didn't do a very good job. So that needs to be fixed. But basically that we weren't playing a lot of different things, but what we were playing, we weren't executing very well. Second row on the right. James Larson, Pro Football Newsroom. Coach, obviously a disappointing loss. And as a defensive coach to give up 580 yards, 190 of those rushing, 390 passing, six to seven on in the red zone. I know you already talked about coverage breakdowns. You talk a little bit about just the defensive breakdowns in general today. You know, like I said, it's there was there's we played some very fundamental things. We just we did not play well. I mean, I can make more out of it than it is. Um but uh when you play as poorly as we did, it it is what you saw. I mean there's there's far too many as a matter of fact to really kind of narrow down and say this was there wasn't that's the unfortunate thing there was more than just a couple second first row Mike Po from the Bottom line podcast uh coach with the um more into the secondary. So, with the uh halftime adjustments, if any, like what how do you go into halftime with uh the big half that DC was able to put up uh passing and uh throwing yards? Um what adjustments or what do you tell the guys in the locker room at that point? How to get back on track and maybe get some stops, help the offense second half? Well, you always have to identify what what you're doing wrong. Is it the player? Is it the scheme? Is it what is it? and uh we made a couple adjustments both in the scheme and with players. Um and uh it didn't seem to bode very well the second half either. So um but like I said that's that's you know it's important that you identify what it is that's causing the errors and we were more so not playing very well than it was kind of the calls because I I thought he was mixing the calls well but we couldn't find our way out of it. So it uh it goes I mean it's a it's a it's you know the defense all of us will take uh you know blame for what happened. It it just wasn't right. left side second rout [Music] turnovers are always tough but championship games are often big that fumble that when it was 153 did that did you notice it sagging for your team morale wise after that we you know if I thought we had picked up our game on the defensive side of the ball then the the turnovers like they were trying to I'm trying to make a play um I know the one interception was just trying to make a play and and and but again at the situation it was if I'm a player and I'm seeing how it's kind of going, I'm trying to make a play, too, because we didn't seem to slow the opponent down. And uh I think that's a natural personally that's a natural thing and that wasn't that didn't change the game in any way. First round with center. Hi, Eric Hall, Detroit. Um how do you feel about the way the offense played? Uh nice first quarter, not as much offense the middle couple quarters, but then came back and got those a couple fourth and 12. If we had played some defense, I think we'd have been in this football game because of the offense. The offense I think there's I I can't criticize the offense at all. I really can't. There was uh um they kept us in the ball game. Even at the end of the game, we were, you know, coming back. But again, if we had just uh made a couple more stops on defense or a couple of stops because I don't think I don't think they punted the entire day. Um if they did, it was but they didn't. I don't believe. Anyhow, um I have no I thought the offense was they gave us a chance to win. We're going to take a call from Zoom. Question from Zoom. Thank you very much. Thank you, coach. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I don't have a question. Just say thank you for all this season. Gracias. Really. Thank you very much, coach. Keep it. Thank you, Oscar. I appreciate that. Look at the football team did. We did uh accomplish a lot of things this year. It's a lot to be proud of. Very disappointing the loss and the way we lost uh made it even more sour, but we accomplished a lot this year. And uh so there's a lot of things to be proud of. It'll you know as we go forward and settle down on those things I think we'll be able to recognize them more so. But right now obviously the hurt is with the game we just played and the game we lost um and lost it pretty handily. We're going to take two more questions. One from Zoom and then one from the room. Michael Mueller BCTV Plus. Uh coach, I just wondering if you could talk a little bit about a team trying to make a late rally despite the large deficit and can you speak a little bit to their mindset and mental toughness to not count themselves out there at the end? I didn't catch the second half of the question, but the first half the first was just I'll talk about the first half the uh what he was talking about as far as making a a run at the end of the game. Um it gets back to what you were saying about the offense. I thought the offense, you know, gave us a chance in the football game to to be in the game or even to win the game. And at the very end, uh I think we converted two, if not three, I know two for sure on the fourth and 12s. Uh the offense did a great job of executing those situations. They got those. Uh I was a little bit disappointed our our extra point conversions. We weren't as good as we typically are. I think we're best in the league throughout the season and today we we weren't able to get a couple of them, but that wasn't the reason for the loss because there was more points on that board. you know, we were short many more points than what a extra, you know, what a conversion would give you. But, um, anyhow, at the end of the game, I actually, look, it was slow making it happen, but it was it was happening. Uh, but again, if we had just kept them out of the end zone defensively, I think it would have been more realistic for us offensively, but um, you know, we were we were executing what you try to do when you're behind by that, and that is score. Go for multiple extra points. That wasn't working. But then we came back, I got the fourth and 12, got the ball again, scored again. You know, that's that's uh that was good for us. I thought the offense did a good job of that. But but we allowed them to score uh you know, as well and it so it just kind of set us back each time. Final question on the right side, second round. Noah, obviously a bitter ending to what was a really successful season for you and this offense. Any final thoughts on just, you know, what the season meant to you and this offense? uh running the football, throwing the football, and just being a part of this group. Um yeah, I think not just offensively, I think the whole team, there's a a lot to be proud of for this season. Like, uh football is very much a resultbased business. So, it hurts to to lose the way we did today, but it doesn't change what we did as a team every single day at work, showing up, working hard in practice, getting here, getting past Birmingham, which was huge for us. It's a lot to be proud of and a lot to be thankful for. I'm I'm just I'm I'm so uh lucky that I've gotten to play my whole professional football career with the Michigan Panthers. great coaches, great teammates. Um it it it hurts not to finish as champions, but um there's a lot to be proud of and I'm proud of the season we had. Yeah. Thanks, Chad. Oh, good. That's good. Thank you. Doubles.