What Chris Tabor said after Carolina Panthers historic loss to Jacksonville Jaguars
The Carolina Panthers got clobbered by the reeling and injured Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday — and made a whole bunch of forgettable history in the process.
Here’s a recap of what interim head coach Chris Tabor said in his postgame presser after his team’s 26-0 loss to the Trevor Lawrence-less Jaguars.
One note that didn’t make the transcript below: Tabor confirmed that outside linebacker Marquis Haynes is undergoing evaluations for a concussion at a hospital in Jacksonville after getting carted off the field in the second half of Sunday’s contest.
On kicker Eddy Pineiro’s injury in pregame warm-ups
“We were in pregame warm-ups. And we went through our normal deal. And at the end of the warm-up, he felt a little grab in the back of his leg. We tried to get some more work done on it. And then in pregame, we had the plan that he’d be able to go inside of 40 (yards), maybe in 30, extra points type deal and keep with Kamu (Grugier-Hill) kicking off there. So it never got any better. So obviously when there’s only one kicker on your 48, that’s a tough deal.”
On deciding to go for it on fourth-and-7 instead of kicking 38-yard field goal on first drive
“There was thought. It was a tough spot. It’s kind of one of those, ‘Which way are you gonna go with it?’ We were moving the football well, so I was just going to try to ride that out.”
Any questioning of effort?
“I’m disappointed, obviously. And that’s a pretty generic answer. I did not see it coming. I will tip my hat to the Jaguars. But the way we were trending, I did not see this performance coming down. It kind of goes back to the first drive deal, whether you want to kick a possible field goal there with a backup, or with your offense with the way we were moving the ball. And I’m kind of thinking about how we finished the Green Bay game and all those things, I just had a lot of confidence in those guys doing that. So we never got on track. We talked a lot about starting fast this week. And did not do that.
“So we got one more opportunity. I talked to the guys a lot. ... You talk about the shut out and those types of things, I get that. But how are you going to deal with it? There are only two choices. It’s either character or compromise. And those are questions for everybody. We’re going to go back to work. They’re not going to cancel the last game. And plan on going through the process again, and expect those guys, our players, to go through the process. I have confidence that they will do that. We got one more chance to right the wrong, so to speak.”
On CB Jaycee Horn’s activation after sustaining toe injury
“He did some stuff early on. He tested it. And then as we got closer to game time, we felt like it wasn’t going. So we made a move there with Shaq (Griffin), and Jaycee was obviously available if he needed to be.”
Why wasn’t CJ Henderson made available?
“Because we had already made the inactives. This is after the inactives.”
What has gone into Henderson’s healthy scratches as of late?
“We elected to not put him up today.”
On Bryce Young’s apparent injury early
“They said he was cleared to play. And we put him right back there. ... He took a little shot to the back. That’s my understanding.”
More on Bryce Young, the offense’s play
“I think what happened was, if you look statistically, it’s definitely not where you want to be. I would say that we never got in a rhythm for him. And that’s not good. I mean, what did we have, 124 yards of total offense? That’s going to be tough to win games when you do that.”
On Bears clinching the No. 1 pick with the Panthers’ loss
“I’m not concerned about the Bears’ first pick. I’m really not. I’m focused in on what happened today and why did it go wrong. Now what I’m going to do is I have another opportunity to come back — everybody, the storylines that you want to write, I get all that. But I’m going to stay true to myself on the process, another opportunity, and whatever is written is written. But I know that if I shortchange myself next week, then I’ve compromised.
“What I have to do as a coach in leading this team at this moment is make sure that we’re pros, be a pro, do things right, and be on time and do those things and go through the process to give ourselves a chance. No question, did not play well today. I won’t hide from that. I won’t run from that. But what I will run to is let’s go next week and let’s play. I still have confidence in those guys. As I’ve always said, coaching is about relationships. I am not going to shortchange those guys, and I think they’ll do the same. I’m excited for the opportunity next week.”
On the ups and downs of this season
“Well, I think didn’t play well today. I think I can say in those other games that we have. So I’m disappointed. I’m going to look at myself first, and what do we need to do in order to fix that for this last opportunity. I have to be the same guy. I don’t think a player wants to play for a guy that’s high one week and low the next week. He wants consistency. That’s what I want because I think if you can get consistency, then obviously it’ll breed itself later on.
“We’ll stay the course. We lost today bad. Got it. I’m OK with that. Not OK with that; let me take that back. We’re going to move on and come out swinging next week. There’s going to be zero quit in this deal. We are going to keep fighting. We are going to keep going. That’s all we can do because those are our two choices, either character or compromise. I don’t think none of you would want to compromise your job and shortchange yourself and say, oh, we’ll just wait until next year. We’re going to step up, dust off our tail a little bit, and go back to work.”
