Fox says "Our team blows rope!"

Foxhole: Our team blows rope
November 12, 2007
Panthers.com
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Comments from Carolina Panthers head coach John Fox's weekly press conference following Sunday's 20-13 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

On injuries: Deke Cooper: shoulder. Damione Lewis: shoulder. DeShaun Foster: toe.

On the health of quarterback Vinny Testaverde: He's not on the injury report, so to my knowledge fine.

On if he expects quarterback David Carr to practice this week: Yeah, I think last week was precautionary. He'd had blows to the head twice in the last 27 days, and our medical people are going to err on the side of caution.

On if he knew about Carr's first concussion at New Orleans: We knew about it. The reason he was held out of (the Arizona game) was his back. He didn't practice or play. But it was a combination of both of those on that hit in New Orleans.

On who is the starting quarterback if both Testaverde and Carr are healthy: We'll let you know about those views as the week goes by.

On rumors about defensive end Julius Peppers not playing well because he was ill during training camp: That's probably why they call it rumors. He does not have an illness. He just hasn't made as many sacks as he has in the past. We'll continue to work in that area. He's doing everything in his power. He works hard. He prepares hard. We've just got to get better.

On Peppers' play this season: Any time you sit here as the head coach and you're 4-5, you're not happy. I'm not displeased with effort. I'm not displeased with the attitude of the team, relating to him also. We've just got to get better.

On Peppers not being the disruptive force that he has been in years past: It just hasn't happened as much this year. We struggled a little bit early on defensively. I think in the past month we've played better. We're more in the top third in the League now than the bottom third. Julius hasn't had as many opportunities. He still makes tackles. If you're looking statistically, he hasn't made an interception and ran it 80 yards, the types of things he's done in the past. Sometimes that's how it works.

On giving the fans hope for the rest of the season: First of all, I think it starts with our team. I do obviously care about the fans, and I think our team has hope. I think that was evident yesterday. We had an opportunity to win the game. I'm disappointed in our homestand thus far this year and even the last two games a year ago. I'd remind our fans that we're 1-6 in those games and in only one of those did our starting quarterback play. That's not an excuse. It's reality. We deal in reality. Of those games and your starting quarterback is only in one of them, sometimes that's not ideal. That's the cards we have, and we'll continue to push. I was impressed with the way our team fought yesterday. They played very hard and gave us a chance to win. I think everybody's disappointed in the way it turned out. Not just us, but the fans. We'll just continue plugging until we can find a way to win one.

On keeping the players focused with the starting quarterback out until next year: We've done it twice since we've had quarterback issues. We beat an Arizona team, they've actually won in the League this year, along with New Orleans. We've proven that we're capable. We don't have much margin for error. We've been 1-7 during my tenure here and were able to regroup. We'll attempt to do the same this year with not nearly as poor a record.

On how kick returner Ryne Robinson did against Atlanta: There were areas of our special teams that performed well, two areas in particular we've not performed well thus far this year, and that's punt return and kickoff return. The downside is we had been lights out punting the ball, and we weren't yesterday.

On the Panthers failure to convert several third-and-short opportunities running the ball: We didn't execute as well as we needed to. We had a crack sweep designed to go outside and we didn't crack. There were some manageable third downs in that game that we didn't execute as cleanly as we needed to. They were very aggressive in their approach on third down, in particularly those short and mediums, and we weren't able to execute as precisely as we needed to.

On the play of rookie wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett: He's a young player that's developing, much like Ryne Robinson has as a returner. I see him continuing to improve and I thought he did alright. I think we need to get a lot better in every phase offensively. There weren't a ton of bright spots.

On if he will consider doing something differently on offense to create more scoring opportunities: No. We've lost five games and we've scored seven or fewer points (offensively) in four of those five losses. Four of those five losses have been with different quarterbacks. We're doing anything we can to create offense and we'll continue doing that.

On if going for it on fourth-and-one was a tough decision since he is a conservative coach: I would say almost through six seasons you can probably count them on one hand. It was very short. They played something that opened up the situation that we did and we took a shot. It didn't work out. I don't know if (that's) conservative, you said that. I don't believe that, but everybody is entitled to their opinion.

On how he would label himself if he is not conservative: I don't know. We've won some games around here. I think it's been effective. I'm not ashamed of the games we've won here or our record here.

 

Then don't bring it up. It sounds like he is making an excuse to me.

 

*sniff* *sniff*

Anyone else smell that? Smells like bullshit to me.

 

I have always believed John Fox was (and still is) a very good coach and I honestly hate criticizing him because I have always believed he was very good for this organization and city as a whole,,,,,,, but there is no question he is 2 things: 1) very conservative, and 2) stubborn.