Another Sunday, another somber postgame news conference for the Washington Redskins. After a futile 24-0 loss to the St. Louis Rams, Redskins Coach Jay Gruden was out of answers.

On the effort as a whole:

“We didn’t make any plays really offensively. Defensively we tried to hang around there, but gave up a lead late — 17-0 — and it turned us into a one-dimensional football team. And we’re not very good when that happens. But I think for the most part the guys are trying. We just got outcoached and outplayed today.

On Colt McCoy’s ineffectiveness:

“You know what, it’s no fun when you start a game and there’s five minutes to go in the game, you’re playing against the Rams, you’re losing 24-0, I don’t think it’s right to throw another quarterback in there and throw him into the wolves. I think Colt wanted to finish the drive and try to get something going positively, get a touchdown there at the end of the game, and then he got hurt. We’ll see where it stands next week.”

On the third quarter:

“Third quarter, you know it was 6-0 at the half, then we give up the eight-minute drive, they pick up a field goal. We go three-and-out and punted, and they scored again to make it 17-0 and we’re trying to get some drives together and nothing really happened, unfortunately. We’ll relive the situation, look at the tape and see what went wrong.”

On how bad this loss is:

“You go on to next week, it’s all we can do. We continue to coach our players off this tape, find out something we can do offensively because today was not very good. We tried to get the running game going and lost yardage, and once again, in the first half we stayed into a lot of third and longs and couldn’t finish anything. We just have to take a look at ourselves and try to get better. We have three division games left, and we have to try to finish out strong with our three division games.”

On the quarterback situation:

“We have to look at Colt and see how his neck is doing then look at the tape and see what happened as far as the production is concerned. One of the reasons we took out Robert in the first place was lack of production on offense. We brought Colt in here and he did some good things last week, and same thing. No production, so to speak. But I have to look at the film and try to make a judgment on the quarterback situation. We’re all looking for answers, to try to find out who can lead us to victories and who can get this offense on a roll, and that is obviously still to be determined.”

On whether he’s coaching for his job:

“We took over this football team and did the best we could in the offseason, tried to get some holes filled, and working hard to try to get some wins here, but it hasn’t worked out very well. Obviously we’re 3-10 and as a coach you’re judged on wins and losses and you know that going in. You know that whenever you sign a contract; you’re judged on wins and losses. And all you can do is do what you believe in and try to motivate the guys and try to find out ways to get victories in the NFL, and if you don’t, you’re always subject to owners making a change. That’s their right. They have that right. But I’m just going to keep coaching the way I know how and not worry about it and do the best I can.”



Jay Gruden walks off the field after the game. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)

On hitting another rock bottom:

“We got to challenge our guys to compete. Last year was very similar: if you watch the tape, as the season went on, things got worse and worse. You go into the offseason, you have a lot of questions. I feel like we’re, obviously we are going down instead of raising our level of play, and that’s not good. We have to find a way to stop the downfall and rise somehow these last three games. Try to get something positive going into next year. That’s all we can do as far as the coaching staff is concerned.”

On all the drama around the team, in particular London Fletcher’s rant on CBS:

“I just got wind of that today. That’s unfortunate. I know Coach Haslett had a lot of respect for London Fletcher as we all do as a football player and as a person. That’s unfortunate that came out like that. But everyone is entitled to their opinion, and when you lose, you open yourself up to all kinds of scrutiny. Twitter, newspaper, whatever it is, and you get what you deserve in football. When you lose, you deserve some of this. We put a lot of work into this game, a lot of effort, but it doesn’t show on game day sometimes, but you can never get too low in this game, I’ve learned, and you can never get too high. We have to stay the course, do what we believe in, coach the way we want to coach, and try to get these players better the last three weeks. That’s all we can do.”

On the offensive line and blocking:

“Well, it’s a team game. It’s not just the offensive line. I know our tight ends gave up a couple more and our backs gave up a couple more and sometimes in the running game it’s point of attack with different people. The backside guy and somebody else. The thing that kills you on offense is the negative plays. It’s one thing to gain a yard or two, but we’re losing four or we’re losing five or we’re losing seven and putting us in dang near impossible down and distances for any quarterback. I don’t care who it is here.”

“So we have to find out a way to eliminate those negative plays, and then the third down and longs, the stunts it’s tough on any lineman, but there’s no question from an offensive standpoint, there’s not a lot positive we can pull out of this performance. The line didn’t do great, obviously our quarterbacks struggled, receivers had a couple drops, we missed a couple protections with our backs. So it’s back to the drawing board. We have to figure out something we do well, very well, and right now that’s a struggle. Tried to get the running game going, couldn’t do it. Tried to get the passing game going, balls were batted. Obviously we get in third and long, try to get something going down the field, and didn’t protect. So it was tough calling plays out there today.”

On whether or not there was a thought of going back to Robert Griffin III:

“Like I said, the issue in the first half was just the negative plays and so many third and longs, I didn’t think anything would really help there. The second half came, and then the floodgates opened. I don’t want to be, as a coach, you don’t want to be wishy washy. Every time a guy has a bad series, take him out and throw another guy in there. Then every time he has a bad series, take him out and throw him in there. You want to see guys finish what they started. And see if they can turn it around from a standpoint of playing a position and trying to get some positive things going into next week. Obviously that didn’t happen, Colt hurt his neck, so we’re back to the drawing board.”

On how tough it will be to motivate the team:

“They’re pro football players. Any time you have a chance to play against the New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Philadelphia Eagles, you should be able to be motivated as a pro football player. It’s exciting, it’s a privilege to play this game. So if I have to motivate a pro football player to play football, we need to get new pro football players. So this is a great chance for us the last three games to get this thing turned around, get this terrible taste out of our mouths, and move forward. And that’s the only spin I can put on this, and not dwell on the negative things going around the Twitters and that stuff. We’re going to focus on the New York Giants and try to be positive and try to get these guys going and coach them the way we know how.”

On how tough it is to change the culture of the Redskins:

“That’s a great question, and that’s something we’re working towards every day. We’re trying to establish a sense of pride and a work ethic amongst our players that can change the culture. Obviously, it’s not going to change overnight and it’s not going to change tomorrow. It’s going to be a process. Good drafts, good free agents, getting the players in here — the young players — taught well on how to study, how to learn, how to prepare, how to play, how to finish games. That’s a process, and that’s something we’re going through right now. Be consistent with our approach, be demanding, and try to get this thing flipped around.”

On whether or not he still believes he can turn this team around:

“Obviously before the season started we had high hopes. We had some things happen to us, and now we are where we are. But I’m never going to lose confidence in what I’m doing and what we’re doing as a team and as a staff to try to get this thing back on track. You have to stick with the plan, be consistent in your approach like I said. But things happen in pro football, there’s going to be some rocky times. How we handle the rocky times is how we’re going to be able to get out faster. So you’ll see how these guys handle it today and tomorrow and the next day to find out the guys who want to be here, love football, want to play football. That’s part of it. We want to find the guys who want to play and want to prepare — not just when it’s 13-0, but when you’re 3-10. You find out a lot about people that you work with when things like this happen. So the big thing moving forward is to continue to add people that love to play, love the game, and are good players and good people.”

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