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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

For Gibbs, 'A Real Tough Day'

On the 17-16 loss to Buffalo:

"It was a real tough day for us. It was a long, hard week. I do think our guys came to play. They burned up a lot of stuff during the week. It is one of those things where it came down to the last play. To be quite truthful, I made a decision there at the end and it is very likely it cost us the game. That's on me. I told the team that, I want to tell everybody out there that. It was a long, hard week for us. I appreciate our players. They went through a lot this week. I felt like they handled it as good as anybody can handle it. None of us had ever gone through that before. I was hoping we would find a way today to get ourselves a victory. It is one of those things that was hard fought. Everything at the end just didn't turn out for us. I'm the guy that, in all likelihood, made a decision there that very easily cost us the game. I think I need to say that. It was a tough, long, hard week for us."

On the back-to-back timeout rule:

"I asked the official on the sideline. I asked him, can I call the second timeout. It was something I shouldn't have done. I should have known and that is on me. There is nobody but me to blame on that. On the sideline there I felt like he said yes. That was me though. I'm not laying it on him. Then he said, 'When do you want to call it' and I said, 'Right now,' because they were getting ready to approach the ball. It was my decision. I told the team that it was a huge decision on my part that very likely could have cost us the game. The decision that I heard and what I felt like was it was it was okay for me to call it, but you can't put that on somebody else. I should know it. I should know the rule. I can't blame that on somebody else. I have to blame it on myself. It was heated down there. Things were going back and forth. He was standing there talking to me, I was talking to him. I called him over and that is what was said."

On if the referee explained the call to him:

"He did not have the time to say it. It was quick; the guy was starting for the ball. There is nobody to blame but myself. It's not somebody else. It's not their fault, it's my fault. I should have known the rule and I shouldn't have called that. In all likelihood that could cost us the ball game. I did ask, but I shouldn't be asking. I should know. I tried to go back. I tried to explain it to him. The other people on the sidelines there too were saying it but the bottom line is, I can't blame it on somebody else, that's me. Plain and simple."

On if he knew it would be an unsportsmanlike penalty call:

"I did not. First of all, you can't call back-to-back timeouts. That is something I should have known. I did know it. It was just one of those things in the heat of the moment that certainly wasn't registered and thought about."

On if his philosophy of not icing kickers has changed:

"I did and I have this year. I have done it before. I think I did it before halftime at some place. I wanted to do it here. I felt like it was a good idea."

On scoring only field goals in the first half:

"We had a long ways to go. We had to drive the ball a long ways. We had very bad field position on a number of those drives. We finally got a turnover there in the second half. I think we drove the ball a long ways. It's tough to go a long ways against a good team. We had a bunch of first downs in the first half but we didn't have a lot of points and they came back to haunt us."

On what the locker room was like before the game:

"To be truthful, I think everybody was kind of drained. I felt like everybody really wanted to play hard, but there was a lot of emotion from the whole week. All of us went through a lot. I felt like it was hard to get the emotion up to play. Now, I think our guys went and played as hard as they could. Parts of our football team at times made great plays and kept us in the ball game. I thought we were going to have a chance to win at the end and they made a couple plays there at the end and got the ball down in field goal range.'

On the decision to only start ten players on defense:

"Gregg (Williams, Assistant Head Coach- Defense), they mentioned something to me just as I started over here, but I think Gregg said something about telling me about that. It's probably better for me and him to talk about it before I really comment on it."

On if he knew the defense was going to start 10 players:

"No."

On if he was okay with the defense starting 10 players:

"Yes."

On what the team is going to have to go through the next four days:

"Tomorrow will be a tough, long, hard day for all of us. I have been proud of our guys for the way they have handled everything up until now. This will be, again, a very emotional week for us. I am just praying that we will have a day where we can really celebrate Sean's (Taylor) life tomorrow. I am hoping that we can celebrate a young guy's life that meant a lot to us. This has been a lot for us to go through all week, but hopefully tomorrow will be a time where we can get focused on him."

On how hard it is going to be to prepare for the Bears:

"It will be a real challenge for us to see if we can bounce back and play a game against a real good football team with a short work week."

On if he can imagine a worse week personally and professionally:

"No, I can't. Not for me. That was a low point for me right there."

On if he can remember making a decision at the end of a game that was so important as the one today:

"I can't remember making a decision like that, which was to me so important to the game. I can't remember that. I'm sure there was something in there. You're hoping in your career that you make some decisions to help your team win, but today I did not feel like I did that."

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