Jonathan Gannon Calls Out 'Non-Negotiables' After Cardinals Loss

On his thoughts on how the game got out of hand after watching the film:

“Well, we lost the ball 3-0 and that led to 10 points. The three takeaways led to 10 points and two of the three takeaways were in scoring positions, so that takes points off the board. I don't think penalties are a winning stat, but we had way too many self-inflicted wounds and there’s, I think off the top of my head, 50 yards of what I call non-negotiables that the refs don't have to do anything. It's completely on us. Then we had another 80 yards of calls and when it's that out of balance, that was a component of the game that hurt us badly.”

On whether he noticed a common trend with the penalties on Sunday:

“Well, pre-snap penalties. That's what I call non-negotiables. I should have prevented one on the third-and-five. I should have just banged the time out there in the first quarter to not put us at third-and-10. I don't like doing that, but that's a high leverage snap that I thought we were going to be OK, and we'd end up getting it off. Then with the other calls, I think it's just making sure that we're playing with proper technique. They're all a little bit different how they look and unfold but having better awareness, better decision making.”

On the disparities between the number of penalties last season compared to this season:

“Yeah, I don't love where we're at right now. I think we're in the middle third somewhere of most penalized. I kind of break everything up into thirds, and we're kind of in that middle third. It's not good football. I think our guys do a good job of understanding the rules and making correct decisions, but everybody makes mistakes, and I get it, but when we have that many mistakes as it relates to that part of the game it puts you behind the eight ball. It really does. They didn't foul, so it got out of balance.”

On the challenge of keeping players focused and confident after penalties: 

“I think it's very challenging because it's kind of deflating when you're going backwards. Again, you have to focus on the next play and control what you can control and try to move on, but it's a challenge, especially when you have that many. There's some high leverage ones; one takes off a 60-yard touchdown and it cuts it to a one score game. It's hard. Then we had to punt. You just have to learn, move on and grow from it and we have to play cleaner. There's no doubt.”

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