I don’t think he actually believes everything is fine. I mean, I can’t read minds, but I’m pretty sure that even if he did think so there are other coaches on the team who would tell him otherwise. I suspect he didn’t want to criticize particular players or groups publicly, which is good.
The way he did so was maybe not the way to do it. Just all of the negative reactions we see in this thread sort of point to why. If he believes nothing is wrong, that’s super problematic and worrisome, and if he doesn’t it’s dishonest.
He should have said there were many things we did well, that we shut down the run, mostly contained the quarterback, etc. That the defense was able to execute in key situations. Then he could have said that clearly we gave up more yards than we would like to and have to keep getting better.
If asked about what needed to improve he could have spoken about technique issues at a high level without singling out anyone. If they tried to pin him down about the secondary or specific players he could have mentioned that said person or people did a lot of things correctly and were important to winning the game, that he likes them, how they prepare, and that they work hard and continue to do the things asked of them. That of course there are things that must be done better, and that the expectation is that those things will improve.
The difference is doing it this way protects your players but is also honest and takes ownership. That said, I do think overall even if I don’t like how he answered here, that several things are more important than getting the press conference right.
Most importantly, are we getting better? The answer I think is yes. We’ve seen clear improvement in most aspects of the defense. So I think I like the coach, but he could make the fans who are nervous and half expecting disaster less likely to have heart attacks by sounding better.
Even non fans are going to pick up the coach saying 600 yards given up doesn’t matter and will form opinions. It’s certainly not the most important thing, and the sky isn’t falling, but I don’t think he did himself any favors.