Fox's Sunday news conference

Here's the transcript from coach John Fox's season-ending news conference Sunday:

Q. What did you tell the team this morning?

"We had a great season and a bad game. Unfortunately it occurred when it did. We walk out of here with our heads held high. All in all, it was a heck of a season with a lot of good things. It's a good core of players to move ahead with. It's a very-high character team."

Q. Did you talk to Jake?

"Yes. He had a bad game. He didn't have a bad season. He's not a bad quarterback. It happens."

Q. Do you expect he'll be made a scapegoat for the loss?

"I suspect, like any loss, we all become scapegoats, whatever you guys choose. That's part of it. We should move forward."

Q. What did you see from the interceptions?

"Having not seen the tape yet, I can't really speak to that. Probably the sack-fumble was the bigger play than any of the interceptions. That gave them life. We started great, even on the kickoff that went out of bounds early. We knocked them back out of field-goal range. The sack-fumble gave them the lead 14-7 on the road and it snowballed from there."

Q. Why did you play a zone defense in the first half?

"You've  got a heckuva player (Larry Fitzgerald) who caught six balls, two of them he wasn't even covered on. They threw to him 20 some times. I don't think that's why we lost the game. We were fortunate we they didn't score more than 33. You don't give the ball back to the third-ranked team in the NFL five times."

Q. Did you consider dedicating one defender to Fitzgerald?

"We had one by designated. We always had a defensive player on him, sometimes two."

Q. Did you consider shadowing him the whole game?

"No, we haven't done that all season and we didn't do it in the first game."

Q. Did Anquan Boldin's absence factor in how you played defense?

"No."

Q. Julius Peppers is very noncommittal about coming back, do you believe he will?

"Julius, who I've got utmost respect for, is a private person. He's a different person than other people. It's a process. He's been fairly private with the process. I'll leave it at that. I've got no complaints with Julius, no questions about his commitment. It's the business part of it. He did a great job of focusing on football this year and not letting anybody from outside make it a distraction. I've got a great deal of respect for that."

Q. What kind of priority is it to keep him here?

"I'd say it's important. Most people would see that as being important, just like keeping Jordan (Gross) here and all our core players here. I can't predict the future. I'd be at the racetrack if I could."

Q. If you can't re-sign him, would you franchise him?

"You're asking me questions a day after the season's over. They're good questions, but again, it's a process. Right now, I'm look forward to having next week off."

Q. Do you feel like you know where he stands?

"I've had conversations with him. I tend to keep that private. Those things are between me and Julius."

Q. How important is this situation, knowing the decisions you need to make between now and March 1?

"It's still early. So early I can't believe it. We both know how we feel about him and we know how he feels about us. It's the business part of it and I hope it works out."

Q. If Julius prefers not to be here, would you work with him or put the franchise tag on him?

"Again, that's hypothetical and I don't do good with hypotheticals. We'll march forward. Things change."

Q. What will you do in the postseason?

"We'll take next week off...then go to the Senior Bowl. Our staff has been working on personnel all year. We'll go into the offseason process and evaluate our football team. We'll look at things we can improve. We don't share those things outwardly."

Q. Will you make any changes to your staff?

"I don't predict anything. It's too early to predict or decide on anything."

Q. What's it like to be on top of the world, then 24 hours later have it all turned around?

"Thankfully, I've done it a lot. You've got to have that high before you get to the disappointment. There's only one happy team. There will be two sad teams today. Somebody has to lose. At the end of it all, there's only one truly happy person. He's the guy holding that Lombardi Trophy. That's the race we're in and what we're all fighting for. Unfortunately, only one gets it."

Q. Any injuries to talk about?

"Not too many things that I'd want to discuss publicly."

Q. What happened to Landon Johnson?

"He spent the night in hospital. No breaks. No torn tendons. Just a couple of muscle pulls in his hip and groin. It's something he should recover from."

Q. What's it like knowing you'll never coach this same team again?

"It's like this every year. In '03 and '05 and '93 and '89. There are a lot of fun players to be with. There are a lot of good teams that don't stay the same. Even Super Bowl winners don't stay the same. That's the landscape of the league. The neat thing about the team picture is you look back in 15 years and have a lot of great memories."

Q. Will you watch the playoff games today?

"I'm missing one now. I'll probably look at some, but not too much."