I didn't say anything about who is or is not to blame, nor did I say that I thought he meant "Well, probably gonna be fired tomorrow." That's not what my comment was about at all. I wasn't holding Ausmus responsible for all of this and no, I didn't expect him to feign surprise at being "in the crosshairs."

But there's a difference between acknowledging that you're "in the crosshairs" and flat out saying "I knew when I took this job that I probably was gonna end up getting fired before I walked away from it." He only signed a 3 year contract and is in his 3rd year of said contract so this just seems like a bizarre statement to make to the media... especially while Victor is doing his best to deflect the blame off of Ausmus. It's like he said that and then even he realized how weird it sounded so he followed it up with a clarification point, "Not this job in particular, but just managing in general."

He also said some other weird things, like

“It just seems like every day it’s something..."

and

"... it just didn’t seem to work.”

I'm not sure that "not changing how he prepares the team" is the course of action someone in the hot seat should be publicly taking if they want to keep their job... especially when one of his players is right there talking about how the team needs to "turn this thing around."

I understand that he continued by noting he "went on to prepare the same way, stayed positive, and wouldn't let his future with the team dictate the way he went about his job on any given day," but in the previous comment, he acknowledges the team isn't clicking right but doesn't plan to make any changes in preparation. In context with the first statement I commented on initially, it comes off a bit like he's sort of given up and has resigned to the fact that he very well could be out of a job soon... and I'm not sure how that qualifies as "staying positive."

He seems like a good guy but this interview was shit. At a time when people seem to be questioning his ability to motivate his players and questioning the team's passion to win, it would have been nice to hear him say something a little more inspiring or "positive" than what essentially boils down to, "Not really surprised but can't do anything about it now, so it is what it is."