1) remember that Rudy is from France, if you listen to his audio interviews you'll notice he's still away from speaking English naturally. So poor wording is something that can happen.
2) I think in Rudy's position it's very reasonable to exclude himself in this situation, because he clearly gives a **** and his effort is easily #1 on this roster.
3) Let me present you a scenario: Rudy is pissed, addressed it a month ago in the locker room and everybody was like: "Yo we hear you, we'll up our intensity"
Now Rudy monitors the situation and doesn't see any change, so he concludes it was mostly empty promises from some.
Regardless whether that's the best decision long term to call them out towards the media, he decides (And he's earned that right to decide IMO) to address that elsewhere, where he thinks it reminds the players of their promise to the team, where they can't avoid it and hopes it makes them reflect upon it. He maybe even decided that ppl who weren't self aware enough to interpret his concerns properly aren't fit to be on his team - And let me be clear, this is Rudy's team for now. (And here's why I said 'regardless whether that's the best decision long term' - Some of the players could go through a rough patch in other areas of their life that they're focused to change and be generally capable of providing Rudy's demanded level of effort later on in their careers but lost trust into Rudy because of the public shaming)
My conclusion is that going to the media just shows Rudy's level of desparation in that case because he sees coach not being able to ignite a spark in them and potentially team talks seemingly being meaningless in his eyes. I think it was courageous to put his reputation on the line and I think he's earned the right to do so with his improvement and overall level of play on both ends.
