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HEAD COACH JEFF FISHER**
(on the fake punt attempt)
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I was just trying to win the game. I had all the confidence in the world that we would execute it. I was just trying to win a game. I felt like we needed to hang on to the football. We had given up just three points to their offense in the second half and they're a very explosive offense. I wanted to hang on to the football. You do those things when they're least expecting it and you can execute it. I knew we'd execute it, we just put Donnie (Nickey) in a bad position because he had to wait. Without getting too specific, he had to wait until he got the right look.
(on if there is any regret using it)
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No, I used one the first game of the preseason. No, I don't have any regrets. I'm just trying to win.
(on if they saw something earlier in the game that a fake punt could work)
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It's all part of your preparation process during the week and what you see. As I've said, we carry a lot of things into a game in all three phases that we don't use and that would also include our special teams. Sometimes you dial them up, sometimes you don't. I felt this was a perfect time to do it.
(on what contributed to the delay of game penalty on the fake punt)
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You need the right look and if it's not there you punt it away. It took us a while to get the right look. Once we got the right look, it was on and we executed the play but they were moving around a little bit later than we expected. The end result was okay. You're certainly much better off being penalized and having the opportunity to punt the ball away then you are getting tackled short of the first down, giving the ball there. There was still plenty of time left on the clock so I figured it was a can't lose situation.
(on Vince Young going through his progressions)
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He's been doing that. He just doesn't go out there and have one person to throw to. It's called a progression, he goes through that. We really certainly hoped we'd have C.J. (Chris Johnson) wide open in the flat based on the nature and the design of the play, it didn't happen. He knows he's got other options. Kenny (Britt) did a nice job getting to where he needed to go to. It was a great throw on the run.
(on if it frustrates defenses when Vince Young runs for first downs)
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It does. He converted three last night on third down. It's difficult. He's converting them with his arm, he's converting them with his legs. It's difficult. It puts you in a position where you have to rush intelligently, you can't give him escape lanes. With that being said, if he's got time, someone's going to get open. It's a difficult thing to defend defensively.
(on if Antonio Smith's late hit on Kevin Mawae should have resulted in ejection)
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Yes, he should have been ejected in my opinion. I can't speak for why they didn't. In general terms, that's an offense, a personal foul on the field that would require that. It was certainly a lot more egregious than Jason Jones' (penalty) in the first game.
(on Nick Harper)
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Well, he played against a very good receiver and got beat on the fade. He does that to most corners. Other than that, I thought he was solid. He tackled, he was into the plan, his legs were good and he was moving around good. It was good to get him back.
(on the team's resilience)
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They just trust each other, have fun, they're expecting to win, there's no pressure and we're making plays. That's the thing, we're making plays now. Although we were minus in turnovers yesterday, we gave one up but we bounced right back. We did some things. We gave up the big play to Andre (Johnson) and Griff (Michael Griffin) with the effort gets him down on the eight yard line and we hold them to a field goal. It's that kind of effort. Even though it was a big play for them, it was a big play for us for Griff to get him on the ground. It's the big plays that are happening. When you're able to produce big plays the confidence is there. As a result you hope to win ball games.
(on the team's confidence)
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I think there's a level. It's back. I think after the third or fourth loss, people started wondering when the plays were going to start happening. Now they expect them to happen. I don't think it's something that gets bigger and bigger, it's there, it's good. We carry a respect level for our opponent. We just dwell on the next game.
(on if he thought there was a chance Alge Crumpler's play would be overturned)
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It was a catch. Yeah, it was a catch. In my opinion, it was a catch.
(on why they would not overturn Alge Crumpler's play)
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In their opinion it wasn't, but my understanding of what a catch is, that's a catch. He didn't have possession the first time but he got possession before the ball touched the ground, he secured it, he had possession. The ball did touch the ground, but he had the ball secured.
(on if Alge Crumpler's arm was under the ball)
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He had possession before that ball touched the ground and that ball never moved. The ball can touch the ground if you have possession. You could have had another crew that said it is a catch.
(on Alge Crumpler making a nice attempt at the catch)
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He's got great hands. Alge played really well yesterday. Vince (Young) had someone in his face, it was not a tremendously accurate throw, but still I though he made the catch. There's a lot going on there because we're looking at a third-and-four if they rule it incomplete. It wouldn't have been a first down. There was a lot of stuff going on there. I fully expected that to be overturned.
(on Tony Brown)
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Well, Tony Brown has played that way the last two weeks. He's playing very, very well. It's the combination of matchups, understanding. He's getting stronger and stronger. He's playing well. They're playing well together. The four guys that are on the field are playing well together. Last night we played eight defensive linemen. Kyle (Vanden Bosch) was rushing at tackle at times last night. We were moving people around. Wash (Jim Washburn) did a good job with that.
(on the reason to deactivate Alvin Pearman and keep Kevin Kaesviharn active for kick returns)
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We wanted to try to keep eight defensive linemen up and the roster was such that I wanted to keep the extra DB up just for special teams help, knowing that we were going to have very little, if any chance, to return punts because of the way (Matt) Turk's punting the ball and the hang time. I think he's had six returns all year. We felt like we were just going to need someone to fair catch it and Kevin can do it. He did a good job with it and of course Griff has returned kickoffs for us before. It didn't have anything to do with Al, it just had to do with the roster.
(on if he just wanted Kevin Kaesviharn to fair catch)
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Well, if it was returnable. As you saw, our decision ended up being good. There were no punts he had any chance to return.
(on if he gave Kevin Kaesviharn instructions to not return kicks and just fair catch)
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Well, again it goes back to what I just said. They had—you can check the stat—however many punts had been returned against them this year, it's a very few amount because of the hang time. They're just forcing people to fair catch the ball. So, we had Kevin go out there and make decisions. Return it if you can, most likely it's going to be a fair catch, just make good decisions. That's what he did.
(on Kevin Kaesviharn fair catching at the five-yard line)
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We go to the eight, step back one and a half yards if you need to. I didn't have a problem with that one just because both of the gunners were behind him at that time. It was a high kick and I'd rather have it at the five than the one.
(on if the competition committee needs to look at the six quarterbacks injuries that took place over the weekend)
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No, it's just football. We look at player safety more so the last few years than we ever have and we'll continue to. It's just football.
(on how to handle the short week)
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Well, we just back off and get them rested and get them back and go.
(on the trash talking between the teams resulting in no penalties for the Titans)
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We made that point during the week. There was a lot of bad blood, if you will, after the first game. The best way to take care of that situation was to win the ball game. The only way you win the ball game is you don't penalize yourself. I was proud of them for that. Kevin (Mawae) got the penalty there. There were several others that should have been called that were not called on them. I guess that was their approach and that's fine. It didn't work for them.
(on if he's ever high fived an official)
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No, I haven't. I have not seen the play. It was described to me. It's kind of a unique situation, Jerome's (Boger) doing the right job by running in there and stopping the play and holding his hand up. I think you can kind of see it happen. Vince happened to turn around and from what I'm told, saw a hand was up and started to go. Jerome on one hand is not going to disrespect a player. It's just one of those things that happens. I think right now, I think the interaction between the officials and the players is probably at its best ever. They're communicating well, they're getting along. If someone was offended by it then so be it.
(on if he thought about calling a timeout to ice Kris Brown)
I knew that was the moment that if you were going to ice him, then ice him but there was no way. None. I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen against us on Monday night in Denver, I saw it happen just over the last few weeks. Somebody iced a kicker and missed it, came back and kicked it and it's good. That's just not my philosophy.
(on the Cardinals quarterback situation)
Their offense doesn't change. We won't know and we probably won't know until the week's up.
(on if the rules in place protect the quarterbacks)
We've modified rules last year again. The defensive player coming off and going low. I don't know what else there is to do. We protect them out of the pocket, we protect them in the pocket, he's got helmet-to-helmet protection, he's got late hit protection and they err constant on the side of caution for the most part. They missed one yesterday with Vince, but for the most part they're doing everything they can to protect them.
(on defensive players saying too much has been done to protect the quarterback)
I think the defensive players understand the rules. They understand what they can do and what they can't do. We also have an appreciation of the game that's a very, very important position. I don't believe at this point, certainly we will get together when the season is over and discuss it, but I don't know offhand if there is anything else that you can do. We have done a pretty good job with the rules themselves, circling the quarterback position and protecting him.
(on the possible tripping penalty against Vince Young)
It wasn't a trip, it was a kick. It was one or the other and it should have been a foul.
(on the replay review system and whether they should have an official in the booth make the call)
No. Again our replay system is not a perfect replay system. There is going to be things that come up, we don't cover the entire game. We have a specific set of rules and things that apply to instant replay and these things are going to happen sometimes. That is just part of our game. We have had three this year that in my opinion that were either overturned or not changed that is my opinion were wrong, but that is just part of it. That is part of our replay system. For the most part it does get the obvious errors corrected, but sometimes when you have things where the angle is not there or this or that, it is hard to overturn something.
(on injuries in the ball game )
I will have an injury report for you tomorrow afternoon.
(on whether he feels gratified that they got the season turned around)
No. We expect to win every game and that is what we do. I'm happy for them because believe it or not they had fun all the way through it and now I think they realize that if you just believe in yourselves and each other and what we are doing then things turn around and it did. We still have a lot of games left and we have a really, really talented opponent coming to town that has not lost on the road that played in the Super Bowl last year that is healthy. As far as we are concerned this is our biggest challenge of the year so far.
(on if he looks at the playoff picture)
No, you know what we are? We are a team that has gotten better that has won a few games and is probably a team that people aren't looking forward to playing right now based on how we are playing.
(on what will allow the team to keep winning)
We have to score one more point than the Cardinals.
(on the horse collar penalty on Chris Johnson)
Yes, it was why the rule went in. It was that action on the ball carrier, where you grab him from behind and immediately pull him down and he bends over backwards and lands on his legs. That is why the rule went in. I think technically by the rule if you look at it maybe it is not a horse collar because he was a couple of inches below the collar of the jersey and the shoulder pad, but the action itself is actually why we put the rule in for players' safety and I think that anyone who looked at it said that is a horse collar. Then you go back and slow it down and he grabbed a little low. They are going to err on the side of caution as it related to the case of player safety, whether it is helmet-to-helmet contact down the field, whether it is horse collar, whether it is protecting the quarterback. That is what we are trying to do because player safety is so important.
(on Texans run defense)
The Texans were first in the league in run defense the last six weeks averaging 60 yards a game. They really improved. We were fortunate to get what we got. Without getting into specifics they are a good, solid defensive team, especially against the run and we knew that was going to be the case and fortunately we made some plays.
