Opening statement:
BRIAN CALLAHAN: Just I want to start out first and foremost, just my thoughts are with all of the people that have been affected by Hurricane Helene. A lot of people in Tennessee and Carolina, lots of folks dealing with some pretty hard times that make this feel a little bit less significant sometimes. My thoughts are to them and all the people going through difficult challenges with the hurricane. Sad to see. Other than that that, I'll just say Will (Levis) hurt his shoulder on that scramble on third down. Tried to come back. It was bothering him. Ended up doing what he had to do to try to get back in the game, and ultimately I knew what kind of game it was going to be. With the bye week next week didn't want to expose him to any further risk. He tried everything he could to go, but it was bothering him pretty significantly so made the decision to hold him out. Same thing with Jeff (Simmons). Jeff's elbow was bothering him. With the bye week backed up, it made the most sense to rest him for the week and give him one more week after that to be ready to roll for the long term as opposed to trying to force him back for this particular game. So the rest kind of factored into both of those decisions at this point, and hopefully that answers those questions. Really big shoutout to Nick Folk going five-for-five on field goals today. Hitting from 53, 52, 51, 47, and 29. That's a good day's work for the old man. Making some big plays there for us. We needed all the points we could get. That was really good. Thought our defense did a great job. Held them to, what, 70-something yards in the first half. They're playing with a backup quarterback and that's what you're supposed to do to teams that are playing like that and our guys stepped up, got our first turnover. And I'll let you guys ask what you want to ask from there.
Q. How good does it feel to win?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: I don't know if I can put it into words for you. It feels great. Most importantly because our guys deserve it. These guys work hard. They practice hard. Do everything right. They deserve to win. I felt like we practice like we are a 3-0 team. I said it at the end of the week. The way our guys practice and focus is fantastic and to be short on these couple games to start was disappointing. For them, they deserve it. It feels great. Good to see some smiles, some energy, and I thought we played a really good game tonight.
Q. To be clear, when Will Levis is healthy, he's still your quarterback?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: One hundred percent. Will's healthy, he's our quarterback. It was not a decision based on anything other than his health and protecting him, particularly with the bye week and a shoulder that didn't feel great. I didn't want to put him back out there. And I knew I was going to run the ball quite a bit. That was really what factored in, but he's our starter when he's healthy and we are ready to roll with him.
Q. Is it his throwing shoulder and will he have an MRI?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: We'll do all the work on the precautionary stuff. I don't think it's going to be anything too serious other than normal AC style injury. We'll see. I've been wrong before, so we will wait until the MRI gets done. As of right now, I don't think it's a long-term issue for us.
Q. Leaning so much on the run, was that the plan coming in or did you kind of shift that way?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: No, that was going to be the plan coming in. I knew the style of play we needed to win this game. I knew they were going to have some trouble offensively. I knew that we were going to be able to run the ball effectively on them. To lean on that and make it a physical game and make sure we possessed the ball as long as possible was part of initial plan in this game to go that way. It wouldn't have looked much different, but we definitely felt the run was going to give us the best chance to win against this defense.
Q. Is this the exact kind of situation that you bring a guy like Mason Rudolph in for?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: Yeah, 100 percent. Everything about Mason is professional. He didn't bat an eye when he walked in the game, our guys didn't bat an eye. He did exactly what you want a guy to do in that situation, is come in and operate. He was pretty clean operation-wise. We got the ball, got the plays called, all those things were really good. He was prepared and ready to go and he is a pro. That's why we brought him in, is for a situation like this and he did a nice job.
Q. What becomes of that game ball?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: That one is going to go somewhere special for me. You only get your first first win once, and I will probably put that up in my house somewhere, maybe my office at some point, so I can remember what it was like to win my first game on Monday Night Football.
Q. Did Amy Adams Strunk present that to you in the locker room?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: She did. Yeah, it was a really cool moment for me and her to be able to present that.
Q. Did your mind kind of drift towards the end about the win when it was in-hand or how did you kind of cycle through thinking about that?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: No, no, I was calling the game all the way up to the end there for the most part. I was trying to make sure – that onside kick scared the hell out of me. I had forgotten that that's the new rule on the onside kick, so was ripping 'Q' for not catching the ball, but the ball has to still land in the appropriate zone. I wasn't thinking about anything other than that really for about three minutes after that play.
Q. Did Jha'Quan know that was the rule?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: I don't know if he knew that or not. I'm not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He might have. I yelled at him afterwards in the locker room just to make sure he knew I was not happy about it. He goes, 'Coach, the ball has got to land inside the 40.' I said, 'I don't care. Catch the ball goddamn it.'
Q. Did it feel like the way the defense is playing allowed you to make mistakes, turn the ball over and you were going to be able to win the game with them playing like they were?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: We knew coming in the plan was to we had to do everything we could to get a lead. We wanted to play with a lead and keep the lead, put them in a situation they didn't want to be in. They had a backup quarterback playing that's only been here for a couple weeks. That's a really tough challenge for any team. And we just felt like if we could hold the ball and get a lead and make them play outside of what they really want to do, that was the goal and I thought we did a nice job of that.
Q. That last touchdown, you guys didn't necessarily need it. Did you do that with the intention of ending that 30-point streak?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: I'm not going to lie. I thought about it. The intent was really to just try to run the clock out because we couldn't take a knee in that situation. The clock wouldn't have run out at that point. And so we just said, you know what, we're going to run our goal line plays. I called the play from the four (yard line) that usually doesn't score from the four to be honest. It was really a way of taking a knee in a sense and Tony (Pollard) just ended up breaking outside and scoring. So I was not trying to actively score, but we had to run plays. As long as they allow us to run plays, we'll keep trying.
Q. I also liked the way you executed the end of the first half. Getting just to kick it and then …
BRIAN CALLAHAN: Yeah, fantastic execution by both Mason (Rudolph) and Tyler (Boyd), and the whole offense in that spot. That's a play that we work on in that exact situation, 16 seconds left, we are in a down-down clock spot where as soon as we catch it we go down. That's a play that is designed for that kind of chunk, about a 25-yard chunk and hustling up and 16 seconds is tight. That's about as tight as we would ever do that and be able to get a ball clocked on a chunk gain. Just outstanding situational execution by those guys and getting the ball clocked with one second with a chance to kick a field goal was really brilliant, and it was really fun to see the guys execute in that spot. We talk about it all the time.
Q. Will's interception seemed like he didn't sense that guy dropping and for us seemed like another example of he was going there before he sensed what was…
BRIAN CALLAHAN: Yeah, I think if you ask him, he didn't see the guy drop. They brought a sim pressure from the front side and that backside and then dropped. It was a pretty simple stick route on the back side. We were trying to get the ball to Hop (DeAndre Hopkins). He just didn't see him. Sometimes that happens and those guys drop from the line of scrimmage. They are hard to pick up. It was a really nice play by the kid. I didn't think he picked it at first, but he knew it when he came off. He goes, I just didn't see him. And those things happen sometimes. He's not alone in that. Those guys are hard to pick up occasionally and obviously would like to not throw an interception, but it happened.
Q. How much of a relief was it to finally get a defensive takeaway?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: Oh, man, yeah, relief is the word. We've just been so knocked behind in the turnover margins right now and it's contributed to really for sure two of our losses. And so to be on
the plus end of that and be able to take care of the football and take it away a few times and top of that, those fourth-down stops to me are like turnovers as well. I mean, fantastic effort by our defense and hopefully that's a start of whole lot more turnovers because that's how you win in this league. You got to take the ball away and you got to protect it, and that was a really nice job by the defense.
Q. How much nicer could have it been if the refs let it play through like they're supposed to do?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: I cannot comment on the officiating. Yeah, that crew is – we knew coming into the game they threw quite a few flags. That's just kind of what their MO was and we were aware of it. I was expecting to have some flags get thrown. That's just what it is.
Q. You kind of touched on Nick Folk in the intro. Just how good does it feel to see him knocking all those down, some of them for 50-plus? You see him do that in practice, not a surprise to you?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: Not a surprise. He is still very capable NFL kicker. He can still kick from 50-plus. But to see him do that three times in a game where every one of those points was at premium, especially early on, was awesome. And I think he just keeps proving that age doesn't really matter for him. He's an accurate kicker. To knock five of five is what we needed to win this game, and he did a great good job. Really, really nice performance by him on a national stage, so great to see.
Q. You talked about being able to set the edge and keep the horizontal rushing attack at bay. You guys did that today against a team that's really good. What are your thoughts on how Arden Key and those guys did?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: They did their job to a very high degree today. We knew the style of offense that they like. They were going to attack our C gap and try to get the ball in the perimeter with their speed. They tried and they got a couple, but we at the end of the day, did a better job over the course of the game. Really proud of those guys. We knew it was going to be physical. We relied on them to set the edge, all the guys that rotated in there. And I think in the interior, that helped, too. We disrupted the interior. I think (T'Vondre) Sweat had a really nice game. And then (James) Lynch and (Abdullah) Anderson in there, getting elevated off the practice squad, those guys played a really rugged, gritty style that helped us contain the run game. Again, getting into an situation where they had to run it or they had to sort of throw it a little more to get back into it helped us, but those outside linebackers – Harold (Landry III) and Arden (Key) and Jaylen (Harrell), they played a really, really nice game.
Q. Some of the guys talked all week about how good it feels, how much of a confidence boost it is going into the bye. Just in your experience how important is that for a team's psyche?
BRIAN CALLAHAN: It's huge. I've said it before I think, but the wins is what validates our process. You have to find success somewhere so guys continue to buy in and believe in how we want to operate. When you don't have those wins it gets harder and harder. But when you do catch a win it propels you and there is some momentum behind it. You get a chance to enjoy a couple days off and get ready to come back against a big divisional game against Indianapolis. There is a confidence that comes with winning. There is a joy that comes with winning. And those things are all important and all matter to us. To get one before the bye, all we cared about was getting on a plane and coming down here and winning. Our goal was to win this game and not worry about anything other than that and ouys did a great job focusing and making sure we got it done.
