TITANS vs JAGUARS
Sunday, Sept 20, 2020
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(opening comments)
You know, we made some mistakes early in this game. We made some mistakes throughout. We did some good things, but at the end of the day we fell short. There's some things I think that we can improve upon, obviously, and we will, and we don't have a lot of time because we've got this quick turnaround. Credit to Tennessee. They were able to make some plays, and at the end of the day we weren't able to make a play to get us over the top or stop a play. That's where we are.
Q. How did you see Myles' coverage on the pass interference from your vantage point and any replay you saw?
They told me that it was a hold, that when the ball went in the air it turned into a defensive pass interference. I couldn't see early on in the route, and I had a bad view of it from where I was. But the back judge should have a great view of it.
Q. What did you learn about your team today?
I mean, I know this team. Like I said, I feel close to this team. I know -- I think I look at this game and say, hey, I know things we've all got to do a better job of that we can really help them out, and they can -- we can all come together, coaches and players, and work our butts off and play football and make plays that are able to win games. I think that's what's going on.
I think as far as all the other stuff, all the clichés that you might want to say, hey, they came back, they worked hard. I never question that from this team. I really don't. You know, the unselfishness that they have, it just doesn't matter. They're trying to celebrate with each other and trying to get somebody to make a play every time. Like I said, we've got to just clean a couple things up and on a quick turnaround.
Q. Could you walk us through what the intention was on Josh's squib quick at the end of the first half and what he might have told you or Joe on the sideline?
I didn't see him on the sideline because I was more concerned about how we were going to manage the defense and knowing that they've got great field position. But there's a lot of things -- it was going to be a desperate play at the end. There's a lot of things that can go on, and we just felt comfortable during that week that we have it in every week that we just power kick it through and we knew we were going to power kick it, which way we were going to go, and there's distance between those two players, and you've just got to in between it. He's a guy that works his butt off. We have confidence in him, and it's just one of those things that it just wasn't executed right. It wasn't like trying to make something happen or anything like that. Just didn't get into the right area.
Q. Just a quick comment on James Robinson; that second half he was really a spark for you guys.
Yeah, I thought even in the first half, a couple of those runs, they almost came out. You know, and he was getting positive yardage and he had a really good catch. I think what you guys are seeing now is probably what I've been seeing all camp, just a real steady, good football player. If something is there he's going to find it. He's not going to make mistakes and lose yardage for you or things of that nature and try to keep the chains going. He's a tough runner. He's got a little burst getting through to the second level. I was happy to see him take that one obviously to the end zone.
But he's solid, and you look at what Chris did on the route, that was an unbelievable catch by our other running back. That was outstanding. To score a touchdown there, it was a great throw. Those are just some of the good things that we need to try to create more of that and just do a better job.
Q. Obviously not the ending that you wanted, but this is a young team that was down early. Did you learn anything about your team's resiliency? You have to be happy with the way they fought back throughout the game.
Yeah, I think I mentioned it before. I really feel close to this football team, and you can see the chemistry on the team. You can see the way they work with each other and bring each other up and keep a mindset about themselves. You know, it's just -- like I said before, I knew this in camp. I think we've got to do a better job, us as coaches, to get them off to a good start, get them in position. So we'll work on that because the one thing I don't think -- I know I don't worry about is how hard they play.
Q. The batted pass at the end, Minshew is a shorter quarterback; do you work a lot on making sure he doesn't have those passes batted at the line?
It's a combination of being able to throw through windows, throw through arms. I think what happened, I think Tyler got held and he fell on the play, and then we're going to Cole, I believe, and the guy got off the line, off the block, and sometimes you can press a guy a little bit more, but sometimes you've got to get through it. So it's a combination of a lot of things to try to not get those things to happen and then try to create them to happen on our side.
Q. Some of the issues you guys had, especially early, Claybrooks with a couple of his muffs and then Collin Johnson with the tip that ended up as an interception, Wingard coverage, those are just growing pains by young players? Are you just going to have to deal with a little bit of that early on here?
You know, I don't know with Chris. That's the first time that I've really seen that from him, so I still have confidence, and we'll work a ton on it going into the week.
I think with Adam, I think some of the -- he was free of man coverage, guy is running across. He's at full speed, so that's going to be tough. The first one, the touchdown, I thought that we gave him too much time back there. That's difficult to cover. I think with Collin, I think we could have gotten that ball maybe a little bit up for him. I think that he made a great effort in the end zone.
So I think that these guys that are playing are going to continue to get better. I don't want to say growing pains because I really feel like these guys can do it. I mean, even though there might be plays where they may lose, and that's part of football. You just don't -- everyone on that field, anyone that's ever played, you know, is not going to win every single down that they play, and they're going to keep coming back and creating better angles and putting them in better position and learning from it. So I think overall, I think as our team, as we grow, we've got to learn from these things and continue to push to get better and get our side get back on this winning side of things.
Q. On that 3rd down play where Clowney nearly got the sack and was incomplete, was it just designed to have Clowney come free off of the edge?
Yeah, I mean, did you see the pressure? It's not designed -- they design it for us. You know, so I mean, you're talking about the touchdown pass or the last one that was incomplete? Which one?
Q. The 3rd down that was incomplete where Clowney nearly got the sack on Minshew --
Well, the same thing on the touchdown; you know what I'm saying? We only have a certain amount of guys to block. When they bring more, we've got to go ahead and take care of the inside guy, so we just choose the shortest path to the quarterback is the guy we're going to take, and he's on the outside so he has the longest way to go. Gardner knows what's going on, he knows the protection. We know we've got to get rid of it, but that's the whole -- the challenge or the chess game, whatever you want to say, when they bring more guys than you have blocking.
Q. Obviously the injury to Brandon played a factor, but you've been saying now for months that you hoped the offensive line of any group would be the one that took a jump this year. Just curious your thoughts on their performance, both in the running game and in pass defense.
Yeah, I felt good. I think that, like I said, those guys, they were battling. I think we talked about Tennessee having a real good strong front seven, were able to get some runs, get some positive yardage. There was two or three plays late where guys were getting off blocks or coming through. I think those are things that you need to improve on. But overall, I think those guys -- I think after you lose it's kind of tough. I don't think a position group is going to walk out of here and say, gosh, I feel great about ourselves right now. You know, like I said, there's a lot of good. There's some things to clean up. But I have -- I mean, those guys were battling their butts off, and I thought they -- I thought at times they did a really nice job. When we had time to throw, we had some good running lanes, and it's just like anything else, we'd like to take some of those inconsistent plays back but just keep working on consistency.
But they're a good group. They'll keep going. Tyler Shatley, we'll find out about Brandon's injury during the week, and we'll see where he's at. But you're talking about we have good depth there and a guy like Shat goes in there and we expect him to play at a high level and a winning level, and I believe he did a nice job. He got beat early on just around -- they put Clowney on the inside and went after him early, but after that he settled down, and I thought he did a nice job.
