We can start with injuries. (Laviska) Shenault (Jr.) had an ankle, (Chandler) Zavala had a knee, D.J. Johnson had an elbow, (Cade) Mays had an ankle, Vonn Bell had a shoulder, Tommy Tremble had a groin. Tough loss. Give the Titans credit, they played and coached better than we did. We have to find a way to win close games. The message is we need to do a better job on offense, coaching and playing, as far as protecting the passer. Too many sacks, too many pressures and holding calls. We've got to do a better job, so we can stay in phase, give Bryce (Young) more time. I thought there were times were Bryce looked good throwing the ball downfield. We had a few nice chunk plays. As players and coaches, we have to find a way to protect the quarterback. Defensively, we played solid on defense; we played good on defense for the most part. The challenge for our defense is we need to create some turnovers. When you are playing a young quarterback, we've got to find a way to create a turnover. Make a play that will give us a short field and score some points. I'll open it up from there.
Why has this offense struggled to score on only two drives the last three weeks?
It's been hard. We get a couple of nice few drives, we get the ball moving, and then we get a sack, or we get a penalty (which leads) to long yardage and we struggle to overcome that when we get out of phase. You get second-and-20, second-and-18, those are hard to overcome. We have got to figure that out.
How much more difficult does it make it when you do get out of phase as a play caller to dial out the right play?
It's hard. Any play caller will tell you that. You probably just got out of phase because you got sacked or got holding because you had pressure, and now you are really put in a position to call another pass. Not all the time, but for the most part we are trying to throw it to get to third-and- manageable, but there's no question that it puts stress on you. And that's fine but we need to overcome that.
It looked like Bryce (Young) checked on that fourth down throw, was that the right check to make?
Yeah. It was something we had talked about. If they went zero, if they went all out blitz, they went zero, so he made the right check.
What piece of that check gets you six yards behind the stick?
We've checked that play a couple times. When you hit that play right versus zero, it's a touchdown. DJ (Chark Jr.) probably came a little further back than he needed to. He's not normally the guy in for that (play), we had a couple of receivers go down. The play we had called was going to put DJ (Chark, Jr.) on another in-cut not as the primary. So, we wanted to keep him in that spot. We need to execute that better.
I know you don't want to make excuses, but when you have three different guys play right guard, two different guys playing left guard and you're talking about the need for protection, how do you find an answer?
There's no excuse. I have confidence in those guys. I think they are great players. So, we just need to coach better and play better. Got to step up and got to do a good job.
The challenge is now being at 1-10. At this point what do you say? What is the approach?
I think it's important to be the same person when you come in on Mondays. The quote-en-quote contract at the beginning of the year is every Monday we come in with the same mindset. Watch the film, play-by-play, figure out what we can do better. Win or lose. We are looking more at the corrections that need to be made more than the good things because that's how you get better. You get frustrated, so sometimes you can get a little heated, but everybody understands that we all know that frustration. The guys have been great. We come in on Mondays, everybody is accountable, coaches and players. And we know we need to get better week-to-week. We've got three division opponents coming up, starts this week in Tampa. What are you going to do you are 1-10? Are you going to feel sorry for yourself? Is there something that is going to magically fix everything? No. We lost a close football game today. These games are winnable. That message doesn't fly when you are 1-10 but I know these games are winnable. I know we have the players and the coaches to do that, so we regroup, and we get ready for this week.
At the center of this is Bryce Young, how do you feel this affects his development?
I think Bryce (Young) is making steps and strides and I thought he did today. I thought he did a lot of good things to push the ball down the field pretty well a few times. He had some nice scrambles, he was poised. Even when he gets hit, he continues to show physical toughness and bounce back. He doesn't flinch. I saw him on the sideline talking to the guys before the last drive. He's poised. He's excited to go out there for that last drive. We have confidence in him we just need to help him out a little more.
