TITANS vs BEARS
Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020
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Opening Comments:
MATT NAGY: Obviously a high level of frustration. Any time you lose three games in a row, you feel that way. We didn't do enough offensively to get the job done. I thought our defense played really, really well. They're doing everything that we're asking them to do and trying to get that field position going. Special teams played well, and then just recurring theme here on offense. That starts with me, and we've got to get better.
Q. How did the offense get this bad, and as you point out it's a recurring theme. What steps are you going to take --
MATT NAGY: Yeah, it's hard to say right now right after an hour or whatever it is, half hour after the game. So I've got to go back and watch it.
But we're at a point -- we knew going into today's game that it was going to be challenging in certain areas when you're in this position that we're in, and we understand that. But to me I think the biggest thing is it's one thing -- there's going to be a play here or there where you're going to get beat, and I'm saying everywhere. There will be a mistake that we make -- everybody makes mistakes, but the ones that bother me are the ones where you have the senseless ones with the penalties that set you back five yards and make you 2nd and 15 or they're drive killers. Those are the ones that -- again, we're discussing that. We talk about that, and they're continuing to happen.
Yeah, we've got to -- that has to stop. You have to get in a rhythm. And then in the red zone you've got to be more effective.
That's what we've got to do.
Q. Do you feel like with three straight losses, you have to right the ship almost immediately or the season could head the wrong direction?
MATT NAGY: Yeah, I don't know -- we do gotta right the ship and we've just got to do it by getting one win. We've got to be able to, whatever that is, by any measures, find a way to do it. I think our guys will do that. I think that they understand where we're at.
Again, unfortunately last year we were in this mode and we lost four in a row, and it's hard. It is hard. But we as leaders got to -- again, to be 5-4 when you're sitting 5-1, to be 5-4, it hurts. But now we've got to make sure that whatever those issues are we just at some point in time get this thing back on track, and that's kind of my job as a head coach to do that, and trust me, I'm going to look at everything.
Q. You mentioned the penalties, but on your first six drives you didn't have any penalties and you still didn't wind up scoring any points. Do you feel like there are answers in the playbook in the roster that you have right now to fix this?
MATT NAGY: Yeah, I do. I do. That's a good thing, and I did feel early on that we had a couple of those drives where it wasn't so much the penalties on the front end, it was more of the three-and-outs. We weren't getting 1st downs, and that's what felt like it on the front end, and then you get to a point there at the end of the half where you get a couple completions and then you're just going backwards instead of going forward. And then the rest of the game there's just some stuff that went on that it just makes it hard.
We're not in a position right now offensively to make things hard. That's just a simple fact. We need to get the run game going and get the quick game going. When you pick and choose to take a shot, you've got to protect so that you can hit that shot, you know what I'm saying? So that's kind of how this thing goes.
Q. You guys converted the fake punt; what required the time-out immediately afterwards?
MATT NAGY: Yeah, we were just -- when you have a change of possession like that, there's a communication, just making sure guys are on the special teams and the wide receivers that are coming in and out. We had a play where we had a substitution with a wide receiver that was just a little bit off there, and it just happened last week where we had a five-yard penalty. So that happens -- that probably happens across the league more than you think, and right now it's just a little magnified just because of our situation.
Q. Also you guys have struggled in short yardage when you need a yard or less sometimes. What are your emotions with that and not picking up two feet at times?
MATT NAGY: Yeah, you're right. I think we've been better of late and then it's the ones that you don't get, especially the fourth downs. Those are the ones that I think magnify it and make you -- they sting because we really felt like we had some good momentum going there and then I've got to go back -- it's a dive. It's like what we do in youth football. It's a dive. That's that.
Q. Not to belabor the fourth down stuff, I think there was that one fourth down you guys had two consecutive penalties, you had the false start and then the hands to the face. How demoralizing is it to get that, to get these consecutive penalties in critical moments you've got to have?
MATT NAGY: Yeah, and that's probably where J.J., like to your last question for me, stuff like that that Jeff just talked about, those are the ones that they probably magnify it a little bit when you have back-to-back penalties in that situation, and you've got momentum going, you've got a lot of good things going, and then you have that happen. I'll never, ever, ever question my guys' effort. Never. I'll never do that. None of that is because of effort, but whatever it is, it's got to stop, and those are ones there that we've just got to get better at because we just -- we've got to get like just little chunks here or there and then pick and choose when we go ahead and take our shots, and we just can't get in that situation.
Now, there was a few in there where we did get picked up and Nick made a strong throw and we made a strong catch on the dagger route. There were some plays in there where we did recover. I would like to see us be better in that big red zone area when you get down there, to be able to get an opportunity to score, and we weren't today. And that's probably the most frustrating part of it all is that right there. And again, it's not because the guys don't care.
Q. When you're grasping for anything positive, do you look -- are you glad that you guys score late, that you make it a close game, or in your mind does that really not matter?
MATT NAGY: It's probably both. I'd say I do think when you have a position where our guys fought to the very end, and that's kind of who the guys are that we've in this locker room. They care. Their care factor is high. That's why I'll never, ever question their effort or their care. That part I love. But what we have to understand as a mature football team is that you have to score points early in this league, and then you also have to score points early in this league with the defense that we have.
When you don't do that, you just get to a point where you have those touchdowns at the end, you're happy that you kept fighting, but you can't be in that position.
