TITANS at COLTS
Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020
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Once you lost your starting left tackle, Anthony Castonzo, you guys were moving the ball very well on the first two drives. Did you get a sense that Tennessee increased their pressure even more on you guys as far as trying to get to you a little quicker?
"I think they did ramp up the pressure and pressured a heck of a lot more than in the first outing. Was it in correspondence to injuries up front? I don't know. I thought the guys up front fought their tail off. We started off great on those first two drives and then obviously hit that six series lull, ending all six possessions – five of them with a punt and the one long interception. It just wasn't very good. It was just a lot of reasons. What sums it up is just a lack of execution. They did mix up some things more than they had. I don't think it was anything necessarily we hadn't seen or weren't prepared for. We just didn't execute well enough during that six-possession stretch. We had a few touchdowns late, but it just wasn't enough obviously."
It looked like a couple times after plays you were maybe testing your foot out. How was that? How was the toe? How did it hold up?
"It was fine. It was fine. We started well. It had no effect on me or my play."
What was the message in the locker room after the game? Five games to go, playoff spot?
"Yeah somewhat. Not necessary that exact message but as big as this one was, it's one game. It's just like we talked about a few weeks ago, it's a week-to-week league. A huge win against Tennessee on the road. Huge win against the Packers and now here we sit. Now what are we? So, it's a week-to-week league and that's why I know Coach (Frank Reich) has told you guys, he has told us you can't ride that wave. We can't ride that wave. We have to just dig back in, look at our play critically and regroup for another division game on the road next week and there's five to play. A lot can happen in five weeks as we know but were the same guys that pulled in here five hours ago, exact same guys, and certainly we have to play better. They out played us today and shoot they won the game."
I'm sure Danny Pinter did his best to replace Ryan Kelly today but a veteran like Kelly helping you pick up pressures and identify pressure. How challenging was that without Ryan today?
"Yeah, I think Danny (Pinter) did a heck of a job today. Danny was in his first, a rookie and I thought he did a heck of a job. Obviously, I'm not evaluating or grading his play but I'm saying I thought he did a heck of a job handling it the way he did. I thought we did good as far as our identifying all the pressure stuff. There were some where I would have liked to of helped our backs out a couple times but shoot, I thought Danny stepped in and did a nice job. At the same time, you want to compliment Ryan (Kelly) because you are replacing arguably the best center in the league, but Danny did an admirable job stepping up."
I know you don't want to ride the roller-coaster but as you get into the last month of the season, is the margin for error shrink? Do you have to rely more on your details now?
"Well I think you always do. That's the culture we have here. We didn't do it well enough today, but I don't know if you can talk about the details and fundamentals and technique and all of those things more than we do and the more we emphasize it and more than we practice it and really more than we believe it. We just didn't get that done today. So, I think yes it does. These five weeks are just as important as the first five. It's one at a time, but certainly, the consequences, all though they all count the same, so you can point back to any one loss – but yes, the consequences at the same time are a reward, I guess, based on how these last five weeks is – I guess it's a little more magnified because of what you know now of where everybody sits. We can't worry about that though. We have the Texans on the road. That's really all we can worry about. What did we not do well enough this week? How can we get better and how do we find a way to beat the Texans? That really is all we should worry about at this point."
