TITANS AT BRONCOS
Monday, Sept 14, 2020
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On the importance of keeping his composure when things weren't going well
"I mean, it wasn't pretty. We didn't come out and execute the way we wanted to for the length of the football game, but we battled and the guys keep battling. We fought through a lot of adversity and we found a way to win in the end. When we needed to put points up, we found a way to do it. I'm proud of the guys and how we battled through that adversity."
On his confidence level in K Stephen Gostkowski making the game-winning field goal after missing his previous four kicks
"Yeah, I still had confidence in Stephen. Being a part of the offense, we want to put that thing in the end zone, and I had opportunity to hit [WR] A.J. [Brown]. Really not too happy about that. That's a big opportunity we're missing. I had a ton of confidence in Stephen regardless of what happened. That guy has made a ton of kicks in his career, and there was no question that he was going to make that."
On if he adopted a more aggressive mindset with Gostkowski struggling
"No, I didn't say anything to him. He's a guy that's been doing it for a long time. I had confidence that he was going to be able to come back and make the kick when we needed him. Any time you're in a situation like that, you want to get in the end zone, and if not in the end zone, as close as possible to make it a chip shot field goal. That's our mindset. We had plenty of time to work with. Let's get this thing in the end zone, and if it's not in the end zone, we want to be down there. That way it's an easy field goal."
On why the offense was so disjointed early in the game
"We moved the ball on several drives throughout the night. I wouldn't say it was a struggle to move it. We didn't have the explosive runs that we're used to having. They did a really good job of keeping the runs short on first and second down. [RB] Derrick [Henry] was getting the tough yardage inside. He was banging and they were making the tough tackles on him. I have to give a lot of credit to Denver and the way they bottled up everything inside and made it tough yards to gain. We should have been able to gain positive yards. Like I said, we weren't getting those explosive runs that we're used to seeing. We have to give a lot of credit to Denver. I'm sure we will look at the tape and see what we can do next time to create more explosive plays and bigger runs. We were able to move the ball a few times throughout the night. Unfortunately, we didn't capitalize and finish on a couple of them. That'll be an emphasis this week."
On how he personally views the win
"Obviously, we're happy to win. Any win the NFL is a good win. They don't put any asterisks on them in the win column. It's a win, it's a W and we'll take it. We're 1-0, but we do have a lot to work on and a lot to clean up. I think we're excited. We didn't play the way we wanted to, but we're excited to be able to come back next week and clean up some things and put a good football game together."
On the team's poise and how far it has come
"We know our guys are going to battle. Obviously, we want to save things up and not be in that situation at the end, but I think we had a lot of confidence going into that drive that we were going to find a way to win. There was no panic on the sideline, not happy about the way things were going, but there was no panic. We had a lot of confidence that we were going to go out and score. In the huddle, everyone just focused on the task at hand, taking it one play at a time. That's what I told the guys, 'Hey, just take it one play at a time. Make one play at a time and we'll march this thing down and win this.' That's exactly what we did."
On how important Titans WR Corey Davis was tonight
"He was huge. He came up with some huge catches, scores. I'm really proud of the way he went out and battled. Obviously, just dealing with some things throughout the week and being able to go out and make some huge catches for us, successful catches in traffic, big catch and runs as well. I'm really proud of the way Corey played. [He's] obviously a talented guy and he made big plays for us."
On utilizing the run game and if he thinks it affected the score
"I don't know. We ran a lot of plays and we were feeling it and they were feeling it. I know it went both ways. Like I said, our guys continue to battle, dug down deep and we found a way to win. We found a way to put the ball in the endzone. We got it in the red zone and then get that two-minute drive going, get down in tight, making sure the field goal is receiving. I'm proud of the guys way of pushing through that element of being tired, being short of breath and altitude. We were able to just battle through that and found a way to make the play when it counted."
On using the run game on the final drive and having time outs
"It was huge. It gave us a lot of freedom to call what we wanted to call and we had everything on the table at that point. Get down inside the 20, or close to it, and [we] really had the whole playbook open to do what we wanted to do because of timeouts. It was a good job of being able to hold onto those throughout the game and be able to use them at the end.
On his level of calm in a close-game situation
"I try to keep a steady hand. A steady hand drives the ship. Honestly, [I am] focused and tense, but calm. We can't panic. They make the play, we go to second-down. You just have to able to reset one play at a time, whether it was good or bad--reset and make the next one. I believe in myself, but the whole offense, in that situation, we knew we [had the length] of the field, we knew we were going to have to put a drive together and had to do it one play at a time."
