Can you describe, if it's at all possible, the likely shellshock that you all feel right now?
It's tough, it's a surreal feeling. It's kind of hard to put into words right now. The whole season comes down to one game and when you look back and a few plays—your whole season comes down to a few plays and you weren't able to make them. Of course, you're thinking about if you did things differently, if one play went differently or if you weren't in certain situations or whatever. You think about all of that which that's the hardest part about losing and losing games like this. is you go back and replay everything. It hasn't really set in yet that we're done, we aren't going to be playing anymore this year. It's going to be a long offseason. It's tough to put into words right now.
Speaking of one play, Doug (Pederson) said it was your call at the goal line to go ahead with the outstretched (arm). Even though you had a full yard to go, did you just think with your length, it's worked before?
It's one of those plays like we've talked about. We've scored on it four or five times, we didn't on that one. So, it's unfortunate and it's something I can learn from. Maybe that situation, you just let play ride and hope you get in and let the guys up front do their job and the running backs and all that, and don't try to take that into my own hands. That's something I got to watch it and make that decision. But it's done now. I made a decision and they trust me with those things and they work. I've got to take accountability for that. At the end of the day, that's on me. What I decide to do and if we don't get in, that's one of those plays if you do it, you better score and I didn't. So it's unfortunate.
On the interception to Zay (Jones), was that a timing thing or just a throw that got away from you? Can you talk about how difficult it was to be in sync today with all the practices that you haven't been able to go through?
Yeah, a little bit of timing stuff on that particular play. I don't think it was practice or anything like that. But a little bit of timing stuff, I missed it inside. We weren't 100 percent on the same page there. At the end of the day, I just missed the throw inside. Just not a good throw and that's the play that they made. I think we had two turnovers almost back-to-back there in the first half. That's bad on me, I missed the throw, left it inside. I had him for a completion if I throw it outside, so I just missed it.
How much of a missed opportunity is this with the talent you guys have in the room?
I think that's what sucks the most is we feel like we have a great team, we have the pieces. Of course you think about a guy like Christian (Kirk), who's coming back next week. It hurts. It hurts to not be able to finish and you look at where we were at one point in the season and just finished really, really poorly. We kind of gave it away. There's so many things you look at and its disappointing and frustrating, and we have a lot of really great players and I think we have the potential to be a great team. We didn't finish the year that way. I think we were headed towards that halfway through the season and, for whatever reason, just didn't finish well. That's something we all got to look at and individually say, what can I do better? That's how you get better as a team. Golly, it's super frustrating—and it just hurts, you put in so much time and there's just nothing to show for it. But you put in so much work from starting in April, or you're starting training camp in July. And it's just done now. So, this will sit and it will sting for a while, and it should. Hopefully, this just propels us forward. We've got to learn from it. I think we've got the pieces to be a special group, a special team. We can go really far, but it doesn't make you feel better now. But we've got to learn from this and use this as a learning lesson and get better from it.
It's a different year, but essentially the same group of guys that was able to kind of close the end of last season. Why was this group unable to find that spark and unable to get that?
Every year is different. We talked about it even after the game, what it took last year, wasn't what it took this year, it took more. We finished 9-8 both years and it took more this year. We didn't do enough. This league, it's a crazy league and every week you have to do everything you can to bring your best and we didn't do that today. You look back at the last six weeks or five weeks or whatever. It felt like we didn't do that in a lot of those weeks. It's going to sting and we're all going to have to take accountability and live and sit with that for the whole offseason. I know it's disappointing for me. I feel like I didn't do everything that I could have done today to help us win. I didn't feel like I even played my best. It hurts, but at the end of the day, if that's what you put on the field, that's what you did and you've got to live with the result. We've got to use it to make us better.
Following up on that, do you feel like this team sort of settled at 8-3? Everything was going to kind of fall into place?
It's hard to say. Not really, I don't think that. This league is funny, it's hard to win and for some reason, we just didn't play as good as a team as the season went on. When we needed to be our best, we weren't. Last year, it's the opposite. When we needed to be our best and absolutely had to have it, we were and we found a way to win up until the Divisional (round). You just have to bring that every week and there was a disconnect somewhere. Obviously, we weren't able to put that on the field in the back half of the season like we needed to, to give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs and go on a run. It definitely sucks.
How much did the injuries impact you down the home stretch of the season?
There's no excuses. Of course, injuries impact us, injuries impact every team at this point in the year. The Titans are injured, they're banged up. They've had a lot of injuries this year. Look at teams all across the league. It's football. This stuff's going to happen, and you got to find ways to win despite having guys injured, having guys out and banged up. I don't think we did a good enough job of that this year, finding ways to win regardless of the circumstances. I thought we had a good mindset. I thought every week we came in and we put our best foot forward in preparing and that didn't always show on Sundays. And we got to look at that and think of what we can do better. It's unfortunate and it's going to hurt for a while and let ii sit in for a couple of days.
What do you say do the guys around you, your offense, to pick them up in obviously dark moment?
The words now don't really mean much. It's fresh and everyone's going to deal with this in their own way. You should, everybody does, but you should feel sick, you should feel disappointed and frustrated in yourself, in the offensive, the team. Everything. Like I said, you put in so much work. Coming in here, (if) we win, we make the playoffs. We have a home playoff game. And we are leaving here, we're going home, and we're done. That's a big change on what you're expecting and what you're thinking you're about to do and then to not get the result. I just told the guys at this point I love them, I appreciate them. We're not going to dive into the game right now and all the things that could've, should've, would've. I appreciate those guys, they put in a lot of work, and we've put in a lot of work. We sacrificed a lot. Guys have played through a lot of injuries. It's been a tough year in that regard. You guys and the people on the outside don't get to see what guys do to play and play well and be there for their team. It happens across the league. But I'm just proud of those guys, and it sucks right now. We didn't get the result we wanted, but now's not the time to get into all of that. We will here shortly. I'm sure tomorrow there will be tough meetings. But today we've just got to pick each other up. I don't think you need to pile on right now. We all understand where we're at and how disappointing it is, the finish we had this year. We got to be better.
