TITANS VS STEELERS
Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020
# # #
Q. Pittsburgh obviously a difficult defense to face. What were they showing you that slowed you guys down early in the game?
DERRICK HENRY: They've just got a really good front. They had momentum early. We couldn't get anything going, and they have a big – just up in front, and they were just causing disruption as far as trying to make plays. They did a good job.
Q. This is a situation where you all had won four of the previous five games with late drives. Just coming up short, did the odds go against you this time, or how tough is it to see that final kick go wide right?
DERRICK HENRY: I mean, there was plenty of times in the game where we shot ourselves in the foot. We just came up short, didn't make all the reads. Got to play better in that situation. But it can go throughout the game and we could have done a lot of things better to not put ourselves in that situation.
Q. How much do you learn from a game like this as a team, the mistakes early that can come back and cost you, and what do you think the team's mindset will be moving forward?
DERRICK HENRY: Yeah, definitely can't do those types of things against a team like that. They're a great team. I feel like we did a lot of good things to put ourselves back in the game, a lot of things that we need to improve on all around as a whole team, but all the things that we did, there's definitely a lot of room for improvement, and I'm sure we'll take those things, address them and just get better this week coming up.
Q. The first game you guys hadn't played with Taylor. What was that like? How did the running holes go and so forth? Was there a little bit of a difference in scheme with him out?
DERRICK HENRY: Like I said earlier this week with Taylor (Lewan), he's a big part of what we did. He did a very good job at his position, but next guy up. Ty (Sambrailo) has been doing a good job. He came in there like he came in last week. We've just got to play better. That's all it is. We've just got to play better.
Q. What was kind of the mindset at halftime after struggling the way you guys did in the first half?
DERRICK HENRY: We knew that wasn't us the first half, the type of game we played in the first half, and then it was time for us to battle back, show what type of resiliency we have, what time of team we are, not going to lay down and quit, going to fight back and give ourselves a great chance at the end.
Q. It seemed like you were getting hit a lot of times in the backfield, especially by Watt. What was happening up front to lead to that?
DERRICK HENRY: I think he was just stepping inside. He's a great player. He did a good job. They were making plays, and sometimes it happens like that in a game. But overall, we just have to be better.
Q. I know probably a lot of people look at this as a good early measuring stick game against a couple of undefeated teams. The fact you guys didn't play that well and still it came down to a field goal, does that give you even more confidence moving forward that you can go toe-to-toe with the best of them?
DERRICK HENRY: Yeah, definitely. Like I said before, we just can't give a team like that that big of a lead in the beginning. But you can't question the heart of this team, the way we fight back.
