HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
Q: How big of a role do turnovers play?
A: It's a huge role. Number one part of the game. We knew coming in that these guys really
feasted off of it. And they were hunting them up and we didn't do a good enough job taking care
of the football. We didn't do a good enough job of stopping the run when we had to. So it's no
secret why you lose. If you don't play good in this league every week you're going to lose.
Q: Is it keeping things clean week to week?
A: Yep, that's it. You can't have it one way when you win and another way when you lose. We
just have to prepare better and we have to coach better. I have to do a better job of leading this
team and that's what I just told the team. You can't have it one way when you win and the other
way when you lose. So we're going to have to continue to stay with our preparation and stay
doing what we've been doing, just do it better.
Q: Derrick [Henry] and Dion [Lewis] neither really seemed to get things going. What do
you think of the state of the running game?
A: It's not good enough. The coaching wasn't good enough. The playing wasn't good enough
today. The blocking wasn't good enough. Everything about the Titans wasn't good enough and
that's on me. That's a reflection of me and the job that I did today. So we'll coach up tomorrow
and we'll prepare for the next opponent.
Q: Are you disappointed in yourself?
A: No, I just think that anytime you lose in this league you have to look and see why. You have to
go back and maybe see how you prepared or tried to get the team ready to play. Certainly do a
good job of understanding and being able to execute keys that we felt like would give us a chance
to win. We've gone way too far in the games that we've won. We need to be able to improve and
today we weren't able to.
Q: Do you feel like you could've been able to be more aggressive with the blitz package
against this quarterback?
A: I think that we'll always evaluate what we're doing. You know, we mix some blitzes in there.
Them throwing the football, I don't think that's why we got beat. We didn't get beat because they
put the ball in the air. We got beat because we turned it over and didn't do a good enough job on
third down and didn't do a good enough job in the running game.
Q: How was Marcus [Mariota] just physically with the hand today?
A: The hand. We'll evaluate all of the players once the game is finished and these guys are
showered…But we're not going to start making excuses. I would imagine that he was good
enough to start, unless he got set back at some point in the game that I was unaware. He'll be
fine. Taylor [Lewan] will be evaluated, and I just felt like as much as he was trying to go, it just
wan't looking too good. I appreciate his toughness. It's unfortunate. But the next guy in there,
Tyler [Marz] battled like he always does and that's what we expect out of everyone.
Q: Is this a perfect example of you turn the ball over, you don't capitalize, and you get
yourself beat.
A: That's it. You don't have to slam your helmet and bang lockers and kick the Gatorade cooler
over. If you do that every week you will lose in the National Football League. So those are
fundamental things that we have to do a better job of.
Q: The pick that Marcus threw to Nick [Williams] Have you gotten a chance to look at it?
A: We'll we've got to do better. We have to coach the route better, we have to execute the route
better. That's what happens. They made a play and we didn't. The guy stepped in front of a slant
and he made a play.
Q: How do you judge the defense overall, they had a couple of good stops…
A: I think the one thing that we've always, at least in the few games that we've won so far just this
season, is that we've played well in critical situations. Which Ryan [Succop] did. Ryan being able
to get the ball down there and able to convert a long field goal. But then not being able to get a
stop we know that they're really good on last drive and four down situation.
Q: As a team it's obvious when mistakes happen and you kind of fall behind. Did you
sense any of that?
A: I thought that the points at the end of half were critical. We settled down and we just didn't play
enough and they played good. Like that's a good defense and you have to watch that defense fly
around. I wouldn't say that were awful, but you have to give a lot of credit to those guys; they play
hard. They got the ball and that's a good recipe for winning. You play hard and you're able to
create turnovers defensively.
Q: How much did the absence of [Wesley] Woodyard hurt you in the overall defense?
A: We expect that everybody who plays for us each week is ready to go and can act as a starter
and contribute as a starter. But you lose his presence. You know, what is a leader? He's ours. I
would say that they have Lorenzo Alexander. That's a guy that went undrafted drafted. Made his
way up through practice squads of teams and bouncing around and being on his third team,
whatever it may be. But he's a good pro. And I'd say that's kind of like our Wood [Woodyard]. So
hopefully we get him back relatively quickly.
Q: What'd you think of the energy and the life, especially early? Did you come out?
A: Well, we had a turnover and then they scored a touchdown, so I don't know if the energy and
life was good enough. I know the execution and what we were coaching them to do wasn't good
enough. Because we turned the ball over, and we gave up a quarterback scramble for a
touchdown. Now the next, you know punt, punt, punt, down, punt, punt, punt, you know I'd say
that was better, but not good enough.
Q: [Rashaan] Evans was kind of in and out today.
A: We'll watch the tape and evaluate the players afterwards. There's going to be some things that
I thought he probably did well and there's going to be some things that we need to continue to
improve. Just like everyone else.
Q: Would you say that out there for [Daren] Bates as well?
A: Well the thing about Bates is that he comes prepared and he really takes it seriously. And he's
kind of improved since he's been here. Thought that he can help us on third down just to go out
there, execute, and help take some of the load off of Rashaan that Wood [Woodyard] might have
had here in the previous weeks. So we try to give everyone a role that's active on game day.
QUARTERBACK MARCUS MARIOTA
Q: On the interception, what happened there? Did you think he was going to lead a little
further?
A: No, it was a miscommunication, I should've got down to a different read. You've gotta give
credit to Buffalo for disguising, moving around, getting coverages, and it's just one of those
things, I got to move on.
Q: What happened on the final third down?
A: I thought we had something better coming to us, through the progression and Nick [Willaims]
did a good job at finding a void, just one of those things.
Q: Marcus, what is your overriding feeling leaving here?
A: Not very good, yeah I mean we left one out there today. We can't turn the ball over as an
offense, our defense played great. They've played outstanding throughout the year. We've got to
do a better job at playing complimentary football.
Q: It's kind of humbling after the high of a three game win streak?
A: Yeah at the same time, it's the nature of the beast man, it's the divisions you play. If you're not
ready to play, it doesn't matter if who you're playing, you're not going to be able to put forth your
best effort and ultimately lose the game.
Q: Not making excuses in any way, but the wet conditions, the football was a little wet,
how were you handling the football with the glove?
A: I thought it was fine.
Q: Did you go up to Nick [Williams] after that drop?
A: Yeah, I mean honestly it was next play, like things like that happen. Ryan [Succop] did a good
job at making that field goal putting us up, so it's part of it. You just have to move onto the next
one, it's process. You just have to focus on the next play and drop whatever happened.
Q: I know you credited Buffalo's defense but how much credit do you give the offense, by
not being able to finish a couple of those drops.
A: Yeah, for sure for sure, but again you have to give credit to them. They did a good job at
attacking the football, doing different things. Yeah they did a good job and kept us out of the end
zone which yeah you can't kick field goals and think you're going to win the game.
Q: Is it hard to come to the terms that you personally are able to have the game you had
last week and then follow with a game like this, the offense in general too I guess and the
inconsistency, how do you come to terms with that?
A: Right, we got to be better, we have to be a whole lot better.
Q: Did losing Taylor [Lewan] have any impact on playing or anything else?
A: Well when you lose your starting left tackle, it is tuff. At the same time though we kind of just
stuck to the game plan, just didn't execute one.
Q: How do they defend that there weren't as many shots down field?
A: Yeah, they did a good job at kind of staying back. You know they didn't give us everything kind
of underneath and rallying to the football. Sometimes those things are going to happen,
depending on week to week, teams are going to do that. You just have to do a better job at
attacking those voids, making plays and finishing drives.
Q: This is a Bills defense that's produced a lot of turn overs with Minnesota, what do you
think makes them dangerous in that regard for producing turnovers?
A: Well they just attack the football. If you're a ball carrier, you have to pay attention because the
guys will come from behind are doing their job at attacking the football and causing a fumble.
RB DION LEWIS
Q: Dion, what's the overall frustration level as the team leaves here today?
A: Some guys are probably frustrated, just because this was a game we felt we should've had.
We've just got to bounce back. This is the NFL. You're not going to win every game. It's about
how you bounce back.
Q: What'd you feel on the fumble?
A: Guy made a play. We knew all week coming into the game that they were going to try to strip
at it. They just got me – made a great play. I've got to be better. Work on it this week and make
sure it won't happen again.
Q: What has to happen next for you guys to get going?
A: We've just got to make more plays. Just got to make some more plays. Just got to bounce
back, man. That's what it's all about. Come ready to work tomorrow, take the criticism, learn from
the coaching, and try to be better to get ready for the [Baltimore] Ravens.
Q: I know you guys always play as one complete team. The defense held [Josh] Allen to
something like 78 yards. When you hear that, don't you think you would have figured that
you guys would've found a way to win?
A: Like I said, we've got to play better complementary football. As an offense, we've got to help
the defense a little more – score more points, get more yards. Our defense has done a great job,
so as an offense, we've just got to compliment them a little bit better. And we will. We've just
going to keep working and try to get better.
CORNERBACK LOGAN RYAN
Q: Do you have anything to say about how they were able to go down the field and be able
to get in position for that field goal?
A: It wasn't a good final drive for sure but, you know, it was a little bit frustrating for sure.
Q: They came in, it seemed like, determined to run the ball to take pressure off their rookie
quarterback [Josh Allen]. You guys seemed to struggle a little bit against the run today,
what do you think happened?
A: They had 13 points. If we hold teams to 13 points we'll be the best defense in football. They
just did enough to have one more point than us today. We can sit here and nit-pick it because we
lost. We came out on the other end of 3 close games this year. We played another close game
with a team and we came up a point short at the buzzer. So, I don't think anything is broken, I
think the front defense needs to improve for sure, but they only passed for 80 yards and they
were trying to run it. If they're trying to run it as many times as they did then we have to get them
out of it because pass-wise they didn't do much. Total yards I'm sure is probably the second
lowest we've given up since Jacksonville [Jaguars]. So this is the same game as against
Jacksonville, but instead of winning, like we did against Jacksonville, we lost. So now the whole
story flips, but defensively I'm sure their yardage and all that is similar. I don't think they had a
pass longer than 10 yards today.
Q: Like you said, nothing to do but shake it off and get ready for another tough game next
week, right?
A: Yeah, it's a long season. We're 3-2 but we're in a better decision than a lot of other teams right
now and we're right where we need to be at this point. We have to focus on next game and the
Ravens are obviously going to be a good one.
WIDE RECEIVER TAYWAN TAYLOR
Q: I'm sure there aren't many words to describe a loss like this, obviously disappointment
is one of them.
A: Yeah, we're obviously disappointed, it felt like we left some plays out there and didn't do
enough to win the game. We didn't play good complementary football. The defense played well,
special teams did well. Our offense, we just have to come back and clean some things up, look at
what we need to improve on and go from there.
Q: What were some of the challenges the Bills defense had for you?
A: We knew all week that they were going to fly to the ball. We knew that they were going to
cause problems, cause havoc. You know they play tough, they play fast, we knew that all week.
So, like I said, we have to do a good job of looking at what we need to fix and coming in and
correcting it this week.
Q: I heard your wide receivers coach Rob Moore say, "back to work." Is it that simple?
A: Yeah, it's that simple, back to work. You win some, you lose some. In this league you can't win
them all. You have to have short term memory and go onto next week.
The Tennessee Titans take on the Buffalo Bills in Week 5 of the 2018 season on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018 at New Era Field. (Photos: Donn Jones, AP)
The Tennessee Titans prepare to take on the Buffalo Bills in Week 5 of the 2018 season on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018 at New Era Field. (Photos: Donn Jones, AP)