TITANS HEAD COACH MIKE MUNCHAK
(on if he thought team was flat at beginning)
We just didn't play very well. That goes without saying, probably, but I need to say it. You can't fumble on the first snap of the game when you have a run. We did some things you can't do against any team, let alone against a team that we knew was struggling. We weren't surprised by anything of their situation coming in. We turned the ball over four times, gave them 17, 19 points counting the safety. You can't do it to anybody. It doesn't matter what your record is. You can't play that sloppy, you can't give a handoff (away). Jake (Locker) should have probably come out. That cost us points on the second turnover. There were sacks, a touchdown run. We allowed things to happen to us today that shouldn't happen to us in any game. Those plays right there cost us the football game.
(on if fumbles were due to a lack of focus)
I don't know, a guy fumbles. C.J., I didn't see why the ball came out. It's not (that) I am not sure if everyone was focused on playing. Again, that's not the reason why he fumbled the ball there. He got hit, and the ball came out. That was our first fumble (lost) of the year. Why it happened today, I don't know. We did it twice. The second fumble was a handoff issue. Those things should not happen in the league. We put ourselves in bad spots. Even when the defense got us turnovers, we fumbled back to them. (We had) a three and out and had to kick a field goal. Yeah, we fought back, we had chances and with two and half minutes left, we thought we were going to win the football game by a point.
(on how three of Jacksonville's eight wins over the last three seasons came against Tennessee)
I don't know. It's a division game. We lost to them down there and losing to them at home makes it harder. We know it's a game (we should win) if you play well, but if you don't do that on Sunday, you lose. I think our defense gave them 10 points, the rest of it was sloppy. I thought we were going to get out of it in the fourth quarter; we didn't.
(on Jake Locker's injury)
It was his foot. I don't know anymore about it. I just came in after the game and he's going to have it looked at tomorrow. Obviously he was very sore. There is no way he could have come back into this game. We will know more about it this evening or tomorrow morning.
(on if Jake Locker would be able to play Thursday)
I can't imagine he would be able in three days to play as sore as he was. We'll just see.
(on other injuries)
(Brian) Schwenke, that's an ankle. Again, I don't know how bad that is either. He'll get that checked. We lost a center, our quarterback. We lost Damian (Williams), our punt returner. He got hit or something. I really don't know the extent of those three injuries. I just know they left the game and obviously didn't return.
(on Kendall Wright's injury)
Kendall, I think he is OK. He should be able to play on Thursday.
(on Justin Hunter's injury)
Nothing serious, just sore.
(on the inability to close in on the Colts' lead in the AFC South)
That just shows you, we beat the Rams last week, and the Rams go into Indy and beat them pretty good, I guess. I didn't see the score, I heard they won. Yeah, it's unfortunate, all the 'what-ifs.' With how this league is, you have to take care of your own business. We didn't do that today. We're in a situation in our own doing. You can't play sloppy like we did today, you just can't do it.
(on losing games to winless teams)
We're talking about this game—I looked at how we prepared those weeks. You look at all of those things in the offseason when you have those years, of what happened that day. I wish it was something obvious. Then we could have fixed it by now. Like I said before, we had a great opportunity today to beat a team in our division. We knew it wasn't going to be as easy as people may have thought it would be. We thought when the smoke cleared, we'd play well enough and win the football game. We didn't do that. We had a good week of practice, all of those things were there. The turnovers early set us back. We played terrible in the first half, and it was 13-7. A good team finds a way to come back in this game and win this thing. We should have found a way to win this football game, and we didn't.
(on if the team got off to a slow start)
I didn't think we were. When you fumble the ball, I guess you were. The play was blocked pretty well. (Chris Johnson) got an eight-yard run and he fumbled. He fumbled the football. He hadn't fumbled all year, and it comes out. That created the problem, turning the ball over like we did and spotting them seven points. It's disappointing for us, I'm sure for our fans, that we played well last week and thought again, we were going to put ourselves in position to have a great game Thursday night, and we blew it.
(on if he spoke with president/CEO Tommy Smith after the game)
Just briefly, just for a couple minutes, just hello. That was about it.
(on having Tommy Smith see this loss in his first game at LP Field)
We won last week. I just think it's bad for everybody. It's bad for the organization, it's bad for the players, it's bad for the city when you should play better than we did. We didn't do that today. We play in four days, and we don't have much time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to find a way to regroup and win a big game here Thursday night. That's all we can focus on. You don't have a whole lot of time to study the film and see exactly why we did the things we did. We'll do that as we prepare for a tough game on Thursday night against a team that didn't play very well also. We're going to have to come a long way in a short period of time.
(on choosing not to throw the challenge flag)
I had my hand on it the whole time, it wasn't that. It was the fact that we were trying to look at it. We didn't get a look at it at all on the field. From my vantage point, it looked like he got control before he went out of bounds. Upstairs, they thought right at the end that he bobbled it. It was out. To me, I was standing by the official. I threw it out there before the play was snapped.
(on alerting the official that he's about to throw the challenge flag)
It was a hurry-up. They were hurrying the play. The official was right there behind. It was down on the end, so he was all the way down on the 10-yard line, so I wasn't standing by him. I was by the referee, which was about five yards from me. We were trying to see it before they tried to snap the ball.
(on if Ryan Fitzpatrick provided a spark when he entered the game)
Initially, he came in and hit quite a few in a row. Again, that's why I thought, the nice score before the half to get the 13-7. I thought there was going to be a great opportunity for him to come in and get a comeback going. Obviously, we made too many mistakes to allow that to happen.
(on who would be quarterback if Ryan Fitzpatrick got injured)
We would have been in the Wildcat because Damian (Williams) was out. Our third quarterback is Damian and he was hurt. It probably would have been one of the running backs taking a direct snap if it got to that point, obviously we didn't.
(on how Jake Locker got injured)
I didn't see it yet or have the chance to talk to him about it. I think when he was planting and making a cut, I think it was the way he went down or got tackled, his ankle got caught. The guy fell on his ankle, I think on the side there. We didn't realize, obviously, he got hurt. We weren't even aware of it when he got up. He was kind of limping a little bit, but we just thought he was shaking something off, so we didn't know until the next play.
(on other injuries)
Those were the major ones, the ones we talked about, other than if something comes up. Everyone else finished the game.
(on the penalties against Bernard Pollard)
The one was offsetting, so it didn't end up getting us. The other one, the official told me, the one (Bernard Pollard) jumped up on him was more of if the first contact is to the head, which is actually upper body. It got very technical. I think the intent of the rule there was that he didn't hit him with a violent shot, he didn't hit him high. It just happened that he jumped and was up so high on him, the first contact was to his head. That's why he said he threw it. It seemed unnecessary. It seemed like there should be a little thinking involved. He wasn't making a delivery of a late hit, he didn't go high, he didn't try to wrap or take him to the ground. You would think they wouldn't have thrown the flag there. That hurt us, obviously. Again, that's making bad decisions at times. We just have to keep ourselves out of those situations.
(on the team's reaction in the locker room)
Mad, it's just what you'd expect. It's very upsetting, it's very disappointing. As a player and as a coach, you can't see the big picture, because you only see your world when you're playing in it in a game that's not going your way. Until you watch it tomorrow as players and coaches, it's hard to see exactly…then you get the big picture of what happened. Initially, it's what everyone else is feeling, that we're much better than that. That's not good enough.
(on if Tommy Smith spoke to the team after the game)
No.
TITANS QB JAKE LOCKER
(On how he got injured)
I don't really know. I don't know exactly how it happened, just when I got up, I could feel it.
(On the fumble prior to his exiting the game)
It's not CJ's fault. I wasn't able to get to him. I just kind of got to the point where I was tired of having to come off of the field because I was hurt. I wanted to give it a chance. I just wasn't able to push off like I wanted to.
(On the seriousness of his foot injury and the medical advice received thus far)
I'll just go home tonight. They'll look at it in the morning, get some pictures taken and stuff, then they should have a better idea.
(On his concerns for this injury being season-ending)
At this point, you hope and pray that it's not. You just hope for the best.
(On his frustration with this injury)
It's tough. You want to be out there; you want to be on the football field with your teammates. That's the reality of this game. A lot of times your character is tested through adversity and it's up to you to deal with it in the most positive way for yourself and your football team.
(On the team mindset coming into this game)
That's one of those things that's hard to put your finger on. You had a good week of practice, you thought you were ready to go, and for one reason or another you just started off slow. Even with that, we all felt we still had opportunities in the game and it just didn't go our way.
(On seeing the Colts lose and the effect of this loss approaching Thursday's game)
That's tough, but I think you look at it and with them losing we're still two games back from them and we play them twice on our schedule. You're optimistic in that way, that you still have an opportunity, they weren't able to widen that gap that we had going into today, but that's an opportunity missed for us.
(On the status of the previous injuries from which he was recovering)
I felt good this week.
TITANS QB RYAN FITZPATRICK
(on how frustrating it was with the early problems in the game after making a comeback)
It was frustrating. We had plenty of opportunities there in the second half to comeback. I think the three that stand out are not getting the third-and-one, obviously that play with the strip, you know, him running it back and getting the holding call in the end zone. There's a lot of stuff that happened in that game that didn't go our way and a lot of it was because of us. There's nobody to blame but us and we've got a quick turnaround here and have got to get better.
(on how confounding it is to make mistakes against the worst team in the league)
I mean, this is just a nice reminder to everybody in that locker room that this is the NFL. There are no bad teams in the NFL. You can get beat on any single day if you don't show up. Unfortunately, especially early, it felt like we didn't come to play.
(on his approach once he came into the game for Jake Locker)
When you get in a game like that, there's so much. It's not even they had a lot of momentum there. There was kind of a lull on our sidelines so I just keep telling the guys, whether it's Kendall (Wright) or Nate (Washington) or Delanie (Walker), or CJ (Chris Johnson), or Shonn (Greene) or any of our playmakers, it's going to take one big play or Justin (Hunter), you know, making the long catch. But it's going to take a play. It would get us going; get our momentum going. We had it there for a little bit but then we just continued to have things happen. You know, for us to get that interception and then go three-and-out and kick a field goal was a big drive too where we didn't get a touchdown.
(on if overthrowing the ball late in the game was a timing issue)
I mean at the end of the game, they were just dropping everybody and we're just trying to make plays. For the most part at the end, they had two safeties deep. It's not a great situation to be in where you can't just to throw the ball short, where you have to throw it long because that's what they want you to do. To what you're saying though, we ended up scoring a touchdown there at the end. I mean, sometimes, an incompletion isn't a bad thing.
(on the strip sack)
The nickel came off the slot and blitzed. I saw him and tried to step up and he hit the ball. I don't know what happened. I don't know if it bounced on the ground or if he just ripped it out or what happened. Obviously, I saw him running but I can't let that happen in that situation.
(on how he will get good enough to beat Andrew Luck in the short week)
It's tough to prepare for those Thursday games. It is tough. It's a quick turnaround but the thing that evens it out is they've got to do the same thing. It's going to be a short week for us and we'll see how Jake (Locker) is but if I'm out there, we've got to get on the same page in a hurry.
(on if the short week helps the team get the taste of a bad loss out of their mouths)
I think there's so much disappointment right now in the locker room with the loss and everything, sometimes I think the best thing is to get out there and play again. It's the easiest way to get over a loss like this, a heartbreaker, one that you felt like you should win. The easiest way is to get out there and get a win.
TITANS RB CHRIS JOHNSON
(on what happened during the fumble)
The first fumble was a stretch play where I was supposed to hit it up in the hole there. He just came on the outside and I didn't see him. He ripped it out of my hand. He just made a good play.
(on the frustration of losing when the Colts also lost today)
It's very frustrating. We hold our own destiny. We just had to come up and make plays and just get this victory as a team that we know we are better than and we know we are supposed to beat. It's just frustrating.
(on the slow start)
Not sure what the problem is. We know we are better than what we've been playing. We all just got to get together and stay together as a team.
(on if it's nice to have a quick turnaround)
Anytime you have a bad game or a loss, the only thing that can really make it better is a win. It's just a good thing we get to play in four days. That's the best thing about it.
TITANS DE DERRICK MORGAN
(on the loss today to Jacksonville)
We lost. There's nothing I can say. We got outplayed. It's embarrassing. We had a good week of practice. We didn't take them lightly. We just got outplayed. It didn't really matter what they were doing. We were killing ourselves. We let them in the game from the start and gave them hope. We never closed out and gave them way too many opportunities. You can't go in the pit. You can't go downhill. You can't start breaking away. We were just talking about that we've got to bond together. The only thing that we can do is to keep working, because we have seven more games and anything can happen.
(on the Colts losing and the Titans not taking advantage of that, to move up in their division)
It's sickening. To see them getting blown out and know we had a chance to make a move up in the division. It's sickening and it hurts to your core. The thing is we have a big game on Thursday, so that's the only positive. And we'll get a quick turnaround, and we've got to get re-focused. It's a must-win for us on Thursday. We've got to win out, basically.
TITANS G CHANCE WARMACK
(on playing again on Thursday and putting this loss behind) **
This being my first year, I'm not sure how that works, too well. At some point you've got to look in the mirror, shake it off and move to the next game. Can't rest on this loss. You know we've got seven more games left in the regular season. You've got to move on to the next one. We didn't get it done today. We lost. It's going to sting for a minute, but we've got to move on to the next game. I didn't feel like the game was getting away from us. If you mess up on a play, you clap it off and keep on moving. You don't rest on a mistake, until you watch the film. I'm never discouraged, because if I make a mistake, I move on forward. We start tomorrow, getting ready for and practicing for Indy.
TITANS TE DELANIE WALKER
(on losing to the formerly winless Jaguars)
It's just disrespectful. I'm embarrassed. This team (Jacksonville) had not one any games. They come to our house and they beat us. I mean they flat-out beat us. We talk about it. We can't talk about it. Show it. We've got to show it on the field. It hurts. Everybody in here (locker room) hurts. You lose to a team like that. We've got to get it in gear. We've got the quick turnaround. We've got to come back and get ready for the next game, but this one is going to hurt. We lose to Jacksonville at home. A team that was 0-and-8. I mean, come on. It's not surprising. We should have beaten them. It doesn't make sense. We're a better team. We didn't play football. We went in there and were down from the beginning. Guys didn't seem like they were hyped. It's all of us. I can't point fingers. It's me, too. I'm on this team and I didn't play to my best ability. Like I said, we can't wait until the fourth quarter with two minutes left to try and win a game. Not against the Jaguars.
(on if perhaps the Titans may have over-looked the Jaguars) **
That's what it looked like. We looked past them and they came in here and spanked our butt. I give it to them. They came in here and they spanked us. This is the NFL. When you look past a team, that's what happens.
TITANS WR NATE WASHINGTON
(on what happened today to the Titans ) **
We just were not clicking on offense. We've got to go back to the drawing board and tighten this up. It's not acceptable. I just don't think we were ready to play today. We've got to do a better job. Like I said, it's just not acceptable.
TITANS DT JURRELL CASEY
(on trying to explain the loss to Jacksonville) **
I can't explain it. It happened. The game didn't work the way we wanted. I feel like we prepared to go out there and play but it just didn't click for us in any phase. It was a must-win situation to get in the playoffs. It's a divisional game. We should win these games. They were 0-and-8. There is no reason to lose to a team that is 0-and-8. Nobody looked ahead, I don't believe. I believe we were out there ready to play. Whatever happened in the game happened. We'll put it behind us and move forward for Thursday.
(on will the short time before the next game, help get over the loss to Jacksonville) **
It's a short week, and we'll get this bad taste out of our mouths, fast. You know you've got the game coming up Thursday to get a chance to win a game and get the feeling going. We still have to fight for a playoff game. We get this next win, we're still in it, and so we're never going to put our heads down.
JAGUARS HEAD COACH GUS BRADLEY
(opening statement)
First of all, there is a great feeling in the locker room. I talked to the guys about coming out of the bye week this was going to be a great opportunity for us to show improvement and that's what we are after. We talked about regardless if it is home or on the road we really wanted to challenge ourselves to see that and great improvement in certain areas and then just trust the results would come. It was a great illustration to go in the locker room and talk about those things. We talked to them about not having to do anything out of the ordinary. You don't have to be Superman, just be the best that they can be. I felt like we did that or at least they tried to do that for the whole game. There are some things we made some mistakes on and we won't run from those mistakes. We will attack them, address them and move forward.
It does give me an opportunity to show great appreciation to our owner to our GM and I think our team thanked them in the locker room as well. Obviously, as you know it is a great feeling in the locker room right now.
(on the win being a relief or excitement)
I think it is more excitement. What I am excited about is that we improved in many areas. On my call sheet I was writing down things that were really good that were happening during the game and they just kept piling up. I said this is how it feels and guys just playing within themselves. I thought Cecil Shorts catch that he made on the sidelines in the first half was just a great illustration. That's how Cecil looks in practice and then he did it again. And I said, that's it, that's all you have got to do. Our guys stayed strong all year on this belief and to see it come to life is great.
(on being up 22-20)
I think we came back because they went down and scored with taking off about a 1:20 off the clock. In between series we talked to the defense, Coach (Bob) Babich did a great job. Came out, we changed up our pressures a little bit, utilized the same pressures two times in a row, got pressure on them and he called it again and we got the fumble for the touchdown. Great play by (Will) Blackmon. To have the ability to change what we did when they scored and not just stick to it but be stubborn it was a great credit to him and to our players.
(on the great job by the defense)
I think that's what we said, let's get back to what we did earlier in the year. We showed them on tape that we have the ability to do this, it's just the consistency that we are missing. We peered things down. I think I told you after the bye week we might have tried to do a little bit too much. We did peer things down and you saw a defense, I think, that played faster, they looked more confidence, and with that you got a chance to get some opportunities to get the ball. You know, you live and learn. We will build off this but we're starting to figure it out more and more.
(on setting the tone early)
It was great wasn't it? We talked about the importance of finishing and that's critical. I told you last week it would be nice to start faster once in a while. To have that come in to play this week was great. It was a great confidence builder.
(on wanting that feeling for the guys)
We didn't say after the bye week let's change everything, let's approach it this way. We stayed the course and I think consistency brings credibility anywhere, especially with our team. And to have the ability to stay the course, stay true to who we are and come out and execute the way we did is an awesome deal and an awesome feeling for our guys. I just appreciate them staying tight with it and really holding true to it. It really wasn't something they were just talking about you can sense it was a genuine feeling with them.
*(on Jordan Todman getting a shot today) *
He's good. He had a couple of nice returns and we challenged him because he has struggled just handling the ball and I think it showed great faith by Coach (Mike) Mallory giving him that opportunity. And as for him to capture that opportunity was good.
(on whether RB Jordan Todman took the carries WR Denard Robinson would have had)
You know what, I'm not sure how many carries they each…I think Denard had four something and (Jordan) Todman had three, right around in there. That was with two minutes left to go in the game. I think we went into the game knowing that D. Rob (Denard Robinson) and Todman were both going to be back there because we felt like that's what we wanted to do in this game to run the ball more.
(on today's win propelling the team the rest of the season)
Well, I think the challenge for our guys and for us as a coaching staff is to say this isn't what we were after and now we're done. That's not what it's all about. We want to keep building off of this, and we had that opportunity when we played in Denver. We played pretty good, did some good things. We didn't get the win but we came back and we didn't play as well the next week. That's the challenge that we have this week now. We played pretty good, we did some good things, can we handle it? I thought it was a great illustration the first half when we played pretty well...then we come back and then when it got close, (we asked ourselves), 'Can we stay in there or are we going to talk at the end of the game about we got to learn how to finish?' (Now) we don't have to. We did it, and that's great. Now we've got to take the next step.
(on whether the Titans' passing game changed with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick)
I think it did, I think it did dramatically. We talked about it on the sidelines. We knew that with Jake (Locker) and his style of passes, we talked about on the sidelines (Ryan) Fitzpatrick's in, so we had to change the mindset of our guys now.
(on CB Will Blackmon's touchdown after the fumble)
I didn't see it right away. I knew where the pressure was coming from on the side, and I felt the pressure got to him. But, for him to come out of it and spring out of the pile…it was a great feeling though. That's what it was. I think everybody was excited, but it was controlled excitement. They knew the game wasn't over and to go back there and lock it and do it…(there were) so many small victories within this game that we can illustrate to our guys. I mean, really, really cool pieces. I think, like I said before, we're not going to run away from our mistakes, so let's not take all the time to look at all of these good things. We also need to point out (mistakes). We're still…it's not victory Monday. We're going to meet tomorrow, and we've got work to do.
(on today's special teams performance)
That's a great point. Look at this special teams that we built through the waiver wire and through picking up guys late. We didn't do as well as we'd hoped in preseason, and coach (Mike) Mallory and Matt Smiley, the job they did putting together this group (was great). They have a lot of pride, and they're demonstrating it on the field. Our special teams play has gotten better all year and then to see it come together like that with field position and then get us out of bad field position with good punts…the last punt by Bryan (Anger), tremendous. Those are all things we can build on.
(on him not taking the game ball)
No, no, no. It's timing. You know what, for me, like you said earlier, it's so much about our players, that you're so excited for them. They all deserve it, they all deserve it, but not for winning the game, not for winning the game. What I said in there was that you all get a game ball for getting better, for getting better. They get that ball and they get it with the score on there, that's what I want them to see on that ball. (I want them to) remember that it's all about that. It's just being the best you can be and taking it to that level and really just trust—that's what we want the ball to signify.
JAGUARS QB CHAD HENNE
(on his feelings getting the first win of the year)
It's definitely exciting for us. We treated this week one game at a time and kind of like a new season. We are really excited for Gus (Bradley). Our football team, we fought through some adversity during the game and in the end we do come up with the victory.
(on the message of staying the course and improving)
I think most importantly our defense played a great game. They got some turnovers for us and good field position for the offense. Individually we need to improve and a lot of guys stepped up today and made some big plays and helped us win this game.
(on what was going through his mind when Will Blackmon scored the defensive touchdown at the end of the game)
You never say you got it until the clock rings zero, but it was a great play by our defense and they came up big. Especially with the safety and obviously, with that play as well.
(on just getting the small things done right)
I think we did a good job on first and second down. I still think we need improvement on third down but most of them on first and second down we converted before we got to third down and got it in a playmaker's hand, especially in the backfield. I thought the offensive line did a great job with the running game and staying to our plan with this game.
(on getting a touchdown in the red zone on the first position to set the tone for the day)
I definitely think it got the guys up and ready to go but credit our defense for getting us in that field position. We ran the ball on them for five or six straight plays. We said this whole game going in, that if we could average 4.5 or get some positive yardage in the run game, then we are going to stick with the run.
(on his two interceptions)
Yeah I saw him (Colin McCarthy) undercut and I kind of wanted to put it on Marcedes' (Lewis) other shoulder but that was just a dumb interception on my part. The one out of when we were backed up, that was just a heck of a play. As soon as I threw the ball, the corner just turned and made a great play.
(on the feeling of getting a win)
It's a great feeling and we can build off this. We can't become complacent and say, 'Oh, we got our first win and now the other wins are just going to come and be handed to us.' We still have to improve on what we have done today and build on it and get better individually.
(on what the win will do to help the younger players)
Hopefully it builds them up and us as veterans can kind of lead them along and show them how it feels. Just stay the course this week and not get too high or get too low and really just build off this week. *
(on if he feels comfortable in Nashville since he seems to always win here)*
I just give credit to the offensive line. They gave me some good protection up there and we ran the ball and stayed balanced. That was the biggest key. We can't turn into a one-dimensional offense and today we stayed balanced and that created some of the play action and some of the plays downfield.
JAGUARS S JOSH HUNTER
(on if there is some frustration that is now gone after a win)
Yeah, definitely. When you struggle the first part of the season, there is always a little bit of frustration to figure out how we can correct things. I feel like this second half, we are starting off pretty good and now it's all about maintaining and keeping that spirit and effort and to sticking to what coach Gus (Bradley) preaches.
(on if the locker room was excited and jumping around after the game)
There was a little bit of that. A little bit of excitement and you should have that and a little bit of joy with your first win. Also keep in mind to stay humble with it. It's our first one and we want to try to get many more. It's nothing to get too excited about, but definitely keep in mind how we stack these up.
(on making sure not to get too excited after the win)
I think as a team right now, I think everyone has that in mind and knows that this is our first one and not to get outside of ourselves and let's try to get another one. That's where that hunger kicks in.
JAGUARS DT SEN'DERRICK MARKS
(on the importance of getting their first win of the season)
Just to show our improvement—we were a 0-8 team. Gus's (Bradley) attitude has always been the same, hasn't changed—his message is still the same and has just wanted us to continue to get better and go out and compete. It's big to come out and get this win—just in the fashion that we did compete, we did get better and we did play at a high level. It's not like we got a win and we didn't excel in our competition. It's great, it all plays into what he's been teaching us—it's something we can build off of.
(on Gus Bradley keeping the win in perspective)
It is part of the process, and that's what he's been telling us the entire time. It's a process of getting better. Just making sure we all achieve and excel at everything we do within our team. I think it's big because we made plenty of plays—offense, defense and special teams. It seems like we all put it together, and we all got better.
(on how frustrating it can be to be 0-8 after putting in all the offseason work)
It depends on what way you look at it. From our team perspective, from Gus' (Bradley) perspective it's all about us getting better. It's a process and he always makes a good point—would you rather win with low effort and not maximizing your effort and we were all like, 'Wow, that's real deep.' We came out that way today, and it's also great for the fans and great for the organization. For us as a team, we're all just focused on getting better.
JAGUARS CB WILL BLACKMON
(on his strip-sack and return for a touchdown)
I was ready for it. I love being in the slot—in the nickel and blitzing, that's something I believe I do well at, so I was happy to make that play.
(on everything coming together today)
It's crazy that we had a sick week of practice. Everybody made plays, everyone was energetic every day and everyone was really positive and competed. It showed that if you really prepare like you're supposed to it's going to show up on Sundays. It was cool to see everything that coach Gus (Bradley) preached all week and we executed all week, and it slowly came down and we came together. It was more us trusting one another and playing for the person next to us as opposed to us truly executing the game plan.
(on getting Gus Bradley his first win)
It was cool. I wrote that on a little piece of paper—I said, 'Get a game ball for Gus.' It was one of my goals today, and it was really cool. (Blackmon pulled out a piece of paper and showed the goal) I'll show you one of the other goals on the paper, 'I will have one caused fumble'—see it right there.
JAGUARS TE MARCEDES LEWIS
(on his long reception and stiff-arm broken tackle setting the tone early in the game)
A little bit. Obviously, this is my eighth year playing against this team and they've always been a team that we said it's going to be a two-chinstrap game, so we just wanted to come out and set the tone, let them know it was going to be a long day. From that point on it just carried on and we made a few more plays than they did to win the game.
(on how it feels to get the win)
It's awesome. We just keep putting in the work. We just have to keep taking it one day at a time. Obviously, this felt good, but we have another game on Sunday. We'll celebrate this one and then we'll shift gears.
(on how special it was in the locker room after the game with Head Coach Gus Bradley)
It's tough to win in this league, so whenever you can get a victory you celebrate that victory, and you move on to the next. That's who we play for—we play for each other, but we want that for him. He's such a great coach, such a great guy and he's always been the same, so it feels good to get that for him.
JAGUARS RB MAURICE JONES-DREW
*(on the locker room after the game)
I thought it was exciting to see everybody and see all of the hard work we put in and everybody be able to celebrate a little bit. The last eight weeks we have put in a ton of hard work and didn't really get the result that we wanted. Today we executed well. There are some areas that we have to work on, but we did a good job of running the ball, throwing the ball. The defense did a heck of a job taking the ball away, and the special teams obviously did their part as well. It was a total team effort, and it was just good to see guys understand how it feels to win. We want to continue to build off of this.
*(on the bye week helping the team coming into this game)
I think it helped a ton. We were able to get away for a little bit. Coach gave us the whole week off, which I don't think a lot of teams would have gotten that. Guys got a chance to go see their families and get away for a little bit and kind of come back and just rededicate ourselves to the fundamentals of football, and it showed. There was a lot of effort put in today, and guys did a heck of a job.
*(on Jordan Todman's performance)
It is always good to see a running back play well, especially him, because he has done a tremendous job for us. He was one of those guys that was able to clear his mind and come back, and he played well. He came in and ran the ball well, returned well and did a good job protecting as well. He did some good things. Denard [Robinson] is coming into his own and [Justin] Forsett is going to be in there running some things. So we have a stable, we just have to keep going and keep building off of what we did today.
*(on getting the win for head coach Gus Bradley)
I have been in this league a long time, and his attitude and the way he thinks, it is different and it is special. So to validate that in a win is humongous. It's good to see how excited he was. Obviously, our owner, GM and just to see everyone come together is kind of like now we can validate what we are doing. We are doing all of these things and we are going to stick to that process, but now it is like this is why we are doing this. This is good. We had a lot of young guys step up and play and throughout injuries or whatever may have happened, and that is exciting to see a lot of guys see what it is like to get a win.
*(on the fast start after getting the early turnover)
We wanted to come out and be physical, and we did that for the most part. Obviously, we had some penalties on some runs that got called back, but it takes away the pass rush. They have a great pass rush there in Tennessee and they did a great job when we had to dropback pass, so kudos to them. But our game plan was to wear them down a little bit and give Chad [Henne] time to throw the ball down the field with some play-action passes and obviously when you get the ball at your 20 it is easy to go out there and just run the ball and just see what happens.
JAGUARS DE JASON BABIN
(on getting the first win of the year)
It definitely feels good. When you go through a stretch like that and you are finally victorious, it is a good feeling in the locker room.
(on coming back to Tennessee and getting a win)
Any time you can get a win, it doesn't matter how or where, it just feels good to get one.
(on getting some time off during the bye week)
I think any time you can kind of take that break physically and mentally it definitely helps recharge your batteries. I think the biggest thing for us on both sides of the ball was that we came back and said that it was all about fundamentals. It is the little things that help you or they can hurt you.
(on making sure the team takes a step forward after the first win on the season)
We just have to keep focusing on the fundamentals and the little things and keep practicing the way that we have been getting after it during the week.
