Q. Can you explain what you were feeling, what you were going through as you were out of the lineup and then worked your way to get back in?
TYREEK HILL: It was a lot of pain, man. It sucked. When it actually happened, I've obviously been dealing with some ankle injuries this whole season, and when it happened, like my first reaction was like, man, my ankle is gone. My adrenaline kicked in, I ran off the field, then I sat for a while and it got stiff and I was going through a lot of pain. Then I just made up in my mind, I came in at halftime, I texted my wife, I was like, 'this (expletive) hurt.' I need an ankle massage tonight, and she's like, 'you'd better get your ass back in that game, dawg.' I was like, 'all right.' So I just made up my mind that it's going to hurt. It's going to suck. Tonight and tomorrow morning. I just went back in the game on my own, without anybody saying 'Reek, go.' It was like, no, (expletive) this, I've got to get out there and bring some energy and be that spark.
Q. What do you think a team like this can learn from a loss at this point in the season? The margin of error starts to slim up a lot more.
TYREEK HILL: As a team, we can never take any opponent lightly. The Tennessee Titans are a real good team. We've seen that tonight. They had a real good defense plan. They got some real good players over there. Coach Vrabel, he's been doing it for a while now, so he kind of understands how to stop or slow or even contain us. Shout out to them guys. Props to them guys.
Q. You guys have been on such an emotional high for a long time. As one of the team leaders, how do you guys kind of get past what just happened, to blow that kind of lead that late and just move on to the next week?
TYREEK HILL: Well, it starts tomorrow, man, because we've got a short week. Once we get back, tomorrow we'll come in, watch the film, knock it out, correct the errors and stuff like that. That's when we move on and realize that we can't make mistakes or turn the ball over or – we've even got to get more than three points in the red zone, because every point matters, especially in situations like this, going against a real good team like that. I feel like we're going to be able to move on pretty quick with the great leaders that we got on this team. I feel like we'll be fine.
Q. What was the message from Head Coach Mike McDaniel? Obviously it's been a while since you guys lost. You guys normally take care of business against teams you've been expected to. What was the message from Mike after kind of a loss like this?
TYREEK HILL: Oh, kind of what I just said, man. We'll come in tomorrow. We'll fix the mistakes. Obviously I feel like to me, this was probably one of my better games blocking, so I can't speak for nobody else. Just come in tomorrow, fix it, take accountability. If you did mess up, and I feel like every guy on this team will do that because everybody wants to win. Everybody wants to find ways to get better.
Q. While you were out of the game and watching a lot from the sideline, what were you seeing was going on with the offense?
TYREEK HILL: You know, man, our offense is so special. It's such an electric offense. We were doing good. We were moving the ball up and down the field. Raheem was breaking some runs. 'Ced' (Cedrick Wilson Jr.) made a few big plays. I feel like we were doing typical stuff, like what we would normally do.
Q. If you could put a percentage point on how you felt when you reentered the game, were you able to cut and change directions like you normally could?
TYREEK HILL: No, I could not. It was just one of them things where like you just got to make your mind up, like 'hey, I'm going to do it, man.' One of them (expletive) them mindsets. You feel me? And it's going to be like that until the end of the season. I feel like at this point of the season, everybody is typically hurt, and right now I don't need – nobody is going to give you pity for just being injured, quite frankly. That's just the reality of this league. My mindset is like I'm going to go in, I'm going to dominate no matter how I feel. If I get locked up, it happens. If I drop a pass, it happens. But just know I'm out there. I'm going. That's my mindset.
Q. Knowing that this is a marathon and not a sprint, do you then think to yourself, maybe I should sit out a week just to try to get back, or is it just, I'm always going to go?
TYREEK HILL: You know what, man, that's never a question in my head. That's never something that I would be thinking about. But if the trainers come to me, if they see something in the scans whenever I get these scans, they say, 'hey, Reek, you can sit out,' I do it. But me being me, I don't want to sit out. I want to be able to help this team any way I can, and that's just who I am. I just don't want to miss any games.
