We Have to do a Better Job at Finishing | Press Conference

We Have to do a Better Job at Finishing | Press Conference

making plays. We didn’t make enough. Um, we gave him too many opportunity to make plays and I mean a quarterback like that, you give him, he know where he going with the ball. I mean, they was able to crease it on a couple runs. They made a play and, you know, we’ll look at it on tape. Don’t really know exactly what may happen, especially when you’re in the heat of the moment, but um, and we’ll see tomorrow. What was the feeling like when you guys came here half time and how tough was it to see things kind of get away from under third? The feeling we came in and get ready to go back out is let’s come back in here with a victory and that didn’t happen. So, um I mean it sucks when you able to when you up like that and you got some momentum to where you know you come out and you know we got to do the things that stop getting us beat. I mean to talking about penalty, we talking about um you know turnovers and you know they did it they didn’t turn the ball over in the second half. So you know we got to do a better job of you know doing the things that help us win football in the game football games in this league and the last two weeks we haven’t done that. So what do you like is happening and especially in the fourth quarter I think it’s like 23 or 20 of of your 53 points have come in the fourth quarter. in your opinion like what’s what’s happening? I mean, we got to do a better job at finishing. That’s the That’s what it is. We got to be able to I mean, we know that a lot of games in this league is won in the fourth quarter. So, how we go about our business and go do all everybody got to do their job. That’s when crunch time, you know, especially if a team they down or whatever it may be, we have to um stay locked in and and day of day, everybody got to do their job and, you know, learn how to finish fourth quarters. I mean, that’s pretty much what it been and we got to do a better job in the fourth quarter. Cam’s shown some pretty good stuff. You feel like collectively collectively you guys may be holding him back that he could be doing more if he was Oh, that’s a that’s a that’s a that’s the coach’s question. I’m not like my job is to play defensive line. I I can’t hold count back. My job is to go out there and affect their quarterback, not hold Cam back. I mean, ask Kelly that. You guys need to have a more consistent rush. Is that one of the things that’s going to be needed going forward here? I mean, a couple times that, you know, we had solid rushes. I mean, we It’s not like we wasn’t trying to affect the quarterback. I think once we go back and watch the tape, you know, like I said, that’s a veteran quarterback, a Hall of Famer quarterback that know where he wanted to go with the ball. Um, you know, even like on the interception, like the ball was out so fast like and Cody made a hell of a play on that. So, you know, he know where he want to go with the ball. We just, you know, keep doing our do what we been coached to do. um affect the middle of the pocket when playing against a quarterback like that. But like I said, at the end of the day, everybody need to be better. I mean, we pass rush could be better, running the game could be uh stop the run, stopped the run could be better. So, I mean, at the end of the day, it just everybody got to do their job. What’ you say to the ref when you were pleading your case on the penalty and they picked it up? I mean, first off, I mean, I lay with hands. I mean, they picked it up for a reason. Um, you know, as I beat the guy, he was he was still blocking me and pushing me in the back. So, that’s an emphasis a word or two. I mean, if he blocking me, I know that for one, you know, if I’m going low on the quarterback, you know, they going to call that, but at the same time, if I’m getting pushed or whatever it may be, um, you know, thank thanks for the other ref that saw it actually that, you know, I was getting blocked from that right side of the line of scrimmage. But, you know, I’m glad they was able to pick that up. Jeff, what’s the message going from this game into a divisional opportunity next week? Um, I mean, come back ready to work. Um, you know, that’s we got two well start off with the coach. I mean, that’s, you know, this how we could turn this season around by winning a big game and that’s in our division against the coach. Uh, we know that’s going to be a tough one for us um back at home and it was always tough playing against them guys. So, got to come in with a mindset that we need to go one and0. Um, that’s the mindset and hopefully that’s the message. You know, we still in this thing and you know, two games. Do we want to be 0 and2? No. But, you know, the the goal and uh the message should be let’s go one and0 this week. Peter uh or Jeff Peter said that uh Cam Ward’s throw was an elite once uh for that touchdown. Just curious, could could you give your reaction to what you saw on the sideline there? Man, I’ve been playing this in the league seven years now. I mean, that was, you know, unbelievable to see, you know, guy like that who, you know, I always talk about his poise. You know, he have a lot of poise when he playing this game. and to be able to, you know, direct traffic and throw across his body, you know, that’ll have pissed me off playing defense. But, um, you know, I’m glad he on my team and that was good to see from a, you know, rookie quarterback. And like I said, that was it was unbel unbelievable play for sure. Uh, I thought we had good tone coming out the break. I I just the game just went another way. Why do you think that is that you weren’t able to build on that lead? I’m not I’m not 100% sure. We just we just didn’t make the plays and a lot of penalties, a lot of setbacks, just we just didn’t do what we needed to do coming out of the half. How tough is that when you know you’re moving the ball and you’re getting in the range, but you have to settle for field goals. Yeah, we we got to we got to keep practicing, keep getting better and figure out how to get in the end zone. It seems like it’s frustrating for you to continue to talk about the penalties issue. Is there a way to turn that frustration into um action on the positive side? Oh, yeah. You just got to go back to work. You just got to go to work and get more disciplined and uh just focus in a little better on the on the um on the play call and just lock in. How big of an opportunity is it with a divisional opponent coming in here next week and you guys locking in and try to get to one and two? Very big. I mean, you got to win all the division games and you know, these just two games, you know, we we we’re still in great shape. You know, we we flashed a lot out there and we just got to finish honestly. Calvin, as a captain now, uh, do you do anything different in your approach in how you try and correct mistakes and bring guys along after this? Uh, uh, not really. I’m just more vocal. Just, you know, talk about it on the field, off the field. So, just trying to do my part. How do you feel? You know, Cam hung in there. Obviously, he’s under pressure a lot. Yeah. But see, Cam’s a dog, man. He’s going to he’s going to get better and better each game, and so is the team. And, uh, just just give us a chance. We’re going to get there. We’re going to get there. We flashed. Like I said, we flashed, but we didn’t obviously didn’t come out with, you know, what we wanted, but uh we got to just keep hitting the practice field and getting better because of the way his mind works and how good his arm is. It’s not out of the question to just run to the opposite side of the field. Like if he’s rolling right and you feel like there’s space on the left, like run over there. Like he’s probably going to see you. And so I had done that earlier in the preseason and we seen it. He was like, I love that. Like do that again. Um and so that’s just what I did. I seen the space on the other side of the field and said, “You know what? I’m going to run over there.” And he saw me. Ball feel like it forever before it came down. Like in my mind, like he threw the ball in my head. I’m like, “Oh my god.” Like I’m about to score. Um but the ball just kept staying in the air the whole time. Um but eventually I came down and I caught it. Of course. Who gets the game ball or the first touchdown? Does he get the ball or do you get it for the first career touchdown? You want me to be honest? Yeah. Yeah. That’s probably going to Cam. That’s That’s Cam’s game ball, not mine. That’s the number one picks game ball. But did that feel as good as it looked? Maybe I’ll get like the laces on the top or something. Yeah. Um, as far as finishing in the second half, what is it going to take this thing to to kind of half of the lead? I feel like everybody just has to make one more play, myself included, you know, like we’re just that close. Like one more one more explosive catch, one more explosive run. Um, I actually think, you know, special teams did a really good job uh this game. I mean, honestly, I think our special team is doing great. Um, but just everybody just making one more play. I feel like we’re we’re right there and we just didn’t get it this time. How tough was that? Because to your point, you move the ball, but too many times probably had to settle for field goals, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don’t you never want to do that. You always want to put the the football in the box and something that we’re going to have to address and, you know, work on it next week. you know, it’s it’s like was saying, it’s not like college. Like, uh, you can start slowing the season and still end up being a really good team. Um, and so we just got to come back and keep doing the same thing in terms of putting in the work and trying to keep getting better. Had you planned to do Cam’s celebration and what did you think of it? Uh, I when I get in there, I just kind of do what I comes to mind. I try not to plan too much. And did Cam say anything to you about it? He said, “Keep going. We need more plays. More plays.” And so, yeah, just try to keep, you know, plays going. That’s what winning football teams, you know, can score in the red zone, can score and they get past midfield and feel like we saw out too many times. Um, and that’s really the name of the game. You know, we’ve only got we’ve only got one score so far and we’ve got to be able to convert when we get in those in those areas and moving the ball is great. Um, that happened at times, but we’ve got scoring points is what you’re here to do. So, um, we’ve got to be way better at that. Came up pretty good in both games when he’s had a chance. How do you guys give him more of a chance? you feel like you’re holding them back kind of. Sorry. Um yeah, I mean I think it’s it’s a collective thing and we’ve got to we’ve got to be better up front. You know, we’ve had huge challenges and um we’ve got to meet those um to give him give him the time because that’s our job. I mean, there’s not much more to it. We’ve we’ve got to we’ve got to protect. We got to give him time. Um if he’s having to scramble, have to make plays on the move, you know, that’s not doing our job. Has that been frustrating so far in the first couple of games? I mean, I know y’all gone against some good pass rushes, but I I feel like expectations were pretty high for the line coming into this year in terms of improvement. Yeah, I think so. Um, then again, it’s week two. We’re not going to, you know, kill ourselves here, but it’s got to be better. Um, there’s no doubt about that. It’s got to be better. Um, we’re going to continue to get better and try to do the best we can for him. Say about the, uh, just the penalties. Uh, you know, they’ve been stacking up the last, uh, couple weeks. um you know what’s you know what’s the emphasis there going forward for you all to try to get it’s not complicated in my opinion um we can’t have them um especially the pre- snap the false starts you just you can’t do it you know it’s just we’ve got to be disciplined and there’s not much you know there’s no tricks or anything to not having them just don’t do them um it’s pretty simple and we’ve got to better at that killing drives right now Peter uh Ch was saying he felt you guys came out a little flat after half why do you think that was the case or how do you feel about that? Um, I mean, I thought we we started to move the ball a little bit pretty well that first I think it was that first drive. Um, we’ve just got to be able to finish. I think was that the drive we kicked the field goal at half? Was that think of a different drive? Um, we’ve got to be great. You know, if we’re not starting with the ball and kind of sitting for a while at halftime and defense starting off, um, we’ve got to just be able to execute regardless of situation. you know, if that’s beginning of the game, out of half, you know, middle of the second quarter or something like that, um we can’t be um beholden to situations and we’ve just got to do our job every single play. This offseason, I feel like this offseason we we did a good job, you know, with limiting our penalties, like we have all the data on, you know, when we practice and stuff. So, when we we have a percentage that we try to hit, and we were hitting those percentages. I think now, you know, when it just comes to game time, you know, a lot of guys in new positions, maybe first time, you know, in position, not a lot of games under the belt. Just got to, you know, be able to calm down, keep their composure, and be able to just run the offense with the team. Given how confident Cam is, is he even a guy you need to talk with after an O and two start? No, Cam. Cam’s going to be good. Y’all know Cam, so he’s going to be good. Ow. And two obviously is not where you guys want to be, but a opportunity next week with a division opponent coming in. home to kind of turn things around. Is that kind of how you’re looking at it heading into this week? Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, division games are huge games. You know, we come back and win that, you know, we’re going to it’s going to put us on the right track. And then after that, we got another division game. So, we’re just focusing now. We’re putting we’re flushing this behind us these last two weeks and we’re moving forward, you know, going on to the next.

Titans DT Jeff Simmons, WR Calvin Ridley, WR Elic Ayomanor, OG Peter Skoronski, and TE Chig Okonkwo address the reporters at Nissan Stadium after Week 2 vs. the Los Angeles Rams.

00:00 – 04:42 – DT Jeff Simmons
04:43 – 06:25 – WR Calvin Ridley
06:26 – 08:31 – WR Elic Ayomanor
08:23 – 10:57 – OG Peter Skoronski
10:58 – 11:56 – TE Chig Okonkwo

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