There is Still Plenty of Good Things on Our Football Team | Press Conference

There is Still Plenty of Good Things on Our Football Team | Press Conference

Uh yeah, after watching the tape, lots of things that to take away from it that were positive at the end of the day. Um evaluating everything that we’re doing right now and put us see we can put us in a better position. Obviously 0 and three is we are what our record says we are. We haven’t won a game yet. We’ve not done enough good things over the course of of the entirety of games uh to win. And right now that’s uh that’s the reality of our situation and and we got to do a lot of things better. Uh everybody included in that me as well. So, I’ll let you guys go ahead on the um on the sequence at the end of the half. You were talking about, you know, deciding going back and forth about whether or not to kick or go for it. Who all is kind of involved in that conversation and just kind of how did it go down in terms of that? Yeah, I mean those conversations just as as of before like I’ll keep those in house. Those are those are, you know, proprietary information at the end of the day for us. But, um, there’s there’s people involved in it. We got a process that that I I believe in has been been good for us over the the course of my time here. And, um, you know, the decision is what it was and and I addressed it after the game. But, um, yeah, there’s there’s a lot of people that work on that stuff. What were the analytics kind of saying on that front? What did your your team’s particular analytics tell you at that point? Um, again, I’m not going to go too far into detail on all this stuff, but um, yeah, I mean, we made a decision that that we made and it’s my decision to make and um, you know, have we had we kicked the field goal and it and it’s good. It’s, you know, all these conversations go away. So, um, that is what it is. You and your decision- making have been a big story two out of three games coming into this season. How how bad is that for you that that you’re not talking about your players? You’re addressing things that you decide. Yeah. I never want any of it to ever be, you know, about me. It’s not it’s not how it how I want it to be. It’s not how it should be. Um I don’t want it to be about good or bad. Uh it’s always supposed to be about our players and what they’re doing and and what they’re doing well and what we got to be better at. But yeah, the conversation about me is not one that that I want to continue. Um it’s just the reality of of where we’re at being 0 and three and and everything is every single thing gets magnified and um some things haven’t worked out for us in those spots and and they they’re open opened up to criticism and um that’s the way that’s the way it goes in the NFL and um yeah, I certainly don’t want it to to ever be about me. It wasn’t this way last year. what what’s what’s changed in your decision making that you’re winding up in these spots? That’s hard to say. Again, I I feel the same way. I don’t feel like we had any major things that came up from that pro from that point of view over the course of the entirety of last season. Um, you know, I think I think part of it is that, you know, we’ve been in some of these games and and those things get magnified when they don’t go well. That’s just that’s the way it goes. Um, and I think there’s things that that we we got to do better and I got to do better. Given some of these miscues and some of the offensive struggles, has there been any consideration into giving overplay calling to Bo or Nick or any of those guys? Yeah, I mean, everything’s under evaluation right now at 0 and three. Certainly, it’s all a part of it. Um, that’s that’s players in their roles. That’s that’s everything. I mean, we we got to we got to find a way to to put ourselves in position to win a game. So, we’re we’re evaluating everything. Will you give over play Colin? I mean, there’s nothing to I mean, there’s nothing that add to it other than that. Yeah. Talking to the players, you know, a lot of them said that they got got to avoid fingerpointing and those types of things. A as the leader, what do you have to do to make sure that you don’t lose that locker room? Um, you know, I I haven’t really thought about that, TD. It’s more about just trying to how do we best put ourselves in position to go win a game? I think winning a game solves a lot of those problems. Um, you know, we’ve unfortunately lost way too many of them. And, uh, I love the way our team works, the way they prepare. We just got to play, we got to play better on Sundays or coach better on Sundays. Um, that’s where that’s that’s the end all message for me. You know, winning solves all that stuff always. uh whether they point fingers or don’t point fingers that that’s you know all we have is what we have in the locker room and and all I all I care about is those guys and and how well we can we can ride our troops and go down to Houston and try to get ourselves a win. That’s that’s really all my focus is on and I think we got the right guys in the locker room. They’re made of the right stuff. They understand that this is you know we’re in a tough stretch right now and then we’re trying to call our way out of it and the only thing you can do is just blow your fist up and and fight back to it. and um there’s really no other way to to get out of a spot like this. With that being said though, you have penalties being the focus. Like that was the big thing this off season. You lead the league in penalties and then you also look at uh one of the Colts players. He said the guys looked like that there was no bounce. It looked like they they didn’t even want to play. like when you hear that and then and he said that uh pregame, but then when you hear that and then you also see uh the penalties and everything, what is the the big issue? You know, in fairness, I don’t think those two things are related. Um when you when you win a game and you win it the way they did, you can kind of say whatever you want. I think if you watch the way the team played, that certainly wasn’t the case uh by by any stretch. Um we played hard and we fought in that game and we had we didn’t play well enough to win it but it certainly wasn’t u that I don’t think that’s an accurate depiction. Um but again when you don’t when you don’t win you you don’t you know that’s just the way it goes. You can say what you want. Two of your players did say they were flat though that the team was flat. I didn’t I didn’t see all that. I I can’t comment on it. I think I think at halftime in the game you mentioned that the Kball situation in regards to just before the half but didn’t hear that from you afterwards how how much of the that played into the problems there and and I guess if you mentioned that at halftime why not post game? Uh I just alluded to the operation in the post game at you know just the operation in general and again at the end of the day just I got to do a better job put us in a better spot. Um, so there’s really not much more to add to it than from what I said postgame. So the officials operation, our op guys operation, our operation from as a football team and my my operation as a head coach got to be better than it was in that spot. Uh, so that’s again I don’t have much more to add to it than that. Brian, we all wind up in a hole at some point in our lives and we have core things that we fall back on. What do you fall back on right now to to help dig out? Uh, fall back on fundamental football. That’s the That’s the key. And And again, we haven’t done it well enough at this point. But um and then when you know, like I said, when your back’s against the wall and and you’re in a hole, you got to dig out of it. And there’s a there’s a tenacity that comes with that. There’s a there’s a desire and a want to and a and a ball your fist up and and go swing is is really the only way I know how to do it. I’ve been in holes before. We I’ve been in places that have had poor records that have had things not go their way. uh and and you end up in these spots and the only way you ever get out of it is is you got to do things better when it comes to your fundamentals of coaching and playing and then and you got to fight like hell and that’s that’s the only that’s the only way. There is no other way to to to climb out of holes in this in this league other than that. The way that Calvin’s playing right now, just not seeming to be able to to make a play when there’s a play to be made. Are are you seeing any of that during the week? Is there anything fundamental to Monday through Saturday that that has you concerned or is it just showing up on Sundays? No, it’s it’s really just showing up on Sundays, you know, and that’s always the things that are hard to to account for, you know, when a guy, you know, there’s nobody that works harder than Calvin. There’s no one that puts more effort into it and tries to do things the exact right way and puts the work in to go make the plays. I mean, he works his work and the what he’s put into this to have the performance he’s had for through three games um I’m sure is incredibly frustrating for him as it is for our team is we need better um from him and he knows that too. that’s not a he he knows exactly where where he’s at and it’s just hard when you when a guy puts that kind of work into it and and doesn’t get the performance as a result on Sundays and that’s that’s always a hard thing to to to to grapple with as a player uh and as a coach because there’s nothing that would tell you that that’s going to be the case. You know, sometimes guys struggle in practice and you see it coming. Um this certainly isn’t the case. It just has had opportunities and hasn’t capitalized on them to maybe uh to I guess evaluate guys at inside back. I know James was inactive and Cedric was you had Kazir White in there some for Cedric. Is that something we’ll see moving forward as well? Yeah, we just wanted to see what what Kazir could bring to help us. Um, you know, again, against a team that was going to run the ball quite a bit just to uh have a different different guy that’s played in there. Kazir’s played a lot of football. Uh, and and just to see what that what he could bring for us, you know, we we we had we signed them in the practice squad just like some of the guys we’ve claimed, you know, with with uh Jaylen Armor Davis and CJ Ravenell and those guys. They’re trying to see where they can help us and uh and those guys have all done a good job of getting up to speed and Kazir’s in the same boat. 30 yard worth the risk of a timeout? Uh again it was it really you know in the moment probably not at the end of the day but gave us a chance to to kind of re regroup and reconvene and ended up you know we felt pretty good about it. Ended up being like a free timeout since we got the challenge back. So um yeah that’s all about it. important assets of this team, Brian, that you believe have shown growth over three weeks? Do I Is there places that have? Yes. Yeah. I mean, I I think the I think we’ve steadily every week performed better offensively. Um I think our young players continue to step up and make plays. Uh I’ve been really pleased with what Alec’s done. Uh Chim has been phenomenal in all the things that we’ve asked him to do as a returner, uh in the in the run game as a receiver, and the touch game as a receiver. Really pleased with those guys. is and then I think Cam gets better every time he steps out there and and there’s been a progression and that’s what you that’s what you’re looking for from young players as those guys uh continue to to improve that that part I’m excited about. There’s been some good things offensively. Um we just need more of it over the course of a game. But those guys are doing some really good things. I think Tony Per is playing his tail off. Um he’s he’s given us everything he’s got. Um, and th those are I mean there’s definitely things that are we’re doing well. And I thought against a really good rush team over the course of the early part of the game, we were we were good on defense. I mean, they they they had some issues early on and then, you know, as it got later, we we missed some tackles and and gave them some some extra yards that you’d like to not see, but uh there’s still plenty of good things on our football team. And and again, the losing games is what magnifies the negative things. And it’s hard to hard to get excited about things, but I I really don’t think we’re far away as a football team from from winning games. And um that’s the belief you have to have, and that’s the belief that I have and our players have. And when you get into these moments, that’s what you have to fall back on. Whether or not anybody else believes it is is really irrelevant because they’re not in there every day and they’re not the ones in the locker room. And you have to be able to to believe in what you have in order to climb out of the hole on top of it. So, um there’s there’s things that are close and I think that there’s we’re closer than maybe it it seems, but um that’s usually how it happens before you turn and then we got to find a way to turn it. Pull pretty early in favor of Baker again. Uh, was that performance related, conditioning or injury? Uh, no. It was just more um, you know, I think Bake Bake’s got a little more familiarity familiarity, so he’s he helped settle in a little bit there. I think we only had 50 some plays on defense, too. So, I I don’t know what the exact snap count for Jaylen was, but I think it was somewhere in the 20s. Is that I don’t know if that’s correct, but um, 17. Yeah, it was. So, it was early. Um, you know, he had a he had a thing or two that that we got to get ironed out and cleaned up. Um, again, mostly due to the the newness of being with the scheme. So, um, you know, Bake Bake went in there and and settled down for us and and did some good things, but uh, he’s still a big part of our our plans and and he’s going to continue to keep playing. Leads the league in sacks taken. When you when you go the tracking data on each of those sacks, his his time to throw or the time to sack is in the three, four, five, six second range. What are some of the things, if any, that you’re seeing you guys need to do in terms of giving him quicker options? And then what do you focus on with the guy that’s young and needs to get the ball out quicker? How do you how do you emphasize that? Yeah, it’s constant conversation. You know, it’s it’s an awareness of of u down and distance. It’s awareness of where checkown locations are. There’s a couple in the game where he he did a really nice job of that, especially as the game wore on. Uh he’s he’s understanding it. He’s getting it’s getting more comfortable for him. It’s easier for him to get it. Um he knows there’s definitely a part to play in in sacks and making sure you’re getting rid of the football. His growth from from weeks one through three I think has been uh tremendous in that regard. Uh, but it’s something we talk about all the time and emphasize that, you know, we call plays that that have options that down the field and you’re trying to get down the field and, uh, I think early in the game too, they they played, you know, a bunch more like vision zone defense and and sort of forced him to, uh, do the patient thing and and do do that early in the game. And I think he got better at as the game wore on, too. And, um, it’s constant. It’s going to be something that he’s always working on, especially again, three starts into his career. Um, he’s starting to figure out, but he’s figuring it out really quick. And I think that’s what is the most encouraging part is that he really understands it and he’s he’s trying to do those things more consistently. To get within 3420, I guess it was probably in in the third, but at the same time took a lot of time off the clock. Did you guys think at all about going, you know, up tempo? No huddle. We were pretty uptempo in those drives. I mean, we were on the ball a handful of times. Um, we went with some tempo. I had some tempo runs called in there. We had some tempo passes. We were sort of in like a pseudo two-minute style drive. I mean, we were trying to go pretty quick that, you know, part of the issue is is they’re playing, you know, they’re playing all again, same conversation as as the previous question is that they start playing all these dropout zone coverages and they’re you got to take some of these short completions and you got to work your way down the field and um that’s what they should do in that spot, but but Cam showed some patience and and took some of those easier ones, but it does prolong um the drive a little bit when you’re trying to to make those plays and they’re zoning and playing soft and giving you some underneath stuff to take. So, good on Cam for understanding that and seeing it. But, yeah, it’s, you know, you’re trying to you’re trying to get going. We definitely were on the ball. And then you get in the red zone, you know, those are harder harder no huddle spots because you’re trying to get the right play calls in and so you’re trying to quick huddle and get them out. So, there was a mix um from no huddle in those spots and we were certainly trying to go with some pretty good uptempo. Alluded to slipping on turf a couple of times. Looked like he had another slip yesterday. Is that equipment? Is that something you can practice or is that just circumstance? That’s Yeah, I can’t probably go too far into that. I have no idea. I’ve not I’m not playing out there. Um I know guys have all types of ways they feel about all those things, but I that’s probably a better question for him. He also doesn’t seem to understand why there’s turf at the stadium. Can we pass you some stories that explain it that that might help him understand why you play on turf? Um yeah, you guys can do that for him if you want. Um I’ll stay out of the turf argument at the moment. Yeah, I think you did a right side offensive line with without two starters. Yeah, I thought uh Blake Hans filled in and did well. Um I was actually really pleased with Blake’s performance um being called on to come in and again we weren’t we weren’t sure um you know probably up until towards the end of the week whether or not he was going to take that kind of load and he stepped in and played admirably. I thought it was a good good performance coming off the bench like that and and being able to step in. Um I thought that both tackles did some good things. Um was was happy with with that performance. I mean, it’s, you know, missing two starters on the right side, it’s you’re always a little bit concerned about that. Um, but I thought those guys stepped in and played well over the course of the game. And again, in a game that turned into a a drop back game pretty quick, we still tried to keep him some runs in there and some movement stuff to to help, but I thought those guys uh did did a solid job. You talking to Amy weekly and and what have those conversations been like to this point? Have you talked to her yet this week? Yeah, we talked we talked weekly. Um, I I’ll keep all those conversations private as I always do. Um, but yeah, I’ve I’m in communication with her all the time. You heard that this week? Again, I’ll keep all those conversations private. You heard the reaction, you know, from the fans going in at halftime and at times throughout the game. They even booed Amy. What’s your message to them? Like, what would you say would give them hope that this thing could get turned around? Yeah, I I I think that they have every right to be frustrated. Trust me, there’s nobody um that’s is that’s any more frustrated than I am uh where we’re at. And I understand it and and we haven’t won enough games and that’s the reaction you get when you don’t win those games. But um I very much believe in in our ability as a coaching staff. I believe in our players. Uh I think that our we have a quarterback that has shown that he’s going to be the kind of quarterback that you need in this league and he continues to grow and get better every week. And um we just got to find a way to play good enough football to go win a game. And and a lot of those things go away. And you you just got to win one. We can’t win six and we can win one this week. And and our focus is going to be to go try to win one game. And and you win one, then you try to go win one more. And that to me is is the the way you have to look at it that there is no other way for us. We we operate in these week-to-eek basis. Um but I I believe in what we do and how we do it. I believe in myself. I believe in our players. and we’re going to have to to play a better brand of football and and we got to get some things fixed and corrected and we will. Um, but I certainly understand the frustration, but again, there’s nobody that that puts uh there’s there’s no amount of pressure that anybody can put out from the outside on me that I’m already put on myself uh to perform and do the job that I know I’m capable of doing. And thus far, um, you know, don’t have much to show for that. But, um, I can guarantee you that that we’re working like crazy to get it fixed and we’ll do whatever is necessary to get there. You think you get a shot at at either of the starters back on the right side for this week? Um, yeah, there’s a shot. Um, certainly I think we we got to wait and see on uh on Zeitler over the practice week and and JC will be the same way. See how where he’s at. Um, there’s certainly potential

Titans HC Brian Callahan addresses the media on Monday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.

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