Live Press Conference: 11:50 AM CT: Interim HC Mike McCoy

Ell, Baker will be out, Woods will be out, and then uh KB came in Monday and he is in concussion protocol. So, I’ll leave it at that. Okay. A good sign for Jim, I guess. Go ahead. With with Alec being out, uh how much your your receiving core is already thin with the guys you’ve got on IR. What’s the challenge now of getting, you know, Proche and some of these guys brought back to the practice squad ready for if as needed on Sunday? Well, that’s been a big message from day one here is your role if whether you’re on the practice squad or on the roster of working every day because you never know when an opportunity is going to come up. And I think that’s the great thing about uh pro Mason strep what they gave the defense the looks and the way they work. That’s what it’s all about. And I just told the team that this morning too. I said this is what’s great about these guys, the opportunities these guys may have is the way they’ve worked and I know they’ll make the most of the opportunities they have if given the or when given the opportunity. You’ll have to monitor him, but a good sign that maybe he’ll be able to do something. Yeah, it’s a great sign. He’ll be out there working today. Um, you know, he’s feeling much better today and we’ll take it a day at a time with him, but uh it’s a good sign. What about their How they able to generate so much pressure with apparently not blitzing a whole lot? Good players. Yeah. Uh, you know, I think in the scheme, a really good scheme. Mike does an outstanding job. Um, you know, they were outstanding in Baltimore for many years. Uh, and what he’s done up there with the players they have and, uh, the drafts they’ve had or that, you know, how they’ve built the team there. Um, you know, it’s a good a really good coach and good players going out there and executing the system. when you look at their detackles, Murphy and U. Williams, like they get that interior pressure as a quarterback, like why is that such a a detriment to to you trying to uh make make it happen? Well, you know, it it’s it’s a great question because and you know, is your quarterback, you know, you when they think when the pressure comes from inside, okay, you’ve got to go one way, whether you’re going moving back, you’re going forward, whatever it is, and then you have guys rushing on the edge. when it comes from the outside and there’s no push inside, you could step up in the pocket. So, it it kind of creates a whole different problem when it’s coming from the inside because whether your progression is to the right side and you got to back out to your left and then throw it back across. Whereas, when it’s coming off the edge, it’s a lot easier to step up in a pocket sometimes than it is going backwards or, you know, depending on what the routes are and is it a quick passing game, is it downfield throw, whatever that is. So, it just creates a different problem and I think you kind of see that when when Jeff’s out there and sometimes when Jeff pushes the pocket for us, how it creates opportunities because quarterbacks have got to get off their spot. So, but what’s kind of been the secret for Smith and Jigba’s rise this year and what is the challenge of corelling him when he gets so much of a focus of their offense? Very explosive player. I think the system that Clint um who I worked with before in Denver and and how he he’s done an outstanding job wherever he’s been uh just, you know, putting players in a position to be successful and when you have a really good run game, uh that opens up a lot of windows for you when you can run the ball the way they do. And then with the play action shots and just being a very talented player, uh but they’re taking advantage of his skill set, but very explosive. Uh the entire offense is explosive. Anything else? What’s been different about Sam Dar particularly at C and even last year too in Minnesota? Well, you know, I think he’s a veteran that’s been in a number of places and like we talked about this. I think some of you guys asked the question on Monday. uh it’s experience and learning from you know the ups and downs of other places and then obviously going to Minnesota last year and playing with the players they have there and the system uh of going out there and sometimes as a player uh you go to a new place the breath of fresh air and it’s it’s you you see good and bad both you know from players when they change teams and he took advantage of the opportunity he had in Minnesota with the players they had and the way Kevin was calling the game and then very similar to Clint and the system that they’re Um he he’s taken advantage of it and he’s you know he’s managed the game and executed the system the way it’s supposed to be done. Mike, every team in the league that wants to have success has an identity, something that they hang their hat on when things get tough. Yep. You know, what do you feel like offensively is this team’s identity? Well, I think there’s been too many ups and downs to say, “Hey, you know, I you could say, hey, there’s a couple weeks there that you really you ran the ball better than we have.” And then all of a sudden this past week it’s not there. There’s weeks of the passing game um that it’s been up and down. I think that Cam is getting better. You know, the way he played uh in the way we executed the passing game last week is that that’s what you want. And unfortunat, you know, there’s a couple plays in there that we missed, but that that’s you’re going to miss up every game. You’re going to look at come back and say, “Hey, there’s one or two plays you wish you would have had back.” um in all phases. You know, I think we need to be we need to be more consistent in all areas. A couple days ago, I asked you about uh Mike, Chad, Amy, and and your your philosophy. You hadn’t talked to them in your recent most recent conversation with them. How how aligned are you? How on board are they with your philosophy, in-game philosophies? You feel like they had no problems with what we did in the game. Your question, they had no problems. uh they agree with what I did and we always talk about those things, but we’re we’re we’re together. We’re all in this together. We talk about everything and we’re all in it together. We are one. What would you say are some of the struggles uh the sources of the struggles that that you are having in in the run game? Well, that that’s that’s varies from week to week. You know, I think there’s a couple plays that against uh Houston and the first time we played them we ran that were really good plays that we ran a couple of times. This week you ran them. They might have played him different. Uh, you know, one of those plays, you know, 51 came played it different than he did the past couple weeks or the first time we played him. That’s that’s from, you know, game plan and looking at things. So, they took a couple things. So, the ups and downs of the run game that varies from week to week, whether it’s there’s a number of reasons. Um, you could say, is it a track of a back? You know, did he cut did he not press the line of scrimmage too much? Did he cut too fast? Was there a mis block? Uh, and then I know sometimes we don’t want to hear this, but sometimes someone trips. I mean, I’ve had a lineman come back before and come back to me and say, “Run it again. I tripped.” So, there there’s a number of things. Uh, it could be a receiver. It could be a receiver not going and blocking, you know, a down safety or a nickel off the edge. And then sometimes it’s it’s scheme. You know, there’ll be a time where we run into a bad look. Um, and then there’s a time where we should check out of a play that doesn’t happen. So there there’s when things don’t work, there could be a different answer for every single play. It’s not just it’s it’s not just saying, “Hey, we didn’t do this or we did this.” You know, I guess a better way to ask it is, is there a consistent thing that continues to show up that keeps you guys from being able to run the football success? I wouldn’t say like I I would stick with what I just told you. It’s it’s different for every play. There’s different reasons why uh whether you’re not blocking a certain linebacker or you’re not getting off a block. I mean, I can go on and on for why plays don’t work. You have to watch every play to say this is why it worked or this because you can go back and watch the exact same play and it looks the exact same and it’s a seven yard gain and there’s other times it’s a zero and there’s times where hey do you get beat some defense is going to win sometimes too. So like I said I could give you 50 reasons for why a play won’t work. What sort of progress did you see on third downs last week if any? I know that was a big emphasis for you coming out of the buy. Did you see the I love being in the 40s. That’s a lot more efficient than being in the high 20s. So that that was good. We made some plays and that was, you know, the one play Cam uh checked and we got the play to Mason. So that that was, you know, taken, you know, that was something we hadn’t done uh in the past couple weeks in that opportunity wasn’t there for him, but he saw a look, he got it to us. So, you know, that that’s growth there of getting us in a better play. Not that that play wasn’t good that we were running, but he saw an opportunity to take advantage of it. Um, so that was something good. You talked about areas how they pressure you on defense. How’s how have you seen Kane maybe improve? uh in handling things under pressure, what’s the things to point to that you see improvement? Well, I think the staff does a great job of excuse me on our on our Thursday when we have our blitz meetings and certain things that we go over and all the things that you need to do of putting everything together and then obviously you start your walkthroughs and everything on Wednesday’s practice to go through things. Um but just of detailing how we’re going to pick everything up in the meetings and then obviously through experience uh Cam recognizing certain fronts you know as a season goes on and you see certain things and you know it it takes sometimes it takes you a little bit of time to get hit in the head maybe once or twice and then all of a sudden you’re like got it now I know exactly why you said that and it’s like okay this is the this is the rule and this is why of why you got to live with those rules and you You got to stick to them and there’s going to be times where hey you’re there’s going to be one more than you can block at times and then you got to understand you got to get rid of that ball but it comes with experience of him just seeing it faster and that’s like I’ve been telling you guys since since day one the more he plays the easier it’s going to come he’s going to see a front he’s going to know the issues right away you know where the linebackers were the safeties as a corner pressure team and that just comes with experience are you to work slots outside in the practice week to get ready for a situation where Maybe you’re lacking outside or do you want your your reserve outside guys to get that experience and be ready? I don’t know. I say your question one more time. Your your slot guys like Kinsey and and and and Proche or or Restrepo. You want them to work outside to be able to take on Ellim’s reps or or your guys on practice squad who are bigger and maybe have more experience outside. Would you lean on them? Shoot. after last week, they got to know everything. You never know when that’s going to come up. And I think give the players so much credit for what they did that last drive in the game. Um, but I think to answer your original question is that I think guys have a role on the team, but I think it’s really important and last week is a great example of why you have to understand a system and our job as coaches is to put the players in position that, you know, is best for the team at the current time. But you have to have position flexibility because I mean it’s not very often you lose three receivers. Uh but if a guy goes down, you got to change formations. You got to move guys around. Uh maybe it’s more of a 12 personnel. You move guys because they might fit that route that’s different. But they really got to, you know, be able to do everything. But I think you focus with what does that player do best. If they’re a slot guy, you try to keep them inside as much as you can, but there’s going to be adjustments. uh you you might end up having two slot guys and an outside guy. So, somebody’s got to go outside. So, depending on what the situation is, uh it’s going to you have to be flexible. Mike, on Sunday, Jeff said the Texans were not better than them. And we’ve heard from players, hey, we’re better than this all season. At this point though, with a lot of problems persisting, can you reasonably prompt and extract that better level of play they talk about and produce that on the field when when we’re not seeing it, but we’re hearing it from the players? I think you everyone looks at you you look at a game and you you look at something, okay, you’re right there. You got to find a way to make those plays to get up 10 or whatever that is or get the big stop on third down so you get that opportunity to win it. And you you watch every game, you look at it and there’s certain games you’re like, you know, we’re right there. But you’ve got to make you got to be more consistent and make the plays that present themselves so you can win those games. you know, whether it’s scoring on, you know, fourth and one, whatever is getting a stop at the end of the game, uh, making a big play, what, somewhere in there, you know, don’t let a quarterback get out of the pocket on a certain play on third down, so it extends a drive. So, it’s that that’s where they’re that’s what they’re talking about. There’s so many things there that you look at and say, if you just more consistently play, we’re going to win these games. Believe that level of play is possible to achieve. Definitely. You can always every week you’re going to it doesn’t matter what your record is, you’re always trying to play better. And that’s you you always want to be playing you always say as a on a on a team, you want to be playing your best football in December and you want to continuously get going from, you know, from September week one all the way through. It’s like how do we play better? I mean, I’ve been you’ve been in on teams where you throw for x number of yards and you you miss two balls. You’re like, we we need to be 100%. We we want to be and that’s what you strive for. you know, it’s it’s never going to be perfect, but that’s what you’re you’re striving for, perfection. You feel like this team is playing better since you took over or even before that? There’s some good there’s been some really good things. Um, you know, and then like I’ve just said there, there’s certain plays that you go, we got to make those plays. We have to make those things. And you got to put yourself in a position to win games. And I think we’ve been right there. But we’ve just got to we’ve got to make more plays more consistently for in in all three phases. All right. Thank you. Thanks.

Titans Interim Head Coach Mike McCoy addresses reporters on Wednesday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.

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