TITANS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
Thursday, September 19, 2019
(On the Titans’ muffed punt in the beginning of the game) “Not how we wanted to start the game. We have to get a lot of things cleaned up. I think that would be part of it, being able to handle fielding punts in the conditions we’re going to be playing in: wind, rain, whatever it may be, sunny. There’s a lot of things that we can improve on.”
(On the decision to go for it on fourth down instead of trying a field goal down 14-0) “It just felt like where we were down there, as far as getting some momentum, we hadn’t really gotten the ball and we hadn’t been able to move the ball. I liked how we had been in the drive and felt good about what we were going to do on fourth down. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get it.”
(On what led to the Titans’ struggled to move the football tonight) “I think penalties contributed to it. Give them a lot of credit. They played the same game we did on Sunday. They came back home and were ready to go and executed and coached better.”
(On Marcus Mariota battling through being sacked nine times) “Well, this is not how you want to play this football team; you don’t want to play from behind. We had talked about that; every time we have played them, that this isn’t the team that you want to play from behind with the way they run the football and rush the passer. Unfortunately, we were playing from behind.”
(On initially sticking with Adoree’ Jackson as his punt returner following a fumble before switching to Adam Humphries) “I wanted to give him an opportunity to come back and catch it and see if we could get something going. And then at that point in time, I made a switch.”
(On if Adoree’ Jackson letting a punt bounce was the reason he switched punt returners) “There’s a lot of reasons why we make decisions to put different guys in the game.”
(On why guard Jamil Douglas exited the game) “I just wanted to get Aaron (Stinnie) some reps and we’ll see how Jamil is doing physically.”
(On if Ryan Tannehill was close to entering the game since he had his helmet on on the sideline) “Not very. He just can hear the calls when he puts his helmet on.”
(On the Titans having nine penalties in the game) “We’re going to have to figure out what they’re looking at and what they’re calling. Whether we agree with it or not, we have to make sure we’re playing fast and aggressive without fouling, and tonight we weren’t able to do that.”
(On whether he was tempted to challenge some of the pass interference calls against the Titans) “I knew we were going to need our timeouts for us to have a chance. I think we were going to need our timeouts, and I would say about 95 percent of them aren’t getting overturned. That’s how it goes.”
(On whether he thought about kicking a field goal down 14-0 instead of going for it on fourth down) “That’s the farthest we had gotten down there, and I felt like there was some momentum there that we would like to try to capitalize on and get the touchdown. I felt like our defense was playing pretty good and we decided to go for it.”
(On if he liked the way Marcus Mariota responded to a tough first half) “Absolutely. There are a lot of guys that competed. We’ll have to find out if everyone was doing that. Judging by the score, probably not the case. We’ll watch the tape and make sure that the guys who are playing with great effort and finish play more for us.”
(On why the Titans have fallen off track the last couple weeks) “We didn’t play well enough last week or this week, so that’s what we’re going to have to try to fix, is be better in tight situations last week and try to get off to a better start and not have so many penalties.”
(On why some of the new offensive personnel has not been clicking) “I think there’s a lot of positives. I think there are some times where it looks like we are functioning as an offense and we’re able to move the football. Too many times, we get derailed by either poor details. Penalties really end up costing us to play in third-and-long situations again. We’re going to try again to look at the positives and continue to do that, and really take this weekend to try to look at some things we need to fix. And there’s a lot of them when you lose in this league.”
(On what his message to his team will be) “We’ve got to get healthy and we’ve got to get going. We’ve got to stick together; it’s a long season. We were the ones who put ourselves in this position and we have to be the ones to get us out. I don’t think anybody’s going anywhere. We’re going to compete and we’re going to get better and we’re going to improve. We’ve got to get ready for a game next week.”
(On how he felt about his defense pressuring opposing quarterbacks the last two weeks) “I’m going to have to look at the tape. I think there were times where we forced him (Gardner Minshew) to scramble and move around, and we were able to get off the field on third down. Some of those 50-50 balls down the field, those are pretty quick throws. But again, I think I have to watch the tape and try to figure out who was able to get some rush and who worked and how the pressures worked.”
(On whether they are looking to playing offensive lineman Nate Davis) “We’re trying to do everything we can to get Nate ready. Unfortunately, I don’t think we had enough time to get him there this week. Having played on Sunday, a walkthrough on Monday, I think the schedule is tough. There’s a lot of reps that he missed, and we understand and we’re trying to do what we can do to get him ready. Nate’s going to have to play for us here.”
