HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2024
(On game status updates for players listed on the injury report) “[S Darnell Savage], still in the protocol, so I wouldn’t expect him to go. I don’t expect him. Ventrell [LB Ventrell Miller], same thing. Don’t expect him to play, and of course, Walker [OL Walker Little]. Everybody else is good.”
(On what he needs to see from QB Mac Jones) “Just play consistent football, right? Just execute the offense, lead the offense, lead the team. Really doesn’t have to do more than that. Again, just control what he can control. Put the ball in play and do that. I think if he does, then what we’ve seen from him, great things and good things will happen.”
(On what it means to play one last time at home this season) “It’s going to mean a lot. In front of our fans, I mean, it’s just going to be a great atmosphere with Tennessee coming here and an AFC South opponent to finish up our home schedule and try to get a win. That would be, I think for us, huge. Again, a step in the direction of trying to finish the season in the right way.”
(On if he worries about guys losing focus in these last two games) “I mean, there’s always a possibility, but again, I think that falls on me to make sure that doesn’t happen and keep everybody engaged and the coaching staff. Again, once you play and you kick the ball off on Sunday, everybody’s engaged and locked in. So, I wouldn’t expect too much of that.”
(On how much more of a workload he could put on WR Brian Thomas Jr. to develop him) “I think there’s still a little bit. You haven’t seen him out of the backfield as much and different things. You see a guy like [Bengals WR] Ja’Marr Chase coming out of the backfield, or [Vikings WR] Justin Jefferson out of the backfield, guys like that. It just creates matchups. Takes double teams away. Then, just keep expanding the route tree, and there are certain things that we haven’t done with him yet that we can continue to work on and then still emphasize his strengths. There’s still room to really grow a little bit more in all that he does.”
(On Tennessee’s run game potentially without Titans RB Tony Pollard) “Yeah, he’s a big part of their run game, obviously. Good running back. Look, it’s always been sort of the next man-up mentality, I think with every team. I wouldn’t expect them to do anything different in the run game, quite honestly. I still think that themselves and us, that’s what you try to establish in games like this. Try to get that thing going because that will open up the play action and the movement and the screen game, and all that. I just think that they’re going to continue to try and find ways to get the ball to not just their runners, but all their skill guys.”
(On if he was surprised that the Titans opened their Week 14 game with successive run plays) “Not necessarily. I think too sometimes you get in those games and if you get those one or two runs going, you kind of just go, OK, I’m just going to stick with it. It might’ve been some of that. Then two, you have to look at what we have not been able to do and stop people early in games. The fundamentals of football of just blocking and tackling, so those are things that we emphasize. So, I wasn’t surprised that they did that.”
(On if he ever looks back on the season and asks, “What if?”) “All the time. All the time. It doesn’t make me feel any better.”
(On what his biggest “what if” of the season is) “I mean, you have to go all the way back to that game [Week 1 at Miami]. If you hang onto that football, you’re a 24-7 lead going into the fourth quarter. And who knows? Go to the next game. If we don’t have an illegal shift in the red zone, we score a touchdown, kick a field goal, it’s a different ball game. It’s just, ‘What if?’ Even the first Houston game, opportunities down the field to make plays and we don’t do it. It’s the fundamentals of football. You go through that—I don’t let it really, it doesn’t eat me up because I can’t do anything about it now—but things that as a team, we need to learn. We need to learn. They’re hard lessons to learn and we need to learn them fast. For us to have nine one-score losses this year, and you look at what the Chiefs have 16 or so one-score wins. It’s just a matter of making those plays. It’s just making one or two more plays a game, and then it goes the other way for you. That’s what we have to learn.”
