TITANS QB MARCUS MARIOTA
Thursday, September 19, 2019
(On how he’s feeling) “Frustrated. We didn’t come out and play very well. And that’s what happens in this league. Credit to them. They came out and show up and played well. They played complementary football and ended up beating us today.”
(On how he’s doing physically) “Yeah, I’m good.”
(On the fact that this is a tough team to fall behind against) “Yeah, no doubt. They get their guys going and unfortunately, we were behind quick and that was on us, as well, as an offense. You can’t go 3-0. We have to be able to muster a drive and score some points just to kind of get the momentum back a little bit. Unfortunately, we didn’t and, you know, they came out and played well.”
(On whether there were things holding the offense back, besides the penalties and sacks) “Yeah, I mean, when you’re not able to sustain drives and get opportunities in the red zone, it’s hard to score points. Again, you’ve got to give them credit. A lot of it, too, was like you said, our own mistakes – whether it was a penalty or negative plays. We’ll have to look back on it, learn from it and bounce back.
(On how it affects him when he’s not protected) “No.”
(On what has to happen now, moving forward, when they find themselves 1-2) “It’s a gut check. To be honest with you, when you lose two division games within a span of five days, it’s a wakeup call. I think we have the guys in the building to bounce back. I believe in these guys and we’re going to find ways to get better and be ready to go next week.”
(On his improvement in the second half and what changed) “Honestly, I just, I don’t know. I’ve got to find that out because I can’t start games like that. You know, I didn’t help our team at all in the first half, didn’t give our guys chances to make plays and I felt I need to go out and just muster something together. I’ve got to continue to have that mentality throughout the season and just give our guys opportunities to go make plays.”
(On whether it was his focus to maneuver more within the pocket and look down the field more) “Well, I think it’s just what I learn from this past Sunday. I think being able to take what you learn from the previous game and trying to apply it to the next one is required of us as professional football players. So, that’s something that I learned and just something I’ve got to continue to carry on and just try to find ways to help out guys.”
(On his deep pass with WR Tajaé Sharpe – being on different pages) “No, that was completely on me. He ran a great route. We had an opportunity there to make a play and I just, you know, I missed it. Tajae, again I feel like, when given the ball and given the opportunity, he made plays. I’ve just got to do a better opportunity of giving him a chance.”
(On consistency – when he has good drives, but other drives don’t really get going) “Well, I think that’s something that we’ll continue to look at. You know, we’ve got the weekend now to discuss it and I think, from just a quick glance, it really just starts on first and second down. When we get into third and short and third and mediums, we tend to do okay. But when we’re behind the chains, resulting from penalties or negative plays, it’s tough. I think, moving forward, we’ll find ways to help our guys out so we’re in better situations on third down. But, moving forward, we’ve got to bounce back.”
(On asking a lot of the defense – more than they can handle – and what he’s feeling for those guys) “Yeah, no doubt. They’ve played well and they’ve given us opportunities to score points. We just, as an offense, have to figure it out and help our guys out and play complementary football. We can’t put our defense in situations where they feel like they gotta gut it out every single game. We’ve got to find ways to capitalize on it, on our good defense, and find ways to score points.”
(On Head Coach Mike Vrabel rolling the dice with the opportunity to make it a one-score game) “Yeah, I thought it was – I mean, for me, I love that he trusts us to go make a play. You know, they just played better than we did on that play, but I think that the effort and all that stuff to get to that point was there and we had an opportunity to make it a one-score game.”
(On whether he felt like the team needed a spark at that point) “Yeah, I mean, to score a touchdown in that situation would’ve been huge. We had a couple opportunities at it. But yeah, I mean, at that point in time, we did need a spark.”
(On whether he thought he had TE Delanie Walker open on the third down) “Yeah, definitely. I thought I put enough on it. I didn’t get to see the result of the play. Obviously, he broke it up. But I wish I would’ve put a little more on it. I’ll have to see it on film.”
(On whether WR Corey Davis throttled down for his pass) “That’s on me. Those guys, we go through that in practice routinely and if they give eyes, they’re going, if not, they’re going to settle it down. And he didn’t give me eyes. Just based on what I was seeing, I think he made the right read and I should’ve just held onto it a little longer so he’d have a chance to make a play.”
