With Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith and this is the OTP with Titan, said coach Brian Callahan, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans in the Game of Health Coverage. Farm Bureau Health Plans is the MVP. Tennesseeans have relied on their unmatched rates, coverage and service for nearly eighty years. Let's bring them on in, Coach Brian Callahan. Welcome, Thanks, good to be here. All right, let's dive in. Titans
fall to the Colts twenty to seventeen. It's your ball club's third one score loss all games that you've led, two of them in the fourth quarter. So you don't want overall frustration to creep in on your team with this having happened multiple times, because it could. But is there a balance of anger that you kind of do want to see out of your football team at a moment like this.
Yeah, anger is probably the wrong word, I think. I think frustration, Okay, probably is probably more apt. I think, uh, you know, you felt it from the guys in the post game in the locker room. Some of the things that that got said, and that that all that tells me is that we got a bunch of guys that that care and want to win, and they're frustrated by being so close but yet not being able to get it done. And it's a team but I think is fully capable of getting it done. And that's I think
what makes it frustrating. It's we We We do a lot of things well for a lot of the game, and we have to find a way to make the game turning play, which we have yet to be able to do in these tight games in the fourth quarter. We haven't scored many points on offense, we've given up points on defense. You know, our fourth quarter point differential is what what looks like a one and four team would look like. And that's where we have to find
a way to be better. Is where where do we Where do we find that play that turns the game? Because we are close, and we are doing a lot of good things, things that I feel very confident about, things that that are really positive. We've improved week to week in a lot of areas, and the unfortunate part is we don't have results and outcomes to show for it.
But there's a lot of things that are going in the right direction and things that I feel very confident about and so to see guys frustrated after a game, Yes, that makes me feel good that we got a bunch of guys that care and want to win and interre willing to do what it takes to figure it out.
After the game ended yesterday and since you've been asked about a lot of specific, specific players, specific plays, specific decisions, so on, so on. But as the head coach, do you have to zoom out a little bit and focus on more broader themes as you move your team forward.
Absolutely, that's my job as the head coach. You know, I'm not I'm the play caller, but I'm not just I'm not the offensive coordinator. That's what that's next job. I don't call the defensive plays. That's Denard's job, don't. I don't manage the day to day special team, that's colt job. These are all things that I have a hand and I pay attention to, and I have input into. But at the end of the day, there's that's their job is to handle those specific players and the specific outcome.
My job is to make sure that every part of the of the football team and the football operation is pointed in the direction that it needs to go and Certainly I have many conversations with individual players and all those things, but to me, there is a there is a there is a thirty thousand foot view that I have to take because that's my job and my role is to is to manage the entirety of the football team and not just one side of the ball or
one player or one position. So those are the things that I have to I have to consciously step back from and make sure that my messaging is is appropriate for the entire team and where we're headed and what we need to get done. So that's a very different role than I've been in I've been very offense focused. And again, even though I'm the play caller and I'm focused with the offense, my job is not just that.
I have a lot of other things that I have to do as a head coach, and one of those main main jobs is to message the football team and make sure we're all steering the same direction as not all I don't get. I have to not get lost in the weeds sometimes of offensive football because that's what that's what I know, and that's what I love, and that's what I like to do, and so I do have to step out of that role a lot and make sure I'm doing the right thing for the entirety of the team.
Well, let's talk about that offense a little bit, because after the game and since really you've said that the biggest issue on offense is that you haven't been able to establish consistency from drive to drive. What are some of the things that you can do throughout the week to address that and help establish that consistency.
You have to be able to set that standard of what consistency looks like. And we have. We've done We've had really nice drives. We've beneficient and we've mixed run and pass, and we've action and we've done all the things that good offenses do. We just don't do it enough. And so we know what it's supposed to look like when we're when we're operating at our probably highest level. And the key is to find that in practice and
to find it again in games. And look, we look at all parts of the operation as do we have too many plays in, do we not have enough plays in? Do we have too much motion? Do we have not enough motion? All those things we can sort of look at and we try to keep trying to find that sweet spot for us to be able to consistently play a brand of football that's going to again score more than seventeen points. Since you're gonna have a hard time
winning a lot of games scoring seventeen points. You score, you start getting into twenty one to twenty four to twenty seven. Now you're in a range where you're going to be pretty competitive in the win lost column as opposed to one win.
You mentioned that you need more explosive plays, more big plays. Two longest plays yesterday we're twenty three yards. Those were your only two over twenty Was that, at least in part a result of the fact that the Colts were playing a type of defense that was going to take away many opportunities for big plays.
Yeah, that's their MO. That's Gus Bradley's m O. He's always been really good at that. Forces you into play in a very patient style of football. And that's what that's what we saw. I mean, and they and I'll give a lot of credit to Gus. I think he's a fantastic coordinator schematically, really does a nice job of keeping you a little bit off balance. He does a really good job. But I thought we had plenty of moments where we could have capitalized on looks that we
had and we didn't quite get that done. And they do play style that that limits explosives. But and we had to be patients. So that's where two fourteen play drives come from. Is that sort of patience and methodical execution. And it's hard to do that over the course of a game for seven or eight possessions. Sure, and so yeah, we have to find ways to be more explosive, and that's that goes that There's a lot of different ways
that we can probe that. But at the end of the day, if you have seven to eight explosives, that's probably going to mean you're winning the football game. Probably it's not one hundred percent, but there's going to be a high likelihood that you've performed well enough with seven explosives that you've chewed up enough yards and field that you have points to show for.
It's hard to drive fourteen plays against any defense in the NFL. Yeah, at some point they have enough athletes. Guys are going to get you.
Yeah, And it's and just the nature of NFL football is a lot and why teams play this way sometimes is that they count on you making a mistake somewhere along the way where you have a false start or you have a penalty and now you're buying the sticks, and it's just it is. You have to be able to do that, but you also have to find ways to generate and create explosives, and we didn't have enough of them in that game, which is why we know only scored probably seventeen points. Is a big part of.
It is the current situation where this whole team finds themselves right now, one where you are extra thankful maybe that you have your dad on this staff for no other reason than he's been in your shoes. He's had this role before. I would imagine there aren't too many people that you encounter just in the world who understand what it is that you are trying to kind of navigate through right now.
Yeah, there's not many people that know it. It's a huge help to me. His value is as a as a mentor, not just if you just take my the father son part out of it, but just as a professional mentor. Yeah, he's seen it all. He's been through every bit of this every which way, has learned with some lessons and maybe would advise me to do something different than he did, and because he's already seen it and been through it, so he he's been a huge, huge, huge help. I don't know that it's Yeah, it's hard
to do without someone that has that experience. And I lean out other guys on the staff too that also have, you know, the experience of being in the NFL for a long time and seeing these these things happen where you're on a team that's good and they we do a lot of good things, but we don't finish and our results haven't come and year one and what that looks like. There's just there's guys that have all experienced that.
I do lean on all those guys, but my dad has been pretty invaluable when it comes to working through some of these things.
Speaking of offensive line, you mentioned that Leroy Watson did okay at right tackle. You were not ready to say that he is the right tackle going forward. So what does Leroy or somebody else have to do to nail that spot down?
The same thing that I that I said about Nick Petit was, you know, there just needs to be a more consistent play and when we have to go block somebody, we can go block them, whether it's in pass pro or the run game. There just needs to be a consistency that we haven't been able to achieve yet at
that spot. And again, like I said, there was Lee Roy had some good moments and he had some not so good moments, which is I guess the best way to define what okay means, you know, But yeah, I think that there's there's We were just looking for more. We need more consistency, more performance from that spot than than we've had thus far. And again, maybe maybe it's still Leroy this week. Maybe Jalen Duncan is up to the task. Maybe maybe Nick is up to the task.
So we'll work through that over the next couple of days and see where that lands.
All right, Will Levis got the ball out very quickly on Sunday, which was your design because you did not want him to take it. Levis was not sacked in the game. Were you more satisfied overall with your protection based on okay?
I think we. I think we are making weekly improvements up front, and that's all five of those guys. I think JC Latham, I think every week he goes out there gets better. It's never perfect, it's never gonna be I think Peter's done a nice Peter's grown every week. I think Lloyd's been very solid for us. I think Dylls really come on a bit. I think he's improving. So we're after that week to week improvement upfront, and
there's it takes time to get good upfront. It takes time to learn a new system and new language and new ways of doing things. And I think those guys have done a nice job. They've put the time and work in and the improvements has been noticeable. I mean that's two back to back games where I thought we've been really physical and run the ball well, and we've been better in pass pro.
Dave McGinnis on Titans Radio yesterday was impressed with the left side of your line moving some people in the run game. Was it as noticeable on tape?
I certainly was. Yeah, those guys have done a really nice job. You know, that combination is one with with JC and Pete on the left side that we've always felt like was an advantage for us. They do a really good job. They're they're physical, they're powerful, they can move the line of scrimmage. We certainly try to get behind those guys when when we can, as much as possible. But they've done a really nice job in a run game, and it's they've opened some lanes and some really big runs for us.
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Tighten Up Holm is at the forefront of all that we do. It's why we're so committed to caring for the places and spaces in which we work and live. Ashley the official furniture provider of the Tennessee Titans. As we continue with coach Brian Callahan, let's talk about some of the good things from Sunday that he mentioned.
You could start, I can start, all right, Let's talk about the touchdown pass to Nick Westbrook Akine. It was a very well designed play. Was that designed specifically for Nick?
It was, Yes, it was, it was.
There.
There were some things about Nick being in the game, running pass and all that stuff that obviously we were aware of, and putting him in the game and then putting Calvin in a spot where he would potentially get the ball was was sort of the intent. And really what the two of them did was such a great
job of selling it. Really was we were trying to sell essentially throwing a bubble screen to Calvin with Nick being the point blocker, and they they did a great job of selling that horizontal speed they're both are, They're both flying out of there, and so the dB things, oh, here comes the bubble, and they both just and they react not on the pump or the or or on anything that will does. They react purely based on the
speed that the two were running. And I and the point made all a week for Nick was like, just keep stretching and as soon as you feel the stretch and he triggers, just slip them. And that's exactly what happened. And it was it was a play I felt good about all all through the process. I mean, I told those guys that it was that that was going to score and I knew and I felt very very good that that was going to be a touchdown play and it would be as open as it was in the game.
And so when it works like that, that makes you feel good every night, every Saturday night. With the quarterbacks, we as we go through the call sheet in their favorites. We The last thing we do after we go through that whole process is we we we all pick our touchdown play, and it's everyone just picks what they think
the first play to score was. And I was very adamant that that was the one that I was glad they left it for me because I picked near the end because I'm one of the older ones in the room. We picked by you know, youngest to oldest, and that was my touchdown pick, and I felt that's how confident I felt in the play.
Is that fair because you call the plays, Yeah, it would feel like it feels like you could control.
That well, you'd be I mean, Mason Mason won. Mason won last week against Miami. The last game. Mason had had pegged that run that Taja had as the play that would score. So it's not fully it's not fully rigged. I mean, I I certainly wouldn't.
It's a pretty It was a pretty play in practice, if you don't mind me saying just.
I mean, it looked just like it didn't practice in the game, which is always a nice feeling.
Tony Pollard is someone else who has looked very pretty recently and I feel like we need to talk about it because he has been the most consistent weapon on this offense. At what point do you expect opposing defenses to start specifically planning to stop Tony Pollard?
That is that they've done that. That's not something that's uh, that's that's new. People are trying are aware now that we could that we're a pretty solid rushing football team, and they're trying to find ways to slow that down.
But Tony is so dynamic and so versatile that you don't you know, we throw the ball with him in the game, He passed, protects great, He never really has to ever come out and and so there it's hard for people to pin down necessarily just because he's in if if we're going to run the football or not run a football, or what's is he going to release in a pattern? What all those things? So that part helps him. But he has been just an absolutely fantastic
playmaker for our offense. He's been a great leader. Uh, he's been a great uh locker room presence, and on top of that, he's made and especially yesterday, most of our plays it was fantastic.
I know you have things you want to talk about too. But before we move off of Tony Pollard, would you mind talking about his blitz pick up on ZAYR. Franklin just for a second, just to kind of talk about it.
I'm an incredible effort. You know, we generally would not like to be They timed that up really nicely. We generate to not be in an under center play action with that pressure coming right down the middle of the pocket. That's his pickup. It's a very difficult pickup from the dot where you have to wrap around the quarterback and go get it. And it was the effort, the intensity
and then the desire to go get him cut. I mean, we don't like to cut and pass pro, but to go in there and cut him and give us a chance to get the ball off was pretty remarkable effort. And he had a second one later in a game too, on a third down. That's what makes him so unique is he is a he is a three down, three pronged back that is rare that can do everything at a really really high level, pass pro, run routes, and
catch and then run the football. So he is he's a he's I'm so happy that he's on our football team because he's a really, really good football player.
You mentioned Taja Spears hamstring makes him weak to weak. If Spears can't go at Buffalo, will Julius Chestnut get a chance to pick up some of those reps right now?
He's in line for that.
You know.
Obviously we'll do our due diligence on what is available out there in the world to us, just because if it ends up being an absence longer than a week or two, we want to make sure we have a third back that's maybe played in the NFL as well, So we'll see where that lands. There's no no full answer for that at this point, but certainly Julius will have his his opportunities to carry the ball a bit more because again, no, no, you know, we don't want
to have Tony carry the ball thirty times. It's not really his thing. He'll do it, but I think you still need to have some division of labor in the running back room over time. So we'll see where that lands. But Julia should have an opportunity.
Jarvis Brownlee at corner.
What a game.
Okay, That's what I wanted to know from just our perspective. Look like he played really well. When you watch the tape, maybe even more impressive.
Yeah, he was fantastic for a young player, and he's been he's always been a guy that we felt like had the potential to be a good player. And now that he's getting an opportunity due to injury, he's really shown what he's capable of. And then the key for him now is going to be do it again. You know, That's what separates guys in the league is really really nice building into a really nice performance, had a really really nice performance against the Colts, and now can you
do that multiple weeks in a row. But yeah, he was fantastic.
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So we're turning the page now. Titans take on the Buffalo Bills next. You've seen Buffalo a lot from your time in Cincinnati. What about this twenty twenty four Bills team is different or the same from what you have experienced.
They are a they're running the ball well, they're a physical football team, you know. They they they're playing a really aggressive brand of defense, which they sort of always have. But they've had a little bit of change in the staff there as well, from last year to this year, Eric Washington leaving and go to the Bears, and I think, you know, coach mcdermot's probably taken a more active, hands
on approach to it. But you know, they got good players, they got good scheme, they're they're a team that has battle tested, they know what it looks and feels like, and they are a contending AFC team. So we got to work cut out for us. And what is maybe one of the best environments in football to go play hard, difficult but really enjoyable to go play in an environment
like Buffalo. So yeah, we got it. We got our hands full against against a team that I think is playing pretty pretty good football and is one of the better teams in our conference.
Brian Callahan, thanks for the time. Can't wait to see you in Buffalo this Sunday and we appreciate you joining.
Us as always, thanks for having me.
That's the otp Abe Wells and Mike Keith and Brian Callahan, thanks for joining us.