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Speaker 1: They've been backing Tennesseeans for nearly eighty years. It's always
Speaker 1: good to have Brian Callahan join us at Ascension Saint
Speaker 1: Thomas Sports Park. So let's start off with some specific
Speaker 1: questions about Sunday's game with the Vikings. Amy take it.
Speaker 2: Away, Coach Callahan, you wanted to see Will Levis make improvement,
Speaker 2: make progress from the Chargers game to the Vikings game.
Speaker 2: As the guy who runs this team's offense. Brian Callahan,
Speaker 2: did you see that progress that you were looking for?
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 3: I thought it was a step in the right direction
Speaker 3: from the week before, and that's what I was hoping
Speaker 3: to see. Really difficult defense to play against Smack, a
Speaker 3: lot of different things they do that are challenging for
Speaker 3: the quarterback, a lot of answers you have to have,
Speaker 3: and I thought Will executed that plan really well and
Speaker 3: made some high level throws in the process. I thought
Speaker 3: it was a really strong step. And then in his
Speaker 3: progression and I was really pleased with it.
Speaker 2: What were some things you liked and some things you
Speaker 2: didn't like about the way the secondary played against Minnesota.
Speaker 3: I thought they did a really nice job against a
Speaker 3: very talented group of receivers. Between Hockinson and Addison and
Speaker 3: then obviously Justin. Jefferson's the arguably the best player at
Speaker 3: the position, and I thought Jarvis battled he was in position.
Speaker 3: You know, we're still it's got a couple of flags
Speaker 3: in the back end, a little grabby at the top
Speaker 3: of routes that you know, we'd like to get eliminated.
Speaker 3: But man, I thought they did a pretty pretty dang
Speaker 3: good job of keeping that offense in check and making
Speaker 3: some plays on the ball, and in some one on
Speaker 3: one coverage situations they didn't They didn't get and get
Speaker 3: going anything crazy in that receiver room, which is a
Speaker 3: good room. And I do think Darrol Baker's done a
Speaker 3: really nice job stepping in for us. I mean, just
Speaker 3: to come in at the end of training camp and
Speaker 3: have the impact he's had and played as much as
Speaker 3: he's played has it's been pretty good to see him
Speaker 3: perform at the level he's performed at.
Speaker 2: Now, you mentioned Justin Jefferson, if I had told you
Speaker 2: before the game that Justin Jefferson would be targeted eight
Speaker 2: times and that he would make six catches for eighty
Speaker 2: one yards.
Speaker 1: Would you've taken that absolutely?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a I think I might have said it
Speaker 3: on the show last week that he's going to have
Speaker 3: his production. He's going to have you know, eight to
Speaker 3: ten catches and probably somewhere between a hundred plus yard.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's pretty much every game he has, and
Speaker 3: so that will take that. If somebody said here, would
Speaker 3: you sign up for this against Justin? I said absolutely,
Speaker 3: I would sign up for that. Then that's a testament
Speaker 3: to those guys in the secondary and the way they played.
Speaker 1: Going back through the game box, the Titans had twenty
Speaker 1: one of their fifty five offensive snaps in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: Eleven of your nineteen rushing plays came in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: So while Minnesota has a good run defense, I just wondered,
Speaker 1: did the flow of the game dictate more about going
Speaker 1: away from the running game than even Minnesota's run defense did.
Speaker 3: It did at a certain point. One of the things
Speaker 3: in that I was we didn't have a great day
Speaker 3: on the ground, and that is I think statistically the
Speaker 3: number one rushing defense in football, and it's that way
Speaker 3: for a reason. They're really hard to pin down on
Speaker 3: their front structure. They play every front you can play.
Speaker 3: They play base people into your eleven personnel. They moved,
Speaker 3: they pressure, they stunt, they move. It's just a really
Speaker 3: hard team to run the ball against. And we had
Speaker 3: some difficulty in that in the first part of the game,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't going great, and I just felt like
Speaker 3: the best chance was for some of our passing game
Speaker 3: to help us get into some more manageable spots. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it was a combination of both. I just felt like
Speaker 3: we were doing a decent job passing the ball and
Speaker 3: then we were having a hard time running it and
Speaker 3: hard to kind of stick with it when it's we
Speaker 3: weren't having the success usually get. You have some success
Speaker 3: somewhere that allows you to sort of stick with it,
Speaker 3: and we didn't have a lot of it. And then
Speaker 3: the game, you know, we were down some points at
Speaker 3: in the second half we.
Speaker 2: Were trying to climb out of When Jack Gibbons was injured,
Speaker 2: Jerome Baker stepped in and he made eight tackles against
Speaker 2: the Vikings. How do you think Baker played?
Speaker 3: I thought he did a nice job you know, you
Speaker 3: can tell he's played a lot of football, play a
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of snapshead linebacker over his career
Speaker 3: so far, and that showed up, you know, just to
Speaker 3: be able to step in that role and settle it
Speaker 3: down and play with some consistency and make sure that
Speaker 3: we didn't have any major glaring issues or errors. And
Speaker 3: I thought he did a really nice job. And on
Speaker 3: top of that, you know, it's it's a very communicative
Speaker 3: spot on the defense, and you know, for him to
Speaker 3: step in and do that was was impressive. And I
Speaker 3: thought he played well.
Speaker 1: So does he become the green dot and he's calling
Speaker 1: the defense.
Speaker 3: We'll see how that shakes out this week, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, Kenn has been doing quite a bit of it,
Speaker 3: and Jack it's done some too, so they've all done it.
Speaker 3: But I think that we'll see how that shakes out.
Speaker 3: I don't have a definitive answer at this point.
Speaker 1: Your defensive front end, particular, got after Sam Darnold, Jeffrey
Speaker 1: seven six pressures to and Andre Sweat five pressures, Arden
Speaker 1: Key four pressures. You had four other guys with the pressure.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was real. It wasn't just statistical. It
Speaker 1: was real, but you only came away with two sacks,
Speaker 1: So I wonder is there a coaching point that you
Speaker 1: go back to with the defensive lineman about making the
Speaker 1: pressures turn into sacks better.
Speaker 3: I think the biggest issue is just the discipline and
Speaker 3: the rush lanes. You know, we has the opportunities to
Speaker 3: get him down, don't get him down, but then he
Speaker 3: gets out and makes plays off off schedule and runs
Speaker 3: and throws a couple of balls on the field, and
Speaker 3: that's you know, usually when you're playing guys that can
Speaker 3: move around, it just has to be more detailed to
Speaker 3: the and the discipline to the rush lanes of being
Speaker 3: where you're supposed to be in conjunction with the rush
Speaker 3: or the pressure or whatever we have going on that's
Speaker 3: trying to get to the quarterback and can do a
Speaker 3: better job of that of not letting him get out,
Speaker 3: you know, not losing a gap and that way he
Speaker 3: has an escape lane as opposed to kind of condensing
Speaker 3: and crushing the pocket on him where there's not really
Speaker 3: anywhere to go. And we did that a few times
Speaker 3: and got him down, but we had some opportunities. I
Speaker 3: think to do that more often and then have more
Speaker 3: production on a quarterback.
Speaker 1: Clearly you turned up your pass rush from the week before.
Speaker 3: Though no doubt it was, and it helped that those
Speaker 3: guys inside I had. That was a good matchup for us.
Speaker 3: We felt like that was a matchup we should win
Speaker 3: with consistency both on the ground and in the pass
Speaker 3: rush game and both and Jeff and Sweat really played
Speaker 3: a nice game inside.
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Speaker 2: Official grocer Up the Tennessee Titans Tighten Up.
Speaker 1: Holm is at the forefront of all that we do.
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Speaker 1: official furniture provider of the Tennessee Titans. We continue with
Speaker 1: Titans head coach Brian Callahan. As you begin the week,
Speaker 1: do you start off your preparation with a thought towards
Speaker 1: what you'll do at right tackle for the Houston game.
Speaker 3: You know, uh Leroy was hurt, so that's why he
Speaker 3: was out in practice all week. And it's the same
Speaker 3: you know, the same guys, and then we got to
Speaker 3: find guys that's some that we can find some consistency with.
Speaker 3: So uh, you know, it'll be the same, same group
Speaker 3: and hopefully we can improve some of the things that
Speaker 3: need to improve on technically, and then you know they're
Speaker 3: gonna have to go win some matchups. Obviously playing a
Speaker 3: good front. Again, feels like every week we're playing in
Speaker 3: top ten defense right now, which is accurate. We are.
Speaker 3: They're Houston's really good on the defensive side, and then
Speaker 3: they have been now for a year and a half
Speaker 3: and there's sort of the engine of that team, and
Speaker 3: they got really good players over there. So we got
Speaker 3: to work cut out for us.
Speaker 1: Did Ia Prince do enough on Sunday against the Vikings
Speaker 1: that he stays in that mix? Yeah, I think he'll
Speaker 1: stay in the mix.
Speaker 3: You know, he's still got he's got elevations from the
Speaker 3: practice squad, and I thought there was some things that
Speaker 3: it wasn't all all terrible, but those things that I
Speaker 3: thought he did well enough just need more of it,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, he'll certainly still be in the mix.
Speaker 2: There were some young players that showed up on multiple
Speaker 2: occasions against the Vikings, is that one of the brightest
Speaker 2: parts of that game against the Vikings.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think that's one of the things that keeps me
Speaker 3: why I believe so much and the growth that's occurring
Speaker 3: even though we don't have wins to tangibly show for it.
Speaker 3: But we got a lot of players that have really
Speaker 3: done some nice things and are really getting better every
Speaker 3: time we go out there, between Jarvis Browne and j. C.
Speaker 3: Latham and Ben Scarronsky and you know, even you at
Speaker 3: you look at got a blanket on right now. The
Speaker 3: way that Jack was playing. Bryce Oliver steps in the
Speaker 3: last two weeks has made some catches and that was
Speaker 3: a he caught that route and he hadn't wrapped it
Speaker 3: at all during a week because I was sort of
Speaker 3: Calvin spot I was third down and Bryce hadn't played
Speaker 3: a lot on third down yet and goes in and
Speaker 3: makes a great grab and then a big first down.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of really good things happening in
Speaker 3: the development of our young players. In their performance is
Speaker 3: kind of week by week, and certainly would like to
Speaker 3: see more of it faster in some regards, but I'm
Speaker 3: really happy with where some of those guys are and
Speaker 3: how much they've come along.
Speaker 1: We know, turnover ratio is a key statistic in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and it's been a problem for the Titans so far
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. A lesser known statu is sack ratio,
Speaker 1: the number of times you sacked the opposing quarterback less
Speaker 1: how many times your quarterback gets sacked. Titans right now
Speaker 1: are minus thirteen in that If that ratio improves down
Speaker 1: the stretch, would that show the type of overall team
Speaker 1: improvement that you need to see for this team to
Speaker 1: have more winning efforts?
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolute, that's I think it probably goes into an
Speaker 3: even broader bucket of negative plays. You know, we've we've
Speaker 3: had too many negative plays and sacks are part of that.
Speaker 3: And then you know, right now, I think we're second
Speaker 3: to last in the league on offense and false starts
Speaker 3: and offensive holdings is a combined stat which is you know,
Speaker 3: not good. I mean that those are backwards plays, they're negative,
Speaker 3: and the less negative plays we have, the more opportunities
Speaker 3: we give ourselves a chance to not lose the game,
Speaker 3: if that makes sense, And that's where you start. You
Speaker 3: have to when you're in position we're in, we have
Speaker 3: to find ways to not lose the game in order
Speaker 3: to give ourselves a chance to win it. And right
Speaker 3: now we're doing too many things that are losing us
Speaker 3: the game, and those are that's a part of it.
Speaker 3: We've certainly improved our turnover margin over the last couple
Speaker 3: of weeks. I think the last three weeks we've been
Speaker 3: you know, kind of in the zero or plus category,
Speaker 3: which is a huge improvement from the negative category we
Speaker 3: lived in for the first part of the season. So
Speaker 3: that's improved. And then I think that the sack production
Speaker 3: and the sack avoidance are things that are we keep
Speaker 3: the turno turnover margin where it's at, and that that
Speaker 3: that sack avoidance and sacking of the other component quarterback.
Speaker 3: As we bring that up, we're going to give our
Speaker 3: chance more negative plays for the opposing team and less
Speaker 3: for us. We'll give us a better chance to win
Speaker 3: a game.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Amy's mad at me because I'm going numbers here,
Speaker 1: I know, but keep doing that, offensive guy. Here's why
Speaker 1: I like numbers.
Speaker 2: There are people who like them even.
Speaker 1: If I don't. Okay, So the Titans are fifty percent
Speaker 1: six out of twelve on third and ones this year,
Speaker 1: converting third down and one, you're fifty percent as well
Speaker 1: converting third and four or less for you as the
Speaker 1: offensive mind, what do those numbers need to be if
Speaker 1: you're being more successful on offense, what's a fair measure
Speaker 1: in terms of a percentage of conversions on convertible third downs? Yeah,
Speaker 1: third and one. You'd love to be you know, eighty percent, right,
Speaker 1: you know that that would be a better place to be. Certainly,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty percent's going to put you at fifty
Speaker 1: percent on third down is going to put you at
Speaker 1: the top of the league. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: think most teams right the top team lead right now
Speaker 1: is probably forty something percent, forty five, forty eight. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's usually what you had a Bengals offense that was
Speaker 1: a real pain in that area. There's forty five forty six, and.
Speaker 3: So that I think that's probably the best way to
Speaker 3: look at it is if you're if you're converting half
Speaker 3: of your third downs in a game, you're probably moving
Speaker 3: the ball pretty well. And that's just historically what it
Speaker 3: is now. Certainly, Oh yeah, no, I'd love to be
Speaker 3: seventy percent. It's not realistic, you know, It's that's just
Speaker 3: that that's a really hard down to win on and
Speaker 3: then you you add and you love to be over
Speaker 3: fifty percent in that two to five, but it's you
Speaker 3: know you're having around fifty. You're doing okay in that spot.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: I have a couple numbers, look at just a few, though, No,
Speaker 2: these are easier numbers than what math you were just spewing.
Speaker 2: It me the Titans have ten off defensive plays of
Speaker 2: thirty yards or more. Three of those came against the Vikings,
Speaker 2: three more came against Detroit, So that means that the
Speaker 2: other four spread across eight games. What do you need
Speaker 2: to do to get more of those big plays in
Speaker 2: a single game?
Speaker 1: Regular?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think we had. I think we
Speaker 3: had you know, I think we had eight explosives in
Speaker 3: this last game, and that's generally and that's happened. I
Speaker 3: think maybe the other game. Don think Detroit we have
Speaker 3: maybe eight, But that's generally sort of a mark for
Speaker 3: most offenses. You get eight explosive plays in a game,
Speaker 3: you're probably moving the ball at a pretty good rate
Speaker 3: and you have a chance to win. Not say this like,
Speaker 3: you get eight explosives, you win the game. It's notially
Speaker 3: how it works, but you're in a pretty good spot,
Speaker 3: and so I think we're doing a pretty good job
Speaker 3: of it. As of late. We're finding a little more
Speaker 3: comfort level. I think Will's finding some more confidence in it.
Speaker 3: I think Calvin's playing better and some of the stuff
Speaker 3: down the field we're asking them to do, and so
Speaker 3: we're making improvement. It's been better, and I think as
Speaker 3: long as we can kind of continue on that trajectory
Speaker 3: of a couple of those big plays a game, it's
Speaker 3: it's going to help us. And I said, if we
Speaker 3: can find those eight eight ish explosives per per game,
Speaker 3: I think we're going to be a pretty good spot.
Speaker 1: Is it crazy to think that? Once Will has hit
Speaker 1: a couple of the long passes and he hit the
Speaker 1: forty one yarder at Los Angeles, he hit the ninety
Speaker 1: eight yarder. He had a fifty one yarder that didn't count,
Speaker 1: but it was still a beautiful play and a great throw.
Speaker 1: Do you almost get like a three point shooter who
Speaker 1: gains confidence and feels like he's going to knock it
Speaker 1: down every time if you're a quarterback that way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a there's a confidence element to it and
Speaker 3: letting the ball go on time knowing that you see
Speaker 3: the right look from the coverage for it. That's what
Speaker 3: was so cool about the long plays that you know
Speaker 3: Will saw exactly what was happening. He knew that the
Speaker 3: ball was going to go there. He threw it on time,
Speaker 3: He threw it accurately, through it with some conviction. You know,
Speaker 3: that's half the battle sometimes on some of the balls
Speaker 3: down the field is you have to you have to
Speaker 3: throw it with the conviction that it's going to hit.
Speaker 3: And then he did a good job of that same
Speaker 3: thing with the ball the Calvin that got called back.
Speaker 3: That was still the same idea, just really sure about
Speaker 3: what he saw and what it looked like and where
Speaker 3: he put the ball. It was just really well done.
Speaker 3: And anytime that you hit one or two of those,
Speaker 3: you start to you start to feel it a little bit.
Speaker 3: Your confidence grows, Your aggressiveness to take those grows, and
Speaker 3: then it gives me confidence to keep calling them. And again,
Speaker 3: sometimes we call those plays and then you don't get
Speaker 3: the structure, we don't get the deep ones not open,
Speaker 3: and we finally the next option. But those things have
Speaker 3: been growing, they've been more productive as the weeks have
Speaker 3: gone on.
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Speaker 1: Okay, random one to end. I got to read this, man,
Speaker 1: are you surprised you've only thrown two challenge flags this
Speaker 1: year and you haven't thrown one since Buffalo.
Speaker 3: No, they're not really as commonplace as you might think,
Speaker 3: especially now with the replay assist does a lot more
Speaker 3: than it used to. So there's a little bit of entery,
Speaker 3: like we don't have to throw them as much because
Speaker 3: they sort of fix the easy ones pretty quickly. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I didn't really think about it, as you know, But yeah,
Speaker 3: there hasn't been a lot of opportunities to challenge a
Speaker 3: whole lot of plays At this point. I don't know
Speaker 3: if that's good or bad. I just haven't had too
Speaker 3: many of them. And and I think we're smart about
Speaker 3: when and where we challenge to We don't just, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of just throw the flag for the fun of it.
Speaker 1: After being a head coach for ten games, do you
Speaker 1: think more plays should be challengeable?
Speaker 3: If you're asking my just my very own personal opinion,
Speaker 3: it's your show, Yeah, I would, I would be I'm
Speaker 3: all for the You know what, what Bill Belichick has
Speaker 3: proposed before is just being able to replay everything.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't see why not. I just think it's just
Speaker 3: there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do that,
Speaker 3: if you know, especially now with the you know, with
Speaker 3: how much with what all this means now, and and
Speaker 3: the and the scrutiny of it all is just why not?
Speaker 3: Why not just get it right? Why do we have
Speaker 3: to worry about, you know, perception or or anything other
Speaker 3: than just making sure the call in the field is
Speaker 3: the best, most correct call. I can't sit here and
Speaker 3: tell you I have a presentation or how it should
Speaker 3: all look.
Speaker 1: I just I help you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I certainly. I just think that there's a there's
Speaker 3: a time in a place for being able to you know,
Speaker 3: especially critical calls, you know, things that things that affect
Speaker 3: outcomes of games. Is you know, let's just make sure
Speaker 3: they're right and and however that looks, whether it's replay
Speaker 3: assist or it's challengeable, whatever that looks like. I think,
Speaker 3: would you know, hopefully limit the amount of times we
Speaker 3: have to sit on a Monday and discuss officiating. And
Speaker 3: I think that's what everybody wants, and I'm all for
Speaker 3: whatever makes their their job easier and the product cleaner.
Speaker 1: You would have thrown more than two challenge flags if
Speaker 1: that were the case, you think so? Yes, I think
Speaker 1: so too. You would have thrown more than two yesterday
Speaker 1: probably probably so. As always, thank you so much. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me