The OTP | Week 15 with Brian Callahan

Published Dec 10, 2024, 2:00 AM
Mike Keith and Amie Wells visit with Titans with Head Coach Brian Callahan each week on the OTP, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans.

This is the OTP presented by Far Bureau Health Plans. When it's game day for your health coverage, trust Far Bureau Health Plans to draw up a winning play for you. They've been backing Tennesseeans for nearly eighty years. We're glad to welcome Titans head coach Brian Callahan back to the studio and back to the show.

Welcome on this Monday.

Thank you, Brian. Sometimes when you watch the game tape, it confirms what you saw. Sometimes it presents different things that you didn't suspect, maybe some surprises. After watching Sunday's game tape, what did you see?

Well?

The old adage is usually it's never as good as it seems, and it's usually never as bad as it seems. I would say that a lot of the things I felt during the game were confirmed in watching the game.

Again.

What I mean by that is there's a lot of a lot of really strong performances from a lot of different groups on the tape, and particularly on defense. I thought of special teams as well. I think those those areas at a really really nice game. Offensively, we ran the ball really well, we moved the line of scrimmage, we were the more physical team for most stretches of that game, and it just it comes down to, just like a lot of games come down to, but this one in particular, a set of like really really critical plays that you make and you win or you don't and you lose. And there was probably three or four of them, those two fourth down low red zone plays for sure that you you convert one of those for sure, and two of them you can almost guarantee yourself you're gonna win. Those are very high leverage spots that that we didn't come away with the points that we wanted. But there's a lot of things about how we played, some of the individual performances the linebackers and particular the way that our guys covered on special teams with a bunch of young players playing. I just there was a lot of things that I was encouraged about. If you're just stepping back from the the loss, there's things that I that I can point to that that are what we want to be about and that that's encouraging.

The loss is not Are there specific things that the Titans are doing or not doing well that are leading to the problems in the red zone.

Yeah, I mean we didn't execute down there very well. We had you know, I think it's the hard part is when you when you have open guys down there that we just don't get to. I thought that the first fourth down, you know, is chick is open and the balls should go damn And that's just that's that's red zone football. And you know, those are the things that happened sometimes. And then the second one was a really pretty decent throat at the n w I and you know, he goes up in the air to go get in. It's a catch that I bet he makes, you know, seven six, seven out of ten times. You know, it's a degree of difficulty is high. It's not an easy catch, but he's a big, strong, physical receiver and the ball was put in a spot where he get a chance to get it. And then there's also other guys in the progression that had a chance if he didn't get that ball, that they could have got it. So it's just the passing game down there is all about timing. It's all about accuracy. Because the windows are tight, the field shrinks, there's no threat of anything vertical. Everybody is right there, so it can be challenging and you have to be really disciplined with your decision making process. You're really disciplined with your accuracy where you put the ball to have a really good red zone and then things break down, you got to be able to make a play. And most red zones, I think if you watch over the league the red zone scores, I bet you about half of them are just off schedule plays. It's just players making plays. It's quarterback extending, it's receivers working in a scramble drill. Those things are all part of that process. And disappointing to come away at too for two down there when we had opportunities to win the game.

Will Levis's shoulder injury been through this once before. He came back and played against Indianapolis and then you sat him for three games. So with having had that experience with Will and that injury, will you do anything differently this time in terms of how you handled him and or your decision to play.

Yeah, if he's not healthy enough to do a job, I won't put him out there. I don't think this one, at least as of right now, felt like it was It's anywhere near as bad as the Miami initial injury. I think it hurt. I think it didn't feel very good, but I don't know that the effects are going to be the same. We'll find out. I don't know for sure how he's going to come back, you know, tomorrow and then in a Wednesday. Usually guys are really mother most sore the second day after the game. It's tomorrow's where you really find out what it feels like. But yeah, I'll have the same process. If you can't go out and do it, you know, I'll make sure that that we don't put him in arm's way, because that's not fair to him or for the team to to go out there and not be able to perform the job to the level you're required. So I'll have to be smart about that. We'll be smart with him, and then how we evaluate where he's at. I feel pretty good right now that there shouldn't be an issue, But again I've spoken too soon before, so I'll uh, well, we'll see, well we saw her, we'll see.

Well from watching the tape, was there any sign that that injury limited the way that he was able to play within the offense on Sunday?

No, there was nothing that That's why I didn't I don't feel as you know, he couldn't throw the football in Miami when he got hurt, and he couldn't even he couldn't really do much of anything, So it was different. It wasn't maybe as I think I said, I could get hurt pretty good, but I don't know if it was as severe of an actual injury as it was just the way it felt. So didn't see anything in the game that would have let me believe it was his effectiveness had had Wayne and we were ready to put Mason in, and he came out of her halftime and said he's good to go, and Todd gave him the all good athletic trainer gave him the all clear, And so I trust those guys, especially in those moments. And then we'll see, you know, when we get into the rhythm of the week in practice with what that looks.

Like, does Will Levice need to be running more to help this offense.

I wouldn't say there's a lot of opportunities in the in the game on Sunday, but there's been times we pointed out on one and where you can you can escape, and I thought it was one third down where he he escapes left, moves himself out of the pocket, gets in position to be a runner, and then Tyler Boyd does an excellent job of working up the field and coming back downhill for the first down. It's a really nice throw on the run. That's you know, that's that's where the plays, the bigger plays can be created. You can create some and there's a balance between trying to get him to play the position the sort of right way, and then it's it's awkward how it works. Sometimes it's like, here, learn how to do this right, and then when you feel really good about that, you know, then go do it all the way. You know, there's right, it's a weird progression, but that's sort of how it works, is that you you you find these opportunities to extend a play, to use your legs, and we've worked a bunch in practice with Escape the Pocket with the intent to extend, you know, that's sort of the next step is, you know, when you pull up, don't just run right down the middle of the pocket. See if you can find a side door scape and get out on the perimeter. And then if you can run run, if you can create exposive played on the field to create it that way as well. So it's a fine line in a balance, but it's something that we're definitely working on.

Let's switch over to defense for a minute. How did Luke Gifford play at middle linebacker.

I thought he played really well. There's a lot going on there with him, you know, first time probably playing that many steps at linebacker in a long time, having the green dot, and being the communicator on game day with the with the calls of the defense. I really thought that was a smooth process. It was one that we were concerned in the sense that he just hadn't done that very often, and so there's always a concern. But he did a great job. And I thought he played physical. I thought he played fast. I thought him and Otis really did a nice job, you know, stepping up in the moment. And I you know, I think I give a lot of credit to Get doesn't probably get as much as he should as Frank Bush. I think Frank Bush is one of the premier linebacker coaches in football. And I think you see that with the amount of guys he's had to get ready to play and the young players he has, He's he's as good a football coaches I've ever been around. And I think he's he's a large part of why those guys were put in position to play so well.

So we talked about this on the radio. Luke Gifford had made one other start in his career at Cleveland last year when the Titans used an extra linebacker package. So he had never and I mean that was just for a handful of snaps. He heard a hamstring in that game anyway, Yea, in his six year NFL career, he had never played fifty nine snaps in a game. Yeah, are you surprised that he was able to hold up and be that effective in that way?

No, I'm not.

I just I see who Luke is every day here. You see what I mean, he's playing As a side note, he's playing at like special teams Pro Bowl level linebacker. Like he is as good as specialties player as you can find in football, which is why he's here and why he was brought here initially. Like he's he is a very very good special teams linebacker. And as most special teams linebackers go, they usually don't get a lot of playing time. They usually they're they're kind of built for that purpose and they're really good at it. But Luke just the way he prepares, his professionalism super impressive and everything about how he goes by his business. I am not surprised at all that you go in there and play like that.

All right, So you mentioned Otis rees you wanted him in there because Otis likes to hit stuff. He is very enthusiastic about hitting stuff. You see he did to the guard and the one play. Yeah, so I'm accurate that cur statement. I'm guessing that you got what you wanted from Otis in terms of the enthusiasm, the aggression, the thump.

Absolutely he was all of that, and that's what he's always been. And now he's got an opportunity again. He's another guy who's really performing well for us on special teams too. But for him to step in and play that those guys the night before the game that you know, both him and Luke and Otis had a huge opportunity in front of him, you know, to play a meaningful NFL football in a starting role and just to see how hungry and how physical they could be. And they were fantastic in that regard.

They did.

They did those two things as good as you can ask for anybody to do. And you know, Otis is is that's the one thing. He's going to play as fast as he can, and he is going to hit whatever's in front of him and it's going to hurt. And that's what you love about him. And there's things that he can clean up and get better at. But I was really impressed with both those guys.

Well, he's a guy that, like certain players are in basketball, you want to see a guy dunk, doesn't matter if he can shoot or do anything else. Everybody on the team's like, oh, so and so's good a dunk. Let's all watch. Everybody on the team wants to see Otis hit somebody.

Yes, and they enjoy it when he does.

I know, but he's that guy.

Yeah, that's he was like that in the preseason.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why you want a guy like Otis on your team. And he's got athletic a so he can be good and kick coverage and those things are all important. And to see him get an oportunity to play in the game and play well was was really cool. I think a lot of guys root for him.

Did Jarvis Brownlee play as well at the Nickel as you hoped?

Yeah, you know, he's he was playing outside and bass defense, and then he kick inside when when we went to nickel, and I thought that was a really impressive thing to do. I mean, he hadn't been inside in a long time, and there is nuance to play nickel.

It is not easy.

There's run fits, there's coverage, leverage, there's uh there's a lot of things that go with it. Takes us a really smart player to play nickel well. And I think Jarvis just showed his versatility. And you got to be physical in there. It's a it's a it's it's a usually a smaller dB, but it's a big man's position. You have to play big in there, which is what Roger does so well. Is you got to be physical, you got to fit the run, you got to be able to do a lot of things. And I thought Jarvis did a really nice job going in between both spots, playing outside and playing inside, and I think he was It was good to see him be able to do that.

You mentioned special teams players earlier. Was this the most complete special teams performance you've seen so far this season?

Yeah? I think so.

I think we covered as in all coverage phases as good as we've covered major challenge issue to them. I told them Saturday night that the challenge this week is I don't want to see I don't want to see the starting field position past the thirty. Too many times we've given people field position. It's just like a figure out a way to get him, and we stopped him inside the thirty every time except for one touchback. They wanted to thirty. So I thought that our coverage units were fantastic. They played fast, they played physical. I think the two guys that get a lot of shouldn't deserve some creditors are two gunners. I think Justin Hardee has been. He was not in the stat sheet, but his presence is he gets the double, he gets, he draws penalties, he's a presence people aware. And then Bryce Oliver continues to really make an impact on special teams as a gunner. I thought he was fantastic in the game. Drew a penalty, was down for some fair catches, he got the single, he was winning. That's a that's a really awesome thing to see. He's a guy like Bryce step up and make special teams plays.

What do you think led to that consistency in the play was it the challenge that you issued.

I mean, I'm not gonna take credit for that necessarily. I just think I think we've actually played, you know, pretty good on Special Teams over the last couple of weeks. And again there's been you know, a particularly a punk coverage phase I think has been really pretty good for a while now. The kick coverage has had moments, but again now we've got some guys get some opportunities to play in there. You know, think Julius Chestnut's playing really well in there and kickoff cover. You know, we we've thrown d m R played this this week on Special Teams. Tomy Otacoy play like. There's a bunch of guys in there playing. I think James Williams is really starting to come on as a Special Teams player. So these guys are getting better as the year goes on, particularly the young players that have had opportunities to play. They're getting better every week. And I think you're seeing the result of time on task for a lot of these guys that are that are new to that that world.

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Tighten Up Home 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. We continue with Titans head coach Brian Callahan. You mentioned in your Monday press conference that you were very frank with your football team when they came back to work. Mind sharing some of the gist of what you were getting at with that frankness.

Yeah, the gist of it is that there was really a lot of good football on that tape, and there was a handful of plays that lost the game for us. And you know, you try to show how how we lose games or how you win games every week and where the critical factors are. And at the end of the DA you have the messages. You got to step back. We're knocked out a playoff contention. You got to acknowledge it. You know, it's it's not where we wanted to be, where I thought we would be, but we are we're here where we've won three games, we haven't won enough games, and so you got a month left to play. And I think that's important to be straightforward about that that this isn't important. This is important. It's important for a couple of reasons. Because there is a future aspect to this. There is a building for what's next. And look, no one wants to hear that with four games to play, but there's only four games left in twenty twenty four, and then the focus will shift to twenty five, and that's an important stretch for us. These are games. You know, we got three more divisional games in this stretch. We got a game against a really good football team that's had some struggles as well this year, but in the Bengals. And I just very much believe that this how you finish this season sets sets the kind of course and the foundation for what's next. And I think it's okay to say that, it's okay to acknowledge that. And the other part of it is that we're all paid professionals. Our job is to coach and play football, and the expectation is that we do everything we do this week. In the next four weeks, the exact same way we did the first four weeks, and that we go out and play and prepare and do everything exactly the same, and to trust that this process is making we are making the progress we need to make. We're not necessarily having wins and losses a show for it, but we have a process in place, and to trust that, and to trust in the coaches, and trust in different office, and trust each other because we have a lot of young players that are all going to be here next year. We got guys in our contract, so these are important games, and to think anything other than that would be would ultimately be unprofessional. And so I just want to make sure that message was very clear to them and that they knew how I felt about it, and that the expectation is for them to feel the same. And we've played well. This team has been connected all year long. They play for each other, they do things the right way, and I love them for it, and I love everything about the stuff that not everybody gets to see every day. And I think you guys see a little bit of that too. But ultimately that was the main message, like, look, it's you know, we're not where we want to be. It's not where we thought we'd be. But there are an expectation for what for what remains of this season, and the expectation is to play well and to do the things we've done all year long in the same manner. And you know, again it's it's it's honest, and but you have to be sometimes.

All right, Let's turn to Cincinnati, which they can throw, they can score. Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase are both having statistically really strong seasons. Why do you think that.

Is the two best players at their position?

I mean, yeah, Joe, Joe is Joe has now I think officially, not that anybody needed to know, but I think he's He's been in this spot for two or three years now, but now I think this year it's it's he's he's totally become a guy that can take over a game and there's only a couple of those. I think he's the best quarterback in football this year. I think the way he's played, both statistically and what he's done offensively, he is is is playing as the best player in football. And I don't I don't vote for MVPs, but you know, everything about how he's played would point to him being the most Valuable player in football this year based on what he's done, and he's he's fantastic. He's one of one of probably five quarterbacks in this league that can that can truly take over a game. And then he's he's really, really, really good at playing quarterback.

I'm looking for a second on a motion that I'm trying to make to outlaw wide receivers from LSU in the NFL. Brian, I'm wondering, would you go with me on that?

Yeah, I mean, especially since we have to play against them, So, yeah, we.

Just played against one who had quite a second half. Correct, Young Thomas. Why is Jamar Chase so good?

How much time you want to spend? I'll say this, this is what I'll give you. My personal opinion is one is he is. He is an incredible worker. He's probably one of our hardest workers in Cincinnati while I was there. He almost never misses practice. He can run all day long, so he's he can, he's capable putting the work in. He's incredibly intelligent, like his football intelligence on where to be, how to get there, what lever like fantastic, like off the charts. And then he's got a play strength that I think is unique to just about maybe him. His ability to stay stacked and not get moved off the point and play physical are really unique. He's got incredibly strong hands, incredibly strong contact balance, He's a he's a freak athlete on top of it. So he just has this package of things physically that are better than most people on the planet.

Uh.

And then he's got the mindset to go with it. And and that's what makes him great. And that's what all great players are like. And you know, one of the things that that I think sets him apart from everybody in the league is you know, when he puts his helmet on and puts a chin strap on, you know he's going to go on the field and he's going to try to take your soul. And I think the quarterback's the same way. And you got two guys like that, and and and it shows what with their production, what they do on a week to week.

Basis watching these guys as the opponent, is that the weirdest part about this week getting ready to go up against your former team.

Yeah, I mean that that part is weird because it's like I've spent you know, I spent five years in the NFL is a lifetime. I mean, that's a long time to be anywhere, and you're lucky if you can get to that point. And I've also seen them grow up, you know. I was with both those guys as rookies and a lot of those players for a long time and to see where they're at and what they've turned into and the types of players that we thought they were capable of being, and now that they are. You see it weekly that they're the best in football. It's it's a weird thing. It's like, I'm proud and I'm happy for him, and then I'm like, oh, we got to play these guys and we got to defend them, so that part is not as exciting. I can see why people had had trouble trying to get ready for those years in Cincinnati and how how hard it was to get ready for those guys.

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Understanding that the Bengals are averaging twenty eight points per game, will that change the way that you call plays or call your offense on Sunday?

It's certainly part of it. You know, there's a there's a complimentary aspect of the game, and you know, defensively they've they've had their struggles this year and an offensive move we had ore So we have to find a way to complement our defense, do our best to keep them off the field where we can. It's hard to play a game where you can. You think you're just gonna like run the ball every play and take the clock.

That's hard to do. You still got to be aggressive and all that.

But there's gonna be a complimentary aspect offensively and defensively. Special teams of the field, position part of it. The running of the football, the clock keeping them off the field. All those things are when you play a great offense, you have to do well, but we have to play a complete game as a full team to minimize their ability to score points.

We'll see you throughout the course of the week as you prepare.

Thank you, thanks for having me.