Liam, just overall thoughts, winning the AFC South.
LIAM COEN: I'm very proud of this group, the resilience, the resiliency of this group, the mental toughness of this group. Obviously started a little bit hot in ways and then had a tough stretch. You're up 20 in the fourth quarter and end up losing a game, and then to turn this thing around, and for these guys to stay the course, keep allowing us to keep coaching, they're a fun, special group to be around.
Why was it important today for Trevor to get to the 4,000? It seemed like you guys pulled him after that.
LIAM COEN: Yeah, the year that he's had, especially since the bye, the way he's playing at an MVP caliber, he's earned it. He's playing at such a high level. The players all love him, they trust him, they believe in him, as do we as coaches. You want those kinds of things for players like that.
Liam, how happy were you with the response from this club? You go three and out, they get the ball and come down and score a touchdown, but then you guys blow them out.
LIAM COEN: It was not an ideal start by any means. Simmons kind of Simmon-sed us early on and made a great play. We went backwards on the first drive, which wasn't ideal. They obviously had a good drive that they put together on us with a critical third down conversion. It's just the maturity of this team, I think. Nobody flinched. Nobody blinked.
They just kind of kept doing their job one play at a time. We talked about championship execution throughout the entire game, and I think after that you saw that.
You and Tony and James exchanged a hug there at the end. The validation of -- I get that all the goals are really in front of you, but the validation of winning a division title in year one and 13 wins, all these things this franchise has never done, what does that mean for you in that locker room?
LIAM COEN: Tony and James and I, … it's a pretty cool relationship. It obviously goes beyond just a working friendship. I can't thank them enough for their support. We truly do it
all together. That's the cool part. Everything we do, every decision we make, is together, is a group effort. Just to be -- to have Tony, to have James in their roles and the continuity that we have, I think the players feel it. I think the guys in the locker room all believe that we're on the same page and that the amount of time that we put into these guys, the amount of energy that gets put into these guys -- Tony says it all the time: It's all about the grass. It's all about the grass, and it's all about these players and trying to make their lives as nice, as good as possible, continuing to elevate and raise the standard, and I think those guys are all in.
Coach, how much of what you've seen throughout the course of this season and what we've seen kind of mirrors or matches what you envisioned when you were first touring the facilities here 50 or so weeks ago? It's been a helluva turnaround obviously. LIAM COEN: I think it's -- you never know going into a season what it's going to truly look like because every year is so much of its own entity. You're only trying to focus so singularly on getting better each week and improving and not trying to live in the results. I think that's something that we've tried to do since we got here was really focus on the process of phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, OTAs, training camp, and just live in those moments, which is, I think, what allows you to now enjoy these kind of moments to where you win 13 games, a lot of records and stuff that are really cool for these guys, both individually and collectively as a team. To win the division in year one for sure, very special, but a lot of work to do still.
You've talked about on a week-to-week basis how arguably the most impressive part of this group is when there was some early downs, you overcame adversity, now this eight-game win streak where they haven't necessarily gone overboard as far as being positive. How do things change, or do they at all, now that it's win or go home? LIAM COEN: I think that's kind of how we've been playing in a lot of ways, and the way that we've been approaching each week has been almost playoff mentality for a while now. We haven't talked about playoffs, but I think that they understand the severity of what's at stake and where we're at, and that truly it's win or go home at this point. They've taken it so -- like we talked about last night: Today is the biggest game in franchise history, because it's the next one. That's it, because it's the next one. That's been the mindset and mentality of this group. They've stayed even-keeled, and I think that, yeah, there's confidence, this team has confidence, but they're not overlooking anybody, and they know that whoever comes here has to play us.
Just in terms of how much a crowd can affect the operation, pass rush, all that, how important is it to have a home playoff game?
LIAM COEN: It's huge. I've seen so many cool pictures of the '22 game here at home and what that crowd did and what the community can do for a football team, and what a football team can do for a community. I think that the majority of these guys, they all want to play. They all want to play, the whole team. They want to play in front of this crowd. I remember hearing Brenton Strange's comments a few weeks ago, yeah, it's cool to play on the road and see those cool atmospheres, but there's nothing like playing at home in front of this crowd and in front of this community. We need all of them. We need all of Duval to come out.
Antonio Johnson, pick six, it seems like he's able to do so many different things for
you guys, whether he's a backup or a starter. What has he meant to this team?
LIAM COEN: We were talking about him before the game, James and I actually, we were talking about Antonio. Just his growth before he got here and how much he's continued to grow as a person, as a player, as a pro. It seems like every week he's making a big play for us and stepping up in critical moments. You would say that play really kind of took this game into a different direction. I really am proud of Antonio and the way that he's continued
to grow.
