NASHVILLE – Titans coach Brian Callahan held a press conference on Monday, one day after the team's 22-21 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
Next up is a road game at the Las Vegas Raiders.
Here's a look at some of the hot topics from today's presser:
-Callahan said it felt good to be able to watch the tape with some more positive feelings, after a win.
"Still plenty of things we've got to correct and get better at," he said. "That's every week and you try to maintain the same demeanor that you have when you lose as when you win and things got to get corrected every game. Every game is always going to have that. So we're getting through that process but really some pretty cool individual performances in the game that these guys stepped up when we needed their best. And we've been looking for a couple of weeks now to have our best players play their best, and I think we got that from quite a few guys over the course of the game."
-Callahan said defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons "leads the charge" with the way he's playing. He also singled out receiver Calvin Ridley, punter Johnny Hekker, cornerback L'Jarius Sneed, returner Chimere Dike, and special teamers James Williams and Kendell Brooks for their play, or moments in the contest, in different aspects of the game.
-Callahan acknowledged quarterback Cam Ward could benefit for more underneath throws.
"That's what we needed from him early in the game, too, is we had some opportunities to complete some balls that were the easy throws," Callahan said. "We're trying to make it as easy on him as possible. Some of those throws he made at the end of the game were high-level difficulty throws and really good catches, but trying to make those be the throws that have to happen a couple of times a game and the rest of it be as easy as possible, and he's figuring that part out as we go. Had some opportunities early in the game, and I think he really calmed down in the second half and just focused on putting his eyes where they're supposed to be and just throwing the ball where it's supposed to go and not trying to do anything other than that. And I think you saw how effective that is when you do that and you can move the ball down the field as long as you take completions. And that's the one emphasis for him all this week was we got to complete the ball at a higher rate. Not all that's on him, obviously, but there's a part of that that does fall on his shoulders, and we got continue to do what we did in the fourth quarter."
-Callahan was asked what led to Ward and Ridley having so much success on Sunday, and how much he hopes this is a confidence builder.
"I think somebody asked me a question about that, maybe on Friday, just about how do you get Calvin going," Callahan said. "And my answer is the same then as I think it is now is that you just got to keep finding ways to use his skill set. We protected well in the game, which I think was a big part of being able to push the ball down the field a little bit more and find some explosive plays. But I got a lot of confidence in Calvin, and he's shown his ability to change the game for us, and he just needed to capitalize on the opportunities and I think he was in the right frame of mind to go do it and really played well for us down the down the stretch of the game and we needed every bit of that to be able to win and we're going to need that moving forward too. So got to keep putting them in the right spots and giving them opportunities. We keep protecting well and giving Cam (Ward) a good pocket, we'll be able to find him down the field."
-The Titans took Cardinals receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. out of the game after his fast start, and Callahan discussed how they did it.
"A couple things," he said. "I think defensively, they made some nice adjustments pretty quickly in the first half, probably at that first quarter. Started moving L'Jarius (Sneed) over there a little bit, not all the time, but a little more into the boundary. But I think what made it more pronounced was that I thought we rushed really well. I thought that we didn't give him a ton of time to make plays off script. That touchdown was an off-schedule play. But I think those guys did a really good job of rushing and containing the quarterback and making it hard for him to hold on to the ball long enough. And that's how you win in this league. If you can disrupt the timing of the offense and not let them get the ball down the field, I mean, it's things we've dealt with for the first couple of weeks. And our defense did a good job of settling down and figuring out some answers."
-Callahan discussed running back Tyjae Spears and safety Kevin Winston Jr. playing for the first time this season.
"Yeah, Tyjae I think had 17 snaps, had a couple of carries," Callahan said. "He was in there for some pass pro. Good start for him. Really good start, getting back to playing. Just like all these guys that come off these injuries, it is hard to throw them in there for a full tilt, but he played a good role. And then that role will keep increasing, I think, as we move forward. And Kevin (Winston Jr) did some really good stuff on special teams. You see him— he's getting his legs back underneath him. It was good to get him out on some game action. It's been a while, I think 13 months since he's played the game. We'll be smart about that and he'll start getting bits and pieces of defense as we keep moving forward and he will keep doing some special teams. So we'll keep increasing his role as he gets in better shape and hopefully see more of him. But he was really impressive in practice this week. You saw all the things that make you excited about his potential and I think his role will continue to grow."
-Callahan said he's been pleased with Cedric Gray's performance over the past two games.
"Super productive," he said. "He's really starting to play well. He plays the game you need to play at linebacker. He plays downhill. He plays physical and he finds the ball. I mean, there's no substitute for a guy that can get the ball carrier on the ground and tackle it. I think what's even more impressive too is I think he played 56 snaps of defense and then he added 17 more special teams snaps because we had some injuries in the second half and he had to take — I mean, he took more snaps than anybody on our team yesterday— and then played well on special teams on top of it. He's really come along, he's growing, he's becoming the type of player we envisioned him being. He's still got things to keep cleaning up, but his production on the ball is undeniable, and his physicality and how he plays is what we're looking for."
