Titans - 33, Jaguars - 30
Q. Clearly stopping Derrick Henry was priority one for the defense. Can you break down what you guys did today to get that done?
AVERY JONES: We just committed to the game plan. I mean, coming up here, you know what Tennessee is going to do. You know who their bell cow is, and it really just comes down to a commitment by every player on this team that's going to say we want to stop the run, and I feel like we came out here and tried to accomplish that.
Q. Can you talk about some of the issues -- you guys looked like you had a little issue getting pressure on Tannehill but you buckled down a lot better in the second half. What was the game plan as far as putting so much concentration on the running game, and they kind of did some things. Did it do anything different today for you guys?
AVERY JONES: For us personally, I feel like every game you go in, you always want to try and make a team one-dimensional, so we know we want to stop the run with Derrick Henry, but we want to stop the run with every team to get on the pass. As far as the pressure on Tannehill, I think we've just got to do better getting off the play action blocks and things like that.
I think this game we was probably a little locked in a little bit too into the run, kind of bared our eyes and kind of worked out late to work against the pass. But I think that's just how it is with every game. I think moving forward we're going to try to focus on that more because I really think that was a real big part of the game. I think our DBs do a good job but we just can't leave them out there covering for about six to ten seconds, so we've got to do a better job getting off those blocks.
Q. Any comment you can make about being in the locker room for the second week for the anthem?
AVERY JONES: This is a decision we made as a team. We talked together, we had the leaders and captains come up and pretty much just speak about how we want our voice to be heard, then we took it to the team to see if they agreed about what the ideas we came up with. We did it week one, everyone said it was okay. We have some people who say they wanted to do some things different, talked again as a team, decided to stay in this week and probably moving forward we might do a little bit of things to make sure everyone is comfortable moving forward. But everything we do as far as staying in for the anthem or anything against social injustice we're doing as a team.
Q. The defense seemed to kind of get into a groove a little bit late and you got a couple of stops in crunch time when you needed them. How does this defense get started a little bit early? You guys found your way in the Colts game a little bit later on after giving up a few drives. How do you start earlier playing like that?
AVERY JONES: I think it just has to be a mindset. I think the two weeks have gone by have been a little bit of a trend. What I've been noticing that teams come out to us is going to be tempo, it's going to be run, it's going to be boot. As long as we get the mindset that we know this is how teams are going to attack us and go out there and make the right plays and get off the field, that's going to continue what we're going to see those first 15 plays.
But I mean, other than that, we've just got to come out ready. I feel like if we come out competing from the very beginning, we'll do a lot better for our offense and we won't have to put so much pressure on them.
Q. Do you feel like the defense as a group has that mindset to be ready to go?
AVERY JONES: Yes, I definitely think we do. I think it's just having it and doing it is two different things; know what I mean?
One of the things I'm proud about the defense is that when we have these slow starts there's no pointing fingers, there's nobody turning on each other. We're just trying to lock in, make the coaching adjustments and we're just trying to make sure we make enough plays to give us a chance to win the game.
Q. Did you notice any sense of frustration at all on the part of Myles Jack after he was called for what appeared to be a pretty controversial pass interference call on the game-winning field goal drive?
AVERY JONES: Yeah, of course. I mean, a lot of us don't believe that was really a pass interference, but ref is going to make his call. Myles is I wouldn't say emotional but he's very passionate about this team and about this game, so definitely he's going to let it show after an important play like that, especially with the game on the line.
Q. I'm just curious, obviously Jonnu Smith really got off to a fast start. The tight end position wasn't necessarily something the Colts used to exploit you guys in last week's game. What did you guys change in the second half and why do you think he was able to be as explosive as he was early on?
AVERY JONES: I think just with that first play just having it be the first play of the game, definitely thinking of setting the tone early and them showing run, I think we just kind of all downhill, wanted to stop Derrick Henry, wanted to stop the run, and I think it was just a good play call because he was two play side. I mean, you can run down and play side to stop the run, then you see the boot, everyone is moving towards the quarterback, all he has to do is really hide out and come out late and get the play.
I think that was a pretty good first play call by them, but I think as the game went on, we just made sure that everyone on the back end communicated and made sure we was on the same page so we wouldn't just have any easy bombs come and hurt us.
Q. As the longest tenured player on this team, you've been through some losses, you've been in the locker room after them. How does this one compare?
AVERY JONES: This one is a lot better than past years. I mean, this is a team that's come in that wasn't really expected to do much today by outside forces, but we didn't really buy into that, stayed as a team and kept fighting. Then afterwards we didn't really take -- what's the word I'm thinking of? Pleasure, I guess, and try to get moral victories and saying we only lost by three and things like that. We looked at ourselves and kind of said, what was the problem, like what made us lose this game, and then we just came down to it, it was really just assignments and penalties. I think if we cut out half of those penalties I think it would have been a much better game. The offense was doing a tremendous job, and then defense was starting to lock it down even more in that second half when we needed it.
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