Houston 22 Titans 13
MIKE VRABEL: I think that we've seen Ryan perform at a high level and offensive football at any level takes 11 guys and so there was a lot of good football out there. Unfortunately we turned the football over too many times, way too many times. Felt like our defense battled. And our offense, certainly, was, you know, it's own worst enemy.
Q. What kept the offense from getting into a rhythm?
MIKE VRABEL: Mistakes. Mistakes. And you know, that's unfortunate because we put some drives together. We gained yards. Just couldn't finish. Again, just felt like we were our own worst enemy and would get into some drives and not be able to convert or turn the football over.
Q. A couple picks looked like they were intended for Dez, was there any miscommunication or was the route incorrect? After the first touchdown did you consider going for two?
MIKE VRABEL: No.
Q. You talked during the week about Taylor's ability to make things happen scrambling, did what he do today some of what you feared?
MIKE VRABEL: Certainly. Yeah. I mean, again, just we talked all week, and you know, I felt like we played well defensively, but you know, really not well enough. I mean, that was -- when you get everybody covered and you give up the quarterback scrambles, it's really making him -- not making him earn anything. That's kind of giving it to him. We have to be better and we have to understand how the game is being played, what his ability is, and they were able to -- he did that twice and that's -- that's not good enough.
Q. Surprising with the pass rush as consistent as its been that you can go a game like that without, more influential?
MIKE VRABEL: I don't know how many times they dropped back and threw it. They sprinted out. Quarterback took about two steps and ran off around the edge. I don't know if the pass rush was the issue today.
Q. Did you want Chester to bail out in that situation or stay and try to engage with the returner?
MIKE VRABEL: We would like him to not touch the football.
Q. His biggest playing time to date in the offense --
MIKE VRABEL: Looked like he played hard. Looked like he played fast. Was excited about watching him play and, you know, one made a tackle on the interception. He's going to earn more opportunities, he really is. You know, he's only going to get better. He's out there going and that's a lot of unchartered water right there, going hurry-up, two-minute. There's a million calls. Just the conversation, for him to be able to get the call, get lined up, so give him a lot of credit and give Tony a lot of credit for getting ready to go so hopefully we can continue to use him.
Q. Is it frustrating how your message leading into the game was urgency and then the way you started out?
MIKE VRABEL: I don't know if it's frustrating. I mean, I don't know, it's either you're frustrated or you're not. I'm disappointed for everybody, for our football team. We put a lot into this every week. We try to turn the page and make sure that whether you win or whether you lose, you figure out who you got. Take care of the keys. Understand the keys. Try to coach them, teach them and we just, again, got off to a bad start. Turned the football over and ran out of time.
Q. Was it a day where you needed somebody to make a play to give you a spark and didn't happen until too late and does that lead to pressing in some ways?
MIKE VRABEL: I mean, I thought we made some plays. I don't think that it was a lack of plays being made.
You know, they took care of the football. We didn't turn the football over. But I thought we made some plays. We gained some yards. There was some positive plays. But you know, hit the one late and then came back with a mistake after that.
You know, maybe you press a little bit. I don't think -- you put yourself in those positions where you're down in the situation, you need a couple scores or touchdowns, certainly, that you're starting to run out of time. You're going to run out of time.
Q. You were down basically three healthy receivers. Did that limit what you could run or call out of three-wide and spread in any way?
MIKE VRABEL: We ran what we had and again, we're going on the ball a lot. So it's not that big of a menu. I mean, it's a large menu but those guys are all comfortable with it.
Q. A lot of really good teams during this six-game winning streak and you've been complimentary of the Jets --
MIKE VRABEL: What's the question, dude.
Q. The Jets have not beaten a lot of good football teams --
MIKE VRABEL: We got beat today. We turned the ball over five times. You know what I mean? It's like you guys don't -- you guys all cover this league. If you don't play well in this league, I don't care who it is, you turn the ball over in this league, you're going to lose. Nobody wants to hear that, nobody believes that, but when you -- when you do that, it doesn't matter what the record is. We had five turnovers. They had zero. You're going to lose the game 99 percent of the time.
Q. Execution obviously not there. What about effort and emotion? Are you happy with those two components?
MIKE VRABEL: I mean, again, you have to evaluate the effort. It kind of hard sometimes to see play-in and play-out, but I'm sure there's going to be, you know, when you watch every single snap, there's going to be some plays where you're like, man, we need to have a little better effort.
But I mean, I think that gets graded over the course of the entire football game. So we'll coach and point out all the effort next week. That's never been an issue, I don't think, since I've been here. The attitude, you talked about the attitude; defense, give them credit. They just went out, wherever they put the ball down and tried to play defense. Felt like the offense tried to convert, go down there and then get them. We just turned the ball over and got stopped.
Q. There's been a gradual buildup, and now he got his first touchdown what can you say about just the way that process has gone for him to this point?
MIKE VRABEL: Well, you know, it's been good to see Dez go out there, practice, perform and improve. Helped us today. We just have to go and take a look at whether the route or the throw or the protection, you know, try to continue to get him to play physically, use his skill set, use his length. But it was good to get him out there and get him some work. Got some catches and I saw there was a big play there late in the game on a conversion, so coming from where he's been, I think that that says a lot to who he is and our ability to get him ready and also most importantly, his ability to go out there and improve.
Q. You mentioned -- on offense, a common thread, mental errors --
MIKE VRABEL: No, turned the ball over five times, maybe dropped a pass here or there, missed a block here or there. It's just hard to overcome the turnovers and there was a few penalties on defense that I felt like extended drives and cost us.
Q. Some of the players from Elijah, what did you like about him?
MIKE VRABEL: I think he keeps getting better. Keeps improving. Plays with a toughness and demeanor, great tackle over there late in the game. Those guys fighting and competing. That was a huge play that forced another punt. Sent them on a blitz and they didn't block him but he's still going and competing, and I think he's getting better every week.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports .....
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports