Titans 24, Vikings 16
KEVIN O'CONNELL. ...after making that real strong play there on special teams, so he'll be somebody to monitor. More than likely he's in the protocol here for the short-term. We'll allow him to go through that process.
Theo Jackson, AC with his shoulder was able to return, which is great to see. Then Tay had a little bit of a shoulder as well.
N'Keal Harry was the only player we planned on having that had a little bit of a soft tissue kind of aggravation in warm-ups, and we wanted to be smart with him instead of trying to make him push through it. That was unfortunate. Wanted to see him tonight.
Q. How do you evaluate each of your quarterbacks tonight?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I thought Nick really for the most part did a lot of the same things moving the team he did at Seattle. I think back to that first drive, there's a couple chances there, if we're just a hair more accurate, we probably get the third down conversion, hopefully rolling into territory in the red zone to score a touchdown.
He runs the team incredibly efficient. His communication, his ownership of our offense. He is an accurate quarterback. That's one of the reasons why he's here. So I don't worry for a second about Nick.
But there were just a couple high misses here and there, whether it was technique, he was dealing with some push and some rush at times.
We didn't do much to run the football early on in the game to help him all that much. Yet, just like he did last week, he was able to move the team and at least generate some points there.
Jaren, really how it kind of came down rep-wise, I wouldn't have minded getting him in a little bit earlier, but wanted to let that group continue to try to sustain there towards the end of the second quarter.
He came in, and was good to see him engineer that touchdown drive. Use his legs to steal a third down conversion. We were able to punch it in. Some decent run game there late with that third, fourth group kind of mixing in there some new guys.
But I thought overall of the quarterbacks, for where we're at right now, I think we can continue to do things to help those guys, but we're also putting them in some situations to see how they respond and handle it. I thought for the most part both guys did some good things tonight.
Q. How would you size up the punt return competition, and then four, five and six receiver competition?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Yeah, particularly that receiver room, without Jalen Nailor getting very many reps since day one, it's really allowed more guys to compete in that first huddle outside of J.J. K.J. and really Jordan.
Then you start to look at Jalen Reagor. Brandon Powell has had an excellent training camp, doing so many things I don't think people realize sometimes, all the different jobs he can do. Jalen's speed, kind of tried to get him over the couple times tonight. Either the pocket or coverage didn't allow it. His speed is a real factor.
When I think about just the depth of getting Trishton back from that kind of near scare we had, getting him back, getting all these snaps for him, I think that group is going to be very tough for us to figure out, whether it's five or six.
Ultimately what the depth looks like on the practice squad, there's probably four or five names that are all deserving. These are good problems to have, trying to figure out how it will all fit. Knowing we should get Jordan back this week will be huge for us. K.J. and Justin have been getting their work throughout.
I would love to get Jalen Nailor some work here at some point if we can. But he's a player that I think very highly of and just want to continue to see how that whole group, especially on the back end, fits with how we want to play with multiple personnel groupings and trying to commit to building our run game up.
Q. Obviously they had a number of big runs there, especially a couple in the second half. Were those run finishing, tackling, a combination of things?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I would say in some of the discussion on the sideline with Flo, I think it was probably a little bit of both. I know a couple of the longer runs, I think we missed a tackle on one, kind of had a chance to get him in the hole there for a four-, five-yard gain. That long one in the first half was more of that.
Listen, I think if we were playing our normal calls... Some of these looks, runs aren't getting off, maybe we're talking them out of some of these things. We're trying to give these guys enough of an opportunity, enough of a plan to compete, but also our mindset is on September 10th, and much, much beyond. Short week after that, then on into what's out in front of us.
We're asking our guys to play differently than they do every single day. I think that's okay in the evaluation process really on offense, and defense for that matter.
Q. Is that kind of a by design on a lot of levels? You don't want to show much of the game plan, but does that allow you to evaluate in a controlled environment a little more?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: We have to be able to see guys in certain aspects that they're going to need to show what they're capable of doing at this point, whether it's a rookie, a second-year player, a veteran player.
We need to know what we have so when we actually start game planning for opponents, we can build the best plans for our players. That's ultimately what my No. 1 goal is when I meet with the staff each and every week of a season.
How do we do our part to give these guys a good chance to have success by schematically what we're asking them to do, then are we teaching them the techniques and fundamentals to go do that.
I think it's a great point. I still would like to see our team able to come out in these pre-season games and compete to get victories as well, no matter who's in the game. That doesn't matter. We're always trying to come out and win football games.
Q. Did you give play calling to someone else in the second half?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Yeah, Wes. I called some of the early first half stuff, then trying to get him some reps. Thinking about trying to get creative with the game next weekend. It was something, whether it was Sean or Jay Gruden, some of my early times getting reps, calling plays, was during the pre-season.
I think it's a really good thing for me to sit back and kind of evaluate our whole team sometimes, especially as some of the guys down the line on the roster, I want to have a great feel for them. I want to be able to watch things closely in all three phases. That helps me do that.
I thought Wes on that touchdown drive called a great drive. The guys executed. There was no delay of games, pre-snap penalties. The function, that was calling it from the box down. We're always looking at things from the standpoint of helping people, not just players, but players and coaches develop.
Q. What would the creative thing be next week?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I don't know. Wes has a chance to call a few. I'll probably let him call a few next week. Maybe some of our other coaches, as well. Flo has done some similar things on the defensive side, especially in the second half, as well.
Q. Starters any time next week?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I'm thinking about from the standpoint of when I count the reps for the ones from this past Wednesday and Thursday, knowing what it's going to be like Wednesday and Thursday with the heat, my plan is to keep the rep count the same as planned, which is more than last week.
Those guys are going to get plenty of work, as the standard rule goes. I think you saw it with one of their players tonight. That might not have played had he not been kicked out of practice. So that's the standing rule we have.
I don't know if Coach Vrabes has had that rule throughout or in our dialogue decided to apply that one. I think the point of it all is, we've spent a lot of time planning training camp, these joint practices. I know these games are genuine opportunities for game situations to come up.
But as you guys that were at the joint practices, we hit just about every situation possible in two days, and had ultra competitiveness out there almost right to that line.
Give those guys a lot of credit over there for being able to have two days of work without it getting out of hand.
Q. How would you assess Lewis tonight? Missed tackle, but also a sack. Seems like he is playing faster.
KEVIN O'CONNELL: That's what jumps out to me. The missed tackling or the missed tackle on that one run, he's coming downhill. He's trying to fill his responsibility. Those are going to happen, especially when he's really just getting back going again. That's the one thing we can't simulate in those joint practices, is tackling.
To see him make the play on Malik, on the red zone scramble, that's a tough guy to bring down. There was a couple other times where he pulled the trigger, came downhill and made a play.
I think Lew is in a great spot. It was fun to make him a captain tonight. The team, when I announced that, was excited. Lew is doing a great job right now of building upon what he does each and every day. I'm sure there will be some things to correct. He'll be right back in there with Daronte, Harry, Cam. What a group you can really look at right now. Then Theo and Jay Ward. That's a full room of NFL football players. We feel very strongly about that room.
Q. You mentioned the running backs a little bit, the runs in the second half. How did you feel like Deebo acclimated in the second game? Dykes in the first?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I think he had a great workout. He was kind of a little bit of an unknown guy for me. But then watching him work out, seeing the movement, seeing kind of just going through drills with some other backs and things, he kind of jumped out to us.
When we got the opportunity to bring him in, we wanted to give him enough time to get acclimated and give himself a chance to play tonight.
I thought Deebo for the most part, I just feel when he has the football in his hands, he's finishing, physical, downhill. The reads aren't always perfect. The aiming points and all those things. That's what our job is as coaches, is continue to give him clarity and demand of execution that we're looking for.
Just like we talked about with Ty at times, just the physicality at which he runs with. I feel that with DeWayne. To see Dykes come in and hit some backdoor cuts on a duo, got it all the way back almost behind the backside tackle on his own. Things that sometimes guys that haven't been in the system a whole lot don't do. I thought that was exciting. Getting downhill, really moving the team for the first time all night via the run, so...
It was good to see those guys get in there. We're going to allow those guys to play an absolute ton next week, compete to try to win a game.
Q. Jaren was talking about how one thing he needs to work on is actually before the game. He wasn't using the preparation properly. Did you talk to him about it? Something he came up with on his own?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I think it's a matter of do you know it or do you really know it, to the point where when myself or Wes starts calling a play for him, you should know that game plan well enough that you can kind of finish the calls. You can be the guy in the huddle that's so clear and concise with what we're asking, what that call is, that motions and timing of motions and all the little details. That's really our whole group right now. It's not just Jaren. It's that whole group in there.
Really the group that started the game, as well. There's guys that we're looking for that detail as much as possible because we want guys to demonstrate what it would look like if they were in that first huddle, regardless of the position.
There's a little bit more volume. There's a lot of plays that we may have ran over Wednesday and Thursday that weren't going to be on the call sheet tonight. It's that give-and-take of a guy trying to prepare for a game he's going to play in versus a practice where he's only going to get four, five, six reps. A lot of those plays will not carry over. It's the hard part of being a rookie in this league, especially the way we do things.
He's going to get a ton of time next week. He continues to find little ways here and there to move the team. Just looking for more consistency not only from Jaren but from our whole unit, whatever phase is on the field. We're getting closer, but we want to see that last phase of training camp kind of put a stamp on our group.
I can promise our first groups have been getting their work and really a major part of the young guy development, as well. I think about Jordan Addison coming back this week. He'll be right next to J.J. I think about Jay Ward sitting next to Harrison Smith. Ivan sitting next to Jordan Hicks in meetings.
The way we're coaching these guys up, my hope is they can play their best football next week and really put a stamp on what they've done this training camp to try to make our team.
Q. On the defensive line, a lot of guys jockeying for position. How do you use what you saw tonight?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Yeah, really Sitton, H.P., Bullard, and Dean, really there wasn't a whole lot of guys available, but everybody that was up got a ton of reps.
You worry sometimes about the fatigue, when the guys that don't get all the reps in practice, you're asking them to be on the field for nine, 10, 11 play drives. I thought our guys handled it well. I thought the substitutions defensively were really clean throughout the night.
All those guys particularly flashed at different times. I can think back to Sheldon Day making an impact early on when we forced the negative run when Malik went backwards there a little bit. (Indiscernible) popped a couple times on the backside of some run plays. Blacklock is always going to be so active in different phases.
That group is going to be tough to figure out what the numbers look like behind some of those guys I mentioned. Then ultimately what does it look like depending on the personnel grouping where we need a three and five technique, we need a bigger body nose behind Tonga. Making sure it all works while we can potentially keep the numbers we may have to at some other positions. It's not going to be easy.
Thanks.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports