Titans 16, Jaguars 20
Q. How hard was it to lose like that?
MIKE VRABEL: I mean, it's difficult to lose any time in this league, you know. I felt like we were going to win the game. Felt like we were going to win the game Monday, Tuesday, all the way through the week. Felt good about where we were at.
Obviously we played with great effort. Kept answering. When offense needed an answer they did, and when the defense needed it they did. They just made a play there at the end.
Q. You preach winning the turnover battle. How tough was it to have those two turnovers so late in the game?
MIKE VRABEL: That's what cost you the game. In this league you can't turn it over and give up defensive scores. But we're all in this thing together, and that's the most important thing that we have to recognize.
Q. How much did you feel like your defense gave you a chance by holding them to the field goal...
MIKE VRABEL: Yeah, I mean, they did, you know, but that's their job and that's the expectation. Just the same way as there were times where the offense put together some drives, 17-play drives, and took some clock off and kept the ball away from them.
Again, really close but not close enough.
Q. (Regarding the review.) Do you think it was the right call? Get a chance to get a second look at it yourself?
MIKE VRABEL: I mean, yeah. I mean, all scoring plays are reviewed, you know. Only one game going on. Probably a couple sets of eyes that looked at it.
Q. Did you look at it, though?
MIKE VRABEL: No. They didn't put it on the replay. When I looked up I didn't see it.
Q. How limiting was field position in the second half?
MIKE VRABEL: I mean, starting in the shadow of your own goal post, you know, certainly isn't ideal. You know, just got to be able to string some first downs together, get off to a better start, maybe convert.
I thought when Jonathan made the extra effort play I thought we had a chance to get into the drive and do some things, but, you know, that ended.
Q. How would you assess Dobbs' overall performance?
MIKE VRABEL: None of us were really good enough at the end of the day. I thought Josh did some good things, but, you know, wasn't about one guy.
Q. On the first scoring drive, what happened there when Treylon tossed the ball across the field. I know he was called for holding. Was that a design...
MIKE VRABEL: Yeah, it was just a third and long play. If they had given us some free access, just trying to get into the defense. We had shown a similar look earlier in the year. Tried to get to Treylon and catch a run and thought, you know, maybe steal one. If not, hopefully still be in field goal range.
Again, they're coming at him. Just we wanted to go down, but if they had giving us free access try to get into and see if we can convert on a third and 15. That was it.
Q. You went for it early in a couple fourth downs, aggressive. You guys did what you wanted...
MIKE VRABEL: I thought we started the game how we wanted to, but you got to finish better. You have to finish. I was confident that we would and we didn't.
Q. What do you think some of the second half offensive struggles have been in this year?
MIKE VRABEL: Only talk on tonight. Come on, you know, we're out there battling, Joe. I mean, battling their ass off with guys that didn't even start the season with us. That's what the problem was sometimes tonight.
But that is where it was. We'll try to take a look at everything else at a later time. We'll focus on tonight. The penalty, there were some penalties. Costly, again. First and 30 yard run that gets called back and it's first and 20.
Those are tough and things you can't do. Two turnovers. Keep typing all these things down, those will lead to not much points.
Q. (Regarding Lawrence.) At what point did you guys kind of start to ramp things up?
MIKE VRABEL: You know, in the second half I think we just kind of figuring out what we felt like was going to work and where the game plan was. Thought we did a nice job mixing it up and tried to limit their -- again, just trying to disrupt the timing and affect the quarterback a little bit, which we were able to do, which allowed us to got some stops and some three-and-outs and some sudden change situations.
Q. Dobbs in the first half did really well against the blitz, but the second half wasn't exactly the same.
MIKE VRABEL: It's not all on the quarterback.
Q. I wasn't saying that it is.
MIKE VRABEL: And I wasn't saying that you were. I'm just answering the question and saying that that's something that you have to do, is being able to block pressure, make them pay for it down the field, whatever the situation is, and execute.
But we weren't, you know what I mean? We have to be able to get the production right and block them and all those things that go into executing on third down.
Q. You guys gave up a 50-yard kickoff return after you had gone up ten to nothing. How much of a momentum switch was that?
MIKE VRABEL: I mean, that was -- one of the keys with special teams is limiting Agnew being an explosive runner in his career and even this year. You know, touchdown against us that was called back, so we clearly understand how explosive he is and we have to do a better job.
Q. What did you say to the offense after the fumble before they went out for the last drive to rally the troops?
MIKE VRABEL: Go win the game, you know what I mean? Go win the game. Nothing we can do about it now. Went from four minute to two minute, and that's how situations quickly change in this league.
Trying to get a third down conversion. Because we did some pretty good things with six minutes and trying to get a couple first downs. Trying to get a third down there, a conversion with three minutes and whatever it was, 15 seconds, really start forcing them to use timeouts. Then it didn't work out.
Q. The end of the marathon grind is always sudden every year. What did you say the guys immediately?
MIKE VRABEL: How proud I am to coach them. We didn't waver. A lot of teams, guys would be fighting, I would be breaking up fights and guys quitting on teammates.
I think you can tell by the effort that whoever goes out there is playing with great effort. Again, it's got to be more than just great effort. We have to have a lot of things happen to be better.
But those are just signs that you look for. Like guys are competing. They're fighting. They're coming to work. That's what I told them. I was thankful for the guys that started this thing with us. Been here through the long haul. It's a long season from April 18th. Thankful for a lot of guys that came in here mid-season, mid-week that played.
That's what I told them. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that they lost. That we lost. That we lost. I wanted to win for them and the people that have stood by us through this whole thing.
Q. How difficult has this last six weeks been for you?
MIKE VRABEL: I mean, not for me. I only care about the team. I care about the players, their families. No, it hasn't -- my family is healthy, you know what I mean? I get to see Carter. I get to go home and see Jan and the family. These guys, we've been through a lot. We've celebrated life, mourned loss of life within our players' families, and told them this is the first game I played or coached in the state of Florida that my grandfather hasn't been at.
We all go through stuff. We all stood by each other, supported each other. We just got on a shitty streak we couldn't get off. Couldn't make the plays when we needed to. Couldn't be just consistent when we needed to. That showed up again tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports