Tennessee - 24, Indianapolis - 17
Q. Tale of two halves today. What was the difference?
MIKE VRABEL: We won the game 24-17. Excited as hell about it.
Q. You had a big comeback.
MIKE VRABEL: That's called the National Football League. Exciting to win on the road in the division.
Q. How important is it to get back to 2-2?
MIKE VRABEL: Huge. Just the way that the season started, guys kept battling. So proud of this football team, proud to coach them. They compete, and they fight, whoever's out there. We were able to finish the ball game and win down on the road.
Q. Can you speak on the effort by Denico Autry?
MIKE VRABEL: He just is -- sometimes -- Denico won't mind me saying this, but he gets in his own way sometimes. He's so talented, and he knows how to beat these guys. Sometimes he overthinks things sometimes.
It's really cool the type of player he is. He's savvy. It started it in training camp before hurting his hand. You could just see he was dialed in and was going to find a way to help us and certainly impact the game.
Q. Why does he get in his own way?
MIKE VRABEL: He just wants to help us so bad each and every week. You see him. He knows how valuable he is to our football team, and I love who he is and what he's always been about in this league just from his journey.
Q. Talk about how important the run defense was, bottling Jonathan Taylor up and holding him in check.
MIKE VRABEL: Give those guys a lot of credit. There wasn't a whole lot of seams. We know how talented he is. We know what they can do when there are seams, and I give those guys credit. We stayed where we were supposed to be.
Back there on the edge, and even getting the fumbles and turnovers really were the difference.
Q. How critical was it to get Derrick Henry in that rush?
MIKE VRABEL: This is a good defense. They're a fast defense. Give them a lot of credit. They made some adjustments there in the second half. It comes down to converting and then some mistakes.
But it was good. It was really good. Derrick ran hard. I thought the coaches have a really good plan for how we were going to try to run the football on these guys that haven't given up a whole lot of yards. That looked more like our running game.
Again, it wasn't perfect. There were some plays we'd like to have back.
Q. (No microphone)?
MIKE VRABEL: I think that's what you're going to have to do is try to find ways to win. Coming up with some huge turnovers, taking care of the football, getting some special teams to be able to create some field position or flip the field, coming up with some huge stops defensively when we're maybe not at our best, and they keep fighting and competing.
Q. What happened at the end of the first half, at least when you look at it?
MIKE VRABEL: Just looking at it quicker, we have to be able to handle that better and make sure we're putting the ball in the dirt. Just being in field goal range and just trying to ask that there was a quick fourth or first down.
We'll have to look at all these situations that come up and make sure. That's one of them where you have to be great is situational football.
Q. What was the impact of (indiscernible) today?
MIKE VRABEL: Great. It was great. I challenged him all week. Finding ways to help us continuing to understand how critical his role on special teams is. But where he can help us on offense. I thought that Ryan was able to find him and progress through on the goal line. I thought that it was well executed, well designed play down the sidelines.
Derrick made a great block on the safety. They pressured, and Chig was able to get through down the sidelines.
That's all we were talking about, success and being able to share success. Derrick made that play go, just like somebody else made a play go, just like Geoff Swaim made a play go that was able to help Robert Woods down there be wide open in the end zone. That's who we are and who we have to be.
Q. What about the aggression of going in on the sack?
MIKE VRABEL: We wanted to try to win -- are you talking in reference to the end of the game? Just trying to win the game. Figured that first down would win it. We loved the call. We got a good look and was able to execute.
And Chig stayed inbounds, just all the things we talked about, about four minute. So where we weren't great last week in four minute, had two close runs, and at the second one, Derrick and Tory were over there arguing with each other about who he tripped over.
I said, let's just get this first down. I thought it was well executed. Chig caught it, secured the ball, and stayed inbounds.
Q. What about the play by Tory?
MIKE VRABEL: He has to be in a position where he can play as much as he possibly can. From conditioning, we asked him to play a certain style and be able to play with great effort. He's working on his conditioning because the more that he's out there, he can continue to help us. He's a physical player, and he's shown that he's continuing to get better.
Q. Can you talk us through what happened on the substitution attempt with Treylon Burks? The play after he got hurt.
MIKE VRABEL: We ask all players outside of two minute that, if you can't play the next play, to take a knee. That's a safety thing so that they are taking a knee and they stop the play, and then we can get -- first of all, we can look at you, and we can give you medical attention, and then we can get a sub in.
He was in the huddle. Cody ran out there, and we just felt like -- I felt like that we needed to get Cody back out so they didn't stand over the ball and force us to burn a time-out or a five-yard penalty, delay of game, substitution.
So outside of two minutes, we're asking guys that, if they can't play the next play physically is to take a knee. I know that guys don't like to do that. This is not anything to do with their courage or their toughness, but it's about being able to operate and get the next guy in there and make sure that we're doing everything we can do to look at your health.
Q. What did you see from Adams?
MIKE VRABEL: We'll take a look. I know that Joe was involved in the rake, I think, on the replay. So he's played a lot of football. So that's nothing new to him.
But impressive to be able to come in here on a couple days notice and go out there and rotate in whatever fashion he got and however many snaps. The guy is a football guy. He's played a lot of football.
Q. Do you feel like you're in position to continue winning games like this one.
MIKE VRABEL: I think we have to be. If we're not, then I have to make sure that we are and that we're doing everything we can do during the week. But we'll find out how many guys we have available on Wednesday, figure out what the plan is, figure out what the practice schedule will look like, and try to give ourselves the best chance next week.
Q. How good does it feel to get to .500?
MIKE VRABEL: It feels good. I told the team before that success in this life means nothing if you don't have people to share it with. We have a whole bunch of guys in there that are going to be sharing this. So if you ask them about the second half, I hope they tell you what I told them to tell you. We're excited to win. We're going to enjoy it, and we're going to get back to work.
Q. Are you concerned about that becoming a mental thing?
MIKE VRABEL: I just think it's not a mental thing. It's an execution thing. It's making sure we're predicting the future. We also were at the benefit of some great defensive turnovers short field. There's a million different reasons. But there's good plays in all three phases.
Red zone has to continue to be a strength for us. We have to play better in the red zone defensively. We can't let guys run free. We need to continue to score touchdowns when we get down there like we have.
Q. How extreme is the pass rush situation coming into today?
MIKE VRABEL: I don't know. I don't have anything to compare it to except for last year, I guess. You know, we'll get on the phone, and I know we've got some guys in on the practice squad that are itching to play and might get an opportunity. Thank you guys. Have a safe trip back, man.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports