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Coach Fisher's Monday media briefing
HEAD COACH JEFF FISHER, SEPTEMBER 25, 2006
(on injuries from the game)
Let me discuss issues from the ballgame. We’ve got three issues going right now at the guard position. Eugene Amano, Benji Olson and Zach Piller will all be questionable for the game. It’s unlikely that any of them will practice this week. They’ll be game time decisions. Other than that we had a few little things. Craig Hentrich’s back flared up a little bit, but he had one of his better days in the ballgame. We had some minor bumps and bruises. You saw Travis LaBoy and Albert (Haynesworth) tended to, but they both seemed to be much better today. So the big concern will be the guard position. We’ll be shuffling people around and we’ll get people lined up and we’ll go. I think there’s a good chance that Ahmard Hall and Antwan Odom will both practice and have a chance to play this weekend.
(on how far away TE Erron Kinney is from playing)
He’s still a ways away. I can’t say whether it’s a week or two but he’s still a ways away.
(on if he’s surprised it’s taken this long for Kinney to heal)
No, it was what the doctors told us. We sent him out for a second opinion. Right at the conclusion of training camp that’s what the doctors had felt.
(on DE Travis LaBoy’s injury)
Travis got a low back contusion.
(on if T Daniel Loper can play guard)
He went in the game and took a few snaps when Eugene came out. That’s why he’s here because he has the flexibility to play both guard and tackle.
(on if he’s comfortable going with the players he has available on the offensive line)
We’re going to see, just see how it goes. We’re comfortable with who we have on the active roster right now.
(on if Amano, Olson and Piller are all wearing boots)
Yes, as a matter of fact I reminded the guys that if anybody had an extra boot at home in the closet to bring it because we’re out (joking).
(on if T Jacob Bell will play guard)
There is a chance we could do that.
(on if Amano, Olson and Piller have high sprains)
No. They probably won’t practice much this week, and they’ll be game time decisions.
(on plugging guys into the offensive line)
You know one of the things that we try to do during the week, we’ve done an awful lot of this, is move guys around. (Offensive line coach) Mike (Munchak) does a good job plugging guys in for this very reason, so that they become familiar with the other positions. Mike’s confident that the guys will line up to play will play. The challenge is we’re going to play a very, very good defense.
(on RB Travis Henry’s play)
I was pleased overall with what he did. We’ll see how he is this week. We’ll see how Chris (Brown) comes around and LenDale’s (White) continued to improve. We’re in a situation where we’ve got three backs that can play for us. You would prefer to keep them all healthy and have one guy be the guy but it hasn’t worked out that way. I thought Travis did some good things early in the ballgame. We didn’t help him. Actually defense created those plays. We got safety blitzes into our checks and we lost some significant yards. But I thought Travis for the most part did a nice job, did a good job of protection. We put pressure on him last week because we knew protection was going to be an issue because of all of the things that they did and he was right on. He cleared the pocket most of the time for Kerry (Collins) when we needed to keep him in.
(on the difficulty of establishing an identity as a running team)
I think we showed yesterday that we can do it. What happens is because of the success we had adjustments made by the defense, and when the defense starts loading up and bringing safeties and things to affect it then you have to go down the field. That was our decision. Eight out of our first 10 plays were runs going into the ballgame. We had some success. We started the second half doing the same thing and then we started getting the pressure so we picked it up and threw it. That’s the way we’re going to have to play. If somebody comes up and says, ‘Hey, we’re going to dare you to throw it,’ then we’re going to throw it. We’re going to have to make the big catches. Kerry missed a few balls down the field, but the other side of that is he also stood in there and made some really big throws under pressure, which his experience certainly paid off for him yesterday.
(on if he’d like to be able to run the ball and use the four minute approach)
Oh yeah, there’s no doubt that the four minute approach is what you build your team around and that’s keeping the ball when you need to keep it and get it back when you have to. We’re good on the first and second down inside the two minutes, using the timeouts and then they (Miami) made a play on third down to keep it (the ball).
(on if CB Cortland Finnegan’s ability to blitz factored into his getting the starting job at nickel back)
Our nickel back typically over the years has done a lot of blitzing. It’s part of our pressure package. Cortland’s very quick and he’s instinctive and he can dip and he can work his way to the quarterback. That’s helped him. I feel like he’s going to be a pretty good player. He’s still learning; he’s got a lot to learn, but he’s learning on the run and he’s learned from his mistakes and has been productive for us.
(on if he expects offenses to start accounting for Finnegan)
There’s a chance. What happens is offenses are going to change protections. They’re going to pull an extra guy in the backfield. A lot of teams just do that against us as it is, go to a receiver-type set with two guys in the backfield and basically go with seven-man protection just to protect the quarterback. When that happens then we spend our time in coverage. We’re seeing a little more of that and people could end up turning to our nickel back, where he lines up and they adjust the alignments and things. We’ll watch it and we’ll adjust. That’s the fascinating part of our third down package is how we approach those with the different players.
(on S Lamont Thompson’s missed tackle on Marty Booker allowing for a large gain)
He had several opportunities in the game. He had that one. That was a quick throw outside. That’s the right place to go when the corner comes off, Lamont’s got to go make the tackle. That’s the design of the defense. You have to make those plays. Obviously he’s been put on notice along with the rest of the guys that weren’t making those type of plays in the defensive scheme that we needed to.
(on if CB Pacman Jones would have made it through without RB Quinton Ganther’s illegal block on Jones’ punt return for a touchdown that was called back)
No doubt. Quinton probably never, I didn’t ask him but we’re going to assume that he didn’t play on a punt return team in college. We plugged him in only because of injury. He was hustling doing the best he could and just made a bad decision. He made a bad decision, should not have thrown the block. That’s what you learn from. He did however on several other situations in the game make good plays. He made a real nice tackle on kickoff coverage. That’s one of those that you can’t allow to happen. A number of these plays in the game involved inches. Pac on his return where he fumbled the football, had he had the ball tucked a little bit more just a couple inches more inside and not had the ball hit, he would’ve scored on that one because he was through the crease. As frustrated as he was at the penalty, he also was frustrated at himself because he had an opportunity earlier in the game to break it. Where do you go from there? We know what kind of ability he has and the players have to understand to set the blocks up but trust that he’s going to make somebody miss. Don’t put yourself in a negative position.
(on LB Robert Reynolds’ injury status)
Yeah, he should come back. We missed Robert last week. We had to plug in for him. We missed him. Hopefully he’ll be back.
(on what he means by ‘putting guys on notice’)
I’m not expecting those kinds of things to happen again. You get a guy in a situation to make a play he’s got to make the play. If it happens again then you’ve got to find someone else to make that play. It’s pretty simple. There’s a number of things in this game; we left a lot of points out there. In general, I think the mood of the team is much better than it was last week. It’s not a moral victory but they see themselves making strides, they see improvement, they saw points that were left on the field, a number of points. We have a lot of respect for the Dolphins, all three of their units. We feel like the Dolphins are a team that will be a postseason contender and we went out there after a difficult week and bounced back and put ourselves in position to win, or had a chance to win and didn’t. From the standpoint I think the mindset was there. Certainly the effort was there. It’s been questioned, not by us but by others, but the effort was there in the ballgame. The intensity was there, the emotion. I think it was a good ending to a week that had its share of distractions. It just showed you that these guys can focus on what they need to do and go out and give themselves a chance to win.
(on other players who are ‘on notice’)
I think you know we’re looking for playmakers. When the plays are getting made we’re going to go other directions. I don’t have any plans to make any changes in the lineup right now but also we’re very close if things don’t change in a few other areas then we will.
(on QB Kerry Collins’ play)
Kerry will start this week. Kerry was 0-4 and then 13 for the next 16 in the first half. He settled down and made plays, moved the ball in the two minute and made some tough throws against a pretty good defense.
(on if he needs more receivers to show effort like TE Bo Scaife did on his touchdown reception)
I’ve not seen an instance where someone’s not made an all-out effort after a ball. There were some balls that were overthrown. When you get down in the plus territory, typically speaking, those are the kind of catches that you have to make. You have to make great plays to score inside the 20-yard line. It’s typically going to be a tight throw and you’ve got to make a great catch. It’s just unfortunate for Bo though. That was a phenomenal catch and then to have another opportunity and then have it slip away because you lost the ball.
(on using multiple receivers in games)
We want to keep them fresh. We talked about that earlier. We want to keep them fresh. Drew (Bennett) and David (Givens) are running down the field, running deep routes, and we’re going to continue to rotate them. We have confidence. Roydell (Williams) made a nice first down catch for us on a slant, then Brandon (Jones) was in position several times to make some plays. We are going to keep rotating them, just to keep them fresh, so we have the legs and the lungs to make plays at the end of the ballgames.
(on if Givens’ ankle is an issue)
Not an issue, no.
(on if QB Vince Young will play against Dallas)
Kerry’s our starter and if you want see if Vince is going to play, you’re going to have to watch the game. He got plenty of playing time the first couple of weeks. I am prepared to put him in the game if we feel like it’s necessary. This particular week, I wanted to get Kerry in there, get him into the flow, give him a chance to put drives together and not interrupt drives or interrupt continuity.
(on if he’s concerned about the team’s frustration from the loss)
No, I’m not concerned about their frustrations, not at all. Everybody was upset about it because we had a chance. It’s an emotional game, an emotional three hours. There are days that lead up to kickoff, with the expectation levels being high, and when it doesn’t work out how you want it to work out, they’re going to be emotional. Whether it’s frustration or not, your heart hurts and your mind hurts when you don’t win. But if you take the right perspective and you look at it and say ‘Ok, here is what we did in general, here’s where we are and where we are going,’ not that it’s ok, but there’s hope. There’s optimism. You have to compliment them on their work ethic last week and their effort, yet still scrutinize them on their missed opportunities, but put it behind you and move on. It’s the only chance you have to pull out. This is a group that understands that.
(on the ESPN.com report that Young will be the starter)
I didn’t see the report. I did not speak with Chris (Mortensen). That’s not the case. That is not what has been discussed in any meetings with anyone, so I don’t know where that came from. As far as how it affects the team, it doesn’t affect the team. If these guys are affected by what they read and what they hear, they might as well just not show up for work. It does not affect them.
http://www.titansonline.com/news/titans_news_detail.php?PRKey=4128
HEAD COACH JEFF FISHER, SEPTEMBER 25, 2006
(on injuries from the game)
Let me discuss issues from the ballgame. We’ve got three issues going right now at the guard position. Eugene Amano, Benji Olson and Zach Piller will all be questionable for the game. It’s unlikely that any of them will practice this week. They’ll be game time decisions. Other than that we had a few little things. Craig Hentrich’s back flared up a little bit, but he had one of his better days in the ballgame. We had some minor bumps and bruises. You saw Travis LaBoy and Albert (Haynesworth) tended to, but they both seemed to be much better today. So the big concern will be the guard position. We’ll be shuffling people around and we’ll get people lined up and we’ll go. I think there’s a good chance that Ahmard Hall and Antwan Odom will both practice and have a chance to play this weekend.
(on how far away TE Erron Kinney is from playing)
He’s still a ways away. I can’t say whether it’s a week or two but he’s still a ways away.
(on if he’s surprised it’s taken this long for Kinney to heal)
No, it was what the doctors told us. We sent him out for a second opinion. Right at the conclusion of training camp that’s what the doctors had felt.
(on DE Travis LaBoy’s injury)
Travis got a low back contusion.
(on if T Daniel Loper can play guard)
He went in the game and took a few snaps when Eugene came out. That’s why he’s here because he has the flexibility to play both guard and tackle.
(on if he’s comfortable going with the players he has available on the offensive line)
We’re going to see, just see how it goes. We’re comfortable with who we have on the active roster right now.
(on if Amano, Olson and Piller are all wearing boots)
Yes, as a matter of fact I reminded the guys that if anybody had an extra boot at home in the closet to bring it because we’re out (joking).
(on if T Jacob Bell will play guard)
There is a chance we could do that.
(on if Amano, Olson and Piller have high sprains)
No. They probably won’t practice much this week, and they’ll be game time decisions.
(on plugging guys into the offensive line)
You know one of the things that we try to do during the week, we’ve done an awful lot of this, is move guys around. (Offensive line coach) Mike (Munchak) does a good job plugging guys in for this very reason, so that they become familiar with the other positions. Mike’s confident that the guys will line up to play will play. The challenge is we’re going to play a very, very good defense.
(on RB Travis Henry’s play)
I was pleased overall with what he did. We’ll see how he is this week. We’ll see how Chris (Brown) comes around and LenDale’s (White) continued to improve. We’re in a situation where we’ve got three backs that can play for us. You would prefer to keep them all healthy and have one guy be the guy but it hasn’t worked out that way. I thought Travis did some good things early in the ballgame. We didn’t help him. Actually defense created those plays. We got safety blitzes into our checks and we lost some significant yards. But I thought Travis for the most part did a nice job, did a good job of protection. We put pressure on him last week because we knew protection was going to be an issue because of all of the things that they did and he was right on. He cleared the pocket most of the time for Kerry (Collins) when we needed to keep him in.
(on the difficulty of establishing an identity as a running team)
I think we showed yesterday that we can do it. What happens is because of the success we had adjustments made by the defense, and when the defense starts loading up and bringing safeties and things to affect it then you have to go down the field. That was our decision. Eight out of our first 10 plays were runs going into the ballgame. We had some success. We started the second half doing the same thing and then we started getting the pressure so we picked it up and threw it. That’s the way we’re going to have to play. If somebody comes up and says, ‘Hey, we’re going to dare you to throw it,’ then we’re going to throw it. We’re going to have to make the big catches. Kerry missed a few balls down the field, but the other side of that is he also stood in there and made some really big throws under pressure, which his experience certainly paid off for him yesterday.
(on if he’d like to be able to run the ball and use the four minute approach)
Oh yeah, there’s no doubt that the four minute approach is what you build your team around and that’s keeping the ball when you need to keep it and get it back when you have to. We’re good on the first and second down inside the two minutes, using the timeouts and then they (Miami) made a play on third down to keep it (the ball).
(on if CB Cortland Finnegan’s ability to blitz factored into his getting the starting job at nickel back)
Our nickel back typically over the years has done a lot of blitzing. It’s part of our pressure package. Cortland’s very quick and he’s instinctive and he can dip and he can work his way to the quarterback. That’s helped him. I feel like he’s going to be a pretty good player. He’s still learning; he’s got a lot to learn, but he’s learning on the run and he’s learned from his mistakes and has been productive for us.
(on if he expects offenses to start accounting for Finnegan)
There’s a chance. What happens is offenses are going to change protections. They’re going to pull an extra guy in the backfield. A lot of teams just do that against us as it is, go to a receiver-type set with two guys in the backfield and basically go with seven-man protection just to protect the quarterback. When that happens then we spend our time in coverage. We’re seeing a little more of that and people could end up turning to our nickel back, where he lines up and they adjust the alignments and things. We’ll watch it and we’ll adjust. That’s the fascinating part of our third down package is how we approach those with the different players.
(on S Lamont Thompson’s missed tackle on Marty Booker allowing for a large gain)
He had several opportunities in the game. He had that one. That was a quick throw outside. That’s the right place to go when the corner comes off, Lamont’s got to go make the tackle. That’s the design of the defense. You have to make those plays. Obviously he’s been put on notice along with the rest of the guys that weren’t making those type of plays in the defensive scheme that we needed to.
(on if CB Pacman Jones would have made it through without RB Quinton Ganther’s illegal block on Jones’ punt return for a touchdown that was called back)
No doubt. Quinton probably never, I didn’t ask him but we’re going to assume that he didn’t play on a punt return team in college. We plugged him in only because of injury. He was hustling doing the best he could and just made a bad decision. He made a bad decision, should not have thrown the block. That’s what you learn from. He did however on several other situations in the game make good plays. He made a real nice tackle on kickoff coverage. That’s one of those that you can’t allow to happen. A number of these plays in the game involved inches. Pac on his return where he fumbled the football, had he had the ball tucked a little bit more just a couple inches more inside and not had the ball hit, he would’ve scored on that one because he was through the crease. As frustrated as he was at the penalty, he also was frustrated at himself because he had an opportunity earlier in the game to break it. Where do you go from there? We know what kind of ability he has and the players have to understand to set the blocks up but trust that he’s going to make somebody miss. Don’t put yourself in a negative position.
(on LB Robert Reynolds’ injury status)
Yeah, he should come back. We missed Robert last week. We had to plug in for him. We missed him. Hopefully he’ll be back.
(on what he means by ‘putting guys on notice’)
I’m not expecting those kinds of things to happen again. You get a guy in a situation to make a play he’s got to make the play. If it happens again then you’ve got to find someone else to make that play. It’s pretty simple. There’s a number of things in this game; we left a lot of points out there. In general, I think the mood of the team is much better than it was last week. It’s not a moral victory but they see themselves making strides, they see improvement, they saw points that were left on the field, a number of points. We have a lot of respect for the Dolphins, all three of their units. We feel like the Dolphins are a team that will be a postseason contender and we went out there after a difficult week and bounced back and put ourselves in position to win, or had a chance to win and didn’t. From the standpoint I think the mindset was there. Certainly the effort was there. It’s been questioned, not by us but by others, but the effort was there in the ballgame. The intensity was there, the emotion. I think it was a good ending to a week that had its share of distractions. It just showed you that these guys can focus on what they need to do and go out and give themselves a chance to win.
(on other players who are ‘on notice’)
I think you know we’re looking for playmakers. When the plays are getting made we’re going to go other directions. I don’t have any plans to make any changes in the lineup right now but also we’re very close if things don’t change in a few other areas then we will.
(on QB Kerry Collins’ play)
Kerry will start this week. Kerry was 0-4 and then 13 for the next 16 in the first half. He settled down and made plays, moved the ball in the two minute and made some tough throws against a pretty good defense.
(on if he needs more receivers to show effort like TE Bo Scaife did on his touchdown reception)
I’ve not seen an instance where someone’s not made an all-out effort after a ball. There were some balls that were overthrown. When you get down in the plus territory, typically speaking, those are the kind of catches that you have to make. You have to make great plays to score inside the 20-yard line. It’s typically going to be a tight throw and you’ve got to make a great catch. It’s just unfortunate for Bo though. That was a phenomenal catch and then to have another opportunity and then have it slip away because you lost the ball.
(on using multiple receivers in games)
We want to keep them fresh. We talked about that earlier. We want to keep them fresh. Drew (Bennett) and David (Givens) are running down the field, running deep routes, and we’re going to continue to rotate them. We have confidence. Roydell (Williams) made a nice first down catch for us on a slant, then Brandon (Jones) was in position several times to make some plays. We are going to keep rotating them, just to keep them fresh, so we have the legs and the lungs to make plays at the end of the ballgames.
(on if Givens’ ankle is an issue)
Not an issue, no.
(on if QB Vince Young will play against Dallas)
Kerry’s our starter and if you want see if Vince is going to play, you’re going to have to watch the game. He got plenty of playing time the first couple of weeks. I am prepared to put him in the game if we feel like it’s necessary. This particular week, I wanted to get Kerry in there, get him into the flow, give him a chance to put drives together and not interrupt drives or interrupt continuity.
(on if he’s concerned about the team’s frustration from the loss)
No, I’m not concerned about their frustrations, not at all. Everybody was upset about it because we had a chance. It’s an emotional game, an emotional three hours. There are days that lead up to kickoff, with the expectation levels being high, and when it doesn’t work out how you want it to work out, they’re going to be emotional. Whether it’s frustration or not, your heart hurts and your mind hurts when you don’t win. But if you take the right perspective and you look at it and say ‘Ok, here is what we did in general, here’s where we are and where we are going,’ not that it’s ok, but there’s hope. There’s optimism. You have to compliment them on their work ethic last week and their effort, yet still scrutinize them on their missed opportunities, but put it behind you and move on. It’s the only chance you have to pull out. This is a group that understands that.
(on the ESPN.com report that Young will be the starter)
I didn’t see the report. I did not speak with Chris (Mortensen). That’s not the case. That is not what has been discussed in any meetings with anyone, so I don’t know where that came from. As far as how it affects the team, it doesn’t affect the team. If these guys are affected by what they read and what they hear, they might as well just not show up for work. It does not affect them.
http://www.titansonline.com/news/titans_news_detail.php?PRKey=4128
