 Jake, how much more comfortable are you in this offense? I mean, you caught every ball that came in your direction yesterday, including the one you used your helmet to help pin in for the catch. Yeah, I think as the games keep going on, and I keep getting more reps and more experience, I just keep getting more comfortable and more confident with every rep in every game. How'd you compare yourself right now, Jake, as a blocker to say the man in the season? I'd say definitely a lot better just because compared to now, I'm just completely confident with knowing what I'm doing on the field, like knowing who I'm going to, knowing where my combos are going. So I'd say significantly better than at the beginning of the season. Along those lines, we see you starting to play some full back. How has that, you know, how have you accepted that transition and what has been the key to be able to do that in addition to your tight end duties? For me, that's just really embracing, you know, my role as being a versatile player. I think that's one of my biggest strengths. So for me, just being able to line up in any formation, you know, line up in any, you know, place in the backfield, full back, maybe with a block from there or catch passes from there, I think that's a big strength. So just pretty much just embrace that role, you know, you know, a lot of underlying guys, you know, want to, you know, just run through the hole and, you know, be a lead blocker. But embracing that role has been really fun for me and just, you know, finding different ways for me to get on the field and help the team. Except in a year long process, like how is that going? Because it seemed like we just all of a sudden in the last three or four weeks saw you there. I feel like, no, I mean, I think we had a couple of things, you know, with me back in the full back position earlier in the year, but yeah, we just decided to come back to it now. Can you talk us through the two point conversion catch? Yeah, I mean, that was really just all reaction, all reaction to the ball. So the ball was out and just reached my hand out. And then I try to find a place to, you know, keep it secure. And I just pinned it on my helmet. And I'm sure you're preparing the same way the way, but how good has it been? How much of you enjoyed more opportunities being a bigger part of this offense, you know, last couple of weeks? It's definitely, you know, I'm very appreciative that the coaching staff, you know, Ryan, you know, putting trust in me and just allowing me to go out there. And, you know, Don plays up for me to make plays. Speaking of that trust with Ryan, was there a particular play in a game or maybe a particular day in practice where you felt like you you had earned his trust that he was going to come to you more often? I don't I can't remember like a specific, you know, time, but it was something that was just, you know, over, you know, from the time I got here, you know, to now is just something that's just been gradually and increasing over and over again. I think with me, I have taken a big, bigger step more towards the midseason to now in terms of just knowing everything, knowing the offense. I think that's that's one of the main reasons I'm able to get out on the field a lot more now. It's been a minute since this team lost three games in a row. I think about four years. Have you guys taken a hit with with your confidence at this point? No, we know what we who we are in every game. We're still going to go out. We're still going to play Titans football. You know, we're going to run the ball. We're going to play defense and that's who we are. You know, we're going to three game lose the streak. You know, we got to get out of that, but we're going to stick to what we do. I think it's been from you for, I guess, the physical physical standpoint. You know, your college season would have been over by now. You still got weeks to go. How do you handle that? And would you do maybe to kind of get ready for December and January? I really just watch what the vets are doing, seeing what the vets are doing to take care of the body, because, you know, obviously they've been doing it for a long time. A lot of my stuff is just getting in the cold tub, massages, doing extra rehab and stuff and then lifting. We get two or three guys hanging on you. What's what's the key to sort of keeping your legs going and getting an extra yard or two in those situations? Just fight. I mean, it's just in your head, you know, the willpower to just keep going. I think you always had that. Yeah, I feel like I've always had that as a football player. I feel like you had extra situations of that. Yesterday, it seemed like two or three times you had three or four guys. Yeah, I mean, when my usage is going to go up, I'm obviously going to have many more times, you know, with guys tackling me and I feel I always feel like I don't I don't personally want to go down from the first guy. So it's going to take a lot of guys to tackle me. When you look back at yesterday and you look at the score and the ugliness that ensued, can you still look at that game and say we did more to beat ourselves than they did to beat us? I mean, we completely, you know, beat ourselves in that game. Having four turnovers is not going to is not going to win you the game. So this game is about, you know, taking care of the football and then getting turnovers. And, you know, we didn't do that yesterday. And I feel like we were moving the ball down the field against them many times, you know, we're feeling very comfortable. But at the end of the day, if you turn the ball over four times, you're not going to win the football game. Just about everybody said yesterday, I didn't feel like last week was a distraction. But now that you're officially through the week yesterday happened, you guys have to kind of take stock again here and realize where you are, what's in front of you, what's yet to accomplish and refocus in that regard. I mean, yeah, we got to do that. But also for us, we just got to take it, you know, day by day. I mean, we can't just, you know, keep dwelling on the past. I mean, the past is the past. You know, we got to keep moving forward. So we've got to take it day by day and then just try to keep getting better and finding ways to win the football game. As you see your involvement increase, like how has Coach Downing been as far as, like, giving you more and more? Because I know back in, before you got here, he had a really severe interest in you. So... How have you seen, like, that process, how has he been in getting you more involved and, you know, coming up with different ways to get you the ball? Yeah, I mean, we've just been finding ways, you know, plug me in different spots. You know, they've just been experimenting a lot of stuff since I've got here. And I feel that we finally found, like, a common, you know, middle ground where I can feel comfortable with doing certain stuff. And now, I feel like I'm playing a lot more towards my strengths. You can talk us through the touchdown, too, as you kind of helicoptered in the end zone if you had to play that one? Yeah, I mean, again, that was just another reaction thing. Just caught the ball and I saw the guy going low and I knew I needed to get in the end zone and the only way was to go over top of him. So that's how that happened. Does that hurt less when you land in the end zone as opposed to anywhere else on the field? I didn't lie. When I landed, I was like, it felt like I bounced up super quick. So it didn't hurt at all. How much this week, especially during the recent slide, have you found yourself trying to keep young guys up? You've been through a lot of NFL cities as ups and downs. How much are you trying to lift spirits of young guys and keep them from getting down? Like the same thing I said before during camp, if they were down, just keep improving, keep trying to get better. If you think about it and dwell on the negatives too much, it can really affect your game for the long run. We still have games that we need to win and games where we need those young guys to play good. You seem surprised when they walked you off the field. What's that process like? Would they tell you about what they saw that prompted them to take you off for what was it? Yeah, they just see my head hit the ground and then they see me kind of lay there. So I mean, they just did the regular protocol of calling it and then they take you in the tent, ask you a couple of questions, you know what time of day it is, what time of the game it is, and then if you're good to go, you're good to go, or if you're not, then you'll be down. It was my knee. I lay there because my knee and then I mean, but I figured that they saw me roll, hit the ground that they might have saw me just hit my head. You supposed to know what time it is. I mean, it's pretty tough. I just try and gauge between 12 and three o'clock somewhere on there. Right. You've been on the team four years, correct? So you were on the team the last time they lost. Yeah. Three games in a row. I think it was eight 2018 was the last shows before me. I came in 2019. So I mean, this is the first time you've gone through this. Yeah. I mean, this is pretty tough. You know, I think the worst that we've been in was two and four and that was my rookie year when we started then, but we didn't have three losses in a row. But the thing that we've got to do is just hone in on the details and just play better. Guys, just do your job and then let the defense work for you or let the offense work for you. I'm not gonna say it's a tough place but it's your games. Yeah. Seven and six, you have a chance to punch the ticket to the playoffs. Do you guys have to remind yourself of that year that there's a lot to play for over the next few weeks? Yeah, there's definitely a lot to play for. I mean, that's just something that we always talk about. We don't shy away from that. We know where we are. But just as a whole, we know what we're capable of and we know that we just need to play better and that's just where we hold ourselves to that standard. With these types of times, like that's when your character, like what you're really about comes to the surface in your description, like what is this team about? What's the character of this team? I mean, we're a great team. You got guys who love ball, guys that will fight and they fight every game until the end. I mean, we got guys out there on defense that were still playing hard as if we still had a chance to win the last couple of minutes. So, I mean, the culture that we have here is great. The players that we have here is great. The coaching staff we have, we just got to make sure that we just lock in a little more details, preparation, and then know when it comes down to it, just win when you're one on one. You guys are going well. It seems like the defense was getting lots of turnovers. Ball was finding you guys. That seems to have dried up during this little slide. Why do you feel like that is? You know, I think it's just making the plays. I think early in the year, we were making plays that were coming our way. And then recently, you know, the guys are in position. It's just, you know, there's not winning. Whether the case may be just, you know, honing in on, you know, individual work during practice and maybe working a couple more techniques that we could help us out. But I mean, at the end of the day, it just comes down to you versus another player. And then as a whole defense, it's being our 11 versus their 11. 35 points, 36 points allowed in the last two games. How dissatisfied, I guess, are you guys as a defense with that given what you'd been doing earlier in the year? Yeah, it's definitely not what we want to do. Definitely not our standard. And, you know, where we hold ourselves to as a defense. I mean, our goal is to, you know, no matter what happens, wherever we are in the field is to get off the field, find the resolve to get the drive stop. And if they're in the red zone or if they're in field go range, you know, that's all they get is three points. What has to change to maybe change the results? I think just the details, preparation for the game. You know, some, there's mistakes here and there, every other play, not just from everyone, but could be a couple guys here and there, but you know, just honing on the details and then just being in tune with what our goal is for the week. Derek and Jeff, whole thought leaders stepping up was going to be key to you guys turning this around through adversity. You were very vocal in training camp about wanting to take that step as a leader in this defense. So what do you personally feel like you can do this week or some of these guys can do this week to lead this group back down the right direction? Being positive. There's a lot of times, you know, we got a lot of young guys in the group, so it's pretty easy for them to, you know, last three games we've lost. So they've been, depending on how they feel about how they played, you know, that's, that's besides the point. It's all about moving forward. And there's more opportunities out there. I mean, if you go out next week and you get, you know, PBU's, picks, force fumbles, like, I mean, the last, that might erase your last game. Obviously it's still there, but that feeling will be erased at least. But the main thing is just go out there and just keep trying to improve and just get better. So cornerback, your, your spot now for the rest of the season, you think, is that how you're approaching things? I mean, whatever, whatever they need me at. I mean, I played it when I was in college. I played it when I first got here and I've always kind of made sure I kind of knew what was going on. So I feel comfortable there. I like being there as well. So whatever they need me at. You watched Justin Herbert in the Chargers offense last night? Yeah, I did. He was slinging it around. Yeah, he was doing a great job. I mean, I think he was like 35 for 40 or something, about 350 plus yards. So I mean, great quarterback. You know, we have a good challenge ahead of us. How about the rest of their weapons in which you're gonna have to deal with as a secondary? How good are they? I mean, they're real good. I mean, whenever they have Mike, Michael, Mike out there and they have Key and Allen out there together, I mean, it's pretty tough, tough to stop. So we've got a good challenge ahead of us, good skill group of guys. And I think we're gonna be ready to go. As soon as you record 300 yards against you guys, what do you have to do to get out of that front? Can change that this weekend? Honing on the details, great communication. Communication is a key thing that we wanna continue to improve on. And then just having trust, having trust that the guy's gonna be inside to help you out and just also knowing where your help is. Road, four games left and trying to hold onto your spot on top of the division. Well, the challenge is just getting back to eliminating bad football. You know what I mean? We have too many opportunities to do good things and we have to eliminate bad football. You know, whether it's turnovers, whether it's those turnovers and sudden change, you know, affecting the quarterback or not being able to affect their quarterback, not being good at the end of a half situationally. You know, just those things where, you know, we have to be, you know, whether they're not lined up and we're not ready to go, you know, that would be another instance. So there's a lot of those things and that's the challenge. It's not looking ahead to how many games we have left. It's, you know, making sure that we eliminate bad football and that we find ways to go out there and play complimentary, which we've done. Certainly haven't done it here recently. What type of character you want this time of adversity to show that this team has? Well, I mean, we all have a choice. You know, we have a power to choose how we walk in here. I've said that and how we approach this would like them to, you know, all of us to make sure that we're doing our part, you know, to fix the things that have to be fixed, to recognize the good things, to eliminate or fix the bad things and then, you know, rid ourselves of the things that get you beat, which are turnovers and mistakes and, you know, just the things that happened yesterday, not playing complimentary. Eliminating the bad football. Is that something that you can clean up on the practice field, meeting rooms? How do you connect? Well, I mean, I hope so. I mean, but you get to a point now where, you know, you're late in the season, guys are beat up. You know, how much can you realistically practice? How many reps you can practice? How many bodies that you have practicing with? So I hope that it's a combination of both, Jim. I hope that it's a combination of, you know, taking the meetings, you know, and being able to walk through, taking a walk through corrections and using the ones that we have in speed and practice and hitting them. You know, there was, you know, a lot of things that showed up in the game that, you know, we fixed throughout the week. And then unfortunately, there was things that we didn't and we weren't able to hit it or use it to our advantage. When you try to gauge the overall physical well-being of your team, I mean, how much do you rely on the information that you have through, you know, tracking devices and things these days and how much is it you just like or don't like what you see on the field on Sunday? Well, you talked about management and then you talked about the tracking and then it was to what I don't like or like what I like. I'm trying to view, like, as far as speed or... You feel like, I mean, do you say, based on the numbers we have, I expect we're gonna be really physical and fresh and things on Sunday and oh my gosh, we're not? Well, I mean, I think you try to view, you know, the health of the team about how they, you know, each individual player, what they look like, what they feel like, you know, everybody's beat up this time of year. You know, we have to try to do everything that we can do physically to get their bodies back. They have to do their part as well and then manage practice, you know, accordingly. I'll give it up as Jeffer right now, Mike. Do you feel like that's been dragging him down recently than Nico? Well, he's, you know, Jeff's not at 100%. You know, that's something that we've had to manage and that, you know, I appreciate his willingness to help us and manage it and get through and do everything that he possibly can, you know, to get to the games. Along those lines, Danico was a guy that, you know, really affected things that seemed like him going after the quarterback. Is he any closer to being able to return? I hope so. I hope he is. Could use everybody. I know you're a teacher first in a lot of ways. I was asking you yesterday, I did a bad job. Do you ever change things where you're, do you ever come into a meeting with them angry, light them up, anything like that, or is that not part of the way you operate because you're a teacher? Well, I mean, I think my job is to make sure that, you know, we're pointing out those things. I think there's a couple different ways to go about doing it. And I've done it in a multitude of ways. I've done it differently. You know, sometimes the things I say, Paul, somehow in a twisted, warped way may make, may make me feel better. I don't know if that makes, you know, the situation better. So I've tried to balance that. I really believe, you know, that I have. I think what they, you know, what you see is what you get. You know, I think that I'm always gonna try to be honest with them. I'm always gonna try to point out the things. You know, but I do believe that my tone, as the head coach of this football team is important. I think it's, you know, again, trying to come in here today after a loss, after three losses where we're at, you know, it's still important to make sure that, you know, we're all held accountable that we're doing things that are positive, but also the outlook has to be positive as well. That twisted, warped way, maybe have a degree of venting to it at times? I mean, I don't want to go in there and vent. I want to go in there and make sure that there's a clear vision of what we have to do, find out who we have available and get them ready for the football game. That's it. Last week you talked about, you know, rationalizing where you were at. You had two tough losses to the Chiefs and Bengals and then a bad day in the building. Do you take that same approach to this game of rationalizing how? No, I mean, it's pretty easy to see if you just follow the keys and understand the turnover is the inability to, you know, affect the quarterback, our inability to get into a, we answered back in the first half offensively. We did it in the second half, you know what I mean? And then by the time we got back on track offensively, it was just too little, too late. Thought there were some good things in the run game. Thought there were some good things in the red zone. I thought we had a good flow. We, you know, to start the game, we went on a drive. We complimented each other, the plays complimented one another. You know, I mean, there's not a whole lot to ration. I think it's just reality of that. When you do those things in this league, you have no chance to win. Yesterday, kind of what you envisioned when you drafted it? Yeah, there were some good things. I think the statistics, you know, probably cloud some of the overall play. There were some mistakes that, you know, I felt like he made and, but, you know, there was some production, which was good and some corrections that he made and the execution in the red zone. But, but there were just, you know, some other things that, you know, didn't really help us. You need his ability to stay on his feet and keep grinding when he's got two or three guys hanging on him. Yeah, he's got, you know, I mean, good play strength with the football in his hand and, you know, went in there, ran behind him some, ran, you know, worked some of the other run schemes and, you know, again, plays on the punt team. So we're asking him to do a lot, but it's just some of the other details that have to get cleaned up. And, you know, there's some really cool finishes and pile pushes in there in the 22nd play where guys are into it and tuned in later in the game. Dennis is down there running in there, you know, trying to push the pile on a pass as the first one out of the stack. So there's a lot of good things from that regard, but just the overall execution and the flow of the game wasn't good enough. You've got three and out 10 times coming out a half time during this three-game losing streak, you've had negative 33 yards on the opening drive of the third quarter. Is that a failure to adjust coming out a half time? What's going wrong with playing? No, we had egregious penalties and mistakes. So, I mean, it's first in 22, give up a sack and third in 27, and we don't block for a screen that nobody's gonna convert, so hopefully we can help the punt team and get the screen started so that we can use our punter to maybe change field position. What overall for the season on 10 for an ounce? You know, evaluating everything. It's execution, it's our ability to coach them and make sure that the details are fixed and it's just not one thing. Dylan Cole's particularly hard on himself after his shortcomings yesterday. Is that kind of the reaction you want to see from guys coming out of a loss like that? Yeah, I just think that it means a lot to everybody. It means a lot to Dylan. He's got to play better. So, we'll try to make those corrections and see where we go next week. But what do you, Rod Rice, you do first time back and are you hopeful you get maybe a trailer back in the mix that practices you? Well, we'll see where trailing is. I'm not gonna comment on anybody that's in the protocol. That that's not my job. My job is to tell them to be honest with the doctor and the trainer and to check in on them to see how he's feeling. It's not my position to predict whether we'll get them back at practice. As far as Racy, I thought that Racy put a lot of work in mentally in his time away. So, from an assignment standpoint, it was good. I think probably knocking some of the rust off on the special teams. And I think physically, it came out okay. But with that, let's go back to Dylan and how he took that situation. Do you like find yourself when you're talking to a guy like that, you have to remind them, hey, you know what, on top of the division, still out control your own destiny or even have to remind yourself of that? Yeah, maybe, but I mean, we have to play better. We have to, again, eliminate the bad football. And remind them that it wasn't the only one. I mean, nobody did anything that was good enough, consistently enough for us to win. You're emphasizing the formula of Mike and the importance of the run game in the formula. How do you get so far away from Derrick after 96 yards in the first quarter? Um, well, I mean, I think that the way that the game went, you know, again, we tried to, you know, I think on the one possession, tried to get a play to Chigg. He went eight yards behind the line of scrimmage, which wasn't what we wanted it to do. We tried to get a catch and run. And then, you know, that led to a three and out. And then obviously in the second half, and with the way that the game went, you know, we couldn't, you know, it was tough to commit to Derrick in the run game. You guys have been considered in preaching the next man up, Montreux, had success with that. But is there a challenge now to keep the positivity you're talking about and the confidence level high when essentially the message here last week from ownership was that the roster isn't good enough to keep doing that this season? I don't think we have any other choice, but I think that's what we have to do, is figure out who we have and get them ready to go play a game, take care of the football, try to have some ball production on defense. It's been a long time since we've, you know, created a turnover or hit anybody hard enough to knock the ball loose or intercept it or tip it up in the air and catch it. Chargers last night, and what are the challenges they present to your defense? Well, I mean, they throw the football and they're gonna commit to it. They've got young quarterback with a live arm and good skill players. Like, we'll have to worry about the chargers and our ability. We got to fix, correct some mistakes here today. Looking at the down trail situation from the distance was pretty scary. How is he doing? He's doing much better. Thank you. You know, I don't think, you know, down to down trail won't be available this week, obviously. And so, you know, we'll continue to monitor him. I've seen him in today. And so he's doing good, which is the most important thing. How difficult it is at this time of year, Mike, to plug and play, guys, when you get towards the end of the season? You know, guys, you can rely on that. Coming on Wednesday, got a couple days to prepare and learn a game plan and figure out adjustments and checks and, you know, like John Reed last week or Terrell Basham or anybody else that's going to come in this week. You know, that's the job that we have to try to get them ready to go. Sure, you talked about new sod and footwear choices, but still you had several guys that were slipping all over the place. What kind of discussion is there before or what kind of discussion is there after when it seems to be a factor, particularly in this attack? You choose to work. I mean, I'm changing the sod. I, you know, we got 18 pairs of cleats in there that everybody can wear and choose to work. Don't stand your feet. You have to bring in another... You said that before, Mike, so how come guys don't get it? How come guys slip? I, you know what I mean, I don't know. Another quarterback this week. Yeah, we'll take a look at it, yeah. And you mentioned no billiards. I mean, chest up maybe in the mixed morgue in this week. It has you been with his recent opportunities. Well, I did some good things on the kickoff last week. Had the kickoff for turns, you know, this week and, you know, hit it up in there, got us a decent average. You know, I mean, we'll work them into the punt team. And so I think that Julius is gonna try to do everything he can if the opportunity presents himself this week. So, you know, we've liked Julius since he got here. Very willing, very conscientious, great teammate.