Press Pass | Liam Coen on Bates' and Davis' Week 10 Game Status, Readiness for Titans

Liam Coen (0:00)

Jesse Bates and Jordan Davis will not play on Sunday due to not having a buy with their workload and the way the season falls from a scheduling standpoint. Want to be able to make sure that we're, you know, player safety, putting them in a position to succeed, also learn, right, the system, and just give those guys a week to be able to do that. So neither one will be playing on Sunday.

Devon Gottschall will be.

SPEAKER_2 (0:33)

You kind of come through the thought process with that over the course of the week. Did you make that decision pretty early on?

Liam Coen (0:38)

We've been talking about it, working through it as the week goes, and kind of come to this day of the week, and you're late into it, and made the decision to ultimately do it today.

SPEAKER_3 (0:50)

Even though they're not playing, how have you seen them kind of acclimate to the team?

Liam Coen (0:55)

I mean, Jesse Bates has been here till about 10.3 every night. It's been pretty cool seeing him in there learning, grinding, working through it. There's obviously so much that safeties have to be able to communicate and operate with in the back end of the entire structure. I've really appreciated the way he and Jordan Devon have all gone through the work week. Obviously Devon and Jesse have been through different organizations, teams, moves. This is new for Jordan, and I think he's worked his tail off with strength and conditioning and sports science, athletic training guys this week.

And he's putting his best foot forward to hopefully be able to get out there next week for us.

SPEAKER_2 (1:40)

Last week on the short week, you played Tooten without practicing. How tough of a decision and how thin of a line is that to play a guy that doesn't maybe get out of the practice field?

Liam Coen (1:48)

You're talking about in general or just Tooten?

SPEAKER_4 (1:50)

Just Tooten right now, but I mean in general.

Liam Coen (1:52)

Yeah, he'll practice today. Yeah, Tooten will practice today. And be able to get out there running around. I think it's usually case by case in general.

You want to practice performance equals game reality every week, but it's also a fine line and every situation is different. I think with the running back position, it's one of those that ultimately you can play and not practice a ton, because the runs are the runs. But it's not as if it's like, I think it's very hard for quarterback or offensive line and things like that where there's a lot of adjustments, communication involved on the offensive side of the ball specifically. So, Tootin will run around today and buzz around. So, he'll be good to go on Sunday.

SPEAKER_4 (2:39)

We have opening drive touchdowns last year, three times in 18 games this year, three and eight. Did you have like more intentional meetings about that before the season?

Liam Coen (2:48)

No, I think, yeah, it's definitely something that we've recognized because it hadn't been a part of success for us over the last course of the year and a half.

I just think it's a little bit more, you know, intentional work on the first drive, like true detail, like true details. Obviously, it always helps when the quarterback is playing well and able to, like the first play of the game last week, you know, was a 13 personnel design play for Strange. Well, it wasn't quite there. And he finds a completion of Tanner. It just gets things moving. It just keeps the ball in play and allows us to go. And then we hit the explosive.

We've obviously been talking about it a lot and emphasizing it a lot. And I think the offense as a whole had like guys were like kind of wasting a possession here, you know, and I think they were getting a little bit frustrated with that, tired of that and appreciate the intentionality that they've put into the work of it. I think we've done a better job as an offensive staff as well of like really harping on the priority calls early on, like showing them and giving them a piece like guys, these are the calls that were hunting up on the first drive of the game to be able to give them some clarity as well going into the work week on Sunday. So it's definitely something we need to be able to do because we've essentially been wasting the first drive of each game in a lot of ways. And that's not somewhere you want to live.

SPEAKER_4 (4:18)

In what ways has Ventrell Miller improved for you guys?